Monday Morning in the Preacher’s Study
First thoughts about next Sunday’s sermon
(15th Sunday after Pentecost, Sept. 6, 2015)
Maylanne Maybee
Living our Baptismal Promise from a Perspective of Privilege
What does it mean
to live out our baptismal promise from a perspective of privilege?
The Johari Window
is a psychological tool for understanding how we and others see ourselves. The four panes in the window represent four
perspectives: what is known to oneself and known to others (Open); what is not
known to oneself but is known to others (Blind); what is known to oneself but
not to others (Hidden); and what is not known either to oneself or to others
(Unknown).
Privilege often
puts us in the Blind pane. Others,
especially those less powerful or privileged, know what motivates and informs
our actions in ways we are unable to see.
The words of
Proverbs were spoken in a context of privilege, addressed to people of power
and wealth in the royal courts of David and Solomon, people seeking insight and
good judgment in the conduct of their daily affairs. Such people sought out the sages to help
enlarge the “Open” windowpane of Wisdom.
Among his own
people, Jesus addressed his message to the poor and the privileged alike,
though often with a different emphasis for different audiences. But Mark’s account of Jesus’ encounter with
the Syro-Phoenician woman seems to reveal that his religious privilege as a
male Jewish rabbi almost blinded him to the faith and humanity of a woman
outside that system.
Similarly, the assemblies
of the faithful to whom James addresses his letter were at risk of being blinded
by cultural privilege. Though probably mixed
congregations of Jews and Gentiles, they were so influenced by the Roman
practice of honouring those of wealth and status that they were unable to see its
inherent contradiction with Jesus’ gospel message of good news to the poor.
The struggle to
create Christian Eucharistic communities where no distinctions are made between
people of privilege and people of poverty and low station is apparent
throughout the New Testament. It was to
such a Eucharistic community in Corinth that Paul complained that “one goes
hungry and another becomes drunk.” (1
Cor. 11.21) It was from such a community
in Acts 6 that seven men were selected initially to facilitate the equitable distribution
of resources among the Hebrews and the Hellenist widows.
Like the emergent
Christian congregations of Palestine for whom James’ letter was intended, we
North American Christians live in a dominant culture that honours wealth and
power and relegates the poor and the “other” to sit at our feet, a culture that
is all too often repeated in our Sunday worshipping communities.
Our baptismal
promise serves as a kind of “Johari Window”, inviting us to narrow the pane of
blindness to our own privilege and status, and to enlarge the windowpane of
openness and generosity. “Will you seek
and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbour as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among
all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?”
Our Eucharistic
communities are places where we can rehearse relationships of love and justice,
where we can learn to adopt and live by countercultural values, showing equal
respect to all who enter our church doors, and leaving them strengthened by
faith to show works of justice, generosity, and respect in all our doings.
Maylanne Maybee, a member of APLM Council, is a deacon serving in the
Diocese of Rupert’s Land (Anglican Church of Canada). She is Principal of
the Centre for Christian Studies, a national theological school based in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
