Three Moons In Another's Moccasins
The following is the sermon delivered by Reverend Holly Haile Davis, DD on Tuesday March 28 to members of the Long Island Presbytery and guests at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church.
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John 12:20-33
"Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat, falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world, will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me the Father will honor."
Three Moons In Another's Moccasins
I have European ancestors, I have African ancestors, and mostly I have Shinnecock ancestors: I am a Shinnecock Indian. A little federal judge told me so. Yet, the Shinnecock Hills and the circling hawk and the Shinnecock Bay and the Mecox Bay and Heady Creek had already told me that I am a Shinnecock Indian; and the air at Pow Wow time and the wood-smoke and the chill in early September, and the peaceful and blessed sunset at the reservation cemetery long ago told us, and tells me now who I am; and together these have declared this truth to us longer, and more immediately and more meaningfully - announced to my DNA that "this is the land of the Shinnecock and "you are the people of the meadows by the shore, you are the people of this land."
And it was to 'the people of the land', the peasants, that Jesus came with Good News. It was to the people of the land that Jesus appears with a message of hope and with a passion for justice - and with the will to announce and declare that the 'God of the Scriptures' is a God who is passionate about justice. The Hebrew Scriptures, the tradition in which Jesus finds this passion for justice upholds that widows and orphans are special objects of God's compassion and that "their treatment was a measure of the justice or injustice of the society." (BorgCrossanLWp74)
"Sir, we wish to see Jesus." requested some Greeks, some who are 'outside' of the disciples' 'in crowd'. And I recognize that sentiment. Red Jacket, a Seneca Indian said that same thing. Red Jacket was one of the Iroquois' greatest orators - his fiery, insightful eloquence inspired cultural pride and resistance among his Indian People and sometimes even affected the behavior of his non-Indian hearers. He understood English, but determinedly refused to speak it in public; and it was to a missionary by the name of Cram (alas, what an unfortunate name for someone bringing religion to others) it was to this Mr. Cram's attempt to convert the Seneca People in 1805, Red Jacket said, among other things, this in response:
"Brother, -we have been told that you have been preaching to the white people in this place. These people are our neighbors. We are acquainted with them. We will wait a little while and see what effect your preaching has upon them. If we find. it does them good, makes them honest and less disposed to cheat Indians, we will consider again what you have said. " If it can be shown that this religion brings about people willing to live in peace and harmony, then the Indian People may consider this religion. But for now, walk for a while - and maybe we will see if the journey through life in your moccasins is in deed a Canku Waste \ a Good Road of Life." (BlaisdeU. Great Speeches by Native Americans, p 41 ff)
And in these weeks of Lent, we move closer to the hour, the hour from which we dare not ask to be removed; because we have said we wish to follow - that where this Jesus leads, we may be also - making sure not to love our lives and the trappings of our lives more than we love our desire to follow Jesus.
And which way does he go?
Jesus shows that his life and the life of discipleship is a flat contradiction to the normalcy of civilization's systems of rule, control and dominance. His is a continual Call for justice. (BorgCrossanLastWeekpll9)
Domination systems in this world, are very common, and are characterized by political oppression, that is 'the many being ruled by the few powerful, wealthy, elite; domination systems are social structures characterized by economic exploitation in that most of society's wealth stays in and is paid to the wealthy... that's the way they set up the system through structures and laws about land ownership and about taxation and about labor and debt and inescapable things like that. And domination systems enjoy religious legitimation, the people are told that the king rules by divine right, and that the social order reflects the Will of God, and in most pre-modern societies religion has been used to legitimate (legitimize, to make legitimate) the place of the wealthy and powerful in the social order over which they preside. And one could make a good case that in somewhat different form, it remains with us today.
And as Jesus walks through his ministry, through Lent, through Holy Week he talks about the kind of death he will die while at the same time teaching about what kind of life disciples shall live if they choose to actually follow him.
"Justice has to do, not with a 'proper believing', or a 'creedal orthodoxy', but [justice] has to do with how well or how poorly each nation, and by implication each person within that nation, perceives the 'face of the Divine' in the faces of the hungry, thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the dispossessed and the imprisoned." (Spong SOS p 163)
And from the Presbyterian Church's church-wide policy statement, entitled, "We may be Brothers and Sisters after All" regarding 'who the Presbyterian Church will be' in relation to Native American Indian People'. And I quote the findings of our own denomination: "The First Americans are the most deprived and the most isolated minority group in our nation. On virtually every scale of measurement - employment, income, education, health - the conditions of the Indian people rank at the bottom... [and] The inheritor of defeat, the Indian remains a stranger in their homeland - America's prisoner of war. Despite three centuries of systematic effort to destroy or absorb the American Indian, they show no sign of disappearing. Their culture has been deeply and purposely eroded, yet it persists. Their alienation increases while their numbers grow. The American Indian, the first American, today is the most invisible of the invisible poor." (UPCUSA WeMayBeBrothers p.6)
It's not as if the church hasn't been able to observe our moccasin tracks...
So why is it that those who profess to follow - even to the death - the Good Road of Jesus, are so slow in seeking justice in this place?
Not far from this spot in 1876, the Circassian was shipwrecked and along with local white men, 10 Shinnecock Indians perished. We are the children of the widows and orphans of the Circassian, we are among those who continue to seek justice, ever as justice continues to elude us. (The recordsin our Tribal Roll Office show that between 1870 and 1880 th ere were 24 Indian households on "The Neck" our current territory; how long, how many generations might it take in the best possible financial circumstances for that community who has lost 10 breadwinners - to recover from that kind of financial catastrophe? I have no answer for that question.)
Not far from this spot in 2006 there are families with very modest houses who are very recently the objects of, not an outpouring of concern for justice in this most wealthy of communities in the whole wide world today, rather there are reports of "real estate hungry folk" trying to get these people to sell their houses - by phone calls and by knocking on doors and windows, and hitting and pounding on exterior walls late in the night. Gentrification. That's when affluent people buy properties, and displace the resident poor. Let me be very clear about this: the home owners whose walls are being beat upon in the middle of the night are African American families; while affluent new comers with an insatiable appetite for mini and mega Hamptons mansions, are white.
I read where the median annual income in the US is $40,000; the same source reported that the official poverty level for a household of 4 in the 1990s in this nation was $18,104. (BorgWorkSheet)
I read in another source that in order for a household of one to be eligible to apply for Low/Moderate income units in Southampton Town, their income cannot exceed S49,750; and by the way for a family of 4 their income must not exceed $71,000 in order to be eligible for Low/Moderate income housing units here in the Town of Southampton. (Housing Office Southampton Town Nov 2005)
I read in yet another source that the average household income for residents on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation as reported by the 2000 Census was $14,000 a year. (Long Island Press 2006)
"Justice is about systems and the impact of systems on people." (Borgworksheet) Working full time @ $10 an hour produces an annual income of about $20,000; and at the average national minimum wage, a whopping $11,000; "Charity is always good and [charity] will always be needed. BUT [charity] IT IS NOT JUSTICE." (BorgWorkSheet)
One of the biggest and most important questions in our global community today is a question that goes, even beyond, "Do nations have the right, to do within their own borders, what they wish?" is the question of whether or not certain nations ought to be allowed to 'be'.
We have the right to exist. I can say that; but 'do we?' What are our answers to that question, "Do we have the right to exist?" It is a theological question; it is also a political question, an economic question, an educational, social, medical - quality of life question. And if we decide that we do have the right to exist, we will have to come to that conclusion because of what we believe about Life and because of what we believe about God. If we deem it "meet and right so to be" among the living, it will be supported by, and evidenced by what we believe. Our thoughts about Life tell us 'what we will do' and our thoughts about God inform us of 'who we shall be' in relation to others.
Annie's Tale
While attending a lecture at the National Cathedral College for Preachers in Washington D.C., I met a Presbyterian Elder who hailed fromGreensboro, NC. She shared with me an experience she'd had as, over thecourse of a few days we built some trust and we talked about how difficult itis to facilitate meaningful inter-racial communication. Mary-Ellen was white;she is both a professional Christian Educator in the Presbyterian Church and a teacher in a local school. Her colleagues in the local school consisted of an entirely white teaching staff, except for one black woman; and Annie (I'll call her) was very intentional about not allowing others to exploit her and use her as the 'resident, one-size-fits-all, past, present, and future expert on all things African American in the entire world. And as the white teachers mumbled and grumbled and increasingly griped and groused in the days before a certain mandatory Diversity Training Event was scheduled to take place, tension mounted among the staff. By the time they were 'at ttable' together, folks were edgy, the mood was unpleasant. When the white teachers finally voiced their objections to this program, Annie was moved to speak; Annie broke her silence. And she said, "We need this bad. And if you don't think we need it,I'll tell you that we need this bad. Let me tell you what it was like to be a child growing up in Greensboro - when I was a little girl and I went to the movies, there was a 'white' water fountain and a 'colored' water fountain. There was a 'white only' restroom and a colored restroom; the white kids could sit down by the screed where they wanted to sit; I had to sit up in the balcony..."
And the most upsetting thing about this story - (I believe) is that Annie had not one but hundreds of stories like this - and the most upsetting thing about this story is that there are families represented here in this congregation today who have, not one story like this but who have hundreds of stories like this.
Diversity is more than a "Johnny-come-very-lately" politically correct policy, diversity is more than a "minority minute" to be politely observed or endured before the real business starts or after the important business is concluded; diversity is more than many differently tinted faces decorating our scenery, creating colorful 'photo OPS' but all saying the same thing; diversity has a multiplicity of meanings and a range of expressions. My own divergent and atypical belief about the Church is that it purports to 'see' Jesus; it alleges to know God, it claims to be all about 'doing justice', loving kindness and walking humbly with God. Yet it is not what I have observed.
My own 'take' on Jesus' understanding of the prophets is that divine worship doesn't excuse the Church from seeking divine Justice.
The Jesus I see stands with the prophets against temple worship that, rather than empowering justice, excuses folks from it; and in that I see a Jesus who also stands against those forms of Christianity that are used throughout the centuries to support imperial violence and injustice.
Three Moons in my Moccasins will reveal to you that the State of New York and the Township of Southampton and, now, the Gristedes millionaires have joined 'the pack' of those who are challenging the Shinnecock Nation's right to exist. We have been hauled into federal court; we have been maligned and smeared in the media; we have survived in our ancestral lands not because of the grace of our neighbors and their churches, and not because of the kindness of the officials - I cannot name even one who holds elected office on this day who has taken up the cause of justice for the marginal community that is my own.
And yet basic human dignity issues such as substandard and unsafe housing continues to plague our community. Employment opportunities we've attempted to create have been thwarted and now there is a whole lot of wealth and power behind the effort to take away the small industry with which we as Indian People are now feeding 10% of our own population. We, together; all of us, those of us affiliated with the Presbyterian Churches of the Presbytery of Long Island are those who are in communion and in community with the powers-that-be who support and benefit from policies and practices that thrive on the continuance of political oppression, economic exploitation and religious legitimation feeding the system that dominates and brings violence to our lives.
Am I wasting my time? (I've been ordained for 20 years, which compared to some of you isn't a long time with your 40+ years but I'm only 45 years old and 20 years is half of my life) I ask myself, "Am I wasting my time in the church, and in the pursuit of the kind of justice that the God of the Scriptures is passionate about?" Then, I answer myself, "But what good is life unless you give it away?"A young Guatemalan woman said a few months before she was killed by the military. "What good is life unless you give it away - unless you can give it for a better world, even if you never see that world but have only carried your grain of sand to the building site. Then you're fulfilled as a person", she said. (SoJoJ WallisFaithfll2Trth,Dec1989)
Among the Onondoga People it is said, "What you give away, you get." I believe that; just as I believe that it was Jesus' passion that got him killed and I believe also that he knowingly walked his Canku Waste; his Good Road anyhow.
We will remember and give thanks for the gifts of the lives of those who were leadership among us and who have died during the last year as we have our annual Necrology Report; and as we also prepare to share a meal in the tradition of Indian people of this land I would like us to remember this image:
we are here to share the gifts that are from God and share and divide them; the life we live (sharing some life here, a little life there), the food we portion. Jesus takes what is already there and when it passes through his hands there is more than enough, even more than enough for everyone. We have enough - God has provided enough, enough life, enough of the substance and matter of what we need to live, and what is already here is enough for all when it passes through the hands of the one whose path we follow, each in our own moccasins, for he is and we can be the incarnation of divine justice.
Our final hymn, after the Necrology Report and the Offering, Doxology andDedication will be "Jesus, Lover of my Soul" and it was sung by theShinnecock sailors who went down in the Circassian as they were dying.
MAY WE NOT BE AFRAID, FOR ALL OUR LIFE IS ETERNAL LIFE; AND BE NOT AFRAID TO ACTIVELY SEEK JUSTICE FOR WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE GOD OF LOVE; WE ARE CHILDREN OF THE GOD OF JUSTICE. A-HAU. AMEN.
Let us pray... Great Spirit, grant that I may not judge my siblings until I have walked for three moons in their moccasins. Amen.
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SOURCES IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:
1 (BorgCrossanLWp74) - Marcus J. Borg, John Dominic Crossan, TheLast Week: The Dav-bv-Day Acount of Jesus' Final Week inJerusalem, HarperCollins Publishers, NY, 2006.
2 (Blaisdell, Great Speeches by Native Americans, p 41 ft)- BobBlaisdell, Ed., Great Speeches by Native Americans, DoverPublications, NY, 2000.
3 (Spong SOS p 163) - John Shelby Spong, The Sins of Scripture. HarperSanFrancisco, HarperCoUms Publishers, NY, 2005.
4 (UPCUSAWeMayBeBrothersp 16) - A. Position Paper, "We May BeBrothers After All", United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.,Louisville, KY, May 1972.
5 (BorgWorkSheet) - Marcus J. Borg, "Bringing the Vision toCongregations: Spirituality and Personal Transformation packet, pages5 and 7; 2006.
6 (HousmgOfficeSouthamptonTownNov2005) - Cover Letter, John C.White, Director of Housing, Town of Southampton Housing Office,Application Packet, Southampton, NY, November 10, 2005.
7 (LonglslandPress2006) - The Waiting Game, Tom Durante, LongIsland Press, New York, January 12, 2006
8 ( WallisFaithfll2Trth,Dec1989) - "Faithful to The Truth. JimWallis, Sojoumer's Magazine, December 1989.
