137 shots

Matthew 30:31-2 – Jesus stopped and calling to [the two blind men] said, “What do you want me to do for you? They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”

This passage one thing I appreciate about Jesus, he listens. He doesn’t just heal them and move on, he listens. He asks what do you want, and then he listens. What a great chaplain. It’s especially great that he does not say, “Thoughts and prayers,” and move on even though he has the power to help. He merely asks what they want. He gives them an opportunity to tell their story. He gives them the gift of being heard.

So many people today feel unheard. We often talk past each other in our efforts to be heard, thus increasing the frustration. Sometimes we talk past each other to avoid having to listen. White men have been avoiding listening to white women and men and women of colors for centuries. Television pundits shouting at each other only amplifies the white man’s voice. They have positions of power and drown us out. One way we are seeing this is the revelations of sexual harassment and abuse many respected – and some not so respected – men have perpetrated against those without power. Yet, we continue to privilege the men doing the assaulting by discussing them rather than how such behavior impacts their victims. Women’s voices are still drowned out.

Last night, Peter and I went to a worship and rally in remembrance of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, who were shot 137 times by the Cleveland PD. It’s been five years and there has been no justice. Only one officer (out of 13 shooters) lost their job, none have gone to jail. There were cops from several jurisdictions around and the Cleveland PD were out of Cleveland at the time. The shooting happened in East Cleveland – in the parking lot of a middle school. They had done nothing for the officer to want to pull them over and were not wanted on a warrant. They did lead the police on a high-speed chase, which would not have happened had the officer who began this mess had left them alone. I wanted to share that before I share my thoughts about the rally.

At the rally, held at the school’s parking lot where the shooting happened, we began with prayer. At first there were only a dozen people there from two maybe three community organizing groups. After prayer, we counted aloud to 137, stopping to say “reload” on the 10s. By the time we got to 100, I was having trouble not crying. It was both moving and horrifying. So I invite you now, stop reading and count to 137, stopping on the 10s to say “reload.” While you’re doing this imagine you’re in a car in a dark parking lot surrounded by cops and those numbers are bullets. Oh yeah, and one of the cops has jumped on the hood and is shooting through the windshield. Hopefully, they were not conscious for that.

I have just read The Quest for the Historical Satan by Miguel De La Torre and Albert Hernandez. They offer a new way to think about satan – the accuser. They suggest we think of satan as a trickster; not a god opposed to God, but rather God’s partner. Tricksters in almost all human mythologies are neither good nor bad but often play a role in shining a mirror for us to see our behavior. Like signs on the road that we need to pay attention, tricksters try to give us heads up by testing us. So, satan, who needs God’s permission, tests us. Will we pass or fail? Completely up to us! I think America as a society is failing. We have failed to listen to women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted, instead treating them like sluts. We have failed to listen to Black people when they told us the truth about their lives. When evidence was presented, we made excuses. As a society. We failed and continue to fail the tests. They say the greatest trick the devil pulled was convincing people they didn’t exist. De La Torre and Hernandez argue that the greatest trick was to convince us that bad is good and good is bad. I think they might be right.

Which brings us to the final verse: "Lord, let our eyes be opened." We can only see when we’re willing to look with open eyes. So much of our political and social life together is built on denial of reality. As a society, as a church, we have ignored the signs and are reaping what we’ve sown. We have a tax bill that cuts taxes to corporations and takes away many benefits from actual people. We have been tricked into thinking good is bad and bad is good.

And so with those two blind men, I pray, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”

PS – I’m annoyed with myself because I just sent in my application for an MTS at Iliff (online) and then I came up with all this. It would’ve been a beautiful essay….