Living in the Spirit
October 5, 2018
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
‘What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
or mortals, that you care for them?
You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under their feet.’
It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying,
‘I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.’ –Hebrews 2:6b-8, 10-12
Sexual assault and its ramifications are currently in every news report. Of course, sexual assault is not about sex. It is about lust for power and fulfilling some primal need to gain power through violence. It is about trying to prove oneself by meeting some unwritten code that threads through our society. It is the opposite of understanding that all people are created in the image of God and thus each person is a person of worth deserving the respect and dignity that comes with being a child of God. Such respect and dignity including the right of everyone to control the sanctity of their own bodies should be encoded into the character of every child by the time they reach kindergarten. That clearly has not been the outcome in child rearing and education in our culture today.
I heard comments several times this week all from males, that we are ruining people’s lives, primarily the lives of male perpetrators, by bringing up sexual assault issues from their distant pasts. I also heard many testimonies from victims of how their lives were ruined by sexual assault. As a strong supporter of restorative justice, I do not want anyone’s life ruined. The best way to prevent that from happening is to work intentionally toward removing the cultural norms from our society that encourage lust for power fulfilled through violence and measures of self-worth that denigrate. Such changes must start at birth and continue throughout life.
Beyond prevention, perpetrators must acknowledge their past and present actions that caused harm to others and work not only to make amends for them but to clear the ideas that reinforced the behaviors from their way of being. Victims must seek help as needed to return to becoming the person they were created to be.
Prayer: Lord, I sometimes wonder why we humans work so hard at building our own set of values by which to measure our success when you provide a framework for loving that includes all we need to succeed. Clean our mental an spiritual filters so we can be filled with your ways. Amen.