Meditation: RACISM AND RAINBOWS by John de Gruchy

RACISM AND RAINBOWS

Philippians: 2:1-4

Matthew 7:12

"In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets."

I had a dream. Once long ago in a land far away, there lived a beautiful people.  Some of the people were purple others blue, some of them were orange others crimson, and some pink and vermillion.  There were also green people and yellow people, in fact people of every colour of the rainbow.  They were beautiful as individuals, but when they were all together on special occasions they made a spectacular sight.  Their colours blended in rich harmony as they acknowledged each other as part of a tapestry in which each was necessary, none superior, each an important part of the whole, but none insignificant on their own.  They were known far and wide as the rainbow people.  Unlike other nations, there were no white people or black people, for those colours are absent from the rainbow, only people of all colours, shapes, shades and sizes, like pieces in a magnificent jigsaw puzzle.  Each piece was necessary to complete the picture, none more special than any other, but when each piece linked arms the picture was stunning even though while still incomplete.

Then I woke up.  It had been a wonderful dream, but it was not reality on the ground, certainly not if you scratched beneath the surface.  How could it be when for centuries all people saw was black and white, and when laws insisted that they should never mingle, never form a rainbow, and laws, guns and dogs were used to keep them apart.  Water-canons were also used to suppress their protests and wash all the colours down the gutter.  So only black and white remained to make sure that everyone knew who they were, that all that mattered was that you were white or black.  From childhood we learnt  we all learnt that we were not part of a rainbow. but as different as daylight and midnight, some superior others inferior, some privileged others oppressed.  Most whites imbibed  this belief with their mother's milk and their father's talk who, in turn, learnt this from their ancestors who lived over the seas and thought blacks were alien creatures inhabiting a dark continent alongside strange beasts. 

Many thought that this was just how God intended it to be, that it had been like this since the foundation of the world.  Some were predestined to rule and others to serve, some were intelligent and could play cricket because they were white, and others dumb and could only play soccer because they were black.  Yes, everything was in black and white, like the laws written down to ensure that they remained separate and knew their place.  Scholars and politicians  thought long and hard how to describe this and eventually they found a word that seemed to fit. They called it  "race" and insisted there was a white race and a black race,  even though we know that there is only the human race made up of many cultures of all colours.  So racism was born and racism ruled.  In protest black became beautiful and white the colour of oppression.

But things don't work well in black and white.  It is like watching old movies where people are not only black and white, cowboys and Indians,  good guys and bad, who shoot each other but never talk to each other.  Just like living in a colourless world makes you ill, so racism was a disease which made society sick.  People lost their humanity, and committed crimes against humanity.  And even though not everyone had the disease, it affected everyone, for when some are in bondage to racism all are in bondage and end up doing hurtful things to each other.  So people began to dream of and struggle  for a non-racial nation, a nation made whole. 

After many years, too many deaths and much suffering, enough people came to their senses and helped construct a rainbow.  Their dream became reality.  And they all settled down to live happily ever after.  Except for one thing.  They did not take into account that the racism virus, like the plague, had not been eradicated, it was only dormant waiting its chance to reappear and infect the fragile rainbow.  Too little had been done to get rid of the virus;  it had only been brushed under the carpet.  Too few acknowledged that establishing a non-racial society could not be achieved by the stroke of pen.  Human nature had to change, and that is a tough call. 

So twenty years after the rainbow nation was born, and much achieved,  the reality of racism cannot be ignored or denied.  Its symptoms keep showing themselves, both crude and subtle, for not everyone is afflicted to the same degree.  Some forms are mild like the common cold, others as violent, abusive and deadly as Ebola.  Everyone knows a crude racist when they see one or hears them speak.  But subtle racism is more difficult to detect, and even those who are afflicted do not always acknowledge that they have the disease, and sometimes vehemently deny it.  So they are taken by surprise when someone calls them racists.  "Who, me?" they ask in shock.

There is no easy cure for racism, no antibiotic.   But we do know that unlike Ebola and the plague, it can't be dealt with by isolation.  Isolation only strengthens the virus.  The way to overcome the disease is through contact, through discovering that people who are different are just like oneself; that we are all human beings, all of the same human race.  We belong together because God has made us so and history has brought us together.   It is only as we learn to respect each other so that our differences actually enrich each of us, that the virus can be contained and eventually overcome.   It is a long, hard battle, because racism has perverted justice and robbed people of their land.  But we have to start somewhere, and we can and must begin with ourselves.  We can acknowledge that the virus is real and not deny its reality.    So we have to be careful about what we say about others, about the attitudes we have, the way we act, the off-the-cuff comments we post on Facebook.  This is not all that is required to build a rainbow nation, but without this we haven't begun. 

Oh, and by the way, Jesus gave us a golden rule to deal with the racism virus.  Do to others what you would want them to do to you and therefore speak about them in ways that you would like them to speak about you.  Imagine such a world!  Is it only be a dream?  Or can we make it a reality?

John de Gruchy

Volmoed  21 January 2016

Meditation: LED BY A STAR by John de Gruchy

LED BY A STAR

Matthew 2:1-11

“…there, ahead of them, went the star they had seen at its rising.”

The Christmas Carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" traditionally begins with a Partridge in a Pear tree and ends with Twelve Drummers Drumming.  But there have been many versions of the carol since the 18th century.  There is even a South African version which begins with a Hadeda in a Gum Tree! 

The "twelve days of Christmas" start on 25th of December and end on January 6th, the feast of Epiphany.    “Epiphany” means manifestation of the light and, in particular, the manifestation of Christ as the light of the world not just for Jews but for Gentiles as well.  So Epiphany is the day on which we remember the Wisemen who came from the East to visit the Christ-child, being led by the light of a star.

We don’t know exactly who these Sages were except that they came from the East, maybe modern-day Iran, and  that they were pagan astrologers who believed that their lives were determined by the stars.  So led by a star they journeyed to Jerusalem to enquire about the birth of a king.  But Herod “and all Jerusalem,” were scared out of their wits by this enquiry.  Worried by the news and scheming how he could deal with it, Herod got all his court theologians together to ask their opinion.  And they, guided by the Scriptures informed him that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, a small town not too far from Jerusalem.  So the Magi continued their journey and, lo and behold, “there ahead of them, went the star they had seen at its rising” until it hovered over a cave in Bethlehem.

There are several layers of meaning to this magical story.  Matthew is telling us, that right from the beginning the coming of Jesus was welcomed by some but not by everyone.  There were those who, like Herod, were afraid of the arrival of the Christ-child because they sensed that he would challenge their authority, their status, and their religious convictions.  Matthew is also telling us that among those who celebrated that first Christmas were Gentiles and pagans.  Jesus appeal is not exclusive to some race or tribe or religious group, but universal.  Everyone is welcome at the manger.  He is also telling us that people come to Jesus by various paths and they start their journey in many different places 

The Wisemen came from the East guided by their own reading of the signs of the times in the heavens, though they also needed the guidance of the Scriptures to know more precisely where to find Jesus.  But when they arrived the star that had first evoked their keen interest and had gone before them. was already there!  And that is the point of the story – it was the light of the world symbolically reflected in the star that drew them to Bethlehem from afar.  Or as the prologue to John's Gospel puts it: "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world."

Now it is this insight which Matthew captures in his telling of the story that is important for us today in a world where so many people insist that their way to Jesus is the only right way.  The story of the Wisemen suggests otherwise.  For the light that came into the world at Christmas attracts people in many different ways and for different reasons. As we read the stories of Jesus’ encounters with people, we are continuously aware of how each person is different, each is at a different point in their life's journey.  They not only come from different backgrounds and walks of life; they also range from the pious to the profane; they have different needs, different questions and expectations. But they are all in one way or another drawn to the same Jesus who attracted the Wisemen from the East and the Shepherds from the surrounding hills.  Some came well versed in Scripture, as did Nicodemus; some came endowed with authority, as did the Roman centurion; some came desperate for love and compassion, as did Mary of Magdala; some came because they were blind, or possessed, or crippled, and in need of healing.  The Wisemen from the East came because they were following the light they had received far from the land of Moses and the prophets, but which also brought them to the Christ-child. 

It does not matter who you are, where you come from, how much knowledge you have, what religion if any you espouse – what matters is whether or not you are willing to follow the God-given light that leads you.  This does not mean that everyone will arrive at Bethlehem or become a follower of Jesus, for the testimony of the Scriptures was necessary for the Wisemen to complete their journey and find the Christ-child.  But, if it is true that Jesus is “the light of the world that enlightens everyone,” then it could well happen to anyone, as it happened to the Wisemen, that they arrive at the manger where with the Wisemen "they are overwhelmed with joy… "  

But, as the poet T.S. Eliot perceptively noted, their journey did not end in Bethlehem, in a sense, it only really began there.  For when they returned to the place from which they originally came their lives were changed forever.  

'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears,  saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped in away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

John de Gruchy

Volmoed 7^th January 2016

Meditation: WHEN THE TREES CLAP THEIR HANDS by John de Gruchy

WHEN THE TREES CLAP THEIR HANDS

Isaiah 55:12-13

Matthew 24:36-44

"The mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song,

and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

"For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man."

Last Sunday, as I was reflecting on my meditation for this, the third week in Advent, a message appeared on my screen from Avaaz, that global network for justice which involves forty-two million people in its various campaigns.  The message read:

Out of great crises, humanity has borne beautiful visions. World War II gave rise to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an enduring standard for our spirit and capacity as one people. The fall of Apartheid led South Africa to the single most bold and progressive constitution in the world.

And now world leaders at the United Nations climate talks in Paris have set a landmark goal that can save the planet.  That is the significance of what was achieved after intense debate and negotiation between virtually all the nations of the world.  Of course, the Paris Declaration still has to be ratified by the relevant national authorities and they have to put it into practice.  It is also true that the Declaration does not go nearly far enough, for even if the targets set are achieved, this will not automatically prevent disastrous weather patterns over the coming years.  Much, much more needs to be done, and sooner rather than later.  But for the first time almost all the nations of the world have agreed about global warming and what must be done to stop it before our planet is destroyed.   

As I reflected on the significance of this event, and its potential to prevent disaster, a verse from the prophet Isaiah came to mind.

 "The mountains and the hills shall burst into song,

and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

This is part of Isaiah's vision of the coming of God's reign on earth and therefore an appropriate text for Advent when we focus among other things on the Second Coming of Christ when God's glory will be revealed in all its fullness, when creation will be restored, and justice and peace will finally be established.  At last the trees have reason to clap their hands.

While reflecting on Isaiah's utopian vision, another Advent  biblical passage came to mind which refers to the days of Noah when "corruption and violence filled the earth," when people were oblivious to the consequences of their actions and ignored the warning signs. Instead they "were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage" and did not know what hit them until "the flood came and swept them all away."  That is all except Noah, his family and the animals that crowded into his ark.  We miss the point of this ancient and universal story if we go searching for the remains of Noah's Ark somewhere in Sinai and try to work out how he got all the animals inside including, presumably two tarantulas and two crocodile.  There probably was a great flood that gave rise to the story, but it was told not to dazzle generations of Sunday School children and then turn them into sceptics about the Bible's truth at the same time as they stop believing in Father Christmas.  No, the story of Noah is a prophetic warning about the dire consequences that inevitably follow corruption and violence.  As such, its message is universal and perennial, and told for our time, perhaps more so than any other when people, as in the days of Noah, have scoffed about global warming and continue to pursue policies that destroy the environment. Suddenly, is seems, people and governments are waking up as floods engulf towns and islands  across the globe.  The significance of the Paris Declaration is that we might just have woken up in time, but only just.   In fact during the Paris Conference the Indian Finance Minister first came out against 100% clean energy.  This was potentially an enormous set-back for the process.  But then a film was screened  the city in the conference hall showing the city of Chennai under water that week along with messages from across India.  A day later, Prime Minister Modi declared that he had changed his mind, and this decisively influenced the discussions. 

There are two approaches to the Second Coming of Christ.  The most popular and widespread among many Christian groups, especially fundamentalists, is that the world will come to a violent end in the final battle of Armageddon.  Then Christ will return to establish God's reign of justice and peace.  This view is based on apocalyptic passages in the New Testament, especially the book of Revelation which are taken literally in a way never intended.  Many Christians think this will happen in their life time -- as many have in previous generations -- and that the sooner the Middle East blows up the better.  They therefore support the wars now taking place because these herald the return of Jesus, and they oppose those who work for peace and justice.  War in the Middle East is part of God's plan, to put it crudely, which is also the view of ISIS which, strangely, also anticipates the return of Jesus in that final battle of Armageddon.  

But is its God's will that the world continues on its present trajectory of corruption, violence and war, leading to death and destruction on such a scale?  Does the God who loves the world really plan to annihilate millions of people through bombs and bullets, as well as devastate the earth, in order to establish his kingdom of justice and peace?  Is God a cynical god for whom the end justifies the means, so that in order to bring about peace you promote war?  That certainly does not correspond to what we know of God's will for the world in Jesus Christ, and therefore does not tally with any notion of a Second Advent of the Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever.  The Christ who is with us and who will come again, is the same Christ who came to Bethlehem.

God's way according to Jesus and the prophets, then, is the way of  justice and the renewal of the earth, not the way of war and devastation; it is the way of loving enemies not destroying them, fighting corruption and evil for the sake of the common good.  That is the way of Christ, and it is to the coming of this Christ of redemption, the Christ who is the healer of the nations.  The message of Advent, then, is one of hope in the coming of God kingdom, but it is also a call to wake up before it is too late!  Too late because we have allowed corruption and violence to get out of hand, too late because we have so degraded the environment that it has got beyond the point of no return.  That is why Advent prepares us for the coming of Christ by calling us to conversion, to a change of heart and mind,  to renew our efforts at being peace-makers and good earth-keepers.  We have every reason to live in hope, but that means keeping awake and, with John the Baptist, preparing the way for the coming of God's kingdom when

"The mountains and the hills will burst into song,

and the trees of the field will clap their hands."

John de Gruchy

Volmoed Advent III, 17 December 2015

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION AS PROTEST

Revelation 22: 16-21

Luke 2:1-8

"In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered."

The words are so familiar that we don't give them a second thought. But this is how the Christmas story begins: "In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered."  We don't know when this census took place, or its reason, but it was probably confined to Judaea for the purpose of taxation and control.  King Herod had to raise taxes on behalf of Emperor Augustus in order to control a turbulent country regularly threatened by the uprisings of Jewish zealots.  Herod was nervous and fearful.  Any talk of a messianic leader sent shivers up his spine.  So he decreed that everyone should be registered in their home town.  Mary and Joseph set off from Nazareth for Bethlehem, a town as crowded then as it often has been since, but they had not gone on line to book accommodation.  So Jesus was born in stable in  a town occupied by foreign troops that would soon massacre all the children born at that time, out of fear that what the Wisemen from the East had told Herod would come true.  

Fast forward to Bethlehem today, a town that is normally bustling with Christian pilgrims from across the world at Christmas.  As usual, the massive Christmas tree has been erected and lit on Bethlehem’s Manger Square, but the crowds are not there as in previous years because of the unrest in Israel-Palestine.  There are fewer pilgrims from elsewhere and fewer Palestinian Christians born and bred in Bethlehem.  Many have left to escape the military occupation and others cannot get to Bethlehem because of all the check points.  If Jesus was meant to be born in Bethlehem today, Mary and Joseph would have been turned back by soldiers long before they got there. 

Bethlehem is no longer that little town in the Christmas carol that lies still in "deep and dreamless sleep" as the silent stars go by. But the final lines of the carol remain true: "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."  I am not sure what Philip Brooks had in mind when he penned those words, but it is undoubtedly so that the birth of Jesus brought fear to Herod and others in the hierarchy of power just as his coming brought hope to all who were looking to God for deliverance.  Sadly after two-thousand years fear and hope continue to confront each other in Bethlehem as they do across the globe -- the fear of those who refuse to heed the cry for justice and peace, and the hope of those who bear witness to the Prince of Peace.  But sadly, even many Christians are losing hope. 

Father Jamal Khader of the Latin Patriarchy, which traditionally leads Bethlehem’s Christmas celebrations, wrote on-line this week. “We cannot forget what is going on, that there are people suffering. People are losing hope in a future of peace.”  Those words have seared my soul since I read them. "Losing hope in a future of peace."  Does this mean that fear for the future is winning the struggle against hope?  Even though we live in relative peace, there are many of us who also fear for the future having lost hope in a future of peace.   And yet, is it not true that Jesus was born at a time when fear was rampant and hope a rare commodity?   It was in the midst of an oppressive occupation that the angels sang their protest song "Peace on earth, goodwill to all."   It is, in fact, precisely because the world is in the mess it is, that the message of Christmas is so important.  

To celebrate Christmas today as yesterday is an act of protest, an act of defiance against all the powers that are threatening our future, and that of our children and grandchildren.  That is why Christians in Bethlehem have again raised a huge Christmas tree in testimony to the Prince of Peace, a sign of hope in a fearful world.  Think of it.  Every Christmas tree that we erect in our homes or churches or civic spaces is, rightly understood, an act of protest:  of faith against despair, of love against hatred, of hope against hopelessness.  That is what the celebration of Christmas is all about.

This too, is why, during Advent as we journey towards Christmas, our celebration of the Eucharist concludes with the shout "Maranatha!"  a word with which the New Testament ends.  It means "Come quickly, Lord!"  At a time of intense persecution and suffering, the early Christians were expressing their hope that a new day would dawn, a day of justice and peace.  They looked forward in anticipation to the time when the peace of Christ would reign, when fear would cease and their hopes be realised.  Maranatha was a cry of defiance, a protest action. Such "hope against hope" remains at the core Christian faith, it is  the hope that tyrants will be overcome and violence cease,  a hope that keeps us from despair, a hope that empowers us to act for justice.  For to lose hope and stop working for peace and justice is to surrender to evil, to allow ugliness to conquer beauty, and hatred trump love.  It is to give the king Herods of this world the victory.  It is to stop celebrating Christmas.

 So we continue on our journey to Bethlehem in solidarity with all the Christians gathered there even if we can't be there physically. We stand with them in Manager Square before the Christmas Tree, we enter the Church of the Nativity and visit the place where Jesus was born. And we do so because we refuse to stop believing in Jesus who came to bring a just peace to the world, a peace that the world cannot give us.  In the darkest of times we shout "Maranatha" in protest against everything that stands against the coming of the Prince of Peace.

I conclude with another Advent sonnet written by Isobel:

                He first came as a vulnerable babe,

                Rejected then for how he claimed God’s word,

                They killed him but he rose up from the grave.

                He comes a second time to each one’s heart –

                Who opens it, the Lord comes in to stay

                To cleanse and make it new in every part.

                But we await that great and glorious day –

                He’ll come in power to renew the earth,

                Yet in our waiting do we just okay

                The status quo or do we help to birth

                The new in everything we do or say?

                 God knows our world is full of pain, of need:

                Come, Lord, bring peace and justice now indeed.

John de Gruchy

Volmoed 10 December 2015