“Go Set a Watchman:” Some Reflections

I just finished reading Go Set a Watchman. Wow! A Very powerful book: fun, funny, tragic, sad, uplifting and hopeful.  I can understand why Harper Publishing did not want to publish it in the mid 1950’s and why Ms. Lee may not have wanted it published it either. 

It reveals the complexities of human beings, particularly of Southern human beings in the 1950’s, and I would go so far as to say, Southern human beings (of which I am one) in 2015.  The book Deals with real conflict between different classes of people as well as conflict among people of the same class. There are some real lessons on how to “get along,” a wonderful Southern characteristic, and also fight evil when “getting along goes too far.”

Class and racial and religious consciousness and conflicts are alive and well in 1955 just as much as they are today. In fact, this book could have just as easily been written in 2015 after Baltimore, Charleston, Chattanooga and the Supreme Court decision on Marriage equality.  Harper Lee may well have given us some tools to deal these issues today, just as Atticus, Scout, Dr. Jack, Alexandra and Hank dealt with them in the mid 1950’s.

Go Set A Watchman would make a great book study for a church group, a Sunday School Class or any group of citizens interested in a civil way to discuss legitimate differences between people of good will.

The Ku Klux Klan, Pastor Bob and Liberty and Justice for All

When I worked for the U.S. Forest Service in East Tennessee in the late 1960’s I attended the Methodist Church where Pastor Bob served as chief shepherd. It was a wonderful church and Pastor Bob and his family “adopted” me as a fourth son.  Years later when he and his wife visited us in New Orleans, he told us the story of his experience delivering the devotion at a Ku Klux Klan Rally, burning cross and all.

When Pastor Bob went home and told his wife that he had been invited to give the devotion at a KKK Rally, she said that “of course he wasn’t going to do it was he?” When he replied that “he believed he would” she responded with some very un-pastor’s comments, some of which suggested that he just might have taken leave of his senses.  Pastor Bob responded that he believed God was calling him to deliver a message to the Klan.  I leave the reader to decide who may or may not have been correct in their assessment of the situation.

On the given night, Pastor Bob drove to a designated location and was met by two men in Klan outfits with masks. He was blindfolded and rode with them up the mountain and turned off the paved road. The three men drove down the dirt road and stopped in a broad area where lots of other vehicles were parked.  Pastor Bob, still blindfolded walked with them men to the Rally area.  When his blindfold was removed he saw a huge crowd of men in sheets and masks. He was introduced by the leader as “Pastor Bob from the Methodist Church, who had come to bring them a devotion and a message from God.” 

Pastor Bob proceeded to tell the story of what he called “The Good Klansman.” As the story unfolded, “a black man was driving from Knoxville to Chattanooga when he was run off the road, beaten and robbed.  As he lay bleeding in the ditch behind his car, the local Baptist Pastor drove by, stopped, looked at the black man and said to himself, I just do not have time to stop and care for him. I am a busy man and must get to the spiritual retreat in Chattanooga.  Next the local Methodist pastor drove by, decided that he did not much care for black people and drove on.  At both of this incidents, the Klan members cheered and shouted, sharing their joy at the wisdom of the two pastors.”

Pastor Bob continued. “The next person to drive by was a Klansman on his way to this very rally.  When he saw the beaten, helpless man in the ditch, he stopped, took out a canteen of water and bathed the man’s wounds, gave him something to drink and bandaged his wounds.  The Klan members in attendance began to boo and yell and shout obscenities about the preacher and the Klansman who stopped.  As they got louder and louder, Pastor Bob shouted, ‘QUIET! HOW DARE YOU INTERUPT THE WORD OF GOD WHEN IT IS BEING PREACHED.” The crowd grew quiet and listened to the rest of the story of the ‘Good Klansman.’” The then re-blindfolded Pastor Bob, extinguished the fires in the circle, including the cross and silently left, leaving Pastor Bob alone in the middle of the East Tennessee Woods in the dark.

Pastor Bob removed the blindfold, but it was still too dark to see. He felt his way along the foot path to the dirt road, turned right and headed uphill toward the paved road. When he reached the paved road he walked a hundred yards to a pickup truck where sat a member of his congregation.  The man said, “howdy Pastor Bob, would you like a ride? Pastor Bob replied, “yes.” The two rode quietly into town to the church parking lot.  When Pastor Bob got out of the truck the both said, “good night, see you Sunday.”

Did Pastor Bob change any minds that night? Was he truly doing God’s work, or was he as crazy as his wife thought him to be? I do not have an answer to these questions, but I do know that he possessed the same courage Jesus possessed when he overturned the tables in the temple; the same courage Jesus had when he stood up the religious and political leaders of his day. Jesus stood up to the evil of his time and it cost him his life. Pastor Bob stood up to the evil of his time and lived to tell the story, but it could have cost him as much as it cost Jesus. 

In this story, Pastor Bob is for me a prophet.  His story inspires me to work for justice, freedom and peace for all of God’s people. To speak truth to power against all those who are enemies of the truth, whether they are the leaders of the state and nation, leaders of the church or those whose money give them more power than they deserve to have. There are those in the world who work to destroy God’s Kingdom and God’s people. Jesus, the Apostles and the Prophets, and Pastor Bob (who I truly believe is a prophet), and other modern day prophets show us how to live. Their example helps me to have the courage to stand up for those whom Jesus calls “the least of these my brothers and sisters.”

From Violence to Peace, the Building up of the Household of God

We human beings are tribal people. We love our own kind and stick together through thick and thin.  We often do this by pointing out that we are separate from the other, and most likely, better than the other as well.  In St. Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, St. Paul reminds the Ephesian Christians that they were once different from the Jews; that they were without hope and without God. Now, however they have been brought together by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 2:11-22) 

Paul reminds the Jews as well as the Gentiles that they have been joined together by Jesus who is their peace.  Jesus, he declares, has broken down the dividing wall between them. That dividing wall is the hostility between them.  I want to take this idea from Paul and run with it, perhaps to the edge of what some might consider heresy.  I believe that the love of God which those of us who are Christians see in Jesus, can break down the dividing wall between not only Jews and Christians, but the walls between Muslims and Christians and Jews, between blacks and whites and browns, between rich and poor and yes, even between liberals and conservatives and everyone on the scale in between.

I believe Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is an act of God and therefore can defuse the hostility between groups of people who do not believe in him as well as groups of people who believe in him.  I believe St. Paul is correct that God can create one new humanity in place of two, and if God can do that, then God can create one new humanity in place of three or four or more.  As members of one human family we all have access to the Spirit of God and become members of the Household of God.  The Household of God does not exist just in heaven but exists first and foremost on Earth where we are all given gifts and talents to help build and strengthen this Household.

The Household of God is built, according to St. Paul, on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus, himself, being the Chief Cornerstone.” What a great foundation! If we stand on this foundation, we may well be able to see the whole world, not through human eyes, but through God’s eyes.  Continuing with this building metaphor, let’s build the first floor of this house on the late 18^th Century hymn, “In Christ there is no East or West.”

“In Christ there is no East or West, in him no South or North,

but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.”

“Join hands, disciples of the faith, what’er your race may be!

Who serves my Father as a child is surely kin to me.”

As I reflected on Paul’s letter and this hymn, I reflected on how the world is and how it could be. I wish that I could get up to preach just one Sunday, and not have to preach on some violent act, some murder that has taken place in our world, as the result of the “horrible divisions between us which destroy the Household of God.  I am pleased this week that most people did not blame all Muslims for the attacks and murders committed by one man in Chattanooga, or blame all white people for the murders in a black church in Charleston. This would have been easy to do, but most refrained from doing so.

After tragedies exemplified by the two I have just mentioned, Christians and other people of good will are called on to do many things.  We are called on to grieve the loss of life. We are called to pray: to pray for the victims and their friends and family; to pray for the perpetrator (I hate it when scripture tells us that Jesus prayed on the cross for those who crucified him.)  And I believe we are called to pray for an end to the fear and hatred from some people of many different races, religions and organizations who influence individuals to committee such violent acts.

Our various faiths do not call or even allow us to hate. Even in the midst of grief we are called to defuse hate, not fuel the hate that is ubiquitous in our nation and our world.  We are called by the “Prince of Peace” to have conversations we would rather not have. We must talk about the issues of the day, even with those with whom we disagree.  We must talk about issues like the Confederate Battle flag and how it affects different people.  We must talk about the nuclear deal between Iran and five other nations. We must talk about equality of marriage.

And worst of all, or maybe best of all, we must be civil when we do so.  I cannot tell you how many times I have seen posts on Facebook that angered me, and my reaction was to go “type, type, type, delete, delete, delete.  If you are a Facebook friend of mine, I do not have to tell you the times I go “type, type, type, type, SEND! You have seen that. The times I have fueled hate rather than defused it.

Yes, there are many problems in the world.  But there are many good things as well. People of good will, people who are members of the household of God, together can work toward the elimination of the problems and the increase of those good things. We seek the truth where it may be found, we create safe places for dialogue, we defuse hate rather than fuel it and we lift up all those who work for justice, freedom and peace.

In the words of the old Sunday School Song: “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” Sounds like a good plan for us as well.

Prophets and Plumb Lines

God calls people to be prophets when we least expect it, when we have no interest in being a prophet and when we would rather be doing just about anything else. After all, most of us know what people say about prophets, what happens to prophets and that knowledge does not make for good recruiting propaganda.  

The eighth century BCE Prophet, Amos, was minding his own business, taking care of his father’s sheep and pruning Sycamore trees and the LORD took him from following the flock, and “the LORD said to him, Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'" I suspect Amos’ first thoughts were not, “cool, let’s do this.”   

Amos explained: “this is what the Lord God showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said to me, Amos, what do you see? And I said, a plumb line. Then the Lord said to Amos, 

See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword." (Amos 7:7-15) 

And Amos went, and prophesied to the king and the people of Israel.  Holding the plumb line is what prophets do. They hold God’s message, God’s standard, up and allow us, or perhaps force us to compare our lives and actions to God’s message and actions.  The plumb line is always straight, it has to be, so if anything is off kilter it is the human being, or the society, or the church or other organization.  God’s plumb line helps us see what we are called to do and to be and gives us a chance to straighten up. Sometimes we do and sometimes we do not.

John the Baptist, a prophet, was arrested for holding a plumb line up for King Herod, telling him that it was not proper or right for him to marry his brother’s wife.  Herod was bothered by some of the things John said, but he was also intrigued by him. Although he did not want to put John to death, he had promised his wife’s daughter, Herodias, anything she wanted because he and his dinner guests were so pleased with her dancing for them. (Mark 6:14-29) 
 

Even though John had held a plumb line for Herod, Herod could not make himself bend to that line. Why not? He knew he did not want to keep the promise to Herodias, but he kept it anyway.  Why did Herod and why do we do things we do not want to do?  I believe it is our pride or our embarrassment.  We have made a promise in front of our friends. What will they think of us if we do not follow through?  Will they think us week, insincere, less manly or less womanly?  Will we lose power and control over others? Will we look weak? Herod saw the Plumb Line but he could not straighten up.
 

Prophecy calls us, summons us to change, it challenges our norms and seeks to awaken us to the presence of God in our lives and in the world. Prophecy can break through denial, and challenge norms and seek to awaken our hearts and minds.  Or, we can become reactionary, get our backs up and do all we can to justify ourselves. We then attack and dehumanize the prophet. We might even, in our reaction stand for things we have never stood for in the past just to prove that “no one can tell me what to do.”
 

Like Amos, the modern prophet holds the Plumb Line against us and our institutions, calling us to stand up straight against all that threatens the peace and unity of the human race.  When we hear the prophets and when we stand straight against the “crooked walls” we will seem out of line and may even be classified and condemned as prophets ourselves. As Flannery O’Connor said, “you shall know the truth and the truth will make you odd.”
 

Jesus left in his wake a trail of uneasy, intrigued and perplexed hearers.  I suspect there were some among them who knew that if they listened long enough, that he would bring them to a point of decision they would much rather avoid.  Prophets do that. 
 

The Bible, the Book of Common Prayer and the Holy Eucharist are some of our plumb lines today.  The Bible is not the end of God’s communication with us, but a beginning, a foundation. The Holy Spirit through today’s prophets will use these plumb lines to lead us and guide us into all truth, and to give us the courage to live into that truth through our actions.
 

I believe that if we listen to the words of scripture and engage fully with one another and with Jesus in the reception of Holy Communion that we too may be brought to a point of decision we would rather avoid. If we embrace Jesus’ message to “love our neighbor as ourselves, to do unto others as we would want them to do unto us,” folks might think us odd, but, we might just understand and help others to understand why some symbols we hold dear can hurt and frighten others; we might think twice about what we say, or write or post on social media.  We have the freedom to do and say what we please, but will that doing and saying build up, or tear down? As Saint Paul wrote, “do not for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat.” (Romans 14:20)

 

Freedom from fear, and God’s Presence Among Us

I hear so much about God’s promise to us: about being with us, about loving us, no matter what, about leading us and guiding us into all truth, even about spending eternity with God.  So, what is God’s promise to us all about?  I have decided to look at God’s promise from the perspective of Psalm 130 and see where that takes us.  

                                                4  I wait for the LORD; my soul waits for him;

                                                    In his word is my hope.

                                                6  O Israel, wait for the LORD

                                                    For with the LORD there is mercy.

                                                7  With Him there is plenteous redemption,

                                                    He shall redeem Israel from all their sins. 

For starters, God’s promise is hope, mercy and redemption. Not a bad beginning.  I move on from the Psalm to Marks Gospel, 5:21-43, the interwoven story of Jesus’ healing of the woman with the twelve year flow of blood, and the healing/resuscitation of the synagogue officials 12 year old daughter. Near the end of this double story Jesus tells the people and the parents, “do not fear, only believe.”  Jesus thus adds healing, freedom from fear and belief to God’s promise to us.  We now see in this promise, hope, mercy, redemption from sins, healing, freedom from fear, and belief in God’s presence among us. 

How does this promise change our lives?  God’s Promise gives us a foundation on which to build our lives, on which to grow our faith.  The opening prayer for worship in the Episcopal Church on June 28 states: “ Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you.” 

With this promise, with this foundation we can deal in a healthy way with weeks like we had last week, which was to say the very least, interesting.  We saw the United States Supreme Court decisions that guaranteed the health care supplements in the Affordable Care act and that made marriage legal and equal for all Americans in all states.  We in Alabama saw our governor take down the “Confederate Battle Flag” from the Confederate Memorial on the State Capital Grounds, and the Episcopal Church in the United States has affirmed marriage of same-sex couples as a part of the church’s liturgical and communal life.  Last, but not least, President Obama gave a powerful eulogy for Reverend and Senator Clementa Pinckney, who was among the nine African Americans murdered by a young White Man in Charleston, South Carolina. 

None of these decisions or actions has led to unity of thought, or belief or action.  But, God’s promise was not for unity of belief or thought or actions, but for the Unity of The Spirit!  And all of these actions and decisions bring up important conversations that must be had if we as a people and a nation are to put anger and the hatred produced by that anger behind us, if we are to become the nation and the people we can and must be. 

Many people in our nations are pleased with one or more of these decisions, and many are not pleased at all with any of these decisions.  I believe that it is important to discuss these very important issues with one another with a listening ear. This is especially true when we converse with those with whom we disagree.  Remember the Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us into all truth, usually through our engagement with others who share our life and or faith journey.  Unfortunately this guidance and resolution usually do not arrive as quickly or as simply as most of us would like. 

I have been involved in healthy conversations this week on these issues and I have seen some healthy interchanges on social media in which thoughtful articles were posted and good discussions followed.  I have also observed name calling and posts full of hate and suggestions to “leave if you disagree with me, because it is obvious I am correct and you are not.” I do not believe it is appropriate to post on social media how much one loves Jesus, only to be followed by a post calling the Governor of Alabama names I would not call my worst enemy. 

 If I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was always correct then I might overturn tables as Jesus did.  But, I am not Jesus, and therefore I need your thoughts and ideas and you need my thoughts and ideas.  We need to believe in Jesus’ promise that “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.” 

As President Obama said in his Eulogy for Reverend/Senator Clementa Pinckney last week, “if we can find that grace, anything is possible, if we can tap into that grace, everything could change. . .That grace shone around the group of people who opened the church doors and invited a stranger to join their prayer circle. “ 

The President went on to remind us of the grace and forgiveness shown by the families of the victims toward the alleged killer.  He talked about how “the city of Charleston, the State of South Carolina and the United States of America responded not merely with revulsion at this evil act, but with big-hearted Generosity and, more importantly with a thoughtful introspection and self-examination that we so rarely see in public life.” 

Finally, President Obama reminded all of us that “we don’t earn grace. We’re all sinners. We don’t deserve it. But God gives it to us anyway.” 

We are called only to receive it and then to allow ourselves to be joined together in unity of spirit by the teaching of the apostles and prophets.  As we are joined together and made holy by this spirit, God uses us to share that spirit with others so that they too will be made holy and that all of us will be acceptable to God. 

“Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ‘tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”