I’m not in the habit of reacting to things
that come out of our political leaders’ mouths. If I were, there would be
plenty of content, from both sides of the aisle, to fill a weekly column. But
our president’s comments about Haiti, as well as other nations, go beyond the
boundaries of Shakespeare’s observation, “Lord, what fools these mortals be.”
We all say things we’d like to un-say. But the president’s consigning of African
nations to the category of “s---hole countries” and questioning why the U.S.
would want immigrants from Haiti – it begs for the light of the Good News to
shine upon it.
Of course, the language is appalling, but
that’s not what I think Jesus mourns about these comments. It’s the disconnect,
thousands of miles wide, between the president’s observations and Christian
theology and practice. It’s hard, perhaps impossible, to reconcile the
president’s words with Jesus’ core teachings: “Love one another as I have loved
you” (John 15:12). “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). “Just as you
did it to [or said it about] one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did
it to me” (Matthew 25:40).
The president’s comments give us the
opportunity to live as the contrast presence we are, as followers of Jesus
Christ. As you know, St. Andrew’s has a partnership of more than 25 years with
St. Augustin’s Episcopal Church and School in Maniche, Haiti. Right now, in
fact, parishioner Kathy Shaffer is overcoming a broken wrist to travel there to
develop our relationship with our new partner priest, Pere Abiade Lozama. Earlier this year, we said farewell (a
tearful farewell, for some of us) to Pere Colbert Estil, our partner priest for
12 years. The point is this: For us at St. Andrew’s, Haiti is not an
abstraction of poverty, difference, and secondary status. For us, Haiti is
people – children of God who embody precisely the same gifts and failings as we
do. On my several trips to Haiti in the past 12 years, I have met people with
an astonishing work ethic, far stronger than mine. I have met people with an
entrepreneurial drive to rival that of Ewing Kauffman or Steve Jobs. I have met
people, lay and ordained, who pour out their hearts and souls to teach the
hundreds of children God gives them to serve. I would love the opportunity to
take the president there and introduce him to the reality that is Haiti. Because
the nation of Haiti includes my partners and friends.
The timing of the president’s comments
only highlights the tragedy of the gap between his words and the Good News (not
to mention our nation’s ideals). On Monday, our country will honor the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., our national prophet. Dr. King once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught
in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” That is a human truth,
but it’s particularly a Christian truth. We are bound together, like it or not.
As Jesus prayed to his Father, “The glory that you have given me, I have given
[my followers], so that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in
me, that they may be completely one…” (John 17:22-23). We are bound to our
neighbors, across town and across the sea.
I hope you’ll come this Sunday as we
baptize two new children of God and reaffirm our Baptismal Covenant, which ends
with these words: “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and
respect the dignity of every human being?” Sometimes showing up and affirming
Jesus’ Good News is not simply an act of faith but an act of resistance –
resistance to the darkness that God’s Light overcomes.
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