In Jamaica’s 60th sovereign year as a nation, we reflect how far we have come. Hopefully this year, we have matured enough to include that mirror we all have in each other in our reflective process. Seeing ourselves through the eyes of our contemporaries, even through the eyes of our adversaries, may not always render an accurate picture of ourselves. For that matter, seeing ourselves through our own eyes often does not accomplish same. It often takes hindsight to more accurately identify the spirit of which we are of; but mirrors at different angles can supply context.
Three years of walking with Messiah, hearing, seeing, handling and tasting the Living Word; was still not enough for Peter to locate himself. If not for the rude intervention of Spirit and Brethren, particularly brother Paul, he would happily have continued in self-righteous stubbornness as he was wont to do even in the Master’s presence on so many occasions while He was yet with them.
It was the wisdom of God to match Peter with an equally obstinate leader whose fiery zeal was as apt to send him to perdition but for the intervention of divine grace. Peter and Paul: apostle to Jew and Gentile, Orthodox and Reformed, champions at various times of conservative and progressive theologies, celebrated cornerstones of Catholic and Protestant churches – in an age such as ours where so much emphasis is placed on giving church leadership due honor in their domain of jurisdiction, it may be perhaps beneficial to remember the clay feet of church leadership (for that matter all biblical leadership) from the very beginning.
Christ alone is solid rock. But for His grace we all perish.
Looking through the mirror of multiple pairs of human eyes can be quite humbling. The arrogance of fairest-of-all, Snow White Queen whose bewitched mirror on the wall never seems to inform her of moral culpability, corruption or reparatory responsibility is not sustainable if other mirrors are allowed to talk. Those blessed like Peter or Paul to have clear vision interrupt their dreamed-up reality at least have an opportunity to wake up from the nightmare in which they have been spellbound, even if it knocks them off of their high horse or temporarily confounds them in blinding stupor.
The church in Jamaica may boast that at every step of the journey of national becoming, some Moses, a product of the church, lit by Christian conviction, led us into the path of greater glory. The slave rebellions, social protests, free village settlements, land reform, economic empowerment movements, the labor movement, the independence movement, adult suffrage and electoral reform, education, social justice movement, advocacy for the marginalized … just about every major step our island peoples have taken to transform this land from a den of thieves to a House of freedom, justice and prosperity has been championed and spearheaded by a Christ-professing believer. Not every name is remembered, or was even duly recognized at the time. But their stories are there to be told. Unlike sister nations Guyana and Trinidad, it has been the candle of Christian conscience at the rudder of progress for Jamaica’s people and the development of the nation.
Yet still, this Make-Jamaica-Great narrative omits to mention that equally from the beginning, each bastion of oppression, each roadblock to justice, each assault against the dignity of the common humanity of our people, each legislative contrivance to frustrate the aspirations of the marginalized, each covert assault against truth for the unabated perpetration of evil was also, in almost every case, manned and defended by some Saul or Simon in the service of his God, and of Right and Order, blinded by zeal or power, completely self-assured, having no use for mirrors, being the chosen of God. Our christs and anti-christs both go to and come from church.
Although no one goes to the mirror to see her shadow, as noted in The Dark Side of Christianity, the church has been on both sides of every moral and political struggle from Columbus through Cromwell to the present. Pulpits from across the variegated denominational spectrum in the land today are lit ablaze by self-assured God spokespersons..
Contemporary leadership from church and state may not afford the luxury of second-guessing themselves while attempting to walk on turbulent waters. But while 60 years of independence may not exactly leave us on dry ground, hopefully it is a boat of reprieve that allows us some time not only to celebrate our victories, but also to soberly reflect on just where we are now in the grand scheme of things.
From our limited perspectives, we’re all doing the best we can, which justifies the gracious prayer “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”.
But at 60, it’s high time some of us understood exactly what we’re doing, what’s been tried before, and what we need to do to get us where we want to go.…. so join our Emancipation Day Reflection – a conversation to humble ourselves, look in the mirror, and ask the Living Word to reveal Himself there.
YeKengalé 