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October 26, 2003 Decade to Overcome Violence Job
42:1-6, 10-17 I shared a children’s story during the meditation service by Robert Munsch, former Jesuit and current father. The story’s entitled "Murmel Murmel Murmel" and goes something like this: A five year old girl finds a hole in her sandbox one day, and pulls from the hole, to her surprise, a baby. "Murmel Murmel Murmel" says the baby. The girl astutely observes that, because she is only five herself, she cannot take care of the baby, yet she proceeds to try and find someone who can. She encounters many different people in this quest, who all give her reasons of why they cannot include the baby in their lives. One man asks, "What is a baby for, anyway?" "It is for hugging and loving and feeding and burping," replies the girl. "I certainly don’t need that!" replies the man. In the end, a truck driver replies to the baby’s cry "Murmel Murmel Murmel" by exclaiming "I need you!" He takes the baby in his arms and walks away, leaving his truck behind. Currently, I’m making plans to move, and the decisions I’m making involve how I am going to fill my house. The passage "So that My House May Be Filled" (Luke 14:23) resonates through my head. But filled with what, and with whom? What are these things for, anyway, and what makes me say "I need you!"? All these decisions certainly seem to me very intrusive, and I want to declare "I don’t need this!" In one way, the answers to these questions: "What is it for, what do I need?" may appear obvious, frustrating, needlessly time-consuming, minutia. Very intrusive, let’s get on with it! However, as we examine how our answers to these questions affect our relationship to others, we can see that the answers we come up with are anything but incidental or minute. The answers, as seen in the story, determine how we relate to others and who we include in our lives; in our "Household." For example, let’s consider Job for a moment, one of the Bible’s most famous households. As we meet Job, his house is definitely filled. But who would Job be, in today’s world, 2003? Job, as he is represented in Biblical texts, can be thought of in his 2003 equivalent as a self-proclaimed, open-minded, libral, white American. He’s comfortable yet active in his community, gives to important causes, loves his wife and family, and generally believes in the possibilities and fairness of life. Sound familiar? But then something happens: a change to his own household that affects his position, and his relationships; its a crisis that is personal, financial, and communal. His former relationships break down, things no longer make sense, and the arguments he would have used to explain life to others, when parroted back to him in his post-prosperity condition, no longer make sense. And neither does God. Tragic, frustrating, tumultuous. In Job’s experience of strife, he reaches the depths of despair; as expressed in the psalm, he sows in tears. Yet, in this state, he is open to God’s rebuke in a way he may not have been open to it had he his comforts to "protect" him. God reminds him that is it not always for Job to know "what is the right way", it is not always for Job to be "in charge." Job responds contritely, "I had heard of you by hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you." Job recognizes, through this experience of intrusion, of crisis, that there is a limit to his own comprehension, and that there are biases he possessed that he had not realized. Through this realization, and this acceptance, Job’s house is again "filled," and he reaps with shouts of joy. Yes, Job’s case is an extreme; having a five year old approach you on the street, asking if you would like a baby, or even moving, are different. But all relate to how we arrange our "household." One of the most prevalent ways of conceptualizing what would become known as the "Christian Family" biblically involves the idea of Household. Participation in the household is determined by one’s relationships, ones power and economic standing. We see this in Job’s story: how his relationships change with a change in his economic standing. But we also see how his relationship to God changes in this experience, and we see his vision deepened as his confronts the limits of his own understanding and worldview. The five year old girl is asking a similar question: Will you change your household, open yourself up, expand yourself and your relationships? Who and what I include in my household may involve similar considerations. How am I, are we, like Job, I ask myself? Have I only heard of God, and am I keeping myself from "seeing" the possibilities for God working through my life? How am I planning to fill my own house? Who do I believe "belongs" there, and what do I disregard? Am I annoyed by the "Murmel Murmel Murmel" sound that I hear because I see it only as an intrusion, or are there opportunities here waiting for me, if only I confront my own blindness, my own annoyance, my own prejudice? Bartimaeus asks for sight, yet sight does take faith, and it is not always easy to have. In our first session of the Global Youth Initiative, we focused on two areas: 1) How we define Violence and 2) Dialogue vs. Debate. The Dialogue vs. Debate section was particularly interesting because people began understanding that the process of listening is as important as what is said, because the process affects What We Hear and Who We Hear, and Who and What We See. Thinking of Job and his perspective before his challenge, what are we missing because of our status and privilege? From the perspective of other people throughout the world and even from other ethnic groups within the United States, mainstream Americans may appear fast-paced, goal and schedule driven, individual-centered, status oriented, and stressed. We like efficiency, disruption is frowned upon. These cultural values can tend toward a debate mode of approaching issues, rather than a collective format. People involved in this session discovered that "sitting with difference" rather than debating it away was actually more challenging. There was recognition that there are other ways of approaching issues, and our process affects how we hear and whether we hear these other perspectives. This also affects with whom we form relationships. In today’s second session of the Global Youth Initiative, we will take these ideas one step further, asking as Bartimaeus has in Marks’ gospel, to "Let us see", further still. I will use some exercises and skills from my position as an antiracism trainer for the National Episcopal Church. Normally, the trainings involved in this approach can take up to two weeks as participants move from a personal understanding of racism to a systemic and cultural one. Today, I will use only a few of these exercises to get discussion started about how we participate in the global community. We will think about how racism affects us, may make us blind to other perspectives, and keep us from being in dialogue, affecting how we see the world, literally. As Job’s story illustrates, one attribute of being in a position of privilege or status in reference to others -- as Americans, as white people, etc – is that we do not always consciously see the norms of our own environment. The fish does not know what this thing called water is, so to speak. When we are outside of this perspective, things that may have once made sense to us no longer apply. We may have the experience of seeing, rather than only hearing God, as Job described. So, through the help of a simple card game and a video made by the Mennonite Central Committee called "Free Indeed," we will examine how culture influences the way we participate in relationships on both a local and global scale. It takes much faith to, like Bartimaeus, reach and touch Jesus in order to receive sight, to expand the our notions of who we include and what we include in our households, and HOW we include or expect to be included. The Decade to Overcome Violence can appear to be an overwhelming concept. War, poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia – how can one Decade hope to approach all this and more? Yet, all of these issues involve one central concept: identifying the power that we possess, and how it affects our relationships. The Decade asks us to consider, "What is a Just Relationship?" Whether we speak of local ties, or how we, through our churches and our government relate around the world in the name of Americans, and how we participate in that process. How I fill my house indeed does involve choice. Change in circumstances can be traumatic, an extreme example being the changes in the household of Job. But there is also an exciting, gentler side, as Robert Munsch’s story shows us. It is an opportunity to examine the possibility in our growth in relationships, to God, to expanding the Christian notion of household. Perhaps, by the roadside, a five year old girl is offering us the chance to change a life by changing our own. How will I respond? How will you respond? Murmel Murmel Murmel. |
