Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2021: A Christian Reflection
Monday is the observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In Puerto Rico, the day was officially dubbed “Discovery Day” in observance of Columbus’ purported discovery of the island known to the natives as Guanahaní, in the Bahamas. The four voyages Columbus led on behalf of Queen Isabel of León and Castille, and his engagement with natives in the Antilles, the northern coast of South America, and the Caribbean coast of Central America were the beginning of the sorrows brought by Spanish and Portuguese conquerors to Central, South and Western North America, and the Antilles, and by Dutch, English and French conquerors to the rest of North America. There was nothing good about what Columbus did, nor of what followed, for the native inhabitants of these lands nor to the created order.
“Letting go of the evils of colonialism and white supremacy is paramount. But to let go, to be faithful witnesses of the transforming power of Jesus, one must come face to face with the consequences of the evil of the history that brought us here.”
What makes this history even more heinous is the expressed theological sanctioning of Christian leadership and theology of the brutal conquest of the people of these continents by Europeans. Sanctioning this includes our own Presbyterian tradition. Our Church’s entanglement with that history and the entanglement of every branch of Western Christianity in the colonization and settlement of these continents continued with sanctioning and participating in the traffic of enslaved Africans, the displacement of Native Americans and the establishment of Indian Residential Schools, the marginalization of non-White immigrant persons, and the imperial expansion of the United States to the west and abroad – including the invasion and occupation of my home country. All these have and continue to perpetrate violence against people and the environment.
It is puzzling to me that there is a holiday celebrating the brutally violent and genocidal endeavor of Christopher Columbus and of Western Europeans. Columbus’ ambition for power and recognition at any cost, and Western European thirst for non-Christian (and often non-White) blood and money is the foundation of what many of us experience as the abuses and violence of capitalism and poverty, racism and xenophobia, militarism and imperialism, and the continuous propping up of white supremacy. That is what the holiday observed tomorrow reminds us – the social, philosophical, and ethical foundation of the United States as a political project.
What was not considered, perhaps, by the past and present ideological leaders of white supremacy, was that the violent evangelization of the Americas brought together the marginalized of the world. Colonization and imperialism became for those who are marginalized a shared experience that often provides a fertile opportunity for organizing around solidarity, the pursuit of justice, and the deconstruction of oppressive structures. This is still true today in the way social activists and justice seekers organize, support, and encourage the struggles for justice and freedom.
Remembering history and engaging in a careful and intentional evaluation is essential in order to heal, deconstruct, repair relationships, and build something that is closer to what humanity truly needs. This intentional engagement with history is essential because the visceral reaction to this kind of retelling of history by many who profess Western European Christian traditions is so because they have been taught that there is value in the stories and abilities to conquer, subdue, marginalize and disenfranchise. Many will say they do not do this intentionally. And I believe it. However, seeking to remain neutral or not seeking to learn the nuances of history is to allow space for white supremacy violence to go unchecked.
If one is to follow Jesus in making right, one will also need to participate in undoing the wrong. To undo the wrong, we must be aware of the whole breadth of violence and pain caused by the values we hold. Letting go of the evils of colonialism and white supremacy is paramount. But to let go, to be faithful witnesses of the transforming power of Jesus, one must come face to face with the consequences of the evil of the history that brought us here.
“The prophesied name of the Messiah, Emmanuel, does not mean God for us. It means God WITH us.... As the body of Christ, the Church is called to be with and alongside the world, in solidarious and committed dedication.”
The Gospel of Mark 10.17-22 places the reader among Jesus and his disciples on their way out of a town in Judea, by the Jordan River, on his way to Jerusalem. I appreciate being set in a moment that has movement. A man, described as young and rich, runs up to Jesus, kneels before him, and starts a conversation. The question is about salvation, and about the transactions needed to attain it. Jesus responds with a Scriptural test of his righteous social behavior and follows up with an invitation. Mark describes the response quite vividly. The man’s countenance was somber and gloomy, he was sad and shocked. The invitation to follow Jesus required him to be fully free to be with and alongside Jesus. Mark says the man had many possessions.
Salvation cannot be attained by anything we can do, subscribe to, procure or afford in any way. That is at the core of Jesus’ invitation to this young man, and to his response. Jesus’ invitation was not a prescription. Jesus invited the man, his disciples, and invites his Presbyterian followers in Scotia to a life of relationship. If for his sake and for the sake of the good news we were to have to leave beloved ones, beloved things, and beloved ideas, Jesus says we would gain them more times over – together with annoyance and aggravation. In order to be able to truly live into that relationship Jesus does not give a prescription. If the young man or anyone of us were to take Jesus’ words as a prescription and were to have done in such a way, we would have done a good thing, and still have fallen short.
The question to Jesus was about salvation. A life of righteousness is tested through our best collective (and I emphasize collective) ability to interpret Scripture and tradition (and for us Presbyterians the latter is primarily through our Book of Confessions). But righteousness is no proof for salvation. Any person who pursues a life of good will ought to seek a life of righteousness. Our religious tradition teaches that salvation is not the church’s to define, control or dispense. Salvation is solely God’s to give. So, Jesus did not give a prescription to the young man about how to attain salvation. Jesus only gave him a description of what was needed to be in full and free relationship with God and with neighbor. Relationship with God and neighbor cannot be prescribed. God calls you and I, in the same way he called that young man, into a full, free and unencumbered relationship that can model in daily living what love, peace, grace, faith and justice looks like. Salvation is not about you. Salvation is not about me. Salvation, according to the life and teachings of Jesus is about the ability to be fully, intentionally, sacrificially “us” with the world. And the reason why for many of us this is easier said than done is that we have lived in a culture that places me first, foremost, and at any cost. That social and political paradigm is antithetical to the way of Jesus. Will we respond to the invitation to follow Jesus, and leave it all behind?
This unencumbered relationship with the world we are being invited into has nothing to do with what we can afford to purchase or hire. It has nothing to do with what we think we could or should do for the marginalized and disenfranchised. It has everything to do with what we are called to be – in soul, life, and heart – with the world. God did not send his child, Jesus, to do something for the world. The life, words, and deeds of Jesus, including his death on the cross, were a demonstration of God’s intention to figure out with and among us what the best way to live in solidarity is. The prophesied name of the Messiah, Emmanuel, does not mean God for us. It means God WITH us. As the body of Christ, the Church is not called to be for the world, or to do things to the world. As the body of Christ, the Church is called to be with and alongside the world, in solidarious and committed dedication.
It is interesting to note that Mark did not reveal what was of the young man who asked the question. I wonder if there was a rhetorical and theological intent in the open-endedness of this encounter. The good news for us today is, precisely, that open-endedness. Today we are given an invitation and an opportunity to let go of the things we were taught are core to our identity and the things we think of doing because we are good people. Today we have an opportunity and an invitation to embrace what deepening our relationship with everyone who calls Schenectady County home is – a relationship predicated on everyone sharing the image of God, a relationship requiring that we let go of what we think we can do or believe to be good. We are invited to live in kindness – both giving goodness, and tunning ourselves to the goodness others offer – simply because it is the best witness to the power of the relationship that God is pursuing with the world. An unencumbered relationship among all people for everyone deserves to live fully and free.
May we let go and be free to fully be what God wants us to be as the living body of Christ with the world.
Amen.
banner photo: Tandem X Visuals, Regina, SK, Canada, 2021