GOOD RECIPE? Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post, 9/10/23

I’m sure you’re thinking I will offer you the next greatest recipe for the next greatest whatever. NOT SO. I’m not a foody or a cook. Nor am I fussy about food prep. I do rejoice in eating, however. And writing, but not formatting.

What I care most about is the “recipe” that is written in the Bible, the Christian testament to be exact. It’s the advice of a very wise Jew named Jesus (Yeshua) who gives his followers a spiritual recipe by which they can settle complaints and disputes and grievances in five easy steps. (Well, they aren’t “easy” to act on, even if they are easy to understand.) Here they are: Matthew 18:15-20, The Inclusive Bible.

IF YOUR SISTER OR YOUR BROTHER SHOULD COMMIT SOME WRONG AGAINST YOU, GO AND POINT OUT THE ERROR BUT KEEP IT BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU. 

Are you kidding? What if she or he doesn’t agree? What if a gun is involved? What if my own fear allows me to downplay the offense, deny it?  What if my own anger allows me to overplay the offense?  What if he or she denies it altogether? What if I exaggerate? 

IF SHE OR HE LISTENS TO YOU, YOU HAVE WON A LOVED ONE BACK. IF NOT, TRY AGAIN BUT TAKE ONE OR TWO    OTHERS WITH YOU SO THAT EVERY CASE MAY STAND ON THE WORD OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES. 

Great!  But was the process worth it? I could have just swallowed my pride—minimized the whole thing. Besides, who would I pick for my witnesses? Best friends? People who think as I do? Kin? 

IF YOUR SISTER OR BROTHER REFUSES TO LISTEN TO YOU REFER THE MATTER TO THE CHURCH. 

Even worse! The Synagogue? Any denomination or religion?  My own parish?  Whose rules and regs? Which authority? 

IF SHE OR HE IGNORES EVEN THE CHURCH THEN TREAT THAT SISTER OR BROTHER AS YOU WOULD A GENTILE OR A TAX COLLECTOR. 

And how would that be? In Jesus’s day Gentiles and Tax collectors weren’t exactly buddies with Jewish Temple authorities.  Is this about making sure everyone obeys the same rules, listens to the same centralized authority?

THE TRUTH IS, WHATEVER YOU DECLARE BOUND ON EARTH WILL BE BOUND IN HEAVEN, AND WHATEVER YOU        DECLARE LOOSED ON EARTH WILL BE LOOSED IN HEAVEN.  

Whoa! That sounds as if heaven and earth are one. How can that be?  Still, we’ve used all the ingredients and followed the process to a tee. And that’s it? 

AGAIN, I TELL YOU IF TWO ON EARTH JOIN IN AGREEMENT TO PRAY FOR ANYTHING WHATSOEVER IT WILL BE        GRANTED TO YOU BY MY ABBA GOD IN HEAVEN.  

Oh, there is one new word now. What?  PRAY. Consciously include God: We cannot make all this happen alone. Apparently, neither does God.  

WHERE TWO OR THREE ARE GATHERED IN MY NAME, I AM THERE IN THEIR MIDST. 

Oh, we must ground our differences IN God. This means we trust the Immanence of God’s Presence, close with and within us as we settle differences. Yes, it is about forgiveness. It is also about deep emotional honesty— telling the truth to ourselves, God, and our neighbors. 

*  *  *  * 

But all this is ancient. It’s in the Bible. Not relevant now. Really? Consider the amazing process of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) chaired in 1996 by South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  

Can a country that has long lived under the tyranny of apartheid—systemic racial discrimination at all levels— reconcile itself to itself once the warring is over? Tutu used the biblical recipe above as the model for the commission’s process, called restorative justice. They pursued forgiveness over retribution. 

Was it forgiving enough? YES. Was it free of error and resentment? NO. Did it work perfectly? NO. Did they pray enough?  YES. Was God present? YES.

The recipe works and worked—and never stops working. That’s called HOPE, not perfection. 

2017.10.29 Extraneously Deliberate Kindness Transforms Hearts

Who is a hero?

One hot day in the South African township of Sophiatown, a little boy about nine years old accompanied his mother, a domestic worker at an institution for blind black people, to work.
The boy played as his mother worked. He looked up as a very tall white man in a long black cassock and white clerical collar passed by. The man smiled, nodded, and tipped his hat toward the boy’s mother as he passed by. The boy never forgot this small simple gesture of  respect, courtesy—and kindness— from an important white man toward his black mother in a country ruled by a policy of apartheid. It changed him—inside and out.

His name was Desmond Tutu. Tutu grew up nurturing this memory in his heart. Today, Tutu, retired Anglican Archbishop of Capetown in South Africa, and facilitator of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission tasked with hearing the stories of victims and perpetrators of apartheid. Truth is never free unless it is accompanied by reconciliation; reconciliation is never accomplished without truth on all sides. The process took courage.

“It was really quite odd,” Tutu said in an interview, “this white man lifting his hat to my mother, a black woman domestic uneducated. There's no telling what things do for one’s self esteem, but this man’s influence on me and others was quite phenomenal.”  Later Tutu developed tuberculosis and this same man visited him in the hospital where he was for twenty months. “He visited me, a township urchin.”

Ironically I suppose, Tutu grew up to be more famous than the man who tipped his hat. Tutu was inspired to take his Christian faith into prophetic action from a position of leadership. He accomplished what the man who tipped his hat had worked hard for all his life. 

That man was Anglican Archbishop Trevor Huddleston (1913-1988). He was born in Bedford England and joined the Anglican religious order, the Community of the Resurrection in 1939, taking final vows in 1941.

Huddleston went to serve a mission station in Sophiatown, Johannesburg in 1940. He stayed for thirteen years. He was a beloved priest, lover of children, and anti-apartheid activist. The Africans nicknamed him Makhalipile which means “the dauntless one.” Huddleston preached and fought tirelessly against the enslaving policies of apartheid and became president of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in 1981.

Tutu has said of Huddleston: “He was an enormous thorn in the side of the apartheid regime. He did more to keep apartheid on the world’s agenda than anyone.” Huddleston and Tutu rejoice, below.

Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) first president of the united nation of South Africa has said of Huddleston: “No white person has done more for South Africa than Trevor Huddleston.” Mandela and Huddleston join hands, below.

Who is a hero?  Anyone who speaks and acts with courage. Courage comes from the Latin word for heart, cor. 

Most of us think of courage as fighting against enemies for a cause, like war heroes. We have an overblown idea of what is heroic, based on our own grandiose ego projections. We envision bloody martyrs and lots of praise, maybe a medal. Maybe, but not always. Think of Huddleston’s hat.

In addition, real war heroes who listen to their hearts, let their hearts become their “weapons." Real heroes may shoot guns like mad, pumped by fear, but the heart-heroes risk their lives not for a cause or to win, or kill, but for one friend who is wounded and needs to be dragged away to safety.

Heroes are instinctively, deliberately, courageously, even extraneously kind. “Battlefields” can be city streets, town halls, voting booths, altars, pulpits, prison cells, crucifixion crosses, church basements, hospitals, monastic cells—a single humble soul. Heroes love with heart.

Huddleston’s prayer for Africa. 
    God bless Africa.
    Guard her people.
    Guide her leaders.
    And give her peace. 

Use this prayer with heart and courage wherever it's needed, with God's help.