I’ll talk about today’s gospel in a moment, but first a pop quiz about the world we live in.
Question 1: Which country in the world has the largest percentage of its population behind bars?
The US. With 2.3 million prisoners, the US has more people in prison than China, which has a population four times the size of the US.Our incarceration rate is six to ten times greater than that of the other industrialized nations--and this is despite the fact that the crime rate in the US has dipped below the international norm.Clearly, since crime has been going down over the last few decades, this rising mass incarceration is not about stopping crime or reducing the crime rate. Something else must be going on here.
Question 2: Among racial groups in the US, which group is most likely to commit drug crimes?
Whites, especially white youth.Yet in some states, black men have been incarcerated for drug charges at rates twenty to fifty times greater than those of white men. When they come out of prison, they are often unable to find work, either because of discriminatory laws or because of the stigma of having been in prison.
Here’s how a Latino high school kid in our neighborhood explained it to me. If a white kid is found carrying a small amount of marijuana, the police drive him home, talk to his parents, the parents ground the kid for a few weeks, and that is the end of it. But if a Latino kid in the Mission is found with the same amount of marijuana, he has his head slammed against a wall. Next thing, he’s kneeling on the sidewalk, his hands cuffed behind his back, waiting to be taken to the police station.
As the recent events in Ferguson have brought into bold relief, the practices of law enforcement are often racially charged.
Bonus question: In the City of Oakland, what is the most frequently shoplifted item?
One study lists it as baby diapers. Many poor women of color have had no other way to get the things they need for their children. Many of these women, after being charged with shoplifting, have then been been torn from their children and sent to prison. For stealing diapers for their kids.
This is our context. We are living in an era that some have called the new Jim Crow, the days of racial segregation.
And our context resembles in many ways the context of Jesus where the victims of imprisonment and crucifixion by the Romans were nearly always the social outcasts and members of the lowest classes. These were often the same ones rejected by the religious authorities as unclean, as sinners.
It was with these outcasts that Jesus threw in his lot, hanging out with them, even eating and drinking with them. This triggered opposition, it outraged the religious and political authorities. Because Jesus so freely hung out with the outcasts of his day, many wanted to see him put to death.
In today’s gospel, Jesus ups the game. “I must go up to Jerusalem,” he tells the disciples. This is an imperative for him, and it is not trivial.
Jerusalem is where the temple is; it is the very center of both religious and political authority for the Jews. It is the abuse of that very authority that Jesus has challenged in word and deed throughout his ministry. “Hypocrites,” he calls the religious leaders. “Whited sepulchres, you lay heavy burdens on peoples shoulders but will not move a finger to lift them.”
Jesus knows his words and actions have provoked opposition.
Jesus can do the math here. And in today’s gospel he knows that if he goes to Jerusalem, he will be tortured and killed. Heavy stuff. Nevertheless: “I must go to Jerusalem,” Jesus tells his disciples. This is, for him, an imperative.
A story. You may have heard the story about the beautiful village alongside a river. It was lovely and peaceful, with lovely homes and beautiful little parks and plazas. Great place to raise a family. And one day, something horrible began to happen. When they looked out over the river they saw human bodies floating down. Some of them were half alive.
They brought them ashore and began nurturing them back to life. Others were already dead. They gave them a respectful burial. The next day, the same thing happened, more bodies. They began caring for those still alive, and buried those already dead. Next day and the day after, same thing.
This kept happening until one day, one of the townspeople said, “Maybe it’s not enough for us to care for these people as they are carried down the river. Maybe we also need to go to the top of the river to find out what’s killing all these people in the first place.”
I wonder if this is what Jesus is about in today’s gospel as he turns his face toward Jerusalem, the center of the very religious and political oppression that had been crushing the spirits of so many of the people of his day. “I must go up to Jerusalem,” he tells his disciples, I must go to the top of the river.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t stop there. When Peter takes him aside to argue with him--“Lord! This must never happen to you!”--Jesus tells him, “Get behind me, Satan!”
If some scholars are correct, what Jesus is saying to Peter in that moment is, “Peter, come and follow me, get behind me. Right now you’re following the way of the world, looking at this in the ordinary human way. But this is not the way of humans who are in touch with God.”
What Peter needs is an alternate way of thinking and seeing. “Come,” Jesus says to Peter, “get behind me, follow me.”
To make matters worse, Jesus adds that there will be consequences if he does this. He, like Jesus, will provoke opposition. He, like Jesus, might end up carrying a cross.
What would it mean for Jesus to give that same invitation to us in our own day, in our own context, an invitation to follow him to Jerusalem, and possibly carrying a cross?
What would it mean for us to follow him to Jerusalem in these days of mourning the deaths of young black men, of the mass incarceration of people of color? What would it mean for us, in our own context, to go with him to Jerusalem?
What would it mean for you as an individual in the context of your own life--your job, your relationships, and skills and pleasures and responsibilities. What would it mean for you to follow Jesus to Jerusalem?
What would it mean for us as a faith community to follow Jesus to Jerusalem?
I have an idea about the latter, for us as a community. It is of a piece with the Nightwalks many of us have done to reduce the gun violence here in the Mission.
On the November ballot, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act will appear. It’s called Prop 47. This initiative will make a big difference to many families here in the Mission, the Bayview, and other poor neighborhoods in the City. It was developed by our own District Attorney George Gascon. It has the support of many others in law enforcement and all the major faith leaders including our bishop are behind it. We at St. John’s could help it pass.
Prop 47 changes the lowest-level, nonviolent crimes, such as simple drug possession and petty theft, from felonies to misdemeanors. Since we won’t have to spend millions keeping all these people in prison, we’ll be able to redirect the savings to schools and crime prevention. I mentioned the moms in Oakland imprisoned for shoplifting diapers for their kids. This measure would return them to their kids and provide them with needed services to start over.
St. John’s can play a key role in passing this initiative, even though it might mean pushing the envelope a bit and moving slightly outside our comfort zones to do phone banking, voter registration, canvassing neighborhoods, meeting with various public officials to gain their support, talking about the initiative with our friends, financially supporting the effort. Even just a few volunteer hours can make a big difference.
More details as they become available. For now, I just wanted to alert you to this possibility. I’ll be including information about Prop 47 in the weekly parish email, and I hope we can have a forum or two to kick it around among ourselves. For now, faith leaders throughout California are inviting us to be part of this important work, and I throw it out as one possible way for us, in our own context, to accompany Jesus on the way to Jerusalem.
However we choose to respond, the invitation of Jesus remains--to follow him to Jerusalem, even though it might mean carrying a cross as it did for him.
This morning, Jesus the teacher beckons us as he did Peter to get back into following him. He wants to remind us of the paradox at the very heart of our faith as his disciples: that through this journey that sometimes involves carrying a cross, we find the deeper life that sustains us; we find resurrection.
Question 1: Which country in the world has the largest percentage of its population behind bars?
The US. With 2.3 million prisoners, the US has more people in prison than China, which has a population four times the size of the US.Our incarceration rate is six to ten times greater than that of the other industrialized nations--and this is despite the fact that the crime rate in the US has dipped below the international norm.Clearly, since crime has been going down over the last few decades, this rising mass incarceration is not about stopping crime or reducing the crime rate. Something else must be going on here.
Question 2: Among racial groups in the US, which group is most likely to commit drug crimes?
Whites, especially white youth.Yet in some states, black men have been incarcerated for drug charges at rates twenty to fifty times greater than those of white men. When they come out of prison, they are often unable to find work, either because of discriminatory laws or because of the stigma of having been in prison.
Here’s how a Latino high school kid in our neighborhood explained it to me. If a white kid is found carrying a small amount of marijuana, the police drive him home, talk to his parents, the parents ground the kid for a few weeks, and that is the end of it. But if a Latino kid in the Mission is found with the same amount of marijuana, he has his head slammed against a wall. Next thing, he’s kneeling on the sidewalk, his hands cuffed behind his back, waiting to be taken to the police station.
As the recent events in Ferguson have brought into bold relief, the practices of law enforcement are often racially charged.
Bonus question: In the City of Oakland, what is the most frequently shoplifted item?
One study lists it as baby diapers. Many poor women of color have had no other way to get the things they need for their children. Many of these women, after being charged with shoplifting, have then been been torn from their children and sent to prison. For stealing diapers for their kids.
This is our context. We are living in an era that some have called the new Jim Crow, the days of racial segregation.
And our context resembles in many ways the context of Jesus where the victims of imprisonment and crucifixion by the Romans were nearly always the social outcasts and members of the lowest classes. These were often the same ones rejected by the religious authorities as unclean, as sinners.
It was with these outcasts that Jesus threw in his lot, hanging out with them, even eating and drinking with them. This triggered opposition, it outraged the religious and political authorities. Because Jesus so freely hung out with the outcasts of his day, many wanted to see him put to death.
In today’s gospel, Jesus ups the game. “I must go up to Jerusalem,” he tells the disciples. This is an imperative for him, and it is not trivial.
Jerusalem is where the temple is; it is the very center of both religious and political authority for the Jews. It is the abuse of that very authority that Jesus has challenged in word and deed throughout his ministry. “Hypocrites,” he calls the religious leaders. “Whited sepulchres, you lay heavy burdens on peoples shoulders but will not move a finger to lift them.”
Jesus knows his words and actions have provoked opposition.
Jesus can do the math here. And in today’s gospel he knows that if he goes to Jerusalem, he will be tortured and killed. Heavy stuff. Nevertheless: “I must go to Jerusalem,” Jesus tells his disciples. This is, for him, an imperative.
A story. You may have heard the story about the beautiful village alongside a river. It was lovely and peaceful, with lovely homes and beautiful little parks and plazas. Great place to raise a family. And one day, something horrible began to happen. When they looked out over the river they saw human bodies floating down. Some of them were half alive.
They brought them ashore and began nurturing them back to life. Others were already dead. They gave them a respectful burial. The next day, the same thing happened, more bodies. They began caring for those still alive, and buried those already dead. Next day and the day after, same thing.
This kept happening until one day, one of the townspeople said, “Maybe it’s not enough for us to care for these people as they are carried down the river. Maybe we also need to go to the top of the river to find out what’s killing all these people in the first place.”
I wonder if this is what Jesus is about in today’s gospel as he turns his face toward Jerusalem, the center of the very religious and political oppression that had been crushing the spirits of so many of the people of his day. “I must go up to Jerusalem,” he tells his disciples, I must go to the top of the river.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t stop there. When Peter takes him aside to argue with him--“Lord! This must never happen to you!”--Jesus tells him, “Get behind me, Satan!”
If some scholars are correct, what Jesus is saying to Peter in that moment is, “Peter, come and follow me, get behind me. Right now you’re following the way of the world, looking at this in the ordinary human way. But this is not the way of humans who are in touch with God.”
What Peter needs is an alternate way of thinking and seeing. “Come,” Jesus says to Peter, “get behind me, follow me.”
To make matters worse, Jesus adds that there will be consequences if he does this. He, like Jesus, will provoke opposition. He, like Jesus, might end up carrying a cross.
What would it mean for Jesus to give that same invitation to us in our own day, in our own context, an invitation to follow him to Jerusalem, and possibly carrying a cross?
What would it mean for us to follow him to Jerusalem in these days of mourning the deaths of young black men, of the mass incarceration of people of color? What would it mean for us, in our own context, to go with him to Jerusalem?
What would it mean for you as an individual in the context of your own life--your job, your relationships, and skills and pleasures and responsibilities. What would it mean for you to follow Jesus to Jerusalem?
What would it mean for us as a faith community to follow Jesus to Jerusalem?
I have an idea about the latter, for us as a community. It is of a piece with the Nightwalks many of us have done to reduce the gun violence here in the Mission.
On the November ballot, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act will appear. It’s called Prop 47. This initiative will make a big difference to many families here in the Mission, the Bayview, and other poor neighborhoods in the City. It was developed by our own District Attorney George Gascon. It has the support of many others in law enforcement and all the major faith leaders including our bishop are behind it. We at St. John’s could help it pass.
Prop 47 changes the lowest-level, nonviolent crimes, such as simple drug possession and petty theft, from felonies to misdemeanors. Since we won’t have to spend millions keeping all these people in prison, we’ll be able to redirect the savings to schools and crime prevention. I mentioned the moms in Oakland imprisoned for shoplifting diapers for their kids. This measure would return them to their kids and provide them with needed services to start over.
St. John’s can play a key role in passing this initiative, even though it might mean pushing the envelope a bit and moving slightly outside our comfort zones to do phone banking, voter registration, canvassing neighborhoods, meeting with various public officials to gain their support, talking about the initiative with our friends, financially supporting the effort. Even just a few volunteer hours can make a big difference.
More details as they become available. For now, I just wanted to alert you to this possibility. I’ll be including information about Prop 47 in the weekly parish email, and I hope we can have a forum or two to kick it around among ourselves. For now, faith leaders throughout California are inviting us to be part of this important work, and I throw it out as one possible way for us, in our own context, to accompany Jesus on the way to Jerusalem.
However we choose to respond, the invitation of Jesus remains--to follow him to Jerusalem, even though it might mean carrying a cross as it did for him.
This morning, Jesus the teacher beckons us as he did Peter to get back into following him. He wants to remind us of the paradox at the very heart of our faith as his disciples: that through this journey that sometimes involves carrying a cross, we find the deeper life that sustains us; we find resurrection.
No comments:
Post a Comment