We've heard the message loud and clear a million times and it wrings in our ears: "Freeze, ye therefore, and question your judgment, wonder if you're good/ethical/just/faithful enough, make sure everything's just right." I've been well teached and preached. I've got the real Great Commission memorized, but, by all means, I know better than the good book. I've read most all of the books about shifting from Charity to Justice. I've been to all the talk sessions about empowerment and liberation from the inside out. I have been slapped in the face with my own white privilege and with the rejection of teenagers who'd prefer hanging out with friends than chilling out with Ms. Helms.
I, like everyone else, want to get things just right. I want to be just. I want to be involved. I want to make a difference. I want to be loved. I want to serve. I want everything to work out for the common good. And, so that things may turn out the way I want, I've done my fair share of reading, reflecting, research, and dialogue. I've attending training, classes, lectures, & association meetings. I've done demographic studies and immersed myself on the little corner of Tuckaseegee and Parkway for 10 years. All that learning and all those workshops were helpful, educational, inspirational and at times, all those workshops and learning can be paralyzing.
10 years ago, a large family from New Orleans showed up to the vacant house next door to me in the middle of the night and moved in. They had nothing when they got to the front stoop. Without thinking, we rushed over and introduced ourselves. We brought blankets and lanterns. We ran an orange extension cord and a garden hose from our house to theirs. In the morning, we offered to take care of their children so that they could go to the city's Katrina refugee center.
What were we thinking? We were complete strangers, white people, offering to this devastated family to take care of their children on the first morning that they woke up in a strange place and a vacant house. The family took us up on our offer. We played games, walked the kids down to the rec center, started to get to know the young ones. Not long after that, we offered to connect the family to some folks who could help provide furniture, more permanent housing. We invited the youth of the family to go camping with us. We got so involved with the family that I kept a notebook of everyone's name and relationship to each other and I planned on making them a family tree painting for Christmas. (it was a huge family)
It was obvious we were rookies back then. Now, we would know better. Now, we've read and been a part of so many conversations: When Helping Hurts, Toxic Charity, AntiRacism, Moving from Charity to Justice, Empowerment, White Privilege, What Every Church Needs to Know about Poverty.... Now, when faced with a neighbor's concern, if I'm not wisely discerning, I'll hear the self-doubt message wringing loudly in my ears: "Freeze! You don't know what's best! Whatever you do is going to harm someone. You aren't doing enough. You aren't talking to the right people. You aren't a loud enough voice. Your voice is too soft. You've got to prove to them that what you're doing is trustworthy. You've got to prove to onlookers that what you're doing is righteous, radical, prophetic, and pastoral. Careful, they might reject you. Watch it, you're using your power again. Freeze, ye therefore, and question your judgment, wonder if you're good/ethical/just/faithful enough, make sure everything's just right." and then..
Analysis Paralysis and all that goes with it.
Oh, to be able to turn back time and start fresh! Oh for the days to be able to approach my neighbor and his/her situation with immediate and loving faithful compassion and concern.
I recently visited Koinonia Farms founded in 1942 by Clarence and Florence Jordan and Martin and Mabel England as a “demonstration plot for the kingdom of God.” When I unloaded my suitcase onto the bed at Koinonia Farms, I felt like I was unloading several things that I'd have to deal with while there. (none the least of those was the fact that it was the end of a seven day 1800 mile long trip with our youth group and a full summer of sharing my house with 10 people and my days with 50 scholars and 12 interns at Freedom School) The next morning, we received a tour of the farm. I followed along, swatting at mosquitoes along the way and listened to the history of the place and that's where I learned a very profound thing: the library used to be a hog barn.
"Greg! Did you hear that? The library used to be a hog barn and now they're going to move the books and change the building into residential space!"
I couldn't get this thought out of my mind. Something about that hog barn library (in addition to the image of pigs reading books) sent me into celebration. You see, what this meant for me was that our dining room wouldn't always have to be a dining room. Our weedy grass ridden garden bed wouldn't always have to be a weedy grass ridden garden bed. We too could be a "demonstration plot" and an experimentation grounds for the Kingdom on earth!
This meant, to me, that a fresh start is possible. Beginning from the beginning is not only ok but also it also holy. It is a demonstration of the kingdom. God is at the beginning. In the beginning, God. As co-creators with God, we must trust the one who calls us by name, who commissions us, the one who proclaims, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine."
Freeze! What's your name?
My name is child of God. My name is faithful. My name is Compassionate. My name is Seeker. My name is Hopeful. My name is Justice. My name is Wisdom. My name is Made in the Image of God.
The conversations and questions are good. The deep reflection and the consideration of my own part to play in someone else's life is of great importance. We certainly have a lot of work to do and a lot of changes to make. But, I cannot let myself get frozen by "enlightened" self doubt. I must remember my Name and my sense of calling to "Go, Child of God, Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”
Articles on this subject that I looked at before writing:
http://www.uua.org/action/56280.shtml
https://books.google.com/books?id=1LaSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA252&lpg=PA252&dq=moralizing+social+justice+work&source=bl&ots=t1iStBm90r&sig=sBjK-I9u2FDrEHeYok2jGuFyXMg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEEQ6AEwCGoVChMI2MjItt_5xwIVxdg-Ch2MiAoc#v=onepage&q=moralizing%20social%20justice%20work&f=false
https://www.google.com/search?q=moralizing&rlz=1C1TSNF_enUS469US469&oq=moralizing&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l2j69i59j69i60j69i61.1267j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8
No comments:
Post a Comment