So I was down at Starbucks today, and there were some guys at the next table. And one of them makes a comment about Hugo Chavez, and another one - well - just goes off. "THAT guy - don't even mention THAT guy. What a loser - I'm glad he's dead!" His friend asked him, "Hey, what did he ever do to you?" The guy shoots back, louder this time, "Didn't you hear him at the U.N.? What right do they have to let him talk about the US the way he did at the U.N.? Where does he get off? He should be dead. And they never should have let him speak." Another guy said to him, "I don't like the guy either, but he's a person. His mother loved him probably, right? And besides, he was legally elected by his own people in that country." That did it. The other guy said, (even louder this time) "Elected? ELECTED? It's a whole different world down there. They don't have elections the same as we do. It's all rigged! He was a crook. He was a deadbeat. He was a loser. I'm thrilled that he's dead."
Whew! I didn't expect to get a dose of that kind of rage today. But there it was. The anger that sometimes simmers in the dark. The public image of Hugo Chavez obviously struck a deep nerve with this guy - offended him in some deep and clearly personal way. I don't think any of us admired Chavez's blunt criticisms of our country and his insults toward our leaders, but this guy took it very, very personally. Chavez clearly represented something very painful for this man. His friends realized it was a good idea to change the subject. One of them said, "Let's just not talk about this now," and turning to another one of the guys, he asked, "So how's your friend Joe?" And the conversation turned.
Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You're looking right at me and you don't see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father."
When I was a kid, I used to think that what Jesus was saying here was that he's like the one special envoy sent to earth by God - and that in order to see God, you had to look at the Jesus of history - the Jesus of the Bible. Well, although I still would say that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, my view has become more complicated. What I hear in Jesus' words today to the Pharisees is that whenever we look at any person and don't see him or her - but look at them like an object or a possession or a symbol or anything other than the whole, full, beloved child of God that they are - that's when we are not seeing God. We don't see God when we don't see what God has created. And we are all created in the image of God. And all of us together are the body of Christ. We learn who God is through the stories of Jesus in the bible, yes, but also through the body of Christ that is all around us today. Through our interactions with one another.
So this man's rant about Hugo Chavez, a person he never met, felt to me like Chavez, to him, was some kind of object or symbol - a target that represented everything he hates. And he wished him dead. He strongly wished him dead. And he would spit on his coffin if he could. I'm sure if I had turned and suggested to him that he could perhaps see something new about God if he were to look more compassionately at Hugo Chavez, he would turn and look at me like I had three heads - or maybe even punch me in the mouth.
The thing is, though, there are alot of people in this world I have my issues with, too. Those people in Kansas that picket funerals with "God Hates Fags" signs. Clergy people who do unethical or hurtful things. People I don't agree with about theology in my own church. Hey - I even have issues with my husband and kids when they leave a mess in the bathroom. I guess there's a continuum of issues. I guess you could put Hitler on one end, and it lines up from there all the way to my own family members. But we're all sinners and tax collectors to some degree because we're all broken and fallen people. And we're also all children of God.
Nonetheless, my faith tells me that sometimes I learn the most about God by being open to the "other" in my life - the very person that brings up the most stuff inside me. The things that I hide away in the dark - those things that are hateful and prejudiced and wounded and sore - are brought into the light when I really see someone I consider "other." Jesus tells us that there is nothing that is hidden that will not be exposed. And, he says, "No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in." We are called to live in that light - not in our darkness.
If I look right at someone - even someone I don't know personally - and all I can see is my own hate, well, I'm not seeing them. And if I can't see them, how can I expect to see God?
If I strive to know the other as a child of God,
if I strive to know myself as a child of God,
if I strive to know Jesus as the child of God,
I will at the same time be striving to know God.
Today's readings: Jer. 8:18-9:6; Rom. 5:1-11; John 8:12-20
Elsa is praying the daily readings and praying the news and blogging about it on the weekdays of Lent.
She is reading The Message translation this year.
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