I was stunned to read the results of an AL.COM poll about how people of faith should respond
to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and the failure to
indict the police officer who shot him. Here are the results:
3.9% Hold a peaceful protest as a statement of
solidarity
13.6% Work to prevent racial violence because it
could happen in Alabama too
28.0% Pray for the Brown family and everyone who
is hurting
54.4% This isn’t a faith issue. It’s a matter of
law and order.
Over 54% chose Do Nothing (“This isn’t a faith issue”) over Prayer
(“Pray for the Brown family and those who are hurting”)! Not a matter of
faith? In one of the most highly churched, religious, charitable states in the
country, what isn’t a matter of faith?
It reminds me of the old knock-knock joke. “Knock-knock.
Who’s there? Nunya. Nunya who? Nunya – nun ya business!”
You know when someone tells you that something is nunya business, or bidness, as we say in
the south, it means something to the effect of, “don’t you worry your pretty
little head about things you don’t understand, which usually means something to
the effect of “these are things we don’t want you to understand!”
To say it’s nunya bidness
to the church is like saying it’s nunya bidness
to God. I’m trying to figure out what in the Ferguson situation could be nunya bidness to God? I’m trying to
figure out what in this entire creation could be nunya bidness to God?
I’m trying to think of a time that Jesus restricted himself
to only matters of faith, so narrowly
defined. I’m trying to think of times when he chose to stay uninvolved in certain
situations because they were “matters of law and order” rather than matters of faith? It seems to me that Jesus saw matters
of law and order as urgent matters of
faith.
He was deeply concerned about how his people were affected
by the Roman occupation, about the oppressive and abusive enforcement of the
law against his people – not unlike the experience many communities of color
have with law enforcement in our country.
He was deeply concerned with any barriers that caused a people to be
treated as “the other,” as less than human – whether they were Samaritans,
Canaanites, tax collectors, or people with afflictions physical or spiritual -
not unlike the undocumented immigrants in our state.
Why would the most religious people, in the most highly
churched state, the most charitable people in the country, say that this urgent
matter is nun of our bidness?
Race matters, as Cornell West says, race in the United
States is a faith matter. Life and death are faith matters. Hope and despair
are faith matters. When something is killing a people spiritually, economically,
psychically, physically, it’s a faith matter. For that matter, when one part of
the body is injured, all are injured. When one rejoices, we all rejoice
together (1 Corinthians 12:26)
Of course the
poll forces only one choice, but as a friend of mine recently said, "we
have become a tribal people." We defend our tribes. It used to be that
Auburn fans would root for Alabama to win every game but the Iron Bowl, and
Alabama would do the same for Auburn. No longer – we want our tribe to win at
all costs and the we want the other to lose every time. Period.
Maybe that
helps explain why, when forced to choose, people of faith in Alabama would
choose Do Nothing over prayer. To
choose to “Pray for the Brown family and others who are hurting” might suggest
we are disloyal to the “tribe” of police officers and people who look like us.
We are forced to choose sides.
There is a long sad history in our own families and in
biblical families where conflict leads to bitter division and taking sides -- Cain
and Abel, Sarah and Hagar, their sons Isaac and Ishmael (which led to Israel
and Palestine), Esau and Jacob, Leah and Rachel -- when in truth, the only side
should be God’s side.
As people of faith, we are called to choose sides. When we
find ourselves in the midst of controversy and conflict, we are called to speak
and to stand and to work and to sing and to cry out for justice, as Jesus
people, not as Republicans or Democrats or Libertarians or Independents, not as
conservatives or liberals, God forbid, or tea partiers, not as advocates for
big government or limited government – as Jesus People.
As people of faith, we are called to choose sides, to stake
our ground with the least of these – knowing that there is a cost, that it may
or may not be in our individual self-interest, it may or may not be in the best
interest of our families or “our people” or “our tribe,” whatever that may mean
to us.
Which is beside the point, anyway, because Jesus’ words about
separating the sheep and the goats – “as you did unto the least of these, you
did unto me” -- are not about individual deeds of mercy leading to individual
salvation. They are about the destiny of nations, the salvation of societies.
Those nations that care for the least of these will thrive; those that trample
the least of these will perish. Historically this has been proven – every
nation in history that has had extreme disparities in income & wealth has
perished.
That isn’t’ to say that the choices we make as individuals don’t
matter: of course they do. Our choices make the church what it is, and make the
nation what it is.
Part of the lesson is that when we fail to recognize the
least of these as our own kin, we cut ourselves off from the Source of all
Life. When we share our bread with the hungry, bring the homeless poor into our
own house, see the naked and cover them, “we will be like a well-watered
garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.” (Isaiah 58:11)
I know it is not always easy to live as One. We may be kin,
but kinfolk don’t always get along. After all, what if the least of these don’t
want you to help them?
What if you don’t know their language? What if they don’t
know yours?
What if they offend you? What if you offend them?
What if they reject you? What if they feel rejected by you?
What if they attack you? What if they feel attacked by you?
What if they are the enemy you are supposed to love? What if
they see you as the enemy?
What if you are afraid of them? What if they are afraid of
you?
This I know, from my own sojourns. Jesus is in there, in the
midst of it all, in the muck and the mire of humanity. Jesus, Son of Man, the
Human One, is there where it is as real as it can get.
It helps to remember when we get stuck in that way of
thinking that results in “us” and “them.” We are all a mix of darkness and
light, beauty and mess – we are all
sheep and goat.
I take heart from the many images in the Bible that promise
that the lion will lie down with the lamb. So it isn’t so hard to believe that
the sheep will also lie down with the goat.
Like Jesus said, he was sent that we might all be One.
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