Dear friends,
This week was table turning Sunday, when we remembered Jesus’ act of defiance in the temple in Jerusalem. Ben and I flipped some small tables over in celebration Sunday morning, but the youth group had already practiced doing this – over and over again. Check out our video, https://flic.kr/p/GPdr1J, and keep watching until you get to the slow-motion portions. We had fun, yes, but the practice taught us something important too: when asked, “what would Jesus do?” getting angry and flipping tables is an acceptable answer.
Why make this into a liturgical action? After all, Jesus did not actually say “do this in remembrance of me” at the table turning in the temple. But Christians have too long been known for our maintaining of the status quo, rather than for any efforts to turn it over. And it is time now – or perhaps long past time – that we learn to join God in the work prophesied by Mary: to bring down the powerful from their thrones, and lift up the lowly. Anger is not what we tend to expect in church. We are used to having church inspire us, uplift us, perhaps comfort us or energize us. But, sometimes we need to go to church to remember how to be angry at injustice – and there is plenty of injustice in the world. The entrenched systems of white supremacy, sexism, racism, homophobia, poverty, and so many more combine to create a human hierarchy which is not what God envisions for us. Our human diversity is a gift of God, which blesses us with beauty, strength, complexity, and challenge. Our diversity was never meant to become a means to divide us against one another. It was never meant to become the justification for human hierarchy.
This week in youth group I taught the youth a very unfair card game, and eventually the game devolved into protests, walk outs, and one table playing “Go Fish” instead of the assigned game. When I explained to them that the whole point of the game was to goad them to rebel against me (the game leader) and the unfair rules I was giving them (which were indeed deeply unfair), they looked at me like I had two heads for a moment, and then things clicked into place and they started chattering eagerly. Yes! It felt empowering to opt out! Yes! This is America! You can’t force us to play!
So, to riff off an old Franciscan blessing, I offer you this charge:
May God bless you with anger at injustice and human hierarchy. May God bless you with the energy of a teenager discovering the power of protest. And may God bless you with enough foolishness and wisdom to believe that together we can change the world.
Every Blessing,
Talitha