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Division or Peace
Sometimes Jesus seems irritated. People, including his constant companions, the disciples, don’t get the message. They distort what Jesus was trying to teach and to do with them on earth. They wanted happy-clappy thoughts and were blind to what was happening or what was going to happen, yet they considered themselves experts at reading the sky and earth signs, like modern TV weathermen, who never get their forecasts correct. Jesus was not teaching what the Jewish high priests demanded, more and more religious laws, but He dwelled on what he knew as truth - and the desires of his Father. It was tough and confusing.
 Then Jesus really shook up the waters when he said: “I come to bring fire to the earth. How I wish it were already kindled. I have a baptism with which to be baptized and what stress I am under until it is completed. Do you think that I have come to bring peace on the earth? No, I tell you. But division. From now on five in one household will be divided”. This division would be so deep that it would interrupt family relations, and pitch father against son, and brother against sister. It would not be pretty. Some would follow Jesus, some would not. But each of His disciples needed to put his mind inside the camp of Jesus and store away anything that didn’t pertain to building God’s kingdom on earth. As the late Archbishop Tutu of South Africa said: “God, without us, will not; as we, without God, cannot.”
Considering the abuse of the laws of God and the egregious power the high priests held over people’s lives, change was needed. Rules had moved way beyond the possible. Men and women needed to know that through prayer and worship, they had direct access to God, especially if they followed Jesus who had been sent by God to be our shepherd, our bread, our light, our Word, our savior. Despite what we learned in modern Sunday school; Jesus was a revolutionary. Pilate recognized this and for that reason, theologian John Crossan tells us, Pilate required an official, legal, and public execution of Jesus. But Jesus was nonviolent, rather than violent, and therefore there was no need to worry about his followers or put them in jail. No one was going to put up a fight. Barrabas, on the other hand, who hung on the cross beside Jesus, had been a violent freedom fighter, so Barrabas’ followers were arrested along with him.
Jesus explained that His kingdom was not of this world. If it was, his followers would be fighting to keep him from being handed over. That’s why his disciples were allowed to flee and hide, cowardly as they were. But no one could/would use violence even to free Jesus. They could not impede the road to the cross, because Jesus was taking upon himself the burden of all our sins and wrong doing, all evil, for which, by his crucifixion on the cross, He would carry away and dispose in the fire of his heart.
The world today is strangled by violence. War has broken out in beautiful Ukraine. Even in our side of the seas, we live in fear of terrorist, prisoners, active shooters invading peaceful places, floods of refugees, undocumented immigrants, off-the-wall wannabe presidents. Prisons are filled with murderers, felons, and abusers, some there for life, to be funded by taxpayers. And we toss youth into the worst lockups where they have no defense, because the guards don’t give a damn. It’s a profession for many - imagine how many jobs would be lost if we didn’t have this giant system of prisons - and a billion-dollar business in America just constructing and maintaining the concrete shelters or prisons, into which criminals are thrown, most of them for the rest of their lives.
Sadly, this destination can start with kids who commit aggravated crimes and murder, juveniles, ages from 12-17, who are sent from juvenile court to a youth jail until the step on their 18th birthday, when they are transferred to 201 Poplar, to a special pod, thank God, to await trial in an adult court for an adult crime. This is where I have dedicated a few years of my life. This is where our youth are not just perpetrators of crime, but they are victims of a society that is out of control. Just like a baby imitates what he sees - mother’s smile, or playing with a spoon, or those goo-goo and gaga sounds that one day become words - all children start out life learning, copying what he or she lives with day and night, and for them, this sets up as the normal. This is how life is. This is what they know.
So, when a child has ACEs, or Adverse Childhood Experiences, like having a family member incarcerated, or watching a mother dissolve in drugs and fail to hug or read to her child, and no one picks up that baby to comfort him or her, or there is pornography on the TV and gun shots all around their front yard as gangs war against each other, - this is what our contemporary youth think is normal. They do what they know. And the sad thing is that when they join gangs because, at least, it is something to do and they won’t be lonely for a while, the youngest ones are truly sent out to rob, kill, and commit violent crimes to gain glory and honor for a gang. The gangsters promise them, that the young ones won’t have to spend much time in prison because they are underage. That is a complete lie. Now, a child, no matter his age, can be judged in juvenile court to need incarceration big time, probably for life. He or she is put in detention until reaching 18 years old, and then they are plopped right into big time prison, waiting for their sentence which could be life without parole, or, the newest thing, 50 years with no parole. The court is not deceived. But how can we waste our youth who committed a crime (probably ordered) when 14 or 15 or 16 years old, when they had no concept that he or she was walking into the doom, the end, of life and would never have a chance to be who they could have been?
Now Juvenile Court binds over youth to adult courts which throw them in the pits of adult prison where they become animals for the monsters that are there for life. It is frightening because lives are being wasted, our future men are being stripped of all sanity and usefulness. And for me there is constant weeping and gnashing of teeth because we are losing them. There is nowhere for them to go. In my city, the second most dangerous in the US, I have tried to know these youth. At least the Sheriff Department has set up a prison system where 18–24-year-olds are not tossed in with the big boys. At least they have activities to give them some hope. I have asked athletes (football and basketball players, cross-fit gymnasts) to come give boot camp style exercise classes for them and it has been, until coronavirus, one of the most successful programs going. For a few hours in the week, these guys talk to each other, work together, laugh, sweat, and get to use up some energy tacked onto fun and then we join in a huge circle (50-60 youth) and pray. When I leave those days, my heart rests because these young men have had some joy and maybe begin to feel in their hearts, someone cares.
Jesus experts point out that our Jesus was homeless, a refugee, a prisoner, in the poor category, and He hung around with curious types - fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, renegades, possibly criminals - and I would think that was because these people He could identify with in some way - needy, outcasts, lost men up for grabs to be saved from hell, and probably a lot of fun to be around. It is why I try to follow Jesus, knowing these kinds of people. I don’t know why my passion is working in prisons. I broke open the gate when I was ordained deacon in Uruguay. I am probably the only woman you know who rather walk-through prisons than through a garden. I even had the best of parents who taught me respect for all peoples and to be generous without editing. I was brought up in a horribly racist society, but I never thought twice about having black or Latin friends. They were much more interesting than the social elite I was forced to grow up with. But in my early teens, God was in the picture, in my heart from the start, and I could feel him pushing me into the difficult pathways of Jesus and it has been a blessing all the way.
So daily I pray for God’s peace, for reason and love to cover the world, for a chance to embrace the enemy and give hope to the poor, homeless, prostitute, and mentally ill. We must never stop praying for this. Jesus has promised that out there for us is a place with no racism, with no prejudice, with no pain or hatred, with no violence. Please allow this, Lord, soon. And please show us how to stop the violence on this rock of earth.
I beg him to send us where we need to be in those most difficult places where mankind is most hungry and needy, and that we be good Samaritans sharing God’s love and compassion and his peace to all we meet. Now we have the 901 Block Squad who helps families deal with their youth in desperate situations, and Martha Rogers’ Cease Fires, where first timer youths learn that guns are the weapons of criminals, are deadly, and so are given one more chance to by-pass having a gun in their hands or pockets. Good people who have been there and done that, are sharing their experiences, which few want to duplicate. Such meetings are spiritual and hopeful, even when there is a stubborn girl or boy who tosses it all in the garbage can. The Block Squad and pastors and my favorite the morgue director are making a difference in these kids in this program.
It is proof that if we can all listen to the Holy Spirit, maybe we will hear the gravel crunch as we step out in our shoes and begin that long walk behind Christ. We should listen to the silence of the moment, and let God speak loudly in our breath and calm our worries. He loves us all. Amen.
~ Rev
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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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