Lenten Meditations - #14
I have been exploring various resources to guide me in my mediations during Lent. Many begin with suggestions of scripture passages from the New Testament. Today New Testament Gospel suggestion is Matthew 20;20-23. In these brief passages the mother of Zebedee asks Jesus if one of her sons can “sit at his right and the other at your left in your kingdom”. Jesus than ask the mother is she can drink from his cup. She replies yes. Then Jesus tells her that she will drink from his cup but that his father will assign the place settings.
Many of us can identify with the desire to protect our children and the attempt to make sure that they are surrounded by people who will not only love and care for them, but treat them as special. Who can fault a parent who as these desires? Of course, the problem is twofold:
Nothing is more heart breaking than for a parent to bear witness to the physical or emotional death of their children. When parents find out that that their children not only are not sitting on the left or right of the most important person at the table, they may become angry and judgmental of other parent’s who have seemingly bought their own children a place at the table.
We humans often make decisions about the place settings at the community table based on labels others have assigned to individuals - even our children. Felon, criminal, addict, mentally ill, developmentally disabled, crook, liberal, conservative, sexual offender, fat, female, member of the LGBT community, immigrant, non-white/Caucasian, pedophile (often used incorrectly), homeless, smelly, belonging to a particular religion and many others. All these labels which disqualifies one from a seat at the table.
The implication is that “those people” or “that individual with that label” is not like my son or daughter. Even if our child has been assigned that label we parent often defend their integrity and shout out how he or she is not like the others with that label.
In this season of Lent those of us who use the framework of the Christian religion are often caught in the tension between the confronting illusion of the use of the labels for the children of others and the challenge of knowing the no one fits the labels – positive or negative. We are all more than and less than the labels. We are all the mirrors for others and others are the mirrors for us.
We hide behind the wall of self-righteousness and call for transparency from the Church or other public figures so that we do not have to face the fear that tomorrow our sins of commission and omission will be revealed. We cry for justice hoping that our secrets will not be made public before we are given our place at the table. We say we just want justice and a safer community for our children when, in fact, we want the illusion of safety by protecting our children from “those sinners” – those criminals. We pray for healing and redemption while doing all we can to ensure that the officially labeled ones are permanently excluded from the table. We know that the leopards cannot change their spots unless we are the parent of the leopard.
Once again, in this season of lent we are faced with the challenge of acceptance of our own humanness which will demand forgiveness or damnation for all. We pray for our own redemption and promise to love our enemy and treat others as we want to be treated except for those others.
Who will we invite to sit at the table? Who will accept the invitation to sit at the table knowing many will be excluded?
Written March 20, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
I have been exploring various resources to guide me in my mediations during Lent. Many begin with suggestions of scripture passages from the New Testament. Today New Testament Gospel suggestion is Matthew 20;20-23. In these brief passages the mother of Zebedee asks Jesus if one of her sons can “sit at his right and the other at your left in your kingdom”. Jesus than ask the mother is she can drink from his cup. She replies yes. Then Jesus tells her that she will drink from his cup but that his father will assign the place settings.
Many of us can identify with the desire to protect our children and the attempt to make sure that they are surrounded by people who will not only love and care for them, but treat them as special. Who can fault a parent who as these desires? Of course, the problem is twofold:
- It is not our job to direct the life of our adult children. In fact, we have a lot less control over our young children then we would like.
- Every person is somebody’s child. All parents who have been blessed with a modicum of health want to know that their children will be loved and honored long after they, the parents, are dead.
Nothing is more heart breaking than for a parent to bear witness to the physical or emotional death of their children. When parents find out that that their children not only are not sitting on the left or right of the most important person at the table, they may become angry and judgmental of other parent’s who have seemingly bought their own children a place at the table.
We humans often make decisions about the place settings at the community table based on labels others have assigned to individuals - even our children. Felon, criminal, addict, mentally ill, developmentally disabled, crook, liberal, conservative, sexual offender, fat, female, member of the LGBT community, immigrant, non-white/Caucasian, pedophile (often used incorrectly), homeless, smelly, belonging to a particular religion and many others. All these labels which disqualifies one from a seat at the table.
The implication is that “those people” or “that individual with that label” is not like my son or daughter. Even if our child has been assigned that label we parent often defend their integrity and shout out how he or she is not like the others with that label.
In this season of Lent those of us who use the framework of the Christian religion are often caught in the tension between the confronting illusion of the use of the labels for the children of others and the challenge of knowing the no one fits the labels – positive or negative. We are all more than and less than the labels. We are all the mirrors for others and others are the mirrors for us.
We hide behind the wall of self-righteousness and call for transparency from the Church or other public figures so that we do not have to face the fear that tomorrow our sins of commission and omission will be revealed. We cry for justice hoping that our secrets will not be made public before we are given our place at the table. We say we just want justice and a safer community for our children when, in fact, we want the illusion of safety by protecting our children from “those sinners” – those criminals. We pray for healing and redemption while doing all we can to ensure that the officially labeled ones are permanently excluded from the table. We know that the leopards cannot change their spots unless we are the parent of the leopard.
Once again, in this season of lent we are faced with the challenge of acceptance of our own humanness which will demand forgiveness or damnation for all. We pray for our own redemption and promise to love our enemy and treat others as we want to be treated except for those others.
Who will we invite to sit at the table? Who will accept the invitation to sit at the table knowing many will be excluded?
Written March 20, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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