The Wrong Side of the
Tracks
Shortly
after college, I taught middle school for a few years down in Fl. My school was on the other side of the
tracks, it was on the wrong side of the tracks.
It really shocked me, that indeed, just crossing railroad tracks can
take you into a whole different world.
These tracks happen to be for the Tropicana Orange Juice Company. The town was pretty much divided into two,
the middle class families and retirees that could afford to live near the beach
and those that were laborers, factory workers, perhaps the housekeepers for the
numerous beach resorts, or the landscapers for the fancy beach homes. But the type of homes drastically changed as
you crossed over the tracks.
The
school where I taught had a full time police officer trained in gang
intervention, there was a heavy gang presence, and incredible diversity. I was actually pretty impressed how my
students seem to get together no matter what color of their skin. But, there was still one insult, if you
really wanted to hit below the belt, you would call someone a Haitian. Even on the wrong side of the tracks, there
was a wrong side of the tracks.
I
attended a church on the right side of the tracks, with families that sought to
nurture and encourage their children to grow into strong and healthy
adults. These were two different worlds. As I walked back and forth between these two
worlds, I knew I had a lot to be thankful for.
But then, I hear this passage today, and I wonder if my thankfulness is
appropriate. My thankfulness was based on my good fortune
against someone else’s bad fortune.
There
was a Pharisee and a Tax Collector, both go to the temple to pray. The Pharisee begins by giving thanks to God
that he is not like other people. That
he is not like: thieves, rogues, so far that sounds like something I can
identify with. I thank you God that I am
not involved in some sort of embezzlement, or white collar crime. But then he compares himself to another
person present at the temple also in prayer.
Yes, being a tax collector was not a good occupation, Being a tax collector was to be in
relationship with Rome, often taking a little bit of extra money from the
people for themselves. They were not
well liked. For the Pharisee, the tax
collector was on the wrong side of the tracks, a different world than himself,
and he was thankful that he was not like him.
Last
week, we had a story of Jesus healing 10 lepers and one out of the 10 comes
back to say Thank You. The story focused
on thankfulness. Today’s parable also
involves giving God thanksgiving, but this type of thankfulness seems to be
rejected by Jesus. How is it that we can
say thank you to God? The leper was
thankful that he was healed, that God had heard his cry for mercy and had
responded. The tax collector is thankful
because of his good standing in life. He
is thankful because of who he is, in comparison to who others are. His sense of security in God’s presence is
about his lifestyle, his religious choices, his actions, while the tax
collector stands and asks for mercy.
What
is it that really separates the Pharisee from the tax collector? They both gather in the same place to offer
prayer to the same God? And yet, they
are separated, they are a world apart.
The Pharisee does not want to engage the tax collector, his only
acknowledgement of his existence is that he is glad he is not like him. Behind his words, is there something
deeper? Is there fear of the other? Is there a lack of understanding that God
could also love the tax collector?
We
often separate ourselves from the other out of fear. And sometimes that fear is well
warranted. Sometimes being on the wrong
side of the tracks can be life threatening.
The way we separate people can be based on economics, skin color,
language, cultural practices, and behavior.
What if, instead of separating ourselves from the other we begin to find
ways to begin to build relationships?
What if we take intentional steps to safely cross to the imaginary other
side of the tracks and instead of comparing ourselves from another as
different, we see both selves as children of God? What if we ask God to give us the courage to
build bridges of understanding instead of just being thankful we are not like
the other.
We
are in the season of Thanksgiving, we come to God and we are thankful. I asked earlier, is there a right and a wrong
way to be thankful? And I guess, it all
depends on how we frame our thankfulness.
As a person of faith, we give thanks to God for everything, for the
blessings that we have received, but we also are called into discipleship, into
service, into the presence of others.
What I learned from teaching on the wrong side of the tracks is that I
am truly thankful that I was not born as a crack baby, but by having such a
child in my class, I learned not to judge this child because he had no control
of the choices his parents made. I
learned that I could be present to these children and seek to provide them a
safe place at least within my classroom because that might have been the only
safe place they had in their lives. I
learned that life is not fair, and even education cannot bridge the gap of
inequality.
There
is a ministry in Camden, NJ that was not afraid to go to the wrong side of the
tracks and connect with these young people that their only future was to be
involved in gangs, and drugs, and stealing.
The founder of Urban Promise could have stood at a distance and
said: Lord, I am thankful that I am not
a youth in Camden, NJ but instead he said, Lord, bring me to Camden and guide
me as I bring hope to this place of hopelessness. Urban Promise has grown over the years and
now has its only school where the youth of Camden are actually graduating from
high school and going on to college. A
future they never would have had if someone had stood and said, I am thankful I
am not like them.
Next
time we find ourselves a little afraid of another, or glad we are not like
another, perhaps God is calling us into a ministry with that person, not a
ministry to that person, but a ministry with that person. We will never know, unless we cross the
bridge and begin building the relationships.
What
if that Pharisee had embraced the tax collector? What if, like Jesus, they went and had a meal
together? Jesus is not afraid of the
other, he is not afraid of the outcaste, he is not afraid of the sick, he is
not afraid of the wrong side of the tracks.
Rather, it seems those are the places he goes, and it is there that he
finds people hungering for God’s love, hungering to be seen, to be noticed, to
be made whole. Jesus was blessed by God
to bring that blessing to others. There
really was no one that he would keep away or deny. As we continue into this season of
thankfulness, let us too seek to be welcoming and loving, extending ourselves
as agents of hope to the world around us.
Amen.
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