Meditation: RACISM AND RAINBOWS by John de Gruchy

RACISM AND RAINBOWS

Philippians: 2:1-4

Matthew 7:12

"In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets."

I had a dream. Once long ago in a land far away, there lived a beautiful people.  Some of the people were purple others blue, some of them were orange others crimson, and some pink and vermillion.  There were also green people and yellow people, in fact people of every colour of the rainbow.  They were beautiful as individuals, but when they were all together on special occasions they made a spectacular sight.  Their colours blended in rich harmony as they acknowledged each other as part of a tapestry in which each was necessary, none superior, each an important part of the whole, but none insignificant on their own.  They were known far and wide as the rainbow people.  Unlike other nations, there were no white people or black people, for those colours are absent from the rainbow, only people of all colours, shapes, shades and sizes, like pieces in a magnificent jigsaw puzzle.  Each piece was necessary to complete the picture, none more special than any other, but when each piece linked arms the picture was stunning even though while still incomplete.

Then I woke up.  It had been a wonderful dream, but it was not reality on the ground, certainly not if you scratched beneath the surface.  How could it be when for centuries all people saw was black and white, and when laws insisted that they should never mingle, never form a rainbow, and laws, guns and dogs were used to keep them apart.  Water-canons were also used to suppress their protests and wash all the colours down the gutter.  So only black and white remained to make sure that everyone knew who they were, that all that mattered was that you were white or black.  From childhood we learnt  we all learnt that we were not part of a rainbow. but as different as daylight and midnight, some superior others inferior, some privileged others oppressed.  Most whites imbibed  this belief with their mother's milk and their father's talk who, in turn, learnt this from their ancestors who lived over the seas and thought blacks were alien creatures inhabiting a dark continent alongside strange beasts. 

Many thought that this was just how God intended it to be, that it had been like this since the foundation of the world.  Some were predestined to rule and others to serve, some were intelligent and could play cricket because they were white, and others dumb and could only play soccer because they were black.  Yes, everything was in black and white, like the laws written down to ensure that they remained separate and knew their place.  Scholars and politicians  thought long and hard how to describe this and eventually they found a word that seemed to fit. They called it  "race" and insisted there was a white race and a black race,  even though we know that there is only the human race made up of many cultures of all colours.  So racism was born and racism ruled.  In protest black became beautiful and white the colour of oppression.

But things don't work well in black and white.  It is like watching old movies where people are not only black and white, cowboys and Indians,  good guys and bad, who shoot each other but never talk to each other.  Just like living in a colourless world makes you ill, so racism was a disease which made society sick.  People lost their humanity, and committed crimes against humanity.  And even though not everyone had the disease, it affected everyone, for when some are in bondage to racism all are in bondage and end up doing hurtful things to each other.  So people began to dream of and struggle  for a non-racial nation, a nation made whole. 

After many years, too many deaths and much suffering, enough people came to their senses and helped construct a rainbow.  Their dream became reality.  And they all settled down to live happily ever after.  Except for one thing.  They did not take into account that the racism virus, like the plague, had not been eradicated, it was only dormant waiting its chance to reappear and infect the fragile rainbow.  Too little had been done to get rid of the virus;  it had only been brushed under the carpet.  Too few acknowledged that establishing a non-racial society could not be achieved by the stroke of pen.  Human nature had to change, and that is a tough call. 

So twenty years after the rainbow nation was born, and much achieved,  the reality of racism cannot be ignored or denied.  Its symptoms keep showing themselves, both crude and subtle, for not everyone is afflicted to the same degree.  Some forms are mild like the common cold, others as violent, abusive and deadly as Ebola.  Everyone knows a crude racist when they see one or hears them speak.  But subtle racism is more difficult to detect, and even those who are afflicted do not always acknowledge that they have the disease, and sometimes vehemently deny it.  So they are taken by surprise when someone calls them racists.  "Who, me?" they ask in shock.

There is no easy cure for racism, no antibiotic.   But we do know that unlike Ebola and the plague, it can't be dealt with by isolation.  Isolation only strengthens the virus.  The way to overcome the disease is through contact, through discovering that people who are different are just like oneself; that we are all human beings, all of the same human race.  We belong together because God has made us so and history has brought us together.   It is only as we learn to respect each other so that our differences actually enrich each of us, that the virus can be contained and eventually overcome.   It is a long, hard battle, because racism has perverted justice and robbed people of their land.  But we have to start somewhere, and we can and must begin with ourselves.  We can acknowledge that the virus is real and not deny its reality.    So we have to be careful about what we say about others, about the attitudes we have, the way we act, the off-the-cuff comments we post on Facebook.  This is not all that is required to build a rainbow nation, but without this we haven't begun. 

Oh, and by the way, Jesus gave us a golden rule to deal with the racism virus.  Do to others what you would want them to do to you and therefore speak about them in ways that you would like them to speak about you.  Imagine such a world!  Is it only be a dream?  Or can we make it a reality?

John de Gruchy

Volmoed  21 January 2016

Meditation: LED BY A STAR by John de Gruchy

LED BY A STAR

Matthew 2:1-11

“…there, ahead of them, went the star they had seen at its rising.”

The Christmas Carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" traditionally begins with a Partridge in a Pear tree and ends with Twelve Drummers Drumming.  But there have been many versions of the carol since the 18th century.  There is even a South African version which begins with a Hadeda in a Gum Tree! 

The "twelve days of Christmas" start on 25th of December and end on January 6th, the feast of Epiphany.    “Epiphany” means manifestation of the light and, in particular, the manifestation of Christ as the light of the world not just for Jews but for Gentiles as well.  So Epiphany is the day on which we remember the Wisemen who came from the East to visit the Christ-child, being led by the light of a star.

We don’t know exactly who these Sages were except that they came from the East, maybe modern-day Iran, and  that they were pagan astrologers who believed that their lives were determined by the stars.  So led by a star they journeyed to Jerusalem to enquire about the birth of a king.  But Herod “and all Jerusalem,” were scared out of their wits by this enquiry.  Worried by the news and scheming how he could deal with it, Herod got all his court theologians together to ask their opinion.  And they, guided by the Scriptures informed him that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, a small town not too far from Jerusalem.  So the Magi continued their journey and, lo and behold, “there ahead of them, went the star they had seen at its rising” until it hovered over a cave in Bethlehem.

There are several layers of meaning to this magical story.  Matthew is telling us, that right from the beginning the coming of Jesus was welcomed by some but not by everyone.  There were those who, like Herod, were afraid of the arrival of the Christ-child because they sensed that he would challenge their authority, their status, and their religious convictions.  Matthew is also telling us that among those who celebrated that first Christmas were Gentiles and pagans.  Jesus appeal is not exclusive to some race or tribe or religious group, but universal.  Everyone is welcome at the manger.  He is also telling us that people come to Jesus by various paths and they start their journey in many different places 

The Wisemen came from the East guided by their own reading of the signs of the times in the heavens, though they also needed the guidance of the Scriptures to know more precisely where to find Jesus.  But when they arrived the star that had first evoked their keen interest and had gone before them. was already there!  And that is the point of the story – it was the light of the world symbolically reflected in the star that drew them to Bethlehem from afar.  Or as the prologue to John's Gospel puts it: "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world."

Now it is this insight which Matthew captures in his telling of the story that is important for us today in a world where so many people insist that their way to Jesus is the only right way.  The story of the Wisemen suggests otherwise.  For the light that came into the world at Christmas attracts people in many different ways and for different reasons. As we read the stories of Jesus’ encounters with people, we are continuously aware of how each person is different, each is at a different point in their life's journey.  They not only come from different backgrounds and walks of life; they also range from the pious to the profane; they have different needs, different questions and expectations. But they are all in one way or another drawn to the same Jesus who attracted the Wisemen from the East and the Shepherds from the surrounding hills.  Some came well versed in Scripture, as did Nicodemus; some came endowed with authority, as did the Roman centurion; some came desperate for love and compassion, as did Mary of Magdala; some came because they were blind, or possessed, or crippled, and in need of healing.  The Wisemen from the East came because they were following the light they had received far from the land of Moses and the prophets, but which also brought them to the Christ-child. 

It does not matter who you are, where you come from, how much knowledge you have, what religion if any you espouse – what matters is whether or not you are willing to follow the God-given light that leads you.  This does not mean that everyone will arrive at Bethlehem or become a follower of Jesus, for the testimony of the Scriptures was necessary for the Wisemen to complete their journey and find the Christ-child.  But, if it is true that Jesus is “the light of the world that enlightens everyone,” then it could well happen to anyone, as it happened to the Wisemen, that they arrive at the manger where with the Wisemen "they are overwhelmed with joy… "  

But, as the poet T.S. Eliot perceptively noted, their journey did not end in Bethlehem, in a sense, it only really began there.  For when they returned to the place from which they originally came their lives were changed forever.  

'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears,  saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped in away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

John de Gruchy

Volmoed 7^th January 2016