Observation: The author of 1 Peter is addressing an audience of Jewish Christ-believers living among a mostly Gentile population. He refers to his readers as "aliens and exiles," and tells them to live "honorably" among Gentiles, so that "though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge." It is true: in the first century, both Jews and Christians were often the target of violent persecution and unfounded rumors. In fact, in AD 64, when the (mostly Pagan) city of Rome suffered a terrible fire, popular belief falsely held that this fire had been started by Christians, and they bore the brunt of the blame. In this context, the advice to keep your head down "for the Lord's sake" and "honor the emperor" makes a great deal of sense.
Application: It's September 11. It's been sixteen years since a day that shook our nation, and for me as a young American living a fairly sheltered life, my sense of our place in the world. The hatred I saw in the act of ending so many lives so quickly--and also the hatred in the backlash against anyone who was perceived to be from those attackers' part of the world--moved me to my core. Only days after the event itself, I sat in a circle with other students (I was a junior at Eastern Michigan University) and heard stories of fear: the fear of being attacked by terrorists, but also by fellow Americans. I distinctly remember hearing a Latina young woman, born and raised in this country, describing her experience of being harassed on the street by someone who mistook her for being from the Arab world. I remember hearing TV and radio interviews after the fact, in which Muslim families expressed their love for our country, and their desire in that time to show even more support for this place in which they had found a freedom and a livelihood they could not have found at home. Those who had already left their homes and extended families, at great personal cost, to come to this country, were now having to watch their every step, their every phrase--even when and where they chose to speak their language of origin--to show that they meant their adopted country no harm.
I watched a viral video recently of a Sikh lawmaker in Canada--who, as a religious observance, wears long hair, a long beard and a turban--being violently heckled by a woman who (mistakenly) believed him to be a Muslim. He responded with nothing but calm, peace and poise in a way that I have rarely ever seen, and which is much more than I could muster in the face of shouting, slurs and threatening body language. I was amazed, but perhaps I should be less so, because this man (who looked to be in his mid 30s) is clearly no stranger to this harassment, and as a public figure, he knows what the stakes are. Hecklers are a dime a dozen, but if he does not behave with absolute discipline and politeness in the face of such abuse, the narrative would turn against him and all people of his faith.
There may be a few places in the world where Christians still have to "keep our heads down" and watch our every move, word, phrase, what language we speak, how much we share about ourselves in public, how close we stand to strangers, and a thousand other calculations. In most places today, and certainly in most parts of the U.S., we do not have to be nearly so careful. But we carry in our scriptures a reminder of that time: a time when Christians were the suspect ones, when we ourselves were the "aliens and exiles". On this day of national mourning, when Americans of all faiths look back with tears on a tragedy which must never happen again, Christians should also remember we too were once part of a feared minority, and have compassion.
Prayer: God, thank you for the blessing of living in the United States of America, a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all are created equal. Help us to obey the law, to uphold that in our civil institutions that which secures justice and equality, to peacefully challenge that which diminishes your image in any of your children, and to hold close to our hearts any aliens and exiles among us, remembering we once were the same, as was your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment