Today’s Scripture Reading (September
27, 2013): 1 Chronicles 26
In 1883,
Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet she called “The New Colossus.” Most of us would
recognize a part of the sonnet, although we might never recognize Emma’s name
or the name of the poem, for it is here that we find the words –
Give
me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to
breathe free
The
wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send
these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
The message
of the sonnet is a simple one. It says come, everyone is welcome and there is
no one here that wants to keep you out – come, the door is always unlocked and
we are waiting for you. The poem is famous because in 1903 it was engraved on a
bronze plaque and placed on the lowest level of the Statue of Liberty. The
message was clear – come to us, you will find no gatekeepers here – they path
is straight and the way is open.
If I am
honest, I am not sure that I like gatekeepers. The job of a gatekeeper is to
control access to something. And we have a lot of them. Most professions,
including mine, have gatekeepers. These are the ones that control access to
credentials or institutions. In my profession, the gatekeeper gets to decide
what education and what experience is necessary in order to attain the high and
lofty office of ordination. Being ordained just indicates that a person has
been set apart and is considered qualified to be able to perform the various
rituals and liturgies of the church. The gatekeepers get to say yes or no to
people that want to enter into that kind of relationship with people and with
the church. And sometimes, that process can be very frustrating.
But part of
the big problem with gatekeepers is that they tend to be slaves to the status
quo. Part of the job of a gatekeeper is to slow the advent of change – to control
the flow of ideas and make sure that nothing gets in that goes against what is
deemed to be acceptable. But this also limits the potential solutions to a
problem because, whether we want to admit it or not, often the solution that we
need comes from a place that we would have never considered under normal
circumstances.
In the
Hebrew Bible, the gatekeeper had the responsibility to make sure that only the
people that were qualified to enter into the temple actually got in. A few
years ago I was friends with a woman who basically was the gatekeeper for the Temple
of the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints. For her, it was the
greatest honor of her life. And her job, as she described it, was to sit at a
desk and check the credentials of every person that entered into the temple. If
you had the right credentials, she would allow you to enter, but if you did
not, then she was responsible for making sure that you did not enter into the
temple. Now, the reality was that because she sat at the desk, there were a lot
of people without credentials that did not even bother to come in through the
doors. The gatekeeper’s presence kept the unwanted or uninvited away from
temple gates.
The United
States has found it hard to live up to the invitation of Emma Lazarus that is placed
at the foot of her most famous monument. But the call remains. We sometimes
have forgotten, but the Christian Church has always been built on the same
invitation. Jesus words were simple – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28.) The message is clear. There
is no one who will be turned away – and the only gatekeepers you will ever find
are the ones who want nothing more than to help you find your way in – and not
the ones who want to keep you out. Come to me, because we recognize that we are
much stronger in the midst of diversity. Come, and he will give you rest.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1
Chronicles 27
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