Brown Privilege ...

These days there is a good deal made about “white privilege”, at least if you tune in to the democratic party from time to time.  Being a member of that privileged category myself, I tend to think I am immune to seeing it in my life.  What I do see, is the transference of legacy from one generation to another.  If your great grandfather, and grandfather, and father all went to Harvard – chances are much better you will be joining them in attending that institution.  But if no one did, your odds at getting in fall as far as your wallet’s emptiness will permit.  I seem to remember applying to Harvard when I was graduating high school back in the days of covered wagon travel 😊.  I don’t remember being accepted.  But even if I were, my single mother’s finances permitted food on the table, not attendance at a school that even back then cost more than two fortunes to attend.  It would have been a privilege to be admitted, it also would have been a life sentence to the debt that would have gone with it.  Me being white, seems to have little to do with it.  Unless you think that “to dream” in my younger years, was the privilege after all.

But when you think about it.  We seem to measure privilege in monetary terms.  Harvard is a steppingstone to a better job, with higher pay.  It is a steppingstone to introductions to the elite of our nation.  To having friends that serve in the white house, or the senate, etc.  Money, power, influence – mostly all boil back down to money again.  If my grandfather had been rich, he would have passed that wealth to my father.  My father would have passed it to me.  I would pass it on to my children.  That kind of legacy, where wealth is transferred from one generation to the next, I have seen up close and personal in others.  That is real.  That is a privilege I understand.  Don’t get to participate in it mind you, but I understand it.  When someone from that legacy in motion of wealth falls on hard times – they are given special attention to rectify their problems.  Think about it.  When the rich get in trouble with the law, it is an entirely different experience than when the poor do.  Lawyers like Alan Dershowitz can talk his client out of nearly anything.  The lawyer you get at the public defender’s office is a 50/50 bet at best.  When the rich get sick – they fly in experts, or to experts at hospitals all over the world to seek treatment.  When you or I get sick – we go to whatever facility is closest that takes our version of insurance (if we have it).  That is two entirely different experiences based on privilege.

If we were however to lift our eyes from the things of this world that so demand our attention for a moment.  And begin to measure true privilege in spiritual matters we might have to turn our thinking on its head.  At least from a racial basis anyway.  Jews, Arabs, and people who in the days of Jesus originated from the middle east, in that specific geography – where not white – they were brown.  Various degrees of brown.  This means Jesus was not the Lilly white bread picture painted by most renaissance artists (who came from whiter countries).  Jesus too was middle eastern.  He was brown.  His disciples, men or women, were also brown.  Those tagged from Ethiopia, or perhaps Egypt, or areas to the south of there were likely black.  White folks were entirely absent from the hero list of these times.  They may well have been present as the enemies of the day in the form of Romans.  Yikes.  Not only were white folks not privileged to share lineage with Jesus, but instead were the ones helping to wipe out that lineage.  Sound typical, at least in a historical context?  Seems it takes us white folks a long time to get on the right side of history in any age.  That is not privilege, it is the willful lack of it.

When Jesus however looks at privilege (and He does), He does not define it based along racial lines either.  In fact He sort of bucks the norms of catering to the intelligentsia of His day.  And He does not look to the lineage of kings and the dynasties they fight to maintain.  He skips right past the “smart folks” from the Harvard’s of His day; and then wizzes right by the Kings of it, and settles in on His target.  Or rather His Father’s target – the babies.  Luke talks about just this very thing in his gospel letter, in chapter ten, picking up in verse 21 saying … “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.”  Wow!  You will note Jesus does not mention that the revelations of wisdom regarding Himself and His Father were given specifically to brown people (even if that was the statistical result).  Nor did brown, or white, or black have any mention in the revelations being revealed.  But babies did.

There were Hebrew schools of the day, that prepared students by studying the Torah and the prophets every day.  But none of their attendees were gifted with these revelations.  Instead, relative babies were handed out the knowledge.  Fishermen.  Perhaps nearly illiterate.  Tradesmen.  People of the masses.  A women of former disrepute, and definitive demonic possession.  The blind, the lame, the healed, all considered blessed.  People who consistently knew they were not educated, or the smartest folks in the room.  People who knew their need where it comes to wisdom.  Babies.  The Father and the Son seem to always zero in on babies.  Babies are fully dependent.  They don’t carry out arguments about who is going to go to work today and earn the living for the family.  They don’t speak.  They don’t walk.  So none of their kind is prepared for providing anything.  They are instead blessed to be provided for.  That is supposed to be us.  Is it?

Jesus continues in verse 22 saying … “All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.”  And here is the entire Bible summed up in two sentences.  “All things”.  Not some of them.  Are already known by the Father, including the most important thing, the identity of the Son.  It is that knowledge that is shared by the Father God, with those babies standing around following Jesus, both men and women.  And as far as who the Father God is; that is a portrait only the Son Jesus Christ can truly reveal.  To know Jesus is to know the Father God.  To reject Jesus is to reject the Father who sent Him.  For most of us the picture of who the Father is, is a complete shrouded mystery.  We think of Him in terms of retribution, revenge, punishment, and judgment.  But the Father is NO DIFFERENT than the Son in “who” He is, or what He is like.  He loves.  He loves so hard, He was willing to give up His only Son for you or me.  Take Jesus out of the equation and the Father goes back to sheer mystery.  Don’t count on your intellect to reason you a definition – cause only babies truly get it.  You can forget your legacy of wealth to help you here, cause again, only the fully dependent even begin to understand.  The folks who think they “can take care of themselves” have no idea who God really is.

This kind of truth, was Truth for the ages.  Since Adam, mankind had longed to see it up close and in person.  But Adam would die before it came.  Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samson, David, and all the OT prophets would pass away before Jesus enters the scene.  Even Biblical heroes were not so blessed as to see Jesus for 4000+ years.  Jesus recognizes this as he continues in verse 23 saying … “And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: [verse 24] For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.”  Here Jesus lays out what real privilege is.  It has nothing to do with status.  No riches, or smarts, or even faith of the patriarchs gone by – it has to do with being babies who see their need, and cling to God to meet it.  Harvard would have netted me nothing with Jesus.  It might have even done damage to my faith in Him.  Legacy of wealth would have done nothing to recommend me to Jesus, it might have instead done damage to my ideas of self-reliance and kept me away from Jesus.  After all, why do the rich need anything from a Santa-clause God when they already have everything they want.  But Santa, is not who Jesus really is.

Babies however, are first in line at the privilege counter.  In times past brown babies had the advantage for many years, but eventually white babies were able to get in line when they finally started wanting to.  At this point in time however, we should not be thinking about this in racial terms at all.  But we should be thinking about it in the terms Jesus outlined for the favor of God the Father.  Are we self-aware enough to know our need?  Or have we determined we know everything we need to know, and have everything (even if only spiritual) we need to have.  As it turns out, I would love to be granted the privilege of knowing the identity of God the Father, and the Son.  If that means relinquishing all my acquired human wisdom for the doo-doo that it is; I am fine with that.  I understand that this wisdom is not a legacy I can pass on to my children, or have gifted to me by my parents.  It takes a one-on-one connection with Jesus – something that is just between Him and me.  My parents can point me to that, just like I hope to point my children to it.  But to grasp it, requires getting in baby mode, and submitting the core of who I am, to the One who is the source of all this Love and wisdom.  So much for Harvard, please enroll me in the cradle roll that Jesus leads.

 

The Ivy League of Illiteracy ...

Imagine what happens to the quality of education at Harvard, if the minimum requirements for entry were reduced to a third-grade literacy standard.  The teachers do not change.  The exorbitant price does not change.  But the quality of the students drops from “the perceived best-of-the-best” to nearly illiterate students.  How could a class progress without at least some semblance of a baseline education?  Imagine Oxford trying this out.  Would parents who fund a “prestigious” education continue to be willing to fund one at Oxford if the caliber of the people went from blue-blood to blue-collar?  If Yale did this, could even the sports or music programs survive?  While there are many talented people who can run or sing without the benefit of “much” education; lowering that bar all the way down to third-grade, are they still teachable or coachable at that level?  The reason why the ivy league remains the ivy league (apart from the small fortune it takes to attend them weeding out those ‘less desirables’) is the purported high academic and social activity bar they all set.  Being exclusive tends to foster exclusivity in us all, and so the economics of exclusivity remain largely untarnished.

But the economics of brilliance are not truly confined to the halls of ivy league institutions.  Many a man or woman who has yet to step upon an ivy league campus will find themselves having accomplished so much, or innovated so much, or inspired so much; that the first time they step on campus at Harvard will be as a guest lecturer.  And while ivy league engineers (or drops out of) continue to produce technology that enables entire populations to advance, the economics of those made rich by technology advances are not constricted only to the ivy league alumni.  They extend into the populous of “regular” people who come up with “good” ideas.  The good idea that pans out in the realm of technology can produce a level of wealth the inventor hardly imagined.  Is he solely dependent on his own prowess to achieve this, perhaps not.  But if the wealth created is possible without benefit of the ivy league student debt (or absent parents of sufficient means), then is the need for these vaunted institutions still as high?

Yet the common perception remains, the person with the highest formal education is most likely to succeed.  People who have attended an ivy league institution for that education are even more likely to succeed.  Statistics bear that out.  At least the statistics of common intuition, or perception by those who are not as high on the social or educational rung.  And let’s face it, it is hard for someone who did graduate from Harvard not to think of themselves as having achieved something the “common man” will never be able to do.  This self-perception will only be enforced by their peers who are forced to admit it is probably true.  So when you go to the doctor, and you see the certifications from Harvard on his/her wall; don’t you feel just a little bit better?  Oh sure, other doctors can achieve brilliance in any field, and not all of them are ivy leaguer’s – but if you don’t know them that well, an ivy league diploma does inspire a little more confidence than a night-school equivalent.

And where we understand this phenomena in our social world, we seem to have taken it into our spiritual one.  The “masters of divinity” educational title, as taught by institutions of higher learning, that enforce rigorous educational standards like an understanding of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.  Deep intensive studies of the Torah, or prophetic interpretation are standard fare.  The life of Christ is a big topic.  And most institutions that are affiliated with a particular denomination, teach that denomination’s doctrinal interpretations on many matters, expecting a deep level of understanding of these interpretations before graduation is possible.  Ministers, evangelists, or workers in the gospel who have graduated with these types of degrees and diploma’s are thought to be well prepared, and perhaps so they are.  It is as if, our Pharisee and Sadducee forefathers were still writing the scripts and setting the social expectations of our day.  And the same self-perceptions of arrogance that are easily adopted from colleagues in our ivy league institutions in the secular world, give way to our colleagues in the spiritual world who complete their education in this manner.  And in the spiritual realm, there is deference by the “common” man, to the well-educated one.

But is this how it was meant to be?  This is how traditional Jews expected it in the days of Christ, and perhaps how we continue to expect it now.  As Matthew continues to write his gospel to his fellow Hebrews he knows what they will expect.  It has been the societal norm for generations.  And what he is about to recall is going to upend it.  Picking up in his gospel in the last part of chapter eleven, Matthew begins to relay a message to his fellow Jews they may not enjoy, and neither will we by the look of it. Beginning in verse 25 he continues saying … “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.”  Yikes!  This is earth shattering.

The most brilliant religious truths that will ever be understood are “hidden” from the wise and prudent.  No amount of preparation will make them ready to receive or understand this Truth.  In fact, it has worked to keep them from understanding.  Think of it.  All that education.  All those hours studying the Torah, and reviewing the scrolls of the minor and major prophets.  All that time debating with peers about the meaning of scripture.  The right scripture by the way, not something from a different god’s agenda.  But it did not matter.  When the time came to see the Truth, the wise and the prudent, the best prepared of Jewish society, the most likely to succeed, saw nothing.  The Truth was hidden from them.  But not as punishment, as cause and effect.  When my education leads me to believe I “know” what is true, instead of forever being dependent upon God to show me what is True; I block myself from the Truth.  This is the danger in thinking that permeates our society and our church to this day.

The people who should know the Truth, do not.  And how do you know?  The measure of the yardstick is love.  How much a person loves, is an indicator of how much they know the Truth.  It is not the depth of the doctrinal understanding, but the depth of the love that bubbles over in them.  For it is the second part of what Jesus says that confirms it.  What was hidden from those who believed they had no need, was revealed unto babes.  Babies have no doubt of their need.  They respond to love and offer love in the only ways they know how to do.  They are not deep in other knowledge, but essentially empty vessels, who know nothing, and are ready to learn everything.  They do not teach anything but learn everything.  They observe everything.  They notice everything.  And they are so dependent, they would die without being taken care of.  This is the state of people God the Father chooses to work with, because this is the only state of people ready to hear what God has to say.  It is as if the “common” illiterate man, is capable of learning more from the mouth of God, than is the doctoral candidate.  Let that sink in for a while.  The Jewish community to which Matthew was writing was sure to have a field day over it.  But these were the words of Jesus, who was in fact the Truth.

Jesus then continues in verse 26 saying … “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. [verse 27] All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.”  This was even more mind boggling.  The Jews had made a lifetime of knowing the Father God through the scriptures.  They simply presumed that is who scripture revealed.  The Messiah was somewhat of a mystery to them.  They had little expectations of really getting to know the Messiah, He was simply supposed to come in and overthrow the Romans, and usher in an era of Jewish supremacy for all time.  This Jesus was clearly NOT doing that.  Ep-so-facto this Jesus could not be the waited for Messiah.  But in addition, the Jews felt like they knew God the Father already, Jesus had nothing to teach them on that score.  They simply did not need Jesus, they already had a direct connection to the Father by birthright and by study.

What they missed in their “infinite wisdom”, was that scripture revealed Jesus, was inspired by Jesus, and it was Jesus who had the direct connection to mankind all throughout scripture.  Jesus in the Garden of Eden walking with Adam and Eve in the evenings.  Jesus walking to Sodom before it would be judged, sitting with Abraham and having a meal, telling Sarah she would give birth at 90+ years old even while she giggled at the thought of the shear mechanics.  Jesus wrestling with Jacob at night.  Jesus revealing his back to Moses on Mt Sinai, and His finger writing out the Ten Commandments.  Jesus in the fiery furnace with the three Hebrews who would not bow.  Jesus throughout all the stories, and now here in the flesh.  Jesus the embodiment of God’s love for His people.  Later Jesus who stopped Saul and made him Paul.  And Jesus who would be revealed in prophecy through the remainder of time by John at Patmos.  Scripture does offer us insight as to who God the Father is, but only through the lens of Jesus Christ. 

The learned Jews felt no need of Jesus to see God, so they did not see Him.  And the learned Christians in our day seldom recognize how much baby they are, and so see the Truth very little.  We have supplanted birth right with self-awareness.  We are now self-sufficient in our salvation, and therefore have little need of Jesus to save us, trusting to our knowledge to take care of that.  And so we see little of the Truth.  We have replaced the Truth with our collective wisdom.  And what happens in the modern secular economy of brilliance happens in the sacred one as well.  Men and women arise, who have very little formal education, and wind up accomplishing so much, inspiring so much, innovating so much – that we admire them long after they leave the world stage.  The 12 disciples carried with them the Holy Spirit, their lack of education was no impediment to creating the first church.  Obscure heroes since like a teenage girl who carried the gift of prophecy and penned so many books and testimonies they can hardly be counted.  The babes see, where the prepared of us, do not.

Then as if with laser vision, Jesus looks right at the Pharisee and Sadducee who can hear Him speak.  He speaks to their greatest need, and to ours.  He continues in verse 28 saying … “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [verse 29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. [verse 30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  This message may apply to the common man, but the common man Jesus was just speaking about is already being given the revelation of who Jesus really is.  The message is spoken to the church leadership who needs it the most.  Stop trying.  Stop taking the burden of your salvation and your education upon yourself.  Bring it to Me instead.  The greatest promise in nearly all of scripture was not meant in a physical context, but in a spiritual growth one instead.  See the baby you are, and find rest letting Jesus be the Parent He is.  Letting Jesus teach you is easy, and light.  Letting Jesus be your tutor will bring rest unto your soul.

It does not take your self-dependence and self-reliance to achieve greatness and see truth in the spiritual context.  It takes your recognition of your complete baby-hood.  No matter how far you think you have come.  No matter what you think you have learned or wisdom you have amassed.  You know nothing.  You have no wisdom.  You have only the loving eyes of a very small child that Jesus longs to pick up, cradle, hold, feed, and protect from the world around you.  Your every care is in the hands of an unfailing parent who loves you more than His own life, something He proved.  Think not to teach, but to learn.  Think not to speak but to listen to the still small voice yearning to share with you Truth beyond your wildest imagination.  The vehicle for learning is not an institution of higher learning, governed by a bunch of other babies.  It is the source of education in the Truth, who alone can reveal what you need to know, in the only way you would understand it.

There is rest in this approach.  There is peace in this approach.  It is promised by Jesus Himself.  And it is waiting for you, in the dependence you have only to recognize, discover, and embrace …