Today’s Word from Pastor Tom Kidd…
You know that feeling when you’ve had an epiphany? That moment when insight intersects with truth and you are left slack-jawed, stuck somewhere between, “Of course,” and “Geeze, you are stupid!” That was me when Brenda led me into the Portsmouth, NH Memorial, The African Burying Ground.
The photos tell only part of the story. Excavation at one point revealed this was a burial ground for African slaves during pre-Civil War history. The simple but striking Memorial attempts to capture a bit of the story of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire. The space feels holy and, though evoking a silence from all who stood and stared, there was the unmistakable sense of voices present. This was a memorial to those lost as a part of the African Diaspora.
I had never thought of the story of African slaves brought to America as a story of “diaspora.” But of course, that is exactly their story. I have known full well the story of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, the Northern Kingdom destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BC and carried off into captivity. Assimilated into greater South Asian Culture they would become a part of the Great Jewish Diaspora only to have their religion acculturated by the world religions of the day. And then there was the Southern Kingdom of Judah who suffered the great Babylonian Captivity in 586 BC. The Temple was leveled and the faithful were forced to find other symbols to embody the religious life of faith.
Most of this simplistic summary of religious diaspora history is well known. But this was the first time I had heard the word in connection with African slaves. Of course, no different than with the story of the Jews at the hands of the Assyrians or Babylonians, African people were carried off by slave traders and forced into a life as a part of an African diaspora. It was for me a simple step from Jews in captivity to African people seeking to maintain their story after generations of slavery and assimilated life in America. Of course this is a story of diaspora… I’m a genius (read self-deprecating humor).
In a spiritual sense, we are all a part of a religious diaspora. To some degree we all live separated from that which we were created to be. Every time I find myself in the middle of a negative or painful flashback (“Why did I say that?” “Why did I do that?”) I am experiencing the consequence of living apart from God; apart from that which I am created to be. It’s like being cast out of the Garden all over again. Ugh. We all live a life of faith feeling separated from God as a part of the spiritual diaspora. Jesus, the living word, is our confidence that we have found our way home.
It is certainly not an epiphany to any of us that we are living in a highly partisan, divided world. It is symbolic of the spiritual diaspora we live in. St. Paul, when writing to the church at Ephesus, penned, “Our battle is not with flesh and blood but with powers and principalities.” A stunningly sober observation. It is a condition of life in the diaspora that would leave us to believe there is not a way out of this social quagmire; this cannot be fixed and we are left to point fingers at the “enemy.” But our battle is not with flesh and blood but with the forces of evil that would leave us divided in a binary world where you are either good or bad, right or wrong, left or right, straight or gay… it all just depends on who is telling the story.
Here is what I believe to be true… we are all just trying to find our way home. Everyone. No matter how angry, no matter how lost, no matter how self-destructive the behavior, we are all just trying to find our way home. That is the condition of a spiritual diaspora. Maybe we could just be a little kinder to the other, whoever they may be. And just maybe, in us, the other will experience the spirit of Jesus such that the diaspora will not feel quite as painful or isolating.
Peace and love to you,
Pastor Tom
