There’s no greed in the need to be seen

Lemn Sissay.  You probably haven’t heard of him, or maybe you have.  Hearing his story not only resonated with an unknown passion in my heart, it reverberated within the unquestioned nodules of my soul.  So anti-racist as to be racist, I had no idea, and yet what is buried deep within me, that which is intrinsically part of me, is a prejudice that I can only acknowledge.  We all have them.  And the only solution is to be honest, to face them, to admit that they exist, and then repent of them, for we cannot recant them.

Deep in the history of the life of Lemn Sissay (chancellor of the University of Manchester) lay the ruins of a rejected humanity.  And yet there, within the boy, as a child of the state, materialised a man who became a prophet for these times.  A boy who was ‘rescued’ by civilised white church English folk, who was then rejected by these same people — his only known family — who were not so much kind, as “kind of kind,” losing everything and being cast into a boy’s home as a 12-year-old.

Sissay’s story is the ultimate caricature of bigoted scapegoating.  The voice of institutional racism and abuse shines a light on the prejudices that a patriarchal, colonial society carry.  Oh, I know that it’s not a good idea to mention concepts like patriarchy or colonialism, but they’re the sins of the institution of our time.  This truth is sure:

the worst -isms are predicated on pretending to be holy
the most ‘pious’ of people are also typically the most predatory

How many swoon to the overtures of culture, where structures and institutions are worshipped, where Christ is nowhere to be found?  How many of us have ‘thrived’ in the cultures that have swallowed us into themselves by our accommodating of myriad compromise?  How many of us have had to ignore the wrong that goes on, just to keep the peace and to keep our place secure in the subcultures that have given us conditional abode?  It is a tyranny that all are subject to, and the very presence of this wickedness heralds all the more the need of Jesus of Nazareth.

The problem with this kind of society is what it does to the least of these.  Those who are not seen would be the first ones that Jesus would see as standing out from the crowd.  This Jesus of our salvation beckons to these to come close, and to hear his voice, as he may say, “There is no greed in the need to be seen.”

Indeed, every human being needs to be seen, to be noticed, to be cherished, to be held, and to be heard.  If every human being was to be established in such embrace, the love of Christ adorned and personal, there would be no brokenness, no violence, no rejection of God.  “Perfect redemption, the purchase of blood.”  As it is to be with us.

Everyone has a need of expression, just as everyone needs to be met at a gate called acceptance.  It is unfortunate that we often need to be affirmed by others in order to feel accepted, when the truth in all reality is, we are accepted by God already.  Having bypassed God, because we are met by the most broken versions of God’s image, of course we will feel that we are less than we are.

Isn’t it strange and indeed bizarre at the extreme that those who most pretend to have everything together are the most broken of all, because they’re deluded enough to think they do not need God?  So many of these are good churchly people, who feel God is so blessed to have them offer what they’ve got.  People who couldn’t be more wrong.  They turn God’s gift back on God imagining God wouldn’t be the same without them.

Every single one of us struggles in having never quite anticipated the truth of who we actually are.  We are a chosen people, and none are excluded.  Of course, again, I do not want you to miss this, that there are sects of faith in all matters of expression who have acted as if they are exclusively arranged as divine.  These could not be further from God.  The classic irony is that those who treat others with even the slightest disdain — and disdain with the best, most superior intent — are themselves disdained by God.  That’s your Christian snob.  The one who cannot know Christ.

There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God, whether you reject God or not, whether you feel utterly unworthy or not, whether you feel this discussion is discussable or not.  There is nothing we can change about how God feels about us in our mortal bodies, with minds and hearts created in his image, yet fallen by actuality, and by innate prejudice so needy of Jesus.  All who call on this Christ by name, truly, will be transformed in his kindness.  Their fruit will be kindness, with no credit to themselves.

There is a need to abide to the truth.  Every one of us must necessarily live according to reality, and when that reality is wrong, when there is nothing good about it, it needs to be discussed just as much as it would if everything was good about it.  Silence is anathema.  And those who silence the least of these will surely endure most punishment.

There is no greed in the need to be seen, and to be seen is to be heard, and to be heard is to be graced with the opportunity to use one’s voice.  There is no purpose in silence in the kingdom of God, because silencing voices comes from the enemy.  In using our voices, and having people turn toward us and notice us, and in their listening to us, we are known.

There is no greed in the need to be seen.  Greed exists, however, in denying a person their need to be seen.  There is no kindness in that, but God’s judgement.

Photo by Paul Gilmore on Unsplash