Wednesday, December 01, 2021

This Land is NOT "our" Land

Offered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church St Louis on the 25th Sunday after Pentecost November 14, 2021                                                                                                          

In 1990 President George H. W. Bush declared November as Native American Heritage Month. Just like Women’s History, Black History, Pride, and many more, these designations are meant to bring attention to those groups of people who have suffered from indignities and prejudices. It is to offer us a new perspective. So it is today an opportunity to see from a different view.

The way Indigenous people have been and are treated is the first of many United States of America horror stories that show how race determines who is considered less human and therefore expendable. The transgressions against the native people who first lived with the lands and the settlers who took the land is just beginning to be truthfully explored.

Richard Rohr's Meditation “Living with the Land” speaks to the differences in how the Settlers and the Indigenous people saw the land. I am paraphrasing some of his words today.

Most Christians in the Western World have been shaped by a culture and faith that tells us that land acquisition is a normal thing regardless of the cost to others, ourselves, or to the land itself. God made humans stewards of creation therefore it is ours to use. Rohr writes “… our lack of attention to the Christ Mystery can be seen in the way we continue to pollute and ravage Planet Earth, the very thing we all stand on and live from.” Our relationship with the land is in direct correlation to our lack of respect for one other.

Theologian, scholar, and Cherokee descendant Randy Woodley points out that the land itself meant something quite different to those who settled it than it did to those who first lived here. The failure of the settlers to tread lightly, with humility and respect, for the land was the problem. The settlers lived on the land, taking what they wanted when they wanted it regardless of what might be needed in the future. The native people lived with the land, always respecting the natural balance, never taking more than was necessary. It was a sacred understanding.

This is important because this land we are on – actually, not only the land that Saint Louis is on but the broad expanse of land from the Ohio River Valley west to the Red River – is the ancestral lands of the Osage Nation. The Osage history is important to the history of Missouri.

In a 2014 PBS special, Osage Elder Eddy Red Eagle Jr., Drum Keeper and Osage history, cultural, and spirituality expert talked about when the French and French-Canadians arrived in this area of Saint Louis. They “had very little money but they had intelligence, and a strong family life, communal life.” This meant a good deal to the Osage because they had common intentions. Not only did they trade together, but old Cathedral records show that there was intermarriage and that leaders of both groups supported their mutual grandchildren. They were community.

The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 changed everything.

As we all know, the US government regarded Native Americans as “savages”, fully expendable, and moved them from their ancestral homelands whenever more land was wanted. In addition to the forced migration, epidemics of European illnesses ravaged Native American populations. In 1808, to maintain peace and care for their people, Osage leaders handed over their Missouri lands and hunting grounds to the U.S. government at the Fort Osage Treaty.

A little bit of history: We all know of Cahokia Mounds in Illinois. Yet, did you know that the area of St Louis was home to at least 25 mounds, 14 of which were in the area we know as the Great Basin?

The purpose of these mounds is varied yet all were considered sacred. Many tribes consider the mounds as symbols of Mother Earth, the giver of life, the womb from which humanity emerged and was formed.

A November 8 article in the St Louis Post Dispatch gives a history of the mounds. There were 25 mounds from Biddle Street to Mound Street east of Broadway and north of today’s Laclede Landing. Big Mound was the largest. It was north of downtown on the rise overlooking the Mississippi River. It was 319 feet long, 158 feet wide, and 34 feet high.

Although archaeologists determined that these mounds were built between 1000 and 1450 AD, between 1830 and 1869, all those north of downtown were removed. Any evidence of previous lives inside of the mounds were unceremoniously discarded. A quote as Big Mound was being destroyed: “Men are digging on every side. And what should have been purchased by the city and preserved inviolate will soon be known only in location tradition.” While there were some objectors, they were overwhelmed by what the St Louis Dispatch called “the grasping money-making spirit of our age.”

Sugar Loaf Mound, which stands at 4420 Ohio Avenue less than two miles from St. Paul’s, is the last sacred mound. The Osage Nation was able to purchase the top half of the mound a few years ago. The bottom portion of the mound is owned by someone who is still living in the home that sits at the base of the mound.

Due to misinformation, false histories, and glorified tales meant to embellish the idea of Americana, we are woefully ignorant of what has been. Were it not for the recent discovery of unmarked graves of native children in Catholic and Anglican Indian Boarding Schools in Canada, the traumas endured by indigenous people of North America might remain unknown. Presiding Bishop Curry and House of Deputies President Jennings have called for a full understanding of what happened in the Episcopal Indian Boarding Schools. There remains much to be learned both in Canada and those US schools.

The discovery and opening of the graves in Canada are ongoing tragedies, a catastrophic loss of a generation of children who were removed from their families, mistreated by the Church, traumatized and abused by those who were in charge, and then, too many, dying and hidden in unmarked graves. Those families who lost these children or those who survived the trauma of the schools and deculturation of indigenous traits continue to feel the pain today.

Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania opened in 1879 as the first government run boarding school for Native American children. They had a motto – Kill the Indian Save the Man; meaning, strip the native children from their culture and language, replace it with “Christian” values and they stood a possible chance of become good American citizens.

The values that the Catholic, Anglican, and Episcopal schools were attempting to erase from the Indigenous children are those same values that will save this creation – living with the land in respect, humility and using only what is necessary, understanding that all of these speak to the sacred nature of God’s Creation.

How do we begin to talk about reparations for these sins?

Stolen lands and children, genocide, desecrated graves, ancestral bones placed in museums, sacred lands turned into golf courses and pathways for oil and gas pipelines, water poisoned, mounds destroyed — these are just some of the sins committed, not only by the settlers of North America but continuing today.

These sins belong to each one of us, just as the sins against those African peoples who were stolen from their countries and enslaved for labor and used as a resource for future labor. It does not matter that none of us here today were there. We would love to tell ourselves that we would be different, do differently. Yet, today, in this world where we decry such sins, how do we contribute to the existing empire and that dominate culture that makes poverty a crime and rewards the richest?

At all Diocesan events, it is now proclaimed:

“We respectfully recognize and acknowledge that we are on traditional, ancestral lands of the Osage Nation. The process of acknowledging the land we stand on is a way of accepting our complicity in a process of colonization that removed the Osage people from their ancestral lands. We also make this acknowledgment to affirm our commitment to stand with indigenous communities today as they seek justice and resist continued threats to their sovereignty and humanity.”

This is an important statement because first and foremost, statements such as this were requested by Native American tribes as an acknowledgment of stolen lands. Secondly, this diocesan statement goes beyond acknowledgement and calls for more action.

I recently read John Philip Newell’s book Sacred Earth Sacred Soul and it lays out so clearly so many instances when the Church has contributed to the empire.

Nadia Bolz-Weber said, “People don’t leave Christianity because they stop believing in the teachings of Jesus … [they] leave … because they believe in the teachings of Jesus so much, they can’t stomach being part of an institution that claims to be about that and clearly isn’t.”

The idea that one race of people could envision themselves as being chosen by God to expand across North America, converting or killing anyone who stood in the way is an extreme example of egoism – their self-interest was the foundation of their morality. That is a flawed ideology that continues today.

We cannot talk about the sins against humanity without understanding the scope of the damage to not just those who were first on this land 400 plus years ago but those who exist in our nation and throughout the world today whose lives are being destroyed by human caused climate disaster

And

not just those who were kidnapped and sold into slavery but those who continue to suffer from environmental racism here in this city, state, and nation.

These sins continue. And we cannot talk about the sins of humanity without trying to understand what this means to this creation – Creation meaning the WHOLE of us – ALL things that God created.

This is a much bigger conversation than can be had in this short space. Yet it must happen.

Jesus said, “This is but the beginnings of the birth pangs”. — What new thing will come from truth?

Truths:

1.) Our differences do not make us less than; rather, it enhances the indescribability of God’s diverse creation. Can we imagine only one type of bird? Only one type of tree?

2.) It doesn’t matter how much the stories of the wounded hurt us; we must hear these stories.

We are at a time in our lives where it feels that we are awaiting the Great Apocalypse. Some interpretations of the Revelation and by Hollywood tell us that an apocalypse means the end of time is near and it is the final destruction, a catastrophic event. Yet, theologically, in Greek, apocalypse means to uncover, disclose, reveal. What does our past reveal to us? What is being uncovered? What truth is there to learn?

That is what Jesus is doing today in Mark’s Gospel.

Jesus is unveiling a truth — once again he is telling us to pay attention. Do not be led astray by false prophets or fake news. None of it is important. Remember what we already know. Don’t worry about when all the great buildings will be thrown down or of earthquakes. God is making everything new, offering us new chances to be part of the renewal of all things. God did not make this mess we are now in but there is hope because we know God is always with us.

And what do we know about these sins of humanity against humanity? We know that loving God and loving our neighbor is not a rote saying. It is a life-line, a way of living. This is what First Nations people understand so clearly. It means respecting one another and all aspects of creation. It means that we take care of one another, not in spite of our differences but because of these. Diversity is a rule of creation. We need diversity. Living for one another is a rule of nature.

There must be acknowledgement and confession that a sin against one part of humanity happened because of another part. There must be conversation about reparation – WITH the people whose truths we need to hear. And it is only then that there can be reconciliation. And yes. There will be birthpangs yet what do we anticipate when a mother and child are feeling the pains of birth? We anticipate new life! God is still making all things new, just as in the beginning, is now and always will be. We are a part of that new thing – all of us.

Stay alert. Remember what we already know. Let go of false prophets and flawed ideologies. This is not about self – one very small part. It is about the whole of us – all that God created.

Live in the hope that God offers us in the making of all things new.

Amen.



https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/American_Indian_Heritage_Month.htm#:~:text=In%201990%20Congress%20passed%20and,as%20Native%20American%20Indian%20Month).

https://cac.org/living-with-the-land-2021-10-20/

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/arts/2014-03-31/osage-nation-leaders-help-explain-st-louis-earliest-days

https://carlisleindianschoolproject.com/#:~:text=Carlisle%20Indian%20Industrial%20School%20in,Indian%2C%20Save%20the%20Man.%E2%80%9D

https://theblackwallsttimes.com/2020/09/15/the-black-church-a-day-late-and-a-dollar-short/

Monday, September 27, 2021

Opportunities

 I woke up with the song "Humble Thyself in the Sight of the Lord" in my heart and on my lips. 

I am amazed at how often I am offered the opportunity to humble myself after the oh, so many mistakes I make. 

Here is the song, just in case you might need it. 




18th Sunday After Pentecost Year B September 26, 2021 Offered to St. Paul’s Carondelet

 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

 

Joshua to Moses: Stop them! They are doing our job!

Moses to Joshua: Are you jealous for my sake? If only all God’s people were prophets and God’s spirit would come upon them!

John to Jesus: Stop them! They are doing our job!

Jesus to John: Don’t worry about it! No one who does a deed of power in my name can speak evil of me.

Do not be distracted.

Do not be a distraction.

Our egos cause us to think we must have an answer. And then, when we believe we have the right answer, we believe it is THE answer. If we have THE answer, then all answers that differ with us must be wrong. Right?

One important lesson I have learned is that I do not know the answer. In truth, I do not need to know the answer. Most times, we are not even asking the right question.

If we set aside our yearning to know and our desire to control any situation, the Holy Spirit has room to move about without knocking our world asunder. Because you know she will keep on until we finally understand.

When we let go of that desire to control/know, we stop being that stumbling block, for ourselves and for others.

Do not be distracted. Do not be a distraction.

Some may ask the question ‘Why did Eldad and Medad stay in the camp? Maybe when Moses called 70 elders, these two were left over. Maybe they weren’t elders. Maybe they were afraid they didn’t have the gift of prophesy. Who knows? It doesn’t matter why they stayed, only that they did. It matters that the spirit rested upon them, and when it did, they prophesied right where they were. And they kept on doing so even as the 70 who were called did once but not again.

Joshua is distracted by his desire to be in control. He becomes the distraction when he tries to stop Eldad and Medad as they are inspired by the spirit to prophesy. Meanwhile, they were not distracted, and ready or not, they willingly did as the Spirit led them.

John has the same problem in the Gospel. He gets distracted by his ego. He becomes the distraction when he tries to stop someone who, he believes, has the audacity to cast out demons in the name of Jesus yet does not follow Jesus and the disciples.

In the verse before this one, several of the disciples are arguing about who amongst them is the greatest. Jesus quickly puts a stop to that by reminding them that “whoever wants to be first must be last and servant of all.” He tells them that “whoever welcomes one little child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

Jesus tells them Do not be a distraction. Pay attention.

If anyone puts a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in him, it would be better for those if a great millstone were hung around their neck, and they were thrown into the sea. His warnings get even more dire.

Yet it isn’t about self-mutilation by cutting off offending body parts or plucking out eyes because we do something wrong; … it is about letting go of those things that distract us from following Jesus fully.

How often are we distracted? So many ways and so many opportunities. Life is a distraction. This world is a huge distraction. News reports demand that we shatter our focus and pay attention to all that is wrong with this world. I often hear the quote by the ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu who said to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. When we buy into that, we become the distraction. When we follow this, we are ready to fight. The quote tells us to pay attention to our enemies. Jesus says pay attention to Jesus.

And what does Jesus say about our enemies? Love your neighbor, regardless of friend or foe. The authors of Matthew and Luke tell us that Jesus says to love your enemies, do good to them, and pray for those who do you wrong. Nothing about trying to control them or stop them or fight them.

Following Jesus is difficult, and Jesus knows that. It requires a great deal of intention and sacrifice. Jesus is warning the disciples and us that there is trouble ahead if we do not understand. He tells us that our culture will distract us from following his way of peace and love. Theologian Walter Brueggemann has said it often and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said it recently, we must stop colluding with the Empire. Curry said that the church cannot be formed in the way of the world but must be formed in the way of Jesus and his love.

Something important is happening, both with the Israelites and with the Disciples. Moses and Jesus are preparing them for something new.

Salt is used to purify just as is fire. Jesus tells his disciples that they are called to be the salt of the earth yet, remember, even salt can lose its flavor if there are impurities mixed with it. If they are to follow Jesus and his way of peace, they must know the peace is within themselves. To be distracted by the ways of others or of the Empire is to lose sight of what is most important – Understanding that way of peace and love IS the way of Jesus.

The Rev. Suzanne Guthrie, noted author and spiritual guide, in her Edge of Enclosure blog writes, “There's no room for ego-inflation on the mystical journey.” And surely, we are all are on a mystical journey. Why else would we be here? We are searching for a better way, a higher power, that peace which passes all understanding.

We cannot allow our egos, our need to control, or that lost feeling of trying to “FIX” things, to distract us. We do not need to know the question or the answer. We have only to know that Jesus is love. In love, there is no war or hate, jealousy or greed. We need to know that the Spirit is ready and so should we be.

Moses and Jesus both knew what Joshua and John did not yet know or had forgotten – That the spirit of God cannot be controlled. It is always there regardless of what stumbling blocks distract us. Or what stumbling block we happen to be. What we need is to be in the right place and ready.

And pay attention.

Something really important is going on. We have everything we need. Do not be distracted.

Monday, September 13, 2021

Be Open

Be Open. Jesus told the deaf man to be opened.

In 2007, Debbie and I sold or gave away most of what we owned. We stuffed the remainder in a storage unit, the little we could into a 27 ft. old motorhome, grabbed up the two dogs and the boy and set out.  We were following what we perceived to be a call to go out and speak to those who wanted to know why 2 moms and a boy would stay in the Episcopal Church with so much disharmony happening.

We began a cross country pilgrimage, speaking at those places we were invited. Yet, our friend Pepper Marts (may God bless him forever and always) told us that we were not on a pilgrimage because we did not know where we were going. Rather, we were on a peregrination, a search for new understanding and a radical new beginning.

Although that journey ended with us settling in Saint Louis (a very radical new beginning for this country girl), now after Tucker’s death, I find myself nurturing another new thing, a small ember that feels like a pregnant expectation. I have not yet felt the heartbeat but I do feel the flutter. Something new is growing.

What new understanding and radical new beginning is happening?

In John Philip Newell’s Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, he writes about the Celtic poet Kenneth White. He states that a pilgrimage becomes peregrination when the destination is unknown. It is a journey of “seeking one’s place of resurrection, setting sail into the unknown in search of new beginnings.” White writes about Brendan the Navigator of Clonfert (6th CE Celtic Monk and Irish Saint) who did just that:

“When the boat was ready, firm and true
he gathered men about him saying:
“this will be no pleasure cruise
rather the wildest of wild goose chases
around the rim of the world and farther
a peregrination in the name of God …”
(pg 241)

It is a sacred journey.

Be open.


Friday, June 25, 2021

empathy or equity? Both.

Over the past year or so, I have learned more about empathy, what it means to be an empath, and how that all fits in with the ministry I do.

I have also learned that while I am very empathetic to the emotional and physical troubles of other people, and while I have many empath tendencies, more than empathy, I understand that everyone walks a path, and each path is full of obstacles that only that person will understand. My job is not to “walk a mile in their shoes” nor is it to feel empathy for their troubles. My job is to understand that while everyone has obstacles to overcome, some obstacles are set in place by our culture, our society, our racist, self-concerned elected officials, all of which makes the obstacles of some far greater than the obstacles of others. My job is to walk with them as I can as they come to these obstacles. It doesn't hurt to empathize; in fact, it is good. Yet empathy by itself does little. It is like faith without works. 

As an example: a loved one has an accident or illness and ends up in the hospital. After a long while, many expensive different tests and procedures, that loved one dies or is severely disabled. This happens to many people and is very relatable. We can all truthfully state how sorry we are for this happening.

However, depending upon where one lives, grief can be compounded by extreme debt which can result in any number of calamities. As an example, when the loved one is in the hospital, the employment status of the parent/spouse/partner can be in danger as that caregiver is by the side of the patient. If there is family or compassionate leave in one’s employment package, all is well. However, if one holds a job with no such thing, that person may find themselves without employment on top of the other concerns.

Those miracle tests and procedures that often save lives but sometimes cannot in the long run are expensive and may become the mountain that comes tumbling down. This is the difference between states that have Expanded Medicaid and those states which carelessly, selfishly, even sadistically do not.

Those medical bills and the loss of job due to family crisis can result in homelessness and full disruption of family life. Suddenly, families – minus one loved one, or with a medically compromised life – are not only mired in grief but also impossible debt, jobless, evicted, hopeless, homeless.

Only a part of this happened to my family. Two months of extremely expensive medical care would have been far different had our precious boy lived in Missouri rather than Oregon. Oregon has expanded Medicare. The governor of Missouri, kowtowing to the ignorance and self-concern of lobbyists and conservative politicians, deemed it prudent for his political life to ignore the demands of Missouri voters and deny the voice of the people to enact expanded Medicaid in this state. Had our loved one lived in Missouri, he would have first had to be approved for disability before he would become eligible for Medicaid. Even though he lay basically comatose for two months, who knows how long it would have taken to get him declared disabled? All this means is that his medical bills would have begun to pile, higher, and deeper.  

Another important part that makes our situation different from those of too many is that our jobs are stable and while there was not an official compassionate leave aspect, the employers we work for are indeed compassionate. Our income continued even as we were debilitated with concern and grief. Our home and our dogs welcomed us as we returned. No bills went unpaid. Only the mountain of grief towers over us. From that, even if it threatens to crush us on some days, we will arise.

What has this to do with empathy? While the reader may be able (or not) to fully empathize with this situation, one does not have to have a heart moment to see the differences that exist for too many. How many families in Saint Louis City alone have lost all they have – ON TOP OF THE GRIEF – because the system proves daily that it does not care about them? This is not a matter of heart, of empathy. This is not an urban vs rural thing, conservative vs liberal. It happens to people across the geographical and political spectrum.

Grief is difficult enough to experience. No one should have to be concerned about healthcare, job security, or unpaid bills on top of grief. Our political system is corrupt and immoral. We have the power to change that. It is our job to make certain it happens. 


Normal does not mean OK

  I often wonder how I live such a normal life. I know they say that “normal” is only a setting on the dryer, but you know what I mean. I ha...