And It Was Me

For generations, the second Monday in October has been known as Columbus Day -- until this week in Oregon. The Oregon legislature approved renaming the day Indigenous Peoples Day by a generous margin, and Oregon is now the 13th state to make the transition. For details, look here: Oregon Recognizes Indigenous People Day; Tribes See Hope.

As our state takes steps to rewrite a problematic narrative, what work do we need to do to ensure that (1) we are not promoting damaging stories and (2) we remain open to new lenses as we encounter the world?

Tommy Orange is a popular writer whose 2018 book There, There was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. Orange is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, and his work presses into the complexities of 21st-century cultural struggles and the individual search for self. Listen to the poignancy of the closing lines of Tommy Orange's short story "New Jesus":

Something had been wrong for a long time. And it was me.

In one of the more remarkable parables in the New Testament, Jesus tells a story of two men who have come to the temple to pray, one a religious, rule-following Pharisee, and the other a sinful tax collector. When the religious man prays, he lists the good things he has done and thanks God that he is not like the immoral people around him: "I thank you, God, that I am not like other people," he rather boldly says. The tax collector stands at a distance, asking for God's mercy and afraid to fully enter the temple. Rather than praising the religious man for the rules he has followed, Jesus exalts the tax collector for his humility (Luke 18:9-14).

We should all take heed, as our cultural tendency is to shame and blame others rather than taking responsibility ourselves. How does your lens need to change? What work do you need to do to ensure that your mind remains open, you are able to think critically and calmly rather than responding with emotion, and you are able to lead others to new ways of thinking as well? What questions do we need to continue asking, and what new stories do we need to tell?

Is it also possible that Orange's "it was me" is aimed at each one of us, imploring us to change our own lens so we are able to see the impact the decisions we make can have on generations to come? What other changes need to occur in order to rewrite the narrative of our church, our nation, our lives?

Blessings on your week,

Jennie