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Deep in our Hearts
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29 March 2009 Imagine a huge Native American drum, so big that it takes a minimum of four drummers to sing its rhythm. Imagine a circle of dancers, moving to that rhythm. Imagine that the rhythm is that of a heart beat, heavy, soft, heavy, soft. Imagine the whoosh of your life’s blood moving through your system. Imagine your heart connected to the hearts of the other dancers, all moving to the same rhythm, all moving to the same, Spirit-driven pulse of life and love. My colleague and friend, Rosemary McCombs Maxey, of the Muskogee (mus CO gy) Creek nation, shared that basic step-dance, circle dance with me in the mid-1990's, before she and her family moved back to her native Oklahoma. In 1987, Rosemary became the first American Indian woman to be ordained in the United Church of Christ. As she taught me the dance, she shared that the rhythm to Native American dances is based on the most elemental rhythm of all–the rhythm of our heartbeat, the rhythm of life. Even though the hymn we sang this morning at the beginning of worship, comes from another Native American nation, the Dakota people, Wakantanka Taku Nitawa, Many and Great, O God, Are Your Works, I know Rosemary would be pleased that we included it in our service of worship. As we sang, I could imagine that hymn with the pulse of a drum. I thought of my friend Rosemary, of her gentle manner, of her covenant with the members of her nation, with those of other tongues and races from this and other nations. I thought of her covenant with those of us in the church, her covenant with God, and of the covenant written within her heart that guides her deep commitment to justice. In another culture she would be the definition of a steel magnolia. In her own culture, or more correctly, her own mix of cultures, she embodies Jeremiah’s call to hold institutions and the people who run them accountable to the laws of God. Let me tell you about Rosemary.[1] Her grounding is in Dustin, Oklahoma, where she was in the fourth grade at the time of integration. At the time, she was told that whites were a superior race, Indians the second tier, and the third tier was Black. A townsperson told her that it was bad enough to have “Injuns” in their schools, “now we have to have *!*@! (them).” When integration became law, her cousins went to town and got drunk. Her father went on a prayer walk. Her mother planned how she would go talk to that townsperson. Can we be like that? That hard-hearted? Are we that unthinking that we would hurt somebody? By the time Rosemary reached the age when Native American youth are encouraged to have vision quests, she knew that God was calling her–which conflicted with strong Southern Baptist teachings that American Indians are the worst sort of sinners. Thanks to the strength of her father’s religious teachings and her mother’s and grandmother’ clan teachings that Rosemary moved beyond Southern Baptist theology and the degradation of colonizing systems. She and her family moved east. She graduated from Lancaster Theological Seminary, then pastored one of our small UCC churches in Carroll County for thirteen years. Rosemary was one of the first colleagues I met when our own family moved to Maryland. Eventually, she and her family moved back to Oklahoma. That’s where she saw a newspaper headline: “State of Hawaii Negotiating with Muscogee Nation.” Rosemary was appalled. Her Nation contracted to build a private prison for Hawaii to load up and take native men 3000 miles from family and homeland. Shortly after it became operational, one of the Hawaiian prisoners requested sponsors for practicing traditional religion as a way of promoting healing among fellow prisoners...but the prison chaplain allowed only “Christian” services. Visitation and gatherings of prisoners were denied. For six years they struggled to get on the chapel schedule. Then in the second week of January, in observance of the Hawaiian new year, Makahiki, three men came from Hawaii to chant with prisoners in the morning. They were refused admittance. So Rosemary and a number of others went any way...at 5:30 a.m. in 20 degree weather. They offered prayer in the four directions, chanting from outside the prison. As they chanted, there was movement in and out of the dining hall. The men were chanting in response. That afternoon, prison official allowed the Hawaiian guests and some of the other men inside. Rosemary now makes a weekly three-hour drive to that prison chapel. This weekend, as part of Seneca Valley’s covenant with Central Atlantic Conference as recipients of the $5,000 church vitality grant, Heidi Harmon, Laura Lineberger, and I were in Perry Hall, Maryland for a Small Church Vitality workshop. That big colorful fish you see in the hallway was one of our assignments, where we were asked to create a shield that included symbols for God’s relationship to us. Most of the 125 participants chose a heart. Rosemary would understand that. So would the prophet Jeremiah. But neither of them would understand it as mere sentimentality. Rosemary has struggled against the effects of colonial mentalities and racist attitudes since she was old enough to recognize them. Jeremiah struggled against Judah’s disastrous alliance with Egypt and the crushing defeat of his people at the hands of Babylon. Drawing upon the deepest understandings of covenantal theology, both Jeremiah and Rosemary would understand that God’s purpose, God’s will is to bring renewal where betrayal and disaster have reigned. They would understand that struggle itself has meaning, that impulses toward justice and healing are opportunities for us to be co-creators with God. In this symbol of the heart, Rosemary and Jeremiah would understand One heart connected to the hearts of the other dancers, all moving to the same rhythm, all moving to the same, Spirit-driven pulse of life and love. My prayer for each of us in this Lenten season is that we hear the pulse of God’s loving heart and become co-creators in the dance of healing and justice. *** [1] All of the biographical information about Rosemary McCombs Maxey is either summarized or quoted directly from www.ucc.org/women/pdfs/microsoft-word-finding-voice-rosemary-maxey-july-2007.pdf - |