A New Creation

This touching story was originally published in The Mennonite in their April 2014 issue. 

“I love [US] Americans,” Pedro announced to the small group gathered for the Wednesday evening Bible study. “I love your music, your language, your people.”

My wife Esther and I were leading a group of 18 students from Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), Harrisonburg, Va., and were visiting a small Mennonite congregation on the north side of sprawling Mexico City. They were hosting us during Holy Week for a time of working, worshiping and playing together.

Pedro with our student who gave him his English-Spanish Bible
Photo Credit: Brent Anders

I was immediately put off by Pedro’s announcement. His speech was slurred, his eyes glazed over and he wore beads around his neck and on his wrists while stuffing his ears with white ear buds. I had been frequently accosted by similar statements and people in my years of learning and serving in Latin America. What was his agenda? He had to have one, I assumed, because he was too effusive and I was pretty sure he was inebriated.

The following day the church had planned a day for the group of us to enjoy the many activities available in Chapultepec Park in central Mexico City. There were museums, a zoo, a castle, rowboats and an amusement park to name a few. We were to divide up into groups and chose our activity. At the end of the Bible study, the pastor asked for a show of hands of those who were willing and able to accompany us for the excursion. Pedro was the first one to raise his hand.

After a wonderfully harrowing ride navigating Mexico City’s public transportation system with a walk, two bus transfers and the metro, we emerged out of the bowels of the subway system into the bright, crisp air of the park. Five students along with my wife Esther and me, chose the zoo. So did Pedro. Probably with the same misgivings about Pedro as I, the five students hurriedly dashed off to the entrance of the zoo disappearing among the multitudes. Esther and I were stuck with Pedro. Three hours until we were to reunite with the rest of the group for the next activity. Three hours with Pedro. I dreaded every minute.

The human tendency is to “pre”-judge someone by their outward appearance. This is where the word “prejudice” comes from. We decide what someone is like by their race, their age, their sex, or any of a number of other factors without bothering to get to know them. My prejudgment of Pedro was that he was a drunk and would be a difficult person to relate to because he “had an agenda,” and probably wanted something from me. I didn’t want to be bothered by him. By prejudging him before getting to know him, I denied his God-image and likeness, and by so doing reduced him to something less than human.

I was not the only one to prejudge Pedro. “I made a quick judgment about him as being someone I did not want to relate to, and I did not want anything to do with him,” wrote one of my students in her journal. “I was judging him for what I saw and the little I knew of him.” Because of the scene at the Bible study, I’m sure many of our students felt the same way.

God knows our tendency to judge a person by how they look on the outside, so when Samuel was looking for a king to replace Saul, God warned him: “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV).

Israel had already been fooled by a tall and handsome Saul, the man who had the stereotypical physique of a king but the heart of a pagan. Even in spite of this disaster, Samuel began to look for these same qualities in the sons of Jesse. He had to be straightened out by God. What is in one’s heart is more important than the way one looks.

Paul, in acknowledging his own prejudices before he had an encounter with the risen Christ writes in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (CEV),  “We are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be,” or as The Message puts it, “by what they have or how they look.” I certainly judged Pedro by the way he seemed to be and the way he looked, I didn’t look at his heart.

As Esther, Pedro and I proceeded through the zoo, Pedro wanted to know the English name of every animal we came across. We became friendlier as the day wore on, enjoying his unbounded, childlike enthusiasm for all the animals and their English equivalents.

We decided to leave the zoo and have lunch together. As we ate, he told us his long, torturous story. He was studying biology at the university when he got into a bad crowd and started doing drugs. Up to that point he was doing well enough that he had several offers to continue his academic career in graduate studies or to work with some government agencies; offers that would have set him financially for life.

The deeper he got into the drug scene, however, the more distracted he became from his studies. It wasn’t long until he had to live on the streets full time to support his habit. He dropped out of school and has never returned. What had been a promising career was left shattered on the rubbish heap beside a pile of syringes. He tried to earn a living selling candy and chewing gum from a portable stand he carried through his neighborhood.

After many failed rehabilitation programs, he wandered into an evangelical church and accepted Christ. He had been clean for over a year when we met him. “The only thing that saved me was Christ,” he testified. Because of his abuse of all sorts of drugs, his brain was literally fried. This explained his somewhat slurred speech and his halting behavior—making us jump to the conclusion that he was drunk.

The passage from 2 Corinthians 5 continues, “Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new.” Other versions call this a “new creation.” In spite of his outward appearance, Pedro was a new creation. He had a new heart. Before I got to know his story, I could only see his outward appearance. 

Pedro accompanied our entourage from EMU everywhere we went. As the week wore on, he endeared himself not only to Esther and me, but also to all the students. When we went to see the reenactment of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion in his gang-infested neighborhood on Good Friday, Pedro led the way. Everywhere people greeted him. Since we were with him, in spite of sticking out like sore gringo thumbs, we felt safe and in good hands. He was the first to give out specially prepared invitations to attend his church in his neighborhood. His own transformed life was an even more powerful testimony to his old friends.

“As I started to hear his story, I started to understand him more and not have a total fear of him,” wrote the same student. “His story is a powerful story and shows what Jesus can do in people’s lives. I wish I hadn’t judged Pedro so quickly.” Another student gave Pedro his English-Spanish Bible. Pedro’s face radiated his gratitude. We were slowly beginning to see his heart, to see his God-image, to see his new creation.

When we left Mexico some three weeks after our time with this fascinating and hospitable Mennonite church, Pedro was among the people to show up at the airport to bid us farewell. Many of the church members brought parting gifts. Pedro brought his candy stand and passed out candies to the group with his huge toothless smile.

Our final church service together was Easter Sunday. During that service we circulated around all the members of the church greeting them with the phrase, “Christ is risen,” to which the other responded, “He is risen indeed!” When I came to Pedro and looked him directly in his eyes, an emotion came over me and I said to him, “Christ is risen, and I see him in your face.” This was the same face that I had rejected just a few days earlier. Without hesitation, he replied, “Yes, I was dead and now I am alive. I have risen from the dead like Christ.” I could not hold back the tears as I hugged him. Pedro was a new creation. So was I.  

The Masquerade

 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matt. 23:25-26).

Jesus lambasts the Pharisees seven times in Matthew 23 for being “hypocrites.” The word hypocrite comes from the Greek hypokritēs, meaning a “stage actor; pretender, dissembler” (Source: Online Etymology Dictionary).

Source: Dreamstime.com

Apparently in Greek theater, an actor played several roles in each drama. Each role had a different mask, and as the actor changed roles, he/she changed masks to portray the new personality. So, a hypocrite is someone who changes masks to appear to be something different from what they really are.

Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites because they display the mask of holiness and piety on the “outside of the cup and dish,” but their inner lives are “full of greed and self-indulgence.” In order to be “pure in heart” (Matt. 5: 8), they are admonished to “first clean the inside of the cup and dish.”

Throughout their writings, Thomas Merton and Richard Rohr examine the concept of the “true self” and the “false self.” In simplistic terms, the true self is the stamp of God’s image on our souls along with all the accumulated shadows, and the false self is the different masks we put on to present to the world an image of ourselves that we think is more acceptable, more desirable or more lovable.

We all need masks to deal with reality. Different roles that we play in life like Greek actors on the stage, require different masks. The problem arises when we come to believe more in our masks than in our true selves. When this happens, we develop a false self.

This is my "spiritual director"
mask. Notice the Celtic cross
around my neck.

For example, I taught at the university level for over 30 years. Many students addressed me as “Professor Clymer.” At first, I was quite pleased with this appellation. I could strut around like a peacock with the illusion that I was somehow more important or more intelligent than other people.

I call it an illusion, because my mask belied my humble background, my longings for acceptance and my need for God. I had come to believe more in my role (mask) as a professor than a human being made in the image of God. Many years later, my illusion was ripped from me through a midlife crisis and intense inner work.

I could name many other delusional masks that I have worn, some more lightly than others. Parker Palmer, in his book On the Brink of Everything, describes well my inner work and its usefulness for embracing our true selves: “Contemplation is any way one has of penetrating illusion and touching reality” (p. 57).

The Pharisees presented an illusion of piety. They could not see the reality of their own shadow selves. They were supposed to be reflecting God’s plan for the world and his people. Instead they were “full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matt. 23: 28b). That is why Jesus criticized them so severely. He was trying to “penetrate their illusions” and get them to be in touch with their “reality.”

Palmer claims that any devastating loss can serve as a catalyst to make one touch reality and destroy illusions. He calls himself a “contemplative by catastrophe.” I have had catastrophes that have shattered many of my illusions, but I have also become much more self-aware through spiritual disciplines.

What role do you play that is the most tempting with which to identify and create a false self? What has served you the best in shattering your illusions of self-importance? Catastrophe or contemplation, or both?

Despite all the Differences: Love!

I recently viewed a German documentary on YouTube called “Trotz aller Unterschiede: Liebe!” (In spite of all the differences: Love!). It was the story of three couples who defied all conventional wisdom, fell in love and got married. 

The first couple consisted of a woman who was 6’4” tall married to a man whose height only came to 5’4”; a one-foot difference. The stark contrast between their heights shown in the video walking hand-in-hand through the streets caused many stares and whispers. If their heights had been switched, with the man being a foot taller than the woman, there wouldn’t have been as many gawks or whispers. The couple had two children and at the time of the interview were happily married for 18 years.

The second couple was a 38-year-old woman married to a 20-year-old man. She was his high school teacher, and after he graduated, they fell in love and got married. This couple causes nearly as many snickers and open-mouthed stares as the first one. People assume they must be mother and son until they see them hand-in-hand or with arms around each other. Again, if their ages had been switched with the man being the one who was 18 years older, although unusual, would have been more acceptable to society. Because of her age, the 20-year-old man had to be resigned to the fact that it would be a childless marriage. Despite much against them, their marriage is thriving. 

The third couple is made up of a man who is a truck driver and a woman who is the head doctor at a reputable hospital in a large German city. Interestingly, few people notice when they walk hand-in-hand through the streets. But when they explain their professions to new acquaintances, the concealed gasps are even more pronounced that those for the first two couples with great physical differences. 

Although the Central Europe that I am familiar with does not have a caste system, there are certain expectations about one’s place in society that are more firmly entrenched than in the USA. For example, a construction worker I knew in Switzerland was criticized (gossipped about) for driving a Mercedes Benz. Although there was nothing to prohibit him from driving this vehicle, it was considered to be too much of a luxury for position. He was trying to feign a higher station in life than his job dictated. These unwritten laws tend to keep people in their place. 

So imagine the difficulty of rationalizing a woman doctor, a LEAD doctor, marrying a truck driver. The differences in status were beyond imaginable for German society. The doctor’s mother, in particular, was unrelenting in her criticism of this uneven social coupling. Yet their marriage works.  Both love what they do for a living and have much non-job-related interests in common to keep their free time full of shared activities. 

In spite of these huge differences, and in spite of their society’s perceived notions of how couples should be formed, these three survived glares and gossip to have thriving marriages.

Perhaps we could learn a lesson from these couples. Things aren’t always as they seem. Things don’t always have to be done as proscribed by conventional wisdom. Love conquers all stereotypes, prejudices, expectations and social norms. As the Beatles sang, “All you need is love,” and as Jesus said: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).

Projection: of Logs and Specks

Projection is a psychological concept was made popular by the great Swiss psychiatrist and thinker, Carl G. Jung. The idea is that we take the negative emotions and behaviors within ourselves and “project” them onto others. For example, If I can’t stand someone’s behavior, I am probably projecting on that person my own unresolved issues with that behavior.

I find it fascinating that Jesus identified the phenomenon of projection nearly 2,000 years before Jung: “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3 NRSV) The context is in judging others when our own behavior is just as bad. We criticize little things in our neighbor’s behavior, when our own unresolved attitudes and behavior are even bigger than what we are criticizing in our neighbor or someone else.

The phenomenon of projection is as old as humanity. The two most common emotions that are projected are anger and fear. We are told as Christians that we are not to be angry, even if all of us are to a certain extent. We repress the emotion until we can no longer hold it in, and we explode. Or we project it on to other people. We are also told as Christians to “fear not,” but all the messages we hear, especially in the political arena, cause us to fear. So, we repress our fear or project it on to others.

I personally repressed my anger for many years until one occasion when it exploded against my innocent daughter. I had to do some serious self-examination to realize that anger was capable of doing great physical harm to other people if I didn’t check it. This was done by serious inner work. Unfortunately, few people take the time to do such inner work and continue to repress and project.

In my reading of the political scene in the USA, it seems to me that those on the left project their anger on those on the right; those on the right project their fear on those on the left. No one is willing to examine their inner souls to see what unresolved issues within they are projecting on to others, so it ends up with both sides yelling at each other.

Beyond anger and fear, much of the projection we do comes from self-loathing. Our US American culture constantly sends us messages that we are not good enough. Of course, there are endless amounts of products available to make us feel better about ourselves. I thought that when the authoritarian generation passed away and the new “I love you forever” generation would raise their kids, that self-loathing would pass away. Not so. Our culture has found endless ways to make them feel as negative toward themselves as my generation did.

I’ve been reading Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ and I found this quote: “. . . if you nurture hatred toward yourself, it won’t be long before it shows itself as hatred toward others.” This is the worst kind of projection and is so prevalent in our current cultural scene. The amount of hatred both openly and covertly expressed toward others currently is cause for concern. And it comes from unresolved self-hatred.

Jesus’ said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8) In order to obtain a “pure heart,” one that is free of projection, we need to do serious inner work; contemplative work. The book I wrote with my sister, The Spacious Heart has many suggestions on how to do that inner work. May your find your soul and “see God.”