Reflection: Light On Liberty Thomas E
Wilson
5th Sunday after Pentecost
(Proper 10)
Lessons: Amos
7:7-17
8th Century Agricultural worker from
the town of Tekoa in the Southern Kingdom of Judah feels called by
God to go to a Religious and Patriotic Festival in the Northern
Kingdom of Israel and speak truth to power to the ruling elite there
about their exploitation of the poor. He is told to mind his own
business and go home and keep his mouth shut: which he did not do.
A Psalm which has the structure of God
singing to to magistrates (the gods) of the community to do justice
and not favor the rich in exploiting the poor.
In this letter the author urges the
people to understand that faith means the duty to make a difference
in their community.
Jesus is asked about the meaning of
the Love of Neighbor and he tells the story where neighbor can mean
even the enemy. He changes the obligation to follow the law to an
invitation to having the liberty to respond out of compassion.
This reflection is prepared for
delivery at a Rally “Light on Liberty OBX” on Friday evening
July12, 2019 at Dowdy Park, Nags Head, N.C., to protest the treatment
of Asylum seekers and the closing of the U.S. Detention Camps.
Light On Liberty
One of the dangers of this moment in
this country's life is that we are walking around with chests full of
resentments and bellies full of anger ; we want to get even with the
villain de jour, where even our “good works” are tainted with the
desire to humiliate the enemy, the lying SOB, who it seems to us to
be the cause all of the horrors on the 24 hour news cycle. Who the
villain is different, depending on one's political persuasion. We are
not here to find reasons for resentments or anger but we are here to
shine a light so that we might have the liberty to respond in
compassion to those who are hurting on the side of the road of their
journeys.
As a Christian Priest I keep going back
to the Bible for an inspiration of how to deal with real life. I want
to take a look at the story in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus tells a
story which we call “The Good Samaritan”, a story about
compassion with our neighbor. But first let me look at this with the
help of Thrich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk who teaches a
great deal about compassion as a result of living in mindfulness,a
heightened awareness of every moment. When Nhat Hanh heard that an
American Military Officer said that they had to destroy the village
of Ben Tre in order to save it, he became so angry that for awhile he
could not do his work of compassion. Each day we nurse the anger and
we think we can get rid of it by shouting it out or pushing it down;
but the anger stays because it has found a home in our hearts. The
way out of the anger is not to give it freedom, or deny it to
eliminate the anger but to transform it through mindfulness so that
compassionate action might take place.In mindfulness we see how we
are connected to all of our brothers and sisters in creation. We find
that when we look inside of ourselves, we find that the people we
hate so much display the traits that we have tried all of our lives
to push down from consciousness. We push them into becoming our
shadow, a shadow that shows up only when a bright light shines upon
it. Healing comes when we can accept that is part of the rich stew
that is part of each one of us.
Lets take a look at the story. Jesus
sets it on the Jericho road through the wilderness of Judea. It is a
16 mile hike partly through the desert and it used to be very a
dangerous road to travel alone, and if you wander off the path the
desert will consume you. About a quarter century ago, my wife and I
joined a group of fellow students in Jerusalem to hike part of that
road. When I read of the trek that so many of asylum seekers cross
our southern border, I am reminded of that hot dusty desert. It was
both a place of beauty and of danger that at times felt like a gift
of God and God forsaken at the same time. There was a show on the
tube this week where one of the first persons to walk on the moon
called it a “magnificent desolation”. We started off the walk
well rested after a comfortable night in the dormitory, nourished
after a good breakfast at the college, carrying all the water we
would need, guides we could trust, a monastery in the desert where we
could rest, a well marked path and people who would us meet us
outside of Jericho where we would spend the night. We had the money
to pay for all those things and a senses of assurance but the asylum
seekers do not; they only have hope. What is it like to live with
hope rather than privilege? What kind of faith does that take?
In the story Jesus speaks of the
bandits, the coyotes of their day, who robbed and wounded the
traveler.What is it like to be a bandit? What is it like to have a
life where human beings are reduced to things, treated not as
subjects but as objects? What is it like when you, I, don't care who
I hurt? What is it like to be so desperate that that I know no other
way than to wish violence on anyone who gets in my way? When I look
honestly deep inside myself I have more than a little bit of
understanding about what that world looks like? In the cast of
characters that make up my story there is someone who has a lot in
common with a bandit; the bandit and I are interchangeable. It
doesn't mean that I have to keep acting it out and that I don't need
people who love me help stop me when I go there. The shared bandit in
me needs to be seen, acknowledged, accepted and transformed into a
person of compassion.
In the story the traveler lies wounded
on the road when a Priest comes by. The Priest feels that he is
called to help people into a deeper relationship with God. However,
he needs to keep himself pure as part of his job. In his religion, if
he gets contaminated, defiled, with human blood , he will not be able
to do his job and his job, his calling, his livelihood, his
reputation, the opinion and admiration of others is seen as more
important that the life of a stranger. He is filled with fear and
tries to justify it by thinking: “Who knows; maybe the person
deserved to be attacked because he was foolish enough to go on this
road alone? Maybe he is a bad person and this is God's judgment?”
As I look deep inside myself I see the fear and the arrogance of the
Priest to be not unknown to me. The shared Priest in me needs to be
seen, acknowledged, accepted and transformed into a person of
compassion.
In the story there is a Levite, a
person skilled in the law. She is busy; like Alice's White Rabbit:
“I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!” She feels sorry,
but bad things happen; as my High School Football line coach used to
say “T.S.- Tough Situation”. She has to work for a living - there
is a mortgage and car payment due and kid's soccer practice to
attend. This would be one more damned thing to do! As I look deep
inside myself the intense desire to stick with the safe routine of
the Levite is not unknown to me. The shared Levite in me needs to be
seen, acknowledged, accepted and transformed into a person of
compassion.
In the story there is the stranger, the
Samaritan, who has his own problems, agendas, fears and failings and
he could feel anger toward a person of the tribe that kept putting
his tribe down. He could have been taught resentment toward the way
his parents and parents' parents, and so on, had been treated by
people of the Travelers's ilk. This is is a man who is under no legal
or moral duty to care for the traveler. Yet, he shines a light on how
he is connected to the stranger as a fellow child of God and he
lives into a liberty to have mercy on someone who is so different.
Knowing a kinship with all who are wounded, he interrupts his journey
and binds up the traveler's wounds. He inconveniences himself by
placing the traveler of his donkey taking him to shelter and digs
deep into his time and pockets to pay for the shelter.
The last character of the story is the
Inn Keeper who earns a living caring for Traveler. The Samaritan
doesn't try to convert the Inn Keeper and fill him with guilt about
he should care for the Traveler for free. The Samaritan knows that he
can only give what he has from his heart and he cannot give what is
not his to give. What others give is up to them and the light they
shine within themselves for the liberty to give.
Poem: Light On Liberty
Looking at each
other's chests puffed
in resentment,
bellies swollen with anger,
with harsh words
ringing a loud clangor
as if released from
feelings long stuffed,
but only an
illusion release into loud hate,
and vitriol of
assigning even more blames
on loss of freedom,
while forging chains
of old behavior out
grown when we're eight.
We can wallow in
dark guilt of old misery,
or shining bright
light on denied shadows
to see how we are
deeply connected close
and transform us
into compassion's liberty.
Releasing us from
what we think we've been
to live as each
other's brothers and sisters kin.
Thomas E Wilson
