Week of Proper 27: Monday, Year 2

Above:  Crete, as of July 22, 2011

Image Source = NASA

Ethnic Slurs and Other Stereotypes

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

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Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada.  I invite you to follow it with me.

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Titus 1:1-16 (Revised English Bible):

From Paul, servant of God and apostle of Christ Jesus, marked as such by the faith of God’s chosen people and the knowledge of the truth enshrined in our religion with its hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised long ages ago, and now in his own good time has openly declared in the proclamation entrusted to me by command of God our Saviour.

Titus, my true-born son in the faith which we share.  Grace and peace to you from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Saviour.

My intention in leaving you behind in Crete was that you should deal with any outstanding matters, and in particular should appoint elders in each town in accordance with the principles I have laid down:  Are they men of unimpeachable character?  Is each the husband of one wife?  Are their children believers, not open to any charge of dissipation or indiscipline?  For as God’s steward a bishop  must be a man on unimpeachable character.  He must not be overbearing  or short-tempered or given to drink; no brawler, no money-grubber, but hospitable, right-minded, temperate, just, devout, and self-controlled.  He must keep firm hold of the true doctrine, so that he may be well able both to appeal to his hearers with sound teaching and to refute those who raise objections.

There are many, especially among Jewish converts, who are undisciplined, who talk wildly and lead others astray.  Such men must be muzzled, because they are ruining whole families by teaching what they should not, and all for sordid gain.  It was a Cretan prophet, one of their own countrymen, who said,

Cretans were ever liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons

–and how truly he spoke!  All the more reason why you should rebuke them sharply, so that they may be restored to a sound faith, instead of paying heed to Jewish myths and to human commandments, the work of those who turn their backs on the truth.

To the pure all things are pure; but nothing is pure to tainted disbelievers, tainted both in reason and in conscience.  They profess to know God but by their actions deny him; they are detestable and disobedient, disqualified for any good work.

Psalm 24:1-6 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1 The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it,

the world and all who dwell therein.

2 For it is who founded it upon the seas

and made it firm upon the rivers of the deep.

3 “Who can ascend the hill of the LORD?

and who can stand in his holy place?”

4 “Those who have clean hands and a pure heart,

who have not pledged themselves to falsehood,

nor sworn by what is a fraud.

5 They shall receive a blessing from the LORD

and a just reward from the God of their salvation.”

6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,

of those who seek your face, O God of Jacob.

Luke 17:1-6 (Revised English Bible):

Jesus said to his disciples,

There are bound to be causes of stumbling; but woe betide the person through whom they come.  It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone round his neck than to cause the downfall of one of these little ones.  So be on your guard.

If your brother does wrong, reprove him; and if he repents, forgive him.  Even if he wrongs you seven times in a day and comes back to you seven times saying, “I am sorry,” you are to forgive him.”

The apostles said to the Lord,

Increase our faith;

and the Lord replied,

If you had faith no bigger than a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be rooted up and planted in the sea;’ and it would obey you.

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The Collect:

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Some Related Posts:

Week of Proper 27:  Monday, Year 1:

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/week-of-proper-27-monday-year-1/

A Prayer to Embrace Love, Empathy, and Compassion, and to Eschew Hatred, Invective, and Willful Ignorance:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/a-prayer-to-embrace-love-empathy-and-compassion-and-to-eschew-hatred-invective-and-willful-ignorance/

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Scholars debate whether Paul wrote this epistle, addressed to Titus, one of Paul’s associates left at Crete and advised how to to set up the administration of the church there.  It does seem that Titus had to contend with some especially rebellious and contentious people in the course of fulfilling his vocation.  So the author, who disliked them, used some unflattering language for Jews and Cretans.  This, unfortunately, is consistent with Paul, who, in Philippians 3:2, called the Judaizers “dogs.”  I recall this clearly, for I completed my journey through the epistle just a few days ago.

The New Interpreter’s Study Bible features the following “Special Note” regarding ethnic slurs on page 2144:

This surprising insult may be the author’s way of portraying the rebellious teachers in the worst possible light.  Despite the use of such language in a letter attributed to Paul, surely the use of ethnic slurs within the Christian community is unacceptable in the light of Jesus’ acceptance of the Samaritans (Luke 10:25-37; John 4:1-2) and Paul’s own statements in Gal. 3:28.

Yes, some people fit stereotypes, but most do not; people are generally more complicated than stereotypes.  I stress this point in classrooms and provide historical examples as supporting details.  It is easy to slur and stereotype those who differ from us significantly and with whom we disagree strongly, much less those we do not know.  May we, by grace, resist that temptation.  That would be consistent with the example of Jesus.

KRT

http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/ethnic-slurs-and-other-stereotypes/