Astonishingly, each of us
hear in our own
native language. (Acts 2:-8)
Adam, our youngest grandchild, proudly showed us, via video, his model of mission Santa Barbara and told us the story about how the mission taught the Native Americans how to farm and raise cattle. It was a good story. I wonder how long schools will allow such “good stories.” The San Francisco School board recently removed “mission” from Mission High School; because “All California missions are sites of slavery and colonization.”
Those in power to do such things tell us that our good stories are actually bad stories—so hurtful that even the word must now be erased from our schools and streets. This side of Eden, there are hurts and vanities in every human story. Maybe “good” is not the best word. When a political leader addressed Jesus as “Good teacher;” Jesus would have none of it: “Why do you call me good?” Jesus responded, “No one is good except God alone” (Lk 18:18-19—a theological nightmare, but that’s Jesus). For us, as our Lord teaches, “good” is always a “complex good” (Lewis).
During Lenten Season, some years back, Linda and I took a road trip to visit Rachel’s family in Austin. We took the I-40 route so we could stay a few nights in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A few hours out from our Santa Fe destination we pulled into Navajo Nation to eat and play a few slots at their Casino. The next morning, waking up in Santa Fe, we walked through the old town and ended up meandering into San Miguel Chapel, a mission church like Santa Barbara, yet near two centuries older—the oldest church in the U.S.A. Native Americans were all about preparing their beautiful church for Holy Week. Their art and song, worship and praise came out of their honored culture. It is a complex good; but it struck me that day in San Miguel Chapel, that there was immeasurably more Native American goodness in that church than we ever experienced the day before in that Navajo Casino.
Maybe we can ask the powerful to be tolerant of fourth grade mission projects. They will discover soon enough that all stories are complex.
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