i got to flagstaff on the fourth of july, parked my car and decided to walk around a little before my friends got there. i stumbled upon a protest of barack obama - there were mothers yelling, children chanting and american flags being waved about proudly. there were white people with white hair and white khaki shorts. i called my mom right away and read some of the signs to her and we laughed about them. after i hung up with her, i saw a sign for a fair in the park. i was immediately relieved and entered the park to find a strange mix of native people, hippies, families and artists. i even saw a girl dancing with a hoola-hoop who was wearing a bandana for a t-shirt. i got a call from my friend and left the park to meet up the people i'd been waiting for.
i went to the train station and found them. a girl from singapore, a girl from taiwan, a boy from italy, a boy from china, and ted. ted is my coworker, a 40-something from west virginia who was a familiar father-figure who liked to make fun of me, talk about my tattoo, and who often went out of his way to make sure he saw me speak at church whenever possible. he'd sit alone and smile at me with proud, happy eyes as i gave the message. when i saw ted, i mentioned the protest that i'd seen and he responded quickly with some comments about barack obama's policies and how he's robbing americans - and then i sort of stopped listening and started thinking. i started to think about christian community.
i thought about the two scenes i'd seen and participated in earlier. i wondered if the hoola-hoop girl and the white woman with white hair and white khaki pants would ever get along? i wondered how they could relate? would the old woman hoola-hoop too? no - probably not. i grew up in a home of democrats, surrounded by friends and family friends who were democrats. and although it mostly went unsaid, it often went said, that republicans were stupid racists who were incompetent and unworthy of being called friends. and i haven't found much deviation from this way of thinking among the "liberal" circles that i belong to. and to be honest, i've also found myself in pretty conservative groups who feel the same way about liberals. when i was in high school, i thought that the worst of these conservatives were the christians. i thought the christians were the most closed-minded people there would ever be - who could ever walk the face of the earth - they were the enemy, the republicans, the people who were going to good colleges and played soccer and wore tevas.
long story short, i turned out to be a christian. and i ended up, in college, being completely surrounded by a bunch of republican, central pennsylvanian christians who loved me better than i've ever been loved before. i mean, they hunted deer - and they loved me. they voted for george bush - and they also loved my neighbors better than i did. and they were pro-life, but they walked me home at night and gave me rides without grumbling. and when i needed food, they'd make it for me. and they thought i was fantastic - wonderful - beautiful. all of them. loved me as a ragamuffin, loud-mouthed girl from the city who was voting for kerry. the truth was that it didn't matter that they were republicans and i was a democrat - i think i wanted it to matter, i wanted it to be an issue - and it never was. it was irrelevant to the love, the grace, the compassion and the understanding that we felt towards each other. it was irrelevant when faced with the reality that whether i liked it or not, they were my brothers and sisters and regardless of our disagreements, we were commanded to not only "get along" but to love each other. and i'm not talking about the love the world talks about - i'm talking about the bible now. i'm talking about the love that means you serve each other, it means that i will consider myself less than you, it means that if you ask to go 1 mile that i go 2. it means that we can't be wimps - either: if you make me mad, i'm going to tell you, and it's going to be awkward and awful but it's what we're going to do. and it means that i'm going to forgive you again, and again, and again. i'm talking about the kind of love that loves long after it's easy, long after it's simple, long after everyone else has gone home, or stopped picking up the phone - i'm talking about the love that saves lives. the love that heals, changes, the love that redeems and reconciles friends and foes. i'm talking about God.
during college and since college i've been going to a church that lives this every moment of its being. put together about 300 people with nothing in common and ask them to worship God. and watch a beautiful chaotic mess begin. watch republicans, democrats, lesbians, punk rockers, middle class mothers, single parents, military men, motorcycle bike riders, teenagers, homeless, twenty-something soul searchers, college graduates, suburban families, conservatives and liberals, catholics and protestants, the unwed mothers and fathers, the sinners, the prostitutes, the drug dealers and tax collectors all come together, close our eyes, and sing songs to the same Jesus who loves us all - just as we are - beautiful, chaotic messes.
i interrupted ted and said, "well, i don't agree with what you're saying about obama, but all i know is that i'm glad that one day, you and me, ted, we're going to go some place where this shit won't matter." and so ted put his hand on my head, and ruffled my hair a little, and the sun was even shining and he smiled at me and laughed and agreed with me in his west virginian accent. then we went to eat BLTs with 3 asians and 1 italian at a nearby diner.
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