Civility And Community
A little over a year ago, a terrible incident occurred at a Max Train station in Portland,Or (Hollywood District). A young woman wearing a Hijab was verbally assaulted by an angry Caucasian man. He was behaving in a menacing, belligerent manner not only towards the woman, but also to others who were also passengers on the train. The tragedy culminated when two men, who were defending this young woman, were stabbed to death by this assailant.
Taliesen Myrddin Namkai Meche of Portland was a Reed College graduate, a Biology major. Ricky Best of Happy Valley was a retired Army Reservist who had served combat duty in Iraq. 2 killed in stabbing on MAX train in Northeast Portland as man directs …
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/.../police_responding_to_ne_portla.h May 26, 2017 -
Both of these men, from different backgrounds, responded to help this young woman because it was the right and correct thing to do. They wanted to preserve and defend life.
I don’t need to remind you that we are currently living in challenging and turbulent times. We are being beset with a lot of loud cacophonous voices. Attention is paid to those who yell the loudest, not to those who argue the most compelling and logical argument.
Political leaders and media anchors are not above saying callous and crude remarks denigrating and castigating whole groups of people. Truth is not something that is necessarily valued as much as partisan expediency.
As Bob Dylan said it best:
‘People don’t do what is right,
They do what’s expedient,
And then they repent. “
Right now, in our country, there is a lot of repentance that needs to be done.
We detain undocumented mothers and fathers and their children at the border. We separate children from their parents and few of them are being able to be reunited with their children. This is behavior that is reminiscent of the Nazi concentration camps of World War II.
What is happening to our democracy? What is happening to our society? What is happening to our collective human interaction? Is civility now becoming a casualty along with other treasured values and ideals.?
I grew up in Portland, Oregon. I have always been proud of my upbringing and being raised in a progressive community and environment.
The murders on the Max train saddened me. The incident reminded me that fear and intolerance are never far from your door. When violence strikes it’s all too understandable that people will decide to cower and hide.
The prophet Elijah ran for cover. The text from I Kings states that he came to Beersheba in Judah. Elijah sits under a broom tree. He prays;
“I have had enough Lord, take my life. I am no better than my ancestors. He then lays down under the tree and falls asleep. “ ( I Kings 19:4–5 )
The text then observes that an angel touches Elijah and tells him to “get up and eat. “He eats and becomes sustained for the journey of forty days and forty nights until he reaches Horeb, the mountain of God.
Elijah goes into the cave. The voice of the Lord asks Elijah “What are you doing? “Elijah stands in the front of the cave and the description is;
“the Lord was not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire and after the fire came a still gentle whisper. “
Trauma, by design, tends to shrink your world. I have known people who were traumatized by war, sexual assault and natural disasters, among other things, who will not trust anyone or anything. Thinking can tend to be entrenched, for some people, into an either all black or all white mentality- either all of nothing and no room in between. Differences and being different is not to be respected and being an expert in anything is to be discounted.
The letter to the Ephesians sets out a blueprint of right mind, right attitude and right action to this early community of Christian believers.
“Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak
Truthfully to their neighbor, for we are all members of the same body. “ (Ephesians 4:25 ).
The challenges presented to us now, as the Church, is how do we extend the love of Christ to those who are hungry, who are incarcerated, who are seen as being less than human? Those who are perceived as having no power-as being nobodies.
For that matter, how do we extend the love of Christ to those with whom we disagree?
The writer of John’s Gospel reflects Jesus’ life within the historical context and understanding of the late first century common era (CE).
Despite Jesus’ proclamation regarding the Kingdom Of God, there are those who are heard to say:
“ Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know. How can he say now “ I came down from heaven” ? ( John 6: 41 )
The discounting of experience and the worship of tribalism are markers of our current era. Social media, and all of its platforms, allows everyone access and visibility. There are certainly blessings and advantages regarding the greater dissemination of information. The pitfall, however, is that the digital megaphone can also spew out factual and cognitive distortion, divisive propaganda, gaslighting that can support racism, sexism, ageism, xenophobia and totalitarianism.
The Gospel of John has been criticized by some as having a distinct anti-Jewish bias. Scholars like Amy Jill-Levine of Vanderbilt University have written extensively on this matter.
The Gospel of John records a pivotal moment in the religious history of first century Hellenistic Judaism.
According to John Shelby Spong in his book “ The Fourth Gospel; Tales Of A Jewish Mystic “:
“Jesus is portrayed as engaging the Jewish authorities on the issues of the author’s day, which resulted in expulsion and he is portrayed as having done so in the quintessential form of the rabbinic debates of his day. The split between revisionist Jews and orthodox Jews which lead to the followers of Jesus being expelled from the synagogue when this Gospel was being written was both real and clear. “(P. 39).
As Christians, our charge in the words of the Great Commission is to go out and proclaim the Kingdom of God and the salvation that is manifest in the person and ministry of Jesus. (Matthew 28: 16–20)
We pursue our Kerygma, our teaching, within the context of a multi-faith, multi-pluralistic world of different ideologies and beliefs and cultures.
How do we preserve the integrity of our Christian witness and yet be present and engaged in dialogue with those who believe differently or don’t believe?
John Shelby Spong says:
“For me, Jesus is the ultimate expression of the revelation of God. “
Note that he said “for me. “
The Dali Lama has said:
“I’m all for Christians studying Buddhism, but I don’t want them to become Buddhists. I want them to become better Christians. “
Maybe that’s what civility can bring to the civic square of community-that being we can become better and deeper people of faith, in the name of Jesus and for the further revelation of the Kingdom of God now and always
May it be so.
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