Friday, July 29, 2011

Mobs and Prejudice

Friday, July 29, 2011 -- -- Week of Proper 12, Year One
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany
To read about our daily commemorations, go to the Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, 976)
Psalms 69:1-23(24-30)31-38 (morning)      73 (evening)
2 Samuel 5:1-12
Acts 17:1-15
Mark 7:24-37

I've been reading recently about the events of my childhood as we begin to reach the fifty year mark since the days of the civil rights movement.  Newspapers and some television stations are doing retrospectives now about the Freedom Riders of 1961.  In that year, white and black volunteers rode interstate busses into the South to challenge the Jim Crow segregationist laws.  The 1960 Supreme Court ruling in Boynton v. Virginia struck down discriminatory laws in restrooms, waiting rooms and restaurants in bus terminals serving interstate travelers.  The court's ruling was ignored in much of the South.

In May, 1961, the Freedom Riders left Washington, D. C. on Greyhound and Trailways busses to challenge the Jim Crow practices.  In many places, particularly in Alabama, local law officials allowed mobs to attack and beat the riders.  A bus was burned and its riders nearly lynched in Anniston, Alabama.  Violence against them in Birmingham was organized by the Ku Klux Klan, with the particular leadership of Police Sergeant Tom Cook, a Klan member, and the infamous police Commissioner Bull Conner.  The Riders were terribly beaten in Birmingham, and one with a serious head wound was refused admission to a Methodist hospital. 

New Riders replaced those who had been injured.  The beatings continued in Montgomery.  In Jackson, Mississippi, law officers protected the Riders from mob threats, but arrested them by the bus-full.   Some 300 Riders were arrested in Mississippi and then treated with multiple indignities in jail, especially in the state's penitentiary in Parchman.  The Freedom Rides continued throughout the South, but especially into Jackson, until the Interstate Commerce Commission finally issued an order that would enforce the court ruling in November, 1961. 

People were shocked by the disorder, violence, and racial animosity that was stirred up by the Freedom Riders.  Much of the criticism was directed toward the Riders, not only in the South, but also in the North.  Popular opinion often supported the local law enforcement's actions to uphold their laws and frowned on outside agitators whose only purpose seemed to be to stir up trouble and to break laws.  Even the national press often portrayed the Riders negatively.

Some of these stories came to mind as I read today's New Testament passages.  Paul and his companions invoked violent reactions in their own travels across Macedonia.  In the port city of Thessalonica a mob attacked the church house of Jason and dragged some of the Christians before the authorities accusing them of treason.  In the night, Paul and Silas escaped to the south west to Beroea, where things went well, until some from Thessalonica heard about them, and stirred up threatening crowds there.  Paul's "Freedom Riders" provoked violent reactions from the local synagogues, not only because they proclaimed Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, but also because they invited Gentile "godfearers" into their fellowship without the Biblical requirement of circumcision and kosher observation.  The Gentiles were often generous contributors to the synagogue, and their loss would be a significant economic threat.

In our reading from Mark, we see Jesus traveling outside his home country, leaving Israel for the region of Tyre.  There a Gentile woman -- an unclean woman -- begged Jesus to heal her daughter.  Jesus' response seems to be a response of cultural conditioning, Biblical language, if you will.  "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."  In Jesus' home and village, Gentiles would have been called "dogs."  There are many passages in scripture where the word "dog" is used as an epithet to call another unclean or low.  (I can remember the "N-word" being used in common conversation, without passion, without express insult.) 

But something about the woman's response -- "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs" -- changed everything.  Maybe it was her humility, or her cleverness.  Whatever it was, Jesus immediately shed any vestige of cultural conditioning and healed her child.  From that moment on in Mark's gospel, Jesus gave to Gentiles the same gifts of healing and feeding that he gave to his own people. 

Where do we see these things today?  Maybe in our cultural attitudes and even our legal discriminations against immigrants.  The anti-Muslim fever of some.  Discriminatory laws and even violence against gay people and transgendered people.  And we still have so far to go to realize the hopes for racial equality that motivated the Freedom Riders.  Blacks in America still suffer from so many forms of overt and subtle racism, and carry heavy weight from the effects of past oppression.

We grow up inheriting the values and opinions of our culture.  It was a great gift to me to grow up in a culture that was so wrong about something important as the South was wrong about segregation.  I think that experience has made me suspicious of other things that look like prejudice and discrimination.  I hope so. 

In every generation there are those who would incite mobs to violence.  They believe they do so in defense of something good that is threatened.  Often, they are wrong.

In every generation there are dogs who only get the crumbs falling from the children's tables.  Who are they?  How can we recognize their full humanity?

In 2061, fifty years, what will we be embarrassed and ashamed about?  How can we choose rightly, now?

Lowell

__________________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link:
--
Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
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 --  Click for Divine Hours

Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

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

See 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

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Limiting Compassion

Thursday, July 28, 2011 -- Week of Proper 12, Year One
Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel, and Henry Purcell, Composers, 1750, 1759, 1695
To read about our daily commemorations, go to the Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, 976)
Psalms [70], 71 (morning)      74 (evening)
2 Samuel 4:1-12
Acts 16:25-40
Mark 7:1-23

"For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.'  But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, 'Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban,' (that is, an offering to God) -- then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on.  And you do many things like this."  (Mark 7:9-13)

Corban is property dedicated to the Temple.  Some people have avoided their responsibility of financial support for their parents by dedicating their money and resources for the parents to religious purposes.  Jesus objected to that practice.

Jesus tends to be critical of abstract principles if they get in the way of practical compassion.  He doesn't like religious observance unshackled from generosity toward one's neighbor.  He sees our responsibility toward our neighbor as outweighing our piety, purity, or convenience.  He really wants people to do good toward each other, and he expects us to sacrifice to that end.  No excuses.  Even religious excuses.

I think of the story of the Good Samaritan.  The healing of the lepers and the other unclean figures -- the woman with an issue of blood, the Gerasene demoniac, the Cannanite woman's daughter, the Centurion's child.  Jesus touched and cared for the outsider and the unclean.  In doing so, he violated the teaching of scripture, especially as it was interpreted by religious tradition.

How do we use religious or abstract principles to ignore or marginalize people or to excuse our unwillingness to be responsible for their welfare?

For many religious people, women who have an unwanted pregnancy are unworthy of their compassion.  Some religious people regard people of other religions as outside their responsibility, except as objects of conversion.  Refugees or immigrants who cannot get papers are sometimes treated criminally.  Occasionally families will reject another family member for religious reasons.

I find it troubling that many legislators are using the debt ceiling as a wedge issue to attack and compromise our government programs that most significantly address our responsibilities to our elderly, our children, our poor, the sick and the ill. 

Jesus tended to run over excuses that rationalized greed or limited compassion.  Jesus taught that we are responsible for all other human beings, including those who are of another nation, race, or religion.  Any time we are mean in the name of God (or of country, or especially in the name of money), we are probably skating on thin moral ice in Jesus' world.

Lowell

__________________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link:
--
Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
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 --  Click for Divine Hours

Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

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

See 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

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Two Women of Philippi

Wednesday, July 27, 2011 -- Week of Proper 12, Year One
William Reed Huntington, Priest, 1909
To read about our daily commemorations, go to the Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, 976)
Psalms 72 (morning)      119:73-96 (evening)
2 Samuel 3:22-39
Acts 16:16-24
Mark 6:47-56

Yesterday's and today's stories from the Acts of the Apostles give us an interesting contrast.  They are stories of two women -- Lydia and the unnamed slave-girl.

We are given two piece of information about Lydia.  She is "a worshiper of God" who shows up at the place of prayer in Philippi, outside the gate by the river.  This is probably the Sabbath gathering place for the Jewish residents of the city.  The description of her as "a worshiper of God" could mean that Lydia is Jewish.  More likely, she is among the "Godfearers," Gentiles who were attracted to Judaism for its monotheism and high ethic, but who were not Jews themselves.  Paul recruited most of his congregation from among the Godfearers.

The other thing we know about Lydia is that she is "from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth."  Purple cloth is expensive cloth, also called royal purple.  Thyatira is a city in the region in Turkey where this exclusive textile was produced.  So Lydia is an international businesswoman.  She has a home in Philippi, a city in Greece which is on the main Roman highway connecting the east and west empires. 

Lydia is a strong, wealthy and independent woman, overseeing her household and her business.  She meets Paul and opens her heart  and home to his words.  She and her household are baptized.  She then welcomes Paul and his companions into her home.  Her home becomes the first Christian church in Europe.  We read about Lydia in yesterday's lections.

Today we meet a slave-girl who also lives in Philippi.  She has a spirit of divination.  She is probably a priestess or prophetess of the Python spirit, linked to the famous serpent oracle of Delphi.  The account says that this slave-priestess "brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling."  (Ironically, Lydia's hometown Thyatira was also a center for the Delphic cult of Python.) 

Like Lydia, this slave-girl is drawn toward Paul and his companions.  "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation."  Annoyed by the oracle's repeated attentions, Paul orders her spirit of divination to come out of her. 

"But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities."  Isn't that familiar?  It's all about money.  It's all about power.  The men play on anti-Jewish sentiment to incite a crowd.  It turns into a legal lynching.  Paul and Silas are severely flogged with rods and imprisoned in jail with their feet in stocks.  (Today a prison cell like where they were held is preserved for tourists in the ruins of ancient Philippi.)

Two women.  One an independent business woman.  The other a slave-girl with a gift of divination.  Lydia becomes the host for the new community of Jesus.  I wonder what happened to the slave-girl.  Her economic value to her owners would have been ruined.  Paul had freed her from the spirit of divination that they used for their profit.  Maybe she then became more centered and clear-eyed.  But, in all likelihood, she was still a slave. 

We are left to wonder about her.  Was she welcomed into the Philippi church congregation?  Although the early Christians did not publicly challenge slavery as an institution, Paul's churches did do something remarkable and counter-cultural.  In his congregations, slaves were given equal standing with free persons.  They may still be slaves in their homes, but in the Christian congregation they were equal members of the body of Christ.  Paul wrote in Galatians, "for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.  As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."  (3:26f)

It is easy for me to imagine Lydia the wealthy, independent and powerful international business woman and this unnamed slave-girl embracing as equal sisters in the congregation meeting in Lydia's home.  It is also possible to imagine this slave-girl ruined, still in bondage, but now of little value to her owners, demoted and relegated to a lower place of servitude.  Maybe both scenarios could be true.

My sense of the spirit of Paul's congregations tells me that if this slave-girl became part of the Philippi church in Lydia's home, her fellow Christians would have helped support her in her lesser, non-priestess status.  Paul wrote sharply to the Corinthian church when they violated his spirit of egalitarianism.  Maybe Lydia's wealth also became a source of help for the slave-girl, not unlike a parish's discretionary fund can be a source of support for people in need. 

I like happy endings.  I can imagine this tale of two women ending well.  I also know, the anonymous slave-girl might be just another of history's discards, unintended collateral damage in the spiritual war between the Church and the Greek Temple.  If I feel a yearning for Paul and the Philippi church to reach out to her to help her, I also need to recognize our contemporary responsibility for the collateral damage created in our various wars of church and state.  We also have a responsibility to help.

Lowell

__________________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link:
--
Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
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 --  Click for Divine Hours

Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

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

See 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

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Rest and Responsibility

Tuesday, July 26, 2011 -- Week of Proper 12, Year One
Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
To read about our daily commemorations, go to the Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, 976)
Psalms 61, 62 (morning)      68:1-20(21-23)24-36 (evening)
2 Samuel 3:6-21
Acts 16:6-15
Mark 6:30-46

Two things strike me today as I read the story from Mark's gospel.  First, I connect with Jesus' compassion for the disciples (and for himself) as he responds to their weariness, inviting them to "come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while."  Second, I sense the obligation Jesus places on the disciples when they recognize the hunger and need of the multitude.  He tells them, "You give them something to eat."

When I am very tired, as I feel today, it is good to hear the kind voice of Jesus inviting me to withdraw, to rest a while.  My tendency toward imbalance is my habit of trying to do too much, more than time allows.  I can create stress for myself; I can flirt with exhaustion.  It is easy to relate to the circumstances of the disciples -- "For many were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat."  Life can be too full, too busy.  "Withdraw and rest a while," is a blessed permission.  Even God rested on the seventh day and built sabbath into the very fabric of time.

But sometimes there is no rest for the weary.  According to Mark's story, the crowd anticipated the disciples' destination.  By the time they reached the deserted place, it was no longer deserted.  I would probably be angry if I had been in Jesus' boat.  But Jesus "had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd."  So Jesus taught them. 

When it was late, the disciples sought to shut down the meeting so the people could leave the isolated place in time to get food in the villages.  It strikes me that the disciples are alert enough to be aware of their neighbors' need.  They show some compassion.  So often we aren't aware, we don't recognize the hunger or need of our neighbors.  The disciples do well to see the hunger. 

But Jesus throws it right back to the disciples.  "You give them something to eat."  You take responsibility.  It is your responsibility.  That seems like another way to say, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

The disciples protest.  They don't have enough money.  (Somehow my mind goes to our Congress' current, and newly discovered, obsession with America's debt.)  Jesus tells them to see what resources they have.  It still doesn't seem like enough.  But when they do a bit of organizing -- "groups of hundreds and of fifties" -- and some prayer, there is enough.  There is abundance.

When the story is finished, there is a sense of satisfaction and refreshment.  All have been filled.  I don't feel so tired anymore.  

Lowell

__________________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link:
--
Morning Reflection Podcasts

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 missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
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 --  Click for Divine Hours

Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

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

See 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