Lenten Blog – Day 24 – Baptismal Covenant, Part 9 – Last Part!

Celebrant	Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
People	I will, with God's help.

This is the final read and response of the Baptismal Covenant and the one I feel where the rubber hits the road.  Strive for justice, peace and respect the dignity.

Bob Dylan wrote a great song entitled “dignity.”

"Dignity"

Fat man lookin’ in a blade of steel
Thin man lookin’ at his last meal
Hollow man lookin’ in a cotton field
For dignity

Wise man lookin’ in a blade of grass
Young man lookin’ in the shadows that pass
Poor man lookin’ through painted glass
For dignity

Somebody got murdered on New Year’s Eve
Somebody said dignity was the first to leave
I went into the city, went into the town
Went into the land of the midnight sun

Searchin’ high, searchin’ low
Searchin’ everywhere I know
Askin’ the cops wherever I go
Have you seen dignity?

Blind man breakin’ out of a trance
Puts both his hands in the pockets of chance
Hopin’ to find one circumstance
Of dignity

I went to the wedding of Mary Lou
She said, “I don’t want nobody see me talkin’ to you”
Said she could get killed if she told me what she knew
About dignity

I went down where the vultures feed
I would’ve gone deeper, but there wasn’t any need
Heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men
Wasn’t any difference to me

Chilly wind sharp as a razor blade
House on fire, debts unpaid
Gonna stand at the window, gonna ask the maid
Have you seen dignity?

Drinkin’ man listens to the voice he hears
In a crowded room full of covered-up mirrors
Lookin’ into the lost forgotten years
For dignity

Met Prince Phillip at the home of the blues
Said he’d give me information if his name wasn’t used
He wanted money up front, said he was abused
By dignity

Footprints runnin’ ’cross the silver sand
Steps goin’ down into tattoo land
I met the sons of darkness and the sons of light
In the bordertowns of despair

Got no place to fade, got no coat
I’m on the rollin’ river in a jerkin’ boat
Tryin’ to read a note somebody wrote
About dignity

Sick man lookin’ for the doctor’s cure
Lookin’ at his hands for the lines that were
And into every masterpiece of literature
For dignity

Englishman stranded in the blackheart wind
Combin’ his hair back, his future looks thin
Bites the bullet and he looks within
For dignity

Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed
Dignity never been photographed
I went into the red, went into the black
Into the valley of dry bone dreams

So many roads, so much at stake
So many dead ends, I’m at the edge of the lake
Sometimes I wonder what it’s gonna take
To find dignity

The way I read this passage from the Baptismal Covenant is that we (I) need to meet people where they are in their life.  Understand that their journey is different from mine.  That their experiences are different than mine and give them the dignity to not prejudge them or their choices.  Whether gay, straight, transgender, poor, wealthy, sick or healthy.

It’s easy to base assumptions on clothing, tattoos, hair styles, their smell, their skin color, their way of life, their choices…  Assumptions are not reality, though they often make us feel better.  I assume this, so it must be true.  I assume that, so it must be real.  I don’t have to get to know them, I don’t have to learn, I don’t have to put myself out of my comfort zone and shake their stinky hand, or smell their dirty clothes or deal with their “stuff.”  If I give them dignity, then I’m recognizing who they are in their journey and maybe that makes me uncomfortable or afraid.

I have a saying when I help out on some things around church:  “I do enough to relieve a burden, but not enough to take responsibility.”  In other words, I’ll help clean up the kitchen after a meal, but don’t expect me to lead the team.  I want to stay in my lane, in my comfort zone, I don’t want people to necessarily count on me because I may let them down and, most likely, will.

But this, THIS, “respect the dignity of every human being” is where I need God’s help the most.  It’s the passage that strips away the assumptions and rips apart the prefabricated BS that envelopes society in a world where it’s easier to point fingers than lend a hand.  Push away instead of pick up.  Walk by instead of walk in.

Every year our church has a shopping day for the residents of a shelter we sponsor.  While the children of the shelter parents enjoy a morning filled with games and crafts and snacks and Santa (me!) the parents go to the local store with gift cards provided by the parish.  They can buy whatever they need to ease their holiday – whether it’s food or clothing or gifts for their kids (usually it’s gifts for their children).

At some point Santa (me) comes down and interacts with the kids, gives them some stockings and then I spirit away upstairs to change.

When I’m done, I “hang back” from the activities as I don’t want to give away that I was Santa and I watch the parents return.  Lunch is waiting and food is eaten and Miriam relishes sitting down with the families and hearing their stories:  Single father with two kids, trying to find a job.  Mother with three children, just moved to the area and can’t find housing.  Family with medical bills couldn’t afford to live in their apartment.  The stories are common and, yet, uncommon.  But what they prove, time and again, is that that person could be me.  That child could be mine.  That situation could be my situation.  By respecting their dignity and where they are in this crazy mixed up silly journey that we call a life, it holds a mirror up to my own and reminds me to not take for granted the love and hard work and the sweat and toil that my mother and father and all my relatives worked for so that I could be here, now, and help someone else.  In their moment, not mine.

Not respecting their dignity is putting up a wall between myself and, in essence, myself.

I will do my best to strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being.  With God’s help.