Exile and -isms
The first manifestation of being in exile is broken relationships.
We fall out of relationship with ourselves. We are soiled and we do not like it. Shame. So we hide. Even from ourselves. And the mirror – both physically and metaphorically - becomes a scary place.
This separation from self bleeds into my relationships. An unsure self is threatened and creates walls of protection.
St. Augustine is quoted as saying,
“How can I draw close to God when I am so far from your own self? Grant Lord that I might know myself that I might know thee.”
What we do with God we do with other people as well.
Shame and blame.
Shame. So I hide. If you don’t see me you cannot reject me.
But I cannot hide forever so I eventually have to interact with others. Interaction leads to misunderstanding, disappointment, and confrontation. Exposed. So I blame.
Shame is passive hatred of self. Blame is active hatred of the other. Both are wall builders. I work, whether passively or actively, to keep you out.
However, the danger unfolds over time as blame can take on a social dynamic in the form of –isms.
Racism.
Sexism.
Ethnocentrism.
Age-ism
Able-ism
And every other “you are different than me so I must keep you at a distance” -ism.
There is an instinct in our marred fallen selves to demonize others to somehow prop up a threatened and weaker aspect of our self.
The gospel blows up all -isms.
The apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians really captures this breaking down of the walls of exile to bring us back into whole relationships.
Remember that you were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of God’s people and strangers of the covenants of promise . . .
But now in Christ Jesus you have been brought near . . .
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility . . .
Thereby killing hostility . . .
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God . . .
(all these references are found in chapter 2 of the letter).
From being strangers in exile, on the other side of the wall of hostility, to being insiders.
Sadly, we have this reflex of hostility that remains with us. Even people that fancy themselves as “open minded” hate people that are “closed minded.” They prove that we are all closed-minded. We just choose and embrace different –isms to keep others out or to keep us feeling superior in our own shame and failure.
Against ourselves!
Against God!
And against others!
But the gospel calls us to bury the hatchet.
Against ourselves!
Against God!
And against others!
When we allow ourselves to be found by God and we agree with what he says about us it changes our attitude toward the walls of protection that we have created.
What does he say? We belong.
We no longer feel at enmity with our Creator and Redeemer – so we do not need to feel distance from ourselves, nor extend the hostility to others.
Walls down. The deconstruction of -isms.
We do not lose discernment. Difference is difference.
We lose judgment. Difference does not need to be demonized.
Walls are meant to protect. Richard Rohr coined the phrase, “nothing to prove, nothing to protect,” to describe what it means to live a gospel saturated life that does not create false walls of protection.
And when walls come down, intimacy rises up.
Do you still feel –isms in your life? It is time to let the gospel set you free from the need to hide in shame or attack in blame.
On exile with you in a long tradition of exiles.
