Mind Your Prejudice

Welcome back to me! I was out of town for Sunday, June 30th attending the wedding of my seminary friend, Sarah, to her bride Jen in Huntsville, Alabama. It was a HUGE event. Seriously: something close to 500 guests, a church so full that my wife and I had to sit in the chapel and watch the service on a big screen TV. It was fun...festive...and gave me a much needed break.

Back in the saddle...the Gospel reading had me go back in time to reflect upon some of my experiences as a gas station attendant. Interestingly, that's what most of the congregation wanted to talk to me about after the service. 

Hope they also heard the main message: I noted that the job gave me a chance to reflect upon prejudice....including my own. 

What do these words make you consider?

Text: Mark 6:1-13 

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Many of us probably remember what our summers were like during our high school years.

These were times of hanging out with friends…maybe taking some family vacations…possibly going to camp.

Or…if you were like me…you spent time working a summer job.

One of my jobs was working as a gas station attendant.

It was pretty easy…if a little bit boring work.

This was back in the days when only half of the pumps were self-service.

And…of course…the full-service island were those four pumps the furthest from the building.

I would get a lot of exercise running back and forth from the pumps to the cash register to ring up a person’s credit card.

And I was expected to wash the front and back windshields and if the person popped their hood…check their oil.

I was friendly with the customers…even a little playful.

I’d adopt different accents as I interacted with them….especially out-of-staters.

I would put on a genuine “New Hampshire” accent for people coming from outside of the region.

I didn’t want the South Carolinians to have passed through my home state without hearing at least one person advise them on where they could find the best “lobstah on tha Seacoast.”

I learned a lot about people doing that job.

Especially the way people perceive other people.

One day…this guy and a companion pulled in on their Harley.

He was a big guy with a shaved head…and a bushy mustache and goatee.

His sleeveless shirt under his black leather vest revealed arms that were covered with blue tattoos.

His friend was also decked out in black leather…and wore steel-toed boots.

I’m not going to lie:

they scared me.

I watched them carefully from my not-all-that-safe perch behind the counter.

When they came in…I could feel my spine stiffening.

The big burly tattooed guy smiled at me.

“Hey there!”

His voice was happy and joyful.

He and his friend were out for a ride on a sunny afternoon.

He wanted to know if we sold cigarettes.

We didn’t. We only had items for cars like oil and transmission fluid.

“No worries!” he said…handing over the money for his gas, “Have a great day!”

He and his friend roared out of our parking lot…

And I was left to examine my initial internal response of being so afraid of these two.

They weren’t scary after all.

That same afternoon…a car pulled up to the self-service pumps.

Out of the car stepped two nuns in their habits. As they pumped their gas…I saw a car pull up to the full-service island.

Out I ran to tend to those customers.

And then…as I started pumping their gas…another car pulled into the full-service area.

And….naturally…wherever two cars are gathered at a gas pump…a third car pulled into the full service lane.

Remember that I said I had to pump the gas…and wash windshields.

Thankfully…no one wanted their oil checked!

Meanwhile…the nuns had finished pumping their gas and were waiting for me.

I explained that I needed to run these first two credit cards and then I would be right with them.

“Well, we’ve been waiting!” snapped the one nun.

Now my spine stiffened again…but this time it was in anger.

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” as I ran with my two clipboards and the credit cards back to the cars at the pumps.

I let car number three know that I would be back to them in a moment.

When I returned to the station…the nun who had snapped at me handed over her money for the gas.

I made the change.

The two of them turned and stormed out.

“Have a nice day!” I shouted as I prepared to go back to car number three.

They scoffed at me…got in the car…and drove off.

And again…I was left with something to ponder.

I had assumed that people who were outward representatives of the church…nuns…would have behaved in ways that modeled Christ.

I had thought two older white ladies would have seen that I was doing the best I could as the only attendant on duty.

I thought about these assumptions and the ones I had made of the leather-clad tattooed motorcycle man.

I had gotten things so wrong.

I had let my prejudices…both favorable and unfavorable…dictate what I thought about these people.

Our prejudices give us a warped idea of who people are.

I thought about all of this as I was reading through our Gospel lesson from Mark…and the type of reception Jesus received in his hometown.

Jesus returnedto his roots…to his family’s synagogue.

These are the people who knew him as a little boy.

They had seen him grow up and become a carpenter.

He probably built a few doorframes in the town.

But as they listened to his teaching…the way he was fitting the joints of his Judaism into a frame that challenged them to think…these folks got angry.

Their tone borders on contempt.

How dare he challenge them to look at themselves and their faith!

Who does he think he is anyway?!

What type of uppity laborer is this guy? Acting like a rabbi!

You would think that those who knew him best would’ve been more accepting or at least more excited by seeing and hearing what he had to offer.

But instead…they let their prejudices get in the way.

They know him….but they clearly don’t know him.

And because he doesn’t fit into their preconceived ideas of him…he’s unable to do any great works among them.

(Funny how that works…that when we close ourselves off…God isn’t able to work through us)

Their minds are closed…and their hearts are so fixed…that there’s no room for growth or expansion of their understanding.

This is a type of defense mechanism.

It’s a way to supposedly keep ourselves safe.

If we don’t entertain a new thought…or meet a new person…or explore a new way of doing things…then we can be safe.

We can continue to go about our business without something as troublesome as thinking or changing.

It reminds me of that bumper sticker: “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.”

But that’s really selling God short.

Because God isn’t that fixed.

Just look at what happens when Jesus shows up.

People who had been cast out are brought in.

The hemorrhaging woman…and the gravely ill daughter get healed….things that had become old are made new.

Jesus rattles us out of our comfort zone.

The Gospel reminds us of that lesson from Deuteronomy:

That God “executes justice for the orphan and the widow, loves the stranger, provides them with food and clothing” (Deut. 10:18) and that we are to do the same because…once upon a time…we were the strangers in a foreign land (Deut. 10:19).

We need to be open to people who aren’t just like us.

We must recognize that we have a responsibility to one another because God loves us and God shows no partiality.

We should be ready to have our minds blown…and our prejudices challenged.

Because…sometimes Jesus may be more recognizable in a leather vest and tattooed arms than in a blue dress and black nun’s habit.

Just when we think we know God…God is going to keep encouraging us to let go of our preconceived ideas as we keep journeying along this life-giving, liberating love that comes with being at one with God.

And it will come with a cost.

I can’t help but notice that when Jesus commissions his disciples to go out and do the same type of healing work he’s been doing…he sends them in pairs.

The New Testament scholar A.J. Levine suggests that this is something like a buddy system…or something like being a sponsor in a support group.

The pairing is a way of keeping each other honest and on track.

I also think Jesus knew the world he was sending them out into was going to be like his hometown.

They were going to face opposition…resistance to change.

But note that he doesn’t say, “Oh, well. Too much trouble. Let’s forget about this love stuff.”

Jesus says to them to go…without a bunch of things.

 Make the offer of love to each house.

If it’s accepted; fantastic. If not…move on.

That’s our charge, too.

Each week…we our fed at this table…and reminded of our connection to this Jesus who wasn’t afraid to meet the stranger with love.

If we want to be Christian…follow Jesus…we are challenged to walk in that same path.

Take that same risk.

Expand our thinking beyond whatever closed-loop silos we live in.

We’re to listen to the stories of others.

Get to know our neighbors.

Look for the Christ in the other person.

If we do just that… we might fulfill the promise to love our neighbors as we do ourselves.

In the name of our one Holy and Undivided Trinity.