Further Insight

Tuesday, August 4, 2009 -- Week of Proper 13, Year One
William Edward Burghardt DuBois, Sociologist, 1963

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 978)
Psalms 78:1-39 (morning) 78:40-72 (evening)
2 Samuel 7:18-29
Acts 18:12-28
Mark 8:22-33

In our gospel reading today we have the interesting story of the two-part healing of the blind man in Bethsaida. First, Jesus leads him outside the village. Then Jesus puts saliva on his eyes and lays hands on him. When Jesus asks him if he can see anything, he answers, "I can see people, but they look like trees, walking." Then Jesus lays his hands on him again, and his sight is restored to clarity.

Stories like these always have a metaphorical meaning in the scripture. One traditional interpretation of this story relates it to Mark's presentation of the disciples. In Mark's gospel, the disciples consistently fail to understand Jesus -- they cannot accept the predictions of the passion, they sometimes fail to heal, they jockey for positions of honor, they deny and abandon Jesus at the cross. The last sentence of Mark's Gospel says of the women as they flee the open tomb, "they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid."

Some have said that this two-part healing of the blind man is like the story of the disciples, and others. At first, during Jesus' earthly ministry, they fail to see the significance of Jesus' ministry. But after the resurrection, they begin to see clearly.

Immediately following this story, Jesus asks the disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" Peter sees! Peter answers correctly, "You are the Messiah." So Jesus teaches them what it means to be the Messiah, that he must undergo great suffering and rejection, be killed and rise again. Peter can't see that, and rejects the notion. In response, Jesus rebukes Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." Peter saw a portion of the truth, but couldn't see its depths.

I think that Mark's purpose for presenting the disciples as bumblers was as an encouragement to his own community and those who would read his gospel. By the time Mark is writing, the disciples are heroes. Many of them have proved their courage and faith through martyrdom. The stories of Peter and the others are well known, and they are heroic examples.

It is likely that Mark's community was facing threat or persecution, and it is likely than many of them experienced doubt, conflict, and confusion. By showing the disciples as weak, fallible humans, just like us, Mark can inspire his readers to embrace the hero within themselves. We are not so different from the disciples, who had their flaws and fears, and like them, we too can live heroically.

But there is another truth present in these stories. Faith and knowledge can grow. We can see things in new ways.

An important element of of faith, from Mark's perspective, is the centrality of suffering in the story of Jesus. He portrays Jesus as the suffering Messiah, and he says that faith, courage and compassion through suffering is an essential characteristic of the Christian life. His focus is a good correction whenever we seek to use religion only as an escape or as a way to help us feel good. Feel-good religion is nearsighted religion.

We are all called to grow up, see deeper, learn and change. And suffering will be part of the journey.
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A note about today's new observance of a day for William Edward Burghardt DuBois who died right on the verge of Martin Luther King's march on Washington. Here's a nice paragraph about him that opens the Wikipedia article. William Edward Burghardt DuBois (pronounced doo-BOYSS) (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, historian, author, and editor. At the age of 95, in 1963, he became a naturalized citizen of Ghana.

Historian David Levering Lewis wrote, "In the course of his long, turbulent career, W. E. B. DuBois attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism -- scholarship, propaganda, integration, national self-determination, human rights, cultural and economic separatism, politics, international communism, expatriation, third world solidarity."

From the Harmon Foundation:
"In 1905, rejecting those who claimed that full equality for African Americans must come gradually, DuBois became a founder of the Niagara Movement, which called for an end to racial discrimination immediately. Four years later, he was helping to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and for many years served as editor of its magazine, "The Crisis."

Increasingly skeptical of his country's ability to crush racism, and accused of disloyalty during the McCarthy era as a result of his Communist sympathies, DuBois was thoroughly alienated from America by the mid-1950s. In 1962 he expatriated himself to Ghana in the hope of reviving there an ancient African Communism based on black spiritual unity."
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For so many of us who grew up in the segregated South, our understanding of racism has been an experience of our need for repeated eye-opening healings.

Lowell

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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas