1 March 2006

Walter Brueggemann comments more about neighbor in "The Covenanted Self."

It is my suspicion that if we have not learned healthy othering in the intimacy of mothering, and if we have not learned the daring of othering with God's transcendent fidelity, then we are bound in our neighboring to miss out on much of the othering that belongs properly to the gospel. Indeed, around the matter of neighbors, our clumsiness and fearfulness, often lead us to avoid others who are unlike us, to whom we do not want to give gifts, and from whom we do not intend to receive gifts and under whose command we do not want to live. We organize our several phobias, resentments, and ambitions in order to be mainly with others, who are not very otherly and so constitute no threat of otherness.

I must admit, it is quite easy to "avoid" others. In fact, I know that I have to work at making sure that I do not go on living a life of avoidance. It can be so easy and so comfortable but I find that I do not like who I become. Usually it is as I am able to extend myself beyond myself do I find myself becoming more than I had anticipated. It is no wonder that we are able to pin our phobias and resentments on others. In that way, we give ourselves permission to not only avoid others for the sake of being alone or with my closed group, we also are able to give reasons for the many ways the world is going to hell...or simply slipping down a slope into an abyss. What Brueggemann writes about organizing our "phobias, etc" with others "who are not very otherly and so constitute no threat of otherness" is a strong reminder of how really do work very hard at making our own world that which we know will not be filled with or touch by the likes of "those" others. But we miss the world in which God creates us!

Connection: Sometimes slipping down a slope is not a bad thing. Sometimes, it helps us realize that we are not so right and good and those into whom we slip can be quite helpful and much like us even when we do not, at first, see it.

Mix us up, Lord. Pull us into the crowded space in which your people, though appearing strange to one another, are your people and those who are known in your presence as brother and sisters and your beloved children. By your Spirit help us to cross over to engage others in our lives. Amen.