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When I was in Junior High, I attended a scout camp in SE Kansa. The camp was named “Camp Quivera,” and one of the traditions of the camp was that after three years there, you got to choose an “Indian” name. I’m guessing it was following some of the traditions of Native Americans related to finding a spirit animal.
To do this, you had to pick out a rock and carry it around all week, and then, on the last day, you could carve your new name into the rock and present it at the campfire. If you were not carrying the rock, a senior scout could claim it and make you do some extra work…, but since I was the only one eligible in my troop, I simply put the rock in my tent until the end of the week. Thus, if I remember correctly, I became “Awaka Awahela” or supposedly “Big Bird,”… an obvious play on my last name… Ostran – Ostrich.
Yeah… I wasn’t too deep at that age!
Today, I would probably choose something different.
As we have been sitting with the Parable of the Lost Sheep during and since the Annual Gathering, I have become enamored with the reason for the parable, namely, that Jesus was accused of eating with sinners. The KJV adds an interesting twist using the words “publicans and sinners.” I am not sure which is most grammatically correct from the Greek. Still, I kind of think the spirit of the text and question of the Pharisees and teachers of the law suggests that there was a spirit of “elitism” that was concerned not just about the life choices of the people Jesus ate with but also about their social status.
I wonder if Jesus had chosen to come to a Native American culture, which is known for choosing names of a descriptive nature, if Jesus might have been called He Who Eats with Sinners. (I know… it’s just how my brain works… I don’t understand it either!)
I kind of like that. In addition to Emmanuel, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, perhaps we should add the sobriquet He Who Eats With Sinners.
After all, Jesus chose to dwell on earth not just for a day but for some thirty years… not as a King but as a common laborer who resided in a small village, not a palace. His meals were probably more those of a modern working man’s lunchbox (or the equivalent of that day) than the “two martini lunch” of a Wall Street baron or broker. Jesus was a man of the people… the hoi poloi!
And maybe, by sharing the meals of the commoners, he was also foreshadowing the meal he would share with the Disciples and that they would share with the infant church. A meal that foreshadows the Heavenly Banquet for which we long and hope.
Too often, I am like the Pharisees… I refuse to share a table with those I consider beneath me for any number of reasons… their intelligence, their cleanliness, their politics, their theology, or maybe even their general appearance.
I am at my best when I remember that I am but a sinner who happens to have met Christ and received His gift. I am at my best when I remember that all that I have is due to God’s grace, blessing, and love for me, not to my own unique worth compared to others. I am at y best when I see the people around me as ‘beloved children of God” who are “one in Christ” and not as enemies, competitors, challengers, or strangers.
They are my dinner partners and the guests of He Who Eats With Sinners.
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