UPPITY
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 4th Thursday
in Lent is, “Uppity.”
U P P I T Y – uppity.
It’s not a word that appears in today’s two readings:
Exodus 32: 7-14 and John 5: 31-47.
It’s not a word or a theme or an issue that appears in
our scriptures, but in another way, “It’s appears all over the place.”
I think a weekday homily – especially when talking to
each other – and who we are – is a chance to just throw some meat – not to get
some growls – but to trigger some thoughts – from something to chew on – cook
up – maybe get some nourishment from.
Hope that doesn’t sound “uppity”.
EXODUS
It’s a long road from Egypt to the promised land.
It’s a long Lent – those 40 years in the desert – for the
sand blasting conversion of the Israelites.
In today’s scene from Exodus the people have turned away
again from God and started to worship the Golden Calf.
And God describes them as stiff-necked.
In looking up the word “stiff-necked,” I spotted the word
“uppity”.
I also found the words inflated, snobby, ignoring,
arrogant, pompous, condescending, smug, egocentric, patronizing.
I liked “uppity” the most – with snooty in second place.
We can slip into those attitudes – about and with others.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
In today’s gospel Jesus is sort of in the same situation
as Moses is in – in the first reading.
Verbal arguing – nit picking conversations –
conflict is going on. Who and how God is
– is pulled into both conversations and verbal wrestling.
In today’s Gospel it’s Jesus and the Jews. In today’s First reading it’s Moses and the People in the desert with the
golden calf gleaming.
UPPITY
Uppity behavior takes place especially neck upwards –
starting with stiff necks.
Noses go up in the air.
Eyes are closed.
Heads shake.
Jaws tighten.
Minds get closed.
Ears don’t work.
When we have a good case of uppityness – we have stopped listening. We
look down on others as wrong, stupid, stuck in positions, atrophied, unread, low IQ, etc. etc.
Thinking about this I have never in my life wanted to be
someone else. I have heard that some people wish they were someone else. Nope,
not me, but I would like to have a
better musical ear – not for the sake of contributing to the choir – but just
to not hear digs for having a poor ear
for music.
Thinking about this I realized, “Okay I don’t want to be
anyone else – but there are people whom
I know I don’t want to be.
Now that might be the best learning in these first draft thoughts about the theme of “uppity”.
That’s where sins
of pride can poison me and I then use my tongue to put down others.
I assume I would do that to make myself look taller – not
to others out there – but to myself in
my inner conversations.
But I’m not sure about this yet. I only started thinking about uppity last
night.
I have thought about sins of pride – modern Pharisaic
thinking.
I have never had any desire to wash other’s feet or have
my feet washed by them.
So, there are people I have practiced social distance
from – for years now.
CONCLUSION
I don’t like myself when I put others down in my mind.
I suppose the goal should be some learnings from the John
the Baptist and Jesus Christ interplays in the gospels.
I need to decrease and Christ must increase.
The Father needs to increase.
John can be difficult, but I notice Jesus is often
referring to the Father - this One – this other Presence whom Jesus is
always pondering about.
Go back and read today’s gospel from John and notice the
Other.
Then there are the others – all these other people I know
– some of whom I write off. I need to change and accept others who have lights – who have tassels I need to touch
- I need to get some of their light to bop
off on me – like the light that jumped off John the Baptist – in today’s gospel
which others delighted in for a while.
