2 Samuel 11:26-12:10,13-15
Galatians 2:11-21
Luke 7:36-50
When we, the good and mostly successful church people of our time, like Simon the Pharisee, do invite Jesus to dinner or to join us for worship, we too sometimes wonder why he so often arrives followed by those sinners – all those losers and even a few televangelists. If he were really a prophet, he'd see who these people are and condemn them for their sin ... for their violence or their sexual behavior or their addiction or their irresponsibility. Yet there is Jesus, surrounded by shameless whores, drunk Indians, and welfare freeloaders. You begin to suspect that Jesus might even let Timothy McVeigh or Adolph Hitler sit alongside that sinful woman and wash his feet with tears.
We, who have spent most of our lives trying to do what is right, we, who have tried to be good people and played fair, we, the successes who have been careful stewards of the land and our money and our churches... WE feel cheated because Jesus seems to prefer these losers who never did a damn thing for him. They haven't done what he asked. They haven't been in church on Sunday or given money to the church or served on the Vestry. They haven't gone on a mission trip to Mexico or helped at Share a Meal or planned a beautiful liturgy. They just show up and ask him to love them..... And he does. Jesus rewards the undeserving .... Jesus is a traitor to the cause.
Enmegahbowh, a nineteenth-century Native American priest,
whose life we celebrate today, was just such a traitor.
The Ojibway people watched him turn to the white enemy.
The white Christians watched him stand to support those marauding savages.
His name "Enmegahbowh" means "The one who stands before his people,"
but his behavior must have made people wonder just where he stood.
He was baptized "John Johnson" and used both names, the Christian one and the native one.
Enmegahbowh walked in two worlds and stood before two peoples. He must have known how "Saul" the Jew felt about being also "Paul," apostle to the Gentiles. He must have known how hard it was for Jews and Gentiles, coming from different traditions, to figure out how to come together as Christians.
Perhaps John Johnson Enmegahbowh's story can tell us something about how God brings different groups of people together, because we still struggle with that today. In all our differences and disagreements, we still long for peace and reconciliation.
Later in his life, Enmegahbowh wrote to the mayor of Little Falls about his time at Fort Ripley in 1862, when he went to warn the whites of an attack planned by his adopted brother Hole-in-the-Day. Listen to just a piece of his story in his own words.
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It was near the time for everyone to go to his sentinel post.
Bye-and-bye the captain turned toward me and asked if I would have any objections to go.
I said, "I have some objections on account of my calling and standing before my people as a
missionary. To take up arms against them and against the Gospel of Peace, at this late day,
to take up a big musket to shoot them, does not look well in me.
Yet here are my wife and children in the fort. I seek protection.
Yes, yes, I am willing to go. I am ready to defend the fort." The captain invited me to his office, and there I received my instructions, and received my diploma, fully equipped to go forth to war. The captain took me to my sentinel post, of course the most dangerous point. A few words more of instruction, and the captain left me. Oh, it was the very darkest hour of the night! I could only see a very short distance from me. After the captain had gone out of sight, I took up my heavy musket and began to pass and repass on my ground. I could not see to detect the enemies' approach. My ears were my only instruments for detecting the near approach of an enemy. In about half an hour I thought I saw something, an object moving toward me. I stood silently to see if it was a human being. With a loud voice I said "Halt!" and at the same time threw up my weapon in a position ready to shoot if needs be. The man halted, and again I demanded the countersign. The man gave it correctly, and I said "Pass on!" The man passed away out of my sight. When the man passed away and I took up my armour of defense, I felt a peculiar sensation in my whole body. My irrasibilities moved from the crown of my head to the sole of my feet. When I demanded the man to halt, he halted; and again, to give the countersign, and he gave it promptly, I thought myself that I was the greatest general. When I say Come, he cometh, and go, he goeth. So great I thought myself, and looking at the wooden fort I said to myself, I have a great notion to make two or three of my genuine war whoops to try and test my greatness. I thought the wooden walls would have fallen to the ground, like the ancient granite walls of Jerico when Joshua made war whoops against it, and the impregnable walls came down to the ground, and that that was impossible was made possible. But on my second thought I said, "No, not at all. I am here defending the fort and the people. Let peace rule in my heart." So saying, I stepped on my ground and began to retrace my steps. The hour was fast approaching when I must be relieved from my duty. The night passed off without any molestation. Early in the morning the captain sent for me to his office. I said to myself "Something must have been a mess on my part." The captain wanted me to give him my stewardship. When I entered his office he sat and smiled. He said, "Mr. Enmegahbowh, I see you are a regular good soldier, and the best sentinel. During the hour of your duty as a sentinel did you see any object?" I said I did. "What did you do?" "I did precisely as my instructions were, halted the man whoever he was." "If he had not complied with your demand to halt nor given you the correct answer when you demanded the countersign, what would you have done?" "I would shoot his heels to cripple him." Here he laughed heartily, and right there I saw that he was the very man who came to disturb me while watching intensely.
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Has John Johnson Enmegahbowh, native brother to the Ojibway chiefs, betrayed his people by warning the whites of the coming attack and by standing guard over the whites' fort? Many would and did say, "Yes."
Later we will see Enmegahbowh, the Episcopal priest, turning a blind eye to what were called "foolish war dances" – a sinful ritual from the Christian perspective of the time. Has John Johnson then betrayed his white friends? Many would and did say, "Yes."
Yet today we recognize Enmegahbowh as a holy person, a model of faith in action.
In that moment on guard duty the test of his courage and faith was not in having to decide whether to side with the whites inside the fort or with his brothers attacking the fort. The test was within himself. Remember that moment when he felt himself to be "the greatest general"? He can command those who approach, and he senses the power he has and wants to whoop till the walls fall down. Yet instead of choosing to stand for himself in his own pride and power and rightness, he chooses another path, thinking, "No, not at all. I am here defending the fort and the people. Let peace rule in my heart." He chose not to stand on his own power, but on his faith in Christ.
Enmegahbowh lived up to his name: He did indeed stand before his people, before ALL his people: before the Ojibway and before the whites. He stood before them with integrity because he first stood before Christ.
Enmegahbowh knew the Christ "in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, Ojibway nor Sioux nor white, but all are one in Christ Jesus."
In Christ the law that divides us is replaced with our faith in Christ. In Enmegahbowh's life, as in the lives of Peter and Paul, and in the lives of the Pharisee and the Sinner, knowing Jesus changes everything.
In Christ, the old laws – from the Jewish legal codes and American social etiquette of the past to the contemporary consumerism and economic success of today – all are set aside. Because none of those things that we do is going to save us, or win God's love for us, or bring us peace. We are not in control here. The law, like the land, all belongs to God, not to us. It is God's grace touching our faith rather than anything that we do that saves us.
When we, like Simon the Pharisee, invite Jesus into our lives, Jesus often brings along those of his people we'd rather not have to face: the sinners and the failures, those who differ from us and disagree with us, those who hurt us and those we have hurt. When we, like Enmegahbowh, stand before all these God's people, putting aside ourselves, our own rules, our success, and our pride, and admitting that it is God alone who saves us and gives us life, then Jesus says to us also, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
Enmegahbowh Icon Copyright © 2000 The Rev Johnson Loud, Jr.