A Reflection and Poem for VI Pentecost (Proper 8) All Saints’ Church, Southern
Shores, N.C. June 26, 2016 Thomas
E. Wilson, Rector
Avoiding Beating Up Pilgrim Bullies
Last week’s Hebrew Testament
Lesson described how Elijah tried to listen to God, but he was only able to
hear God in sheer silence. He placed his face inside his mantle, a robe, to
close off all the distractions from his own agenda. He entered into listening
to the Divine Spirit who is deep in his soul. The mantle is an outward and
visible sign that suggests that God is wrapped around him and in him. Elijah
faced his fears and his anger, and the voice told him to return to face the
“Bullies-in-Chief”, Ahab and Jezebel. Ahab repented, but Jezebel never did.
Eventually they were both destroyed by their own greed. Later on, in today’s
lesson, Elijah takes on a disciple, Elisha. When Elijah is taken into heaven,
the mantle, which he used to listen deeply to God, is passed on to Elisha. Elisha
has ripped his own garment in grief and fear over losing his mentor; he is
naked before God. Now, having nothing to hide, Elisha wraps himself by taking on
the mantle and listens to God instead of his own agenda. He is making a
commitment to a new life.
Last Thursday was the 32nd
anniversary of my ordination; a mantle, stole was placed on me as an outward
sign that I was making a commitment to a new kind of living. It took me many
years to figure it out, and it is still a work in progress, but it involves
listening in the sheer silence of God for God’s will. Thomas Merton, in Thoughts in Solitude, wrote:
the
will of God is not a 'fate' to which we submit but a creative act in our life
producing something absolutely new . . . something hitherto unforeseen by the
laws and established patterns. Our cooperation (seeking first the Kingdom of
God) consists not solely in conforming to laws but in opening our wills out to
this creative act which must be retrieved in and by us."
Years ago, from 1978-81,
before I went to Seminary, I had been an adult who volunteered to work with the
Youth Group in the church I was attending. One night we went to see a popular
teenage movie called “My Bodyguard”
in which a young boy, Clifford, moves to a new school and the school bully
Moody - don’t you just love that name - played by a sneering Matt Dillon, picks
on him and shakes him down for his lunch money. Clifford makes friends with
other nerds, but there is always the threat of the bully. There is another outsider
as well, Ricky Lindeman, a muscular, brooding, silent boy who has a rumored
past of violence for which he feels guilty, and he has vowed never again to use
brutal force. Clifford approaches Ricky, trying to recruit him to be his
bodyguard for fifty cents a day and help with his school work. Ricky agrees just
to accompany Clifford around the school. In an arms escalation, Moody recruits
his own “body guard”, Mike, a real Neanderthal thug, to beat up Ricky. Ricky
refuses to fight despite the humiliation he feels, until the time comes when he
has just had enough, and Mike is toast - to the cheers of my Youth Group boys
and girls. The movie reaches its climax when Clifford is able to confront and
thrash Moody, who like all big talking bullies, is a coward, masking his fear
with false bravado. The boys of the Youth Group cheered, but the girls were
saddened that cute, sexy, bad boy Matt Dillon should fall so low and have a
bloody, albeit still cute, nose. The
movie ends with Clifford and Ricky, two friends walking into the sunset
together, sure in their decision to engage in violence as a solution to
violence.
The Youth Group liked the
movie, and it led to a good discussion about how complex high school really is
as they listed off the bullies and the fears. The old saying is true: “life is
not like Junior High; it is Junior High.” I tried to steer the conversation
into a move away from violence as a solution to oppression, bringing Jesus and
Martin Luther King into the discussion. I became aware that, for many of these
kids, they wanted God to be the Really Big Bodyguard to finally take care of
all the bullies in the world. They liked the idea of Hell where they could
visualize the bullies getting their come-uppance. God was the Big Final “sic ’em”.
While I was trying to talk about peace,
I guiltily remembered a movie that I cheered when I was their age called “McLintock”, with John Wayne fighting the bureaucratic
bullies from the east and giving a speech to the “heavy”, Leo Gordon, as he
makes his decision to use violence:
“I
know, I know. I'm gonna use good judgement. I haven't lost my temper in forty
years, but pilgrim you caused a lot of trouble this morning, might have got
somebody killed... and somebody oughta belt you in the mouth. But I won't, I
won't. The *hell* I won't!” – and then he slugs Gordon and the free for all
celebration of violence breaks out.
We can see that viewpoint of
refusing to enter into solitude with God for peace and refusing to follow God’s
will, substituting giving God some spare change and a little help in the belief
that you’ll get your heart's desire. In
the first three verses of the Psalm for today, the Psalmist sings that God is
the refuge that keeps them safe and makes trouble for all those who oppose
them. We see this theme in a lot of the Hebrew Testament stories where God
settles the Sodomites', the Egyptians', the Philistines' or the Assyrian’s hash.
We see it reflected in the New Testament Book of Revelation, the glorification
of the God who punishes. We see it in daily life when something bad happens and
we ask, “What did we do to deserve that?” Or when the character Maude used to
say to her husband Arthur: “God’ll get you for that, Arthur.” I remember one person used a quote misappropriates
to Patton and explained to me that he
thought of God that way when he said the 23rd Psalm; “Yea, though I
walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil for Jesus
is the Biggest Meanest Son of God in the entire Valley!”
That seemed to be a view
shared by James and John as they are rebuffed by the Samaritans in today’s
Gospel lesson. They see God as the one who would incinerate enemies on cue.
Jesus rejects this view of God, suggesting that following Jesus would call for
a lot from everyone - they were not to fear their enemies, but to love them.
That is hard to do. The bullies of the government and religious establishments
were eventually to kill Jesus, even while he was lovingly forgiving them for
not knowing what they were doing.
Paul writes to the Galatians
and points out that Christ sets them free, but it is not a freedom from abuse
by the enemy but a freedom for love of the enemy. He urges them to no
longer see God as their servant to do what they want done, but to see
themselves as God's willing servants to manifest God's love. Bullies will
always be around - that is their nature in this world, to swaggeringly point
out convenient enemies and humiliate them for a price.
One way fearful people with
the mindset of a “wannabe bully” try to come across is to use the cloak of
religion and claim that they are doing this to please their God, and the people
that they insult, assault, or kill deserve God's wrath. We see this happening
in every major religion as there are fringes of their faiths that see their
version of God as the one who calls for blood. It would be nice to think that
Christianity would be an exception, but history does not bear that out. The
problem is that Christianity has taken the path of least resistance, reducing
our faith to a bunch of creeds and rituals where pulpiteers speak their own
agendas on God’s wrath. We have replaced talking with God to hearing about God,
making prayer a matter of our talking and God being consigned to the role of flunky,
taking our dictation. We don’t slow down enough to listen. Thomas Merton wrote
about this when he said in his Thoughts in
Solitude: “Violence is not completely fatal until it ceases to disturb us.”
and
When
society is made up of people who know
no interior solitude it can no longer be held together by love: and
consequently it is held together by a violent and abusive authority. But when they are violently deprived of the
solitude and freedom which are their due, then society in which they live
becomes putrid, it festers with servility, resentment and hate.
How are we doing in entering
into interior solitude so that we can resist calls to servility, resentment and
hate?
Avoiding Beating Up Pilgrim Bullies (poem)
John Wayne snarls, cocking
his fist back
showing how tough Marion
Morrison is
hoped to be seen and feared.
I cheered
because at age 16 there were
plenty of
people I wanted to slug but
that cheer
withered as it hit the air;
remembering
seeing Civil Rights
demonstrators turn
other cheek as Jesus taught his
disciples.
Seething anger is not
controlled by will
power directing it to worthy
targets. But
by going soul, deep soul,
tasting a peace
by claiming my own fears
underneath the
anger. Angel mantles sing
“Don’t be afraid.”
