Christmas 2024

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

Our world is broke and on its way to Hell.

Our government has abrogated care

Of children shot in classrooms everywhere.

The noise! The noise! This grief we cannot bear,

But no one stops the sale of gun hardware.

 

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

Water we drink is poisoned in our wells

With dross from reckless manufacturing

Of things desired to make life worth the living:

More cars! more cars, more LED’s so bright,

More cell phones filled with AI delights.

 

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

Save us from the rising ocean swell,

From climate change and avaricious life

With carbon footprint, violence, and strife,

With wars! With wars and enemies we’ve sought,

Not seeking neighbors as you taught.

 

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

We hear our funeral tolling bell

That sounds of lonely death and graves

Apart from You and from Your Word that saves.

Our sin! Our sin is gluttony and pride,

Dark deceits from which we cannot hide.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

For we are lost; our way from you we fell.

We wander without compass or a goal

Of helping neighbor, but patrol

Our walls! Our walls we build to separate,

Supporting fear-filled xenophobic hate.

 

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

The poor imprisoned, locked up in their cells,

They can’t afford the cost of liberty,

So, for release, they give a guilty plea.

“Police! Police, arrest, incarcerate

All those we fear now standing at our gate.”

 

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

Empower us to speak your love and tell

Your word of hope and mercies ever given,

That from grave in body you have risen

To bring! to bring salvation and release,

To live as one in wholeness and in peace.

Seeking Blind Justice

Love Is Blind

by Peter Heide

I must be love because I’m blind.

I must have faith because I’m blind;

And justice should rightfully be my estate

Because I’m blind;

But I, scaly-eyed, seek justice

In blind alleys, around blind turns

That lead to unseen possibilities.

Maybe I’m just batty,

Or Christ’s faithful fool

Following blindly.

Okay, we all know that it’s just a metaphor, but there are times when the reality of being blind and the metaphoric use of the word “blind” get confused—the blind person may get incorporated into the metaphor or the metaphor may become the describer of the blind person. This confusion is often humorous. For instance, I grew up hearing, “God is love. Love is blind. Stevie Wonder is blind; therefore, Stevie Wonder must be God.”

Most of the time I can forgive the inappropriate use of “blind”. Love and justice’s blindness signify impartiality, lack of prejudice, and accentuating the positive. Blind faith imagines absolute trust. These are not bad attributes. Even so, one should question using blindness as a metaphor in these ways.

When the confusion surrounds negativity, the metaphor and the reality of being blind can be painful. When one interprets the Blind Guide (Matt. 15:14) in Scripture as a metaphor in terms of unable to know where one is going, or ignorant of perils surrounding the people, or incompetent, it is especially problematic. Much harm is transferred between the metaphor and the characteristics attributed to those who are blind.

The use of disabilities as adjectives in our everyday language —lame arguments, dumb ideas, and people spazzing out—can be easily understood as micro-aggression. I heard a news analyst recently say that a particular public official had turned a deaf ear to the legitimate complaints of the people. When I hear a statement such as this, I cringe although I may excuse the speaker for being ableist and not knowing any better.

But the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back came for me April 5 on MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Tonight. One guest, Maya Wiley, reported on the voting issues in Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina. She spoke of the Supreme Court’s lack of timeliness and the work of some states to deprive Black communities of their democratic voice by “bleaching” their voting districts. Through gerrymandering, the Black vote can then be divided among stronger White districts. At the end of the interview, Ms. Wiley referred to the situation in this way, “Being race blind in this country today means being blind to injustice and refusing to address it. That is not good for democracy, and that’s why we are not going to stop fighting for voting rights.”

I appreciate what Ms. Wiley was trying to say, but I take umbrage at her use of blind in this case. First, since the entire concept of race is a sighted invention and is a means of discrimination sustained by visual cues such as skin color, hair texture, and facial characteristics, therefore, “race blindness” cannot be a factual representation even when race blindness is used by ableist, sighted people. In fact, it is an excuse for being racist. It is a lie that sighted people tell themselves in order to deny the personal identities of Blacks, Native Americans, Asians, and Latinos, anyone other than themselves. “I do not see your color as a difference. I think of you as being just like me—White.”

This is not to say that the blind, especially those totally blind, cannot be prejudiced, but their reference points for being “racist” more likely come from sighted slanders repeated rather than any personal observation. “Race blindness” in this context means that there is no category of race which accurately describes the genetic reality of humanity. This blindness allows for cultural and ethnic differences but not for the sighted distinctions which make racism fully possible.

Secondly, injustice is not the result of the actions of the blind! They know all too well what injustice is. As a group, blind people encounter injustice on a daily basis: inaccessible voting platforms, lack of signage in braille and large print, inaccessible menus in restaurants, Uber drivers who won’t let a blind person with a guide dog in their cars, collapsing mass transit service, being able to know the denomination of the currency you are given as change at any place of business, and let’s not talk about packaging that does not let the blind know what they are purchasing. Beyond those inconveniences, have you ever, with your eyes closed, tried to use a kiosk to register for a doctor’s appointment?

Instead, members of the blindness community have and do advocate not only for themselves but for our society as a whole. Jacobus Tenbroek, president of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), worked as legal counsel for Brown vs Education. George Card, a member of the American Council of the Blind (ACB), was part of the legal team for the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Currently, blind lawyers are working for prison reform. The Blind were involved in the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and they are involved in the many issues that influence the blindness and greater disability community today including reauthorization of the Older Americans Act.

We cry out not only for accessibility to the physical world in general, but also accessibility to the technology that keeps trying to run away without us. At this time, members of ACB and NFB advocate for accessible web sites, audible pedestrian signals, accessible durable medical devices, and audible description tv programming, movies, and live theater performances.

In the advocacy that we do for our own community, we also work for the many ways we intersect with the marginalized communities around us. We are blind, but we are also Black, Latino, Asian, Native American, 2SLGBTQIA, and all ages and genders. We are neither superheroes nor objects of pity. We struggle with the rest of society, losing our hearing as we get older and using wheelchairs and walkers as we become less mobile.

So be aware: blindness does not lead to injustice. On the contrary, blindness leads to advocating for justice for all people and lifts up all people as being worthy of inclusion. Blind people across the country are speaking out for DEI because we are part of the diversity in our country. We speak for equity because we are trying to get jobs that pay us for equal work in a work force of equal opportunity. We speak for inclusion because we have been standing on the outside, knocking on the door to be let in for many years. We are DEI demanding Accessibility; and we are voters seeking equal representation and justice.

DISABILITY PROMPTS PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY IN PROBATING ANCESTRAL PROPERTY

Well, the winter wonderland has arrived. I took a quick jaunt into the 16 inches of partly cloudy that has collected around Baraboo and got temporarily disoriented. Amid the piles of snow, I got a little turned around with the way that snow dampens sound. I was getting concerned because, although the temperatures are quite pleasant for this time of year (upper 20’s and low 30’s F.), it is still cold enough to popsicle a little mouse like me in just a short time. Fortunately, I ran into the telephone pole and found my way back to the driveway. From there it was just a short run to the steps and a quick trip to the back door. That’s enough winter excitement for me this year. I think I will stay in my cozy nook playing with the music box on the snow globe and imagine adventures of daring. That seems much safer.

I must tell you, I did not forget you last week, but life has been all a-dither lately because Peter (not the disciple) has taken the position of Pastoral Fellow, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, in Evanston, IL, where he is preaching and teaching some of the work he has been doing on Reading Scripture from a Blind Perspective.

These coming weeks before Lent not only include his work there, but he is joining the ELCA Disability Ministries Advisory Team (ELCA DMAT) in New Orleans, at the annual Youth Extravaganza, and Peter (not the disciple) has invited me to come along. What to pack? What to pack? Where is my family address book so I can drop in to taste the culture of these new locales? I have promised myself I won’t do to them what they just did to me. I got so involved in packing last week that I just ran out of time to write. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The lessons Peter (not the disciple) has been studying are, of course, not from the Revised Common Lectionary. That means I do not have the usual readings near me to discuss with you, although I can say that Nathaniel sitting under the fig tree reminds me of the fig tree in the Garden of Eden as presented in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) and that placement of the tree in the garden anticipates the tree of salvation (the cross) outside the Garden of Gethsemane.

As for the Israelite without guile? Peter (not the disciple) is going to speak of the guile that Isaac uses so that he blesses Jacob instead of Esau. It is so refreshing to come to understand that God uses people who live with disabilities as a means of advancing God’s activity in the world rather than hearing again about poor old Blind Isaac who cannot discern the difference between his sons because he is not able to see them.

After all, when was the last time you read this story in Genesis 25-27 and thought about the angel’s prophecy to Rebekah? Why is it that we believe the prophecies of the angels to Zechariah, Mary, and the magi, but forget the angel in the story of Blind Isaac. The verdict is in, people. Jacob got the blessing because Isaac was part of the deception. At a time, when in surrounding cultures, the oldest son received the blessing from the father, Jewish tradition begins with blessing the second, or younger, son.

Isaac, the second son, receives his blessing from Abraham. Isaac gives his blessing to his second son, Jacob. Jacob will give his blessing to Joseph, the son of his second wife, Rachel. We presume this practice continues to the time of Moses. Here again, it is not the older son (Aaron) that leads the Israelites. Moses is the leader who is blessed to be a blessing to God’s people. David is Jesse’s youngest son, and Solomon is the younger son as well. The pattern continues through the ages until we meet John and Jesus. Here too, the older son John (of Elizabeth and Zechariah) and his younger kinsman Jesus (of Mary and Joseph), repeat the pattern of the blessing for God’s people being given to the younger of the two.

Can this pattern of blessing the younger son help us in understanding the parable of the Prodigal son? Maybe, but this week we can be certain that the disability of Isaac’s blindness helps us understand God includes all people in the subversive work of lifting up those the world would not recognize.

We laugh and gasp at the antics of Blind Isaac as the world around them probably did as well. But, at the same time, one can almost hear the chosen of God laughing at the world because the world could not see (witness, attest to) the activity of God in their midst.

Do you suppose that a blind mouse advised Blind Isaac in his program of plausible deniability?

That’s all I have for now. I have got to pa-pa-pack. In the meantime, I understand that hurricanes are not only something to be experienced; they are also something to drink. I’ll let you know how that goes.