Seeing Christ in "The Other"

Today's Lenten Meditation from The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of CREDO:

. . . Jesus sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, "Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money-not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them." They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.--Luke 9:2-6

When I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, I attended Athens Drive High School. Even though this was in the 1980s, I would argue that the reality remains the same today. If you walk in the cafeteria at lunchtime, you'll see black kids sitting with black kids. The nerds sit with nerds; jocks sit with jocks, rich with rich, and poor with poor. Although I am dating myself with some of these descriptions (e.g., now there are categories like Goths), this disparate reality remains the same. We lack the ability to truly be in proximity beyond our natural tribalisms. It is understandable, however. After all, who wants to sit and eat with someone different--it makes it difficult to digest your food if you're nervously trying to make conversation with a stranger. But it is precisely around a meal that Jesus is most present--most in proximity to us in the Eucharist.

Unfortunately, we do not naturally gather in proximity with those who are different from us. This should give us strong Lenten pause to consider how this is all the more problematic given how the one most different from us is God. In other words, a theology of proximity gives us language for how we easily (perhaps even naturally) worship idols of God rather than the living God whose ways are not our ways. Left to our own devices we may not even realize we have settled for the counterfeit god rather than the authentic one. I guess this is why I appreciate the childlike trust of the disciples to go out and proclaim the kingdom of God where nerds eat with jocks. And I appreciate the perseverance that when times get rough, simply shake off the dust and keep proclaiming the Kingdom.

Let us pray,
Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.