Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Walk Humbly with God

Last night Middle Tennesseans for Religious Freedom held a rally in support of the First Amendment, religious diversity, and our local Muslim community whose property was vandalized yet again this past weekend. I was invited to be one of the speakers.

It was a different venue for me: standing outside on the steps of the Court House without a sound system speaking loudly to a crowd of three to four hundred people. My talk was extemporaneous so I have to written speech to share with you here, and, to be honest, if the local newspapers had quoted me accurately I wouldn’t even bother with this post. But I want to go on record saying what I said, rather than what I was quoted as saying.

I made two points last night. First, we are living through a time when fear is gripping the lives of more and more Americans. Whenever that happens demagogues rise up to manipulate the fearful in order to grow their own power. This demagoguery usually involves demonizing the “other.” Who that “other” is changes over time. It was the Catholics in the late 19th century, the Jews in the first half of the 20th century, and today the Muslims. Hating the other is, for some, as American as apple pie. So I urged people to have compassion on those who are being manipulated, and to take care not to be manipulated themselves.

But the main thrust of my talk, and the part that got lost in translation, was my use of Micah 6:8, “You know, O Humanity, what God requires, Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” I emphasized “your God” and referenced the rabbinic tradition that interprets the use of the word “your” to be a warning against taking your personal belief system too seriously. Be humble about what you say you know, because when it comes to God, no one can know anything definitively. The God who is God cannot be reduced to theology or religion or any set of ideas or concepts. I am no opposed to theology, religion, or ideas, but I don’t want to allow them substitute for Truth, which is ultimately beyond words.

So I urged people to listen carefully to the teachings of their gurus, priests, pastors, rabbis, and imams, and to pay close attention to what is being said and read in their respective religious institutions and challenge anything that smacks of violence and demonization of the other. All this was predicated on the use of “humble” in the book of Micah.

What did every newspaper in middle Tennessee quote me as saying? Not “walk humbly with your God,” but “walk comfortably with your God.” Comfortably? Are you serious? This is the problem: people are too comfortable with their gods; so comfortable that they don’t challenge them or the insanity of much of what they have to say. And the true God, Reality itself, is discomforting. God challenges you to step out of your comfort zone: to leave nationalism, ethnicity, and parental bias behind, and to travel into the unknown and ultimately unknowable realm of divine mystery (Genesis 12:1). The only response to this call is an uncomfortable humility.

I loved standing with all these people. I loved sharing what I had to say with them. And now at least some of you will actually know what it is that I did share.

5 comments:

Raksha said...

Beautiful! I'm so glad you were there, and that you said what you did. Please remember that even though there are some people who will always misunderstand you, whether out of deliberate malice or ignorance, there are others who get it and just need to be reminded of what they already know.

--Linda

Old Lady said...

Bet they changed word for aesthetic formatting purposes...

Fr Bill said...

Isn't that what the world and culture want us to do...be "comfortable". Thank you for this post...I am sometimes very challenged but what you write and in fact...uncomfortable. That is precisely what I need to be which often reminds me of just how humble I am not! Thank you again.

Unknown said...

Dolly Parton said "If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one."

This is, of course, never an easy or comfortable undertaking, but almost always worth it. I recently started reading The Hobbit to my daughter and Bilbo, of course, does just this. He leaves his comfortable home, goes on an adventure, faces monsters and a dragon, and goes home to tell the tale. We may not have to face ogres and giant spiders and dragons and such, but the challenges we face as we walk humbly with the divine are just as scary.

Having adventures, asking uncomfortable questions, acting out of love and compassion, and leaving behind preconceived ideas of how the world should be is the best way that I know to learn more about the world we live in, about ourselves, and to walk with your god.

It was certainly an honor to stand on those steps and speak with you - something that was certainly out of my comfort zone!
-Jess Matz
HPS Ninewoods Tradition

Peter Schogol said...

Were you perhaps wearing Birkenstocks at the time and it just slipped out?

I kid.