I was only one of a couple of white folks at an event last evening. I make a note of that because I felt as though I stuck out in the audience. I suppose it was also because of my gray hair and beard and ponytail and the fact that I have trouble telling the age of young people. It is nice when you swing low - in regard to guessing an age - with an older person. But I asked the two women next to me if they went to Eastmoor High School. No - one taught at OSU and both worked at a local production company. Duh. In what has become a common way of running a high school theater, Seth Harms - the director - brings up onto stage the drama of the day that makes the audience look at events of the day at hand. Once again, he placed the whole audience up on stage. Up there, we are close to the actions - the movement - the emotions - the cultural upheaval. In some ways, there was no way to sit back and be detached from the six short plays that dealt with racism, privilege, perception, violence, sexism - quite a mix for just over an hour of acting.
As I sat there in this audience up on the stage I wondered about how important it is for all of us to move onto the stage. We may not be the primary characters - but our lives our there in front of us. We are a part of the life being portrayed by the few who have all the lines and movements. Though the whole evening used the Trayvon Martin killing as a springboard to expose issues facing our society in this time in our country, so much more was laid open for us to witness. Over and over again, innocence was arrested - put to death - because of perceptions. At the same time, families of color work to prepare sons and daughters for the injustice of a culture full of fear - a culture that will ask questions after fear and anxiety has produced itchy trigger-fingers that always seem to be justified within the domain of a so-called - law and order society.
In my fanciful imagination I wonder how our communities in a metropolitan area would change if every high school student had to spend at least a year in a school outside of their neighborhood and inside one of those neighborhoods. No matter what direction the students would go there would be life experiences that very few of us are able to incorporate into our lives. Imagine how a whole group of African-American students from my neighborhood would be received in a primarily European school system in a suburb. Imagine how a European group of students from a well-positioned suburban school would be received in a city school that usually services a poorer population. Imagine if some - just some - of these students stayed put in their new school - saw it out through graduation. Imagine how parents would deal with the changes. Imagine a prominent sports figure who leaves one school and stars on the team of another school. Imagine how both sides of this mixed up school system would be changed by the academic differences that all need attention for each student to thrive.
I know - I try to imagine too much. Though what about this. I know that when we want to face diversity, people in the church too often send or travel to a place far away. Why is it that over there - in that distant setting - beyond the diversity and segregation within walking distance or a short commute of our homes or congregations, there is a world we are willing to enter- a world from which we claim we will encounter a life-changing moment in time. And yet, we are too afraid to walk within - stand alongside - exchange conversations with - a whole world that is all around us everyday. No wonder things at home never change. No wonder racism and rage are flourishing so close to home. No wonder the structures of our metropolitan areas - we call home - have nurtured segregation and racism rather than using our imagination to dismantle their control over us.
The hospitable community of the followers of Jesus must be a people who will take a seat up on the stage of life within our own society and face the reality of violence, hatred, fear, bias, and privilege that keeps the Reign of God at arms length away from us. Up on stage last evening within the movement of the actors and dancers and the movement and sounds from the audience there was a breeze that I could feel. I know, it is just my imagination. Yet, it was like a breath of new life - a spirit of hopefulness - a wind of change that we too often do not let ourselves experience right in the middle of our ordinary lives. Maybe it is too easy to live life as we have it and want it - no matter what it may cost those around us. For when we turn others into mere others - to hell with them - to hell with their neighborhoods - to hell with their lives. That - is simply demonic and we let ourselves be a part of that rule whenever we resist getting up on stage and dancing with the likes of God's children - all of them.
TRRR
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