“Amish Grace”: A Story that can never be told too much

On October 2, 2006, a truck backed into the front door of anAmish schoolhouse in Lancaster County. The man who cameout of the truck was someone that all of the students knew. He was the man whopicked up the unpasteurized milk from their parents’ farms.

Charles Carl Roberts IV had been a tormented soul and he hadplanned to take out his torment on the female students of the school. He hadbought all the supplies he needed. He had written suicide notes to everyone inhis family. He went into the classroom initially with a rusty metal object inhis hand. He asked the children if they had seen an object like it in the road.The children, respectful and trusting of adults, said they’d help him look.

He went back to his truck and came back with asemi-automatic pistol. He ordered everyone to lie down facedown in the front ofthe room. Seeing the gun, one of the adults ran out to get help at a nearbyfarmhouse. From there, she called the police.

Back in the schoolhouse, Roberts sent one of the boys to goget the adult that fled and he tied up all of the girls. One of the girls hearda voice she later attributed to an angel who told her to run. She escapedbefore Roberts had the chance to tie up her legs. Roberts ordered the rest ofthe adults to leave and then he ordered all of the boys to leave. His intentionwas to molest the girls, but state troopers had soon surrounded the school. Hetried to order all of the troopers off of the property but the troopers wouldnot comply. So he skipped that part of his plan and shot at all of the girls,killing five, putting one in a coma, and injuring the other four. He thenkilled himself.

Later that same evening, people from the Amish communitywent to see Roberts’ widow, children and parents to let them know that theywere not to blame and to share their sorrow. The parents of several of thevictims invited Roberts’ family to the funerals. Many family members of thevictims went to Roberts’ burial to show their support and love to the family.As donations came in to support the victims of the shooting, the Amishcommunity shared the money with the Roberts’ family. When people in the mediaasked the Amish if they had any anger toward Roberts or his family, repeatedly theAmish people said they had forgiven them.

As the book “Amish Grace” explains, the reasoning behind theAmish willingness to forgive is long and complicated. For one, the Amish takeliterally the Bible’s command: that if you do not forgive, God will not forgiveyou. The 18^th chapter of Matthew is frequently used in Amishservices especially twice a year when they have a time of penance andreconciliation before their big communion service. In that chapter, Peter asksJesus how often he should forgive, and Jesus says seventy-seven times. Also,this is the chapter of Jesus’ parable where a king forgives a debtor his debts.This debtor goes on to refused to forgive the debts of another person and sothe king punishes him. Jesus says that this is how God works also. That if werefuse to forgive, God will not forgive us.

They also have a sense of the absolute power of God. Godwill deal with the perpetrator as He wishes; there is no reason for the victimto curse them. Not that they don’t agree with law enforcement. They will pleadfor mercy for those who have been arrested for crimes against them, but they donot argue that law enforcement doesn’t have the right to punish them. They willnot seek revenge on their own, however. God will do with the evil-doer as Hewishes. 

As Jesus prayed for his executioners, the Amish believe weare to pray for our persecutors as well. While they leave the criminals to themercy of God, they do pray for God to be merciful toward the criminals. Theymake it a point to see the criminal as another human being. Just as the Amishhave faults, so do everyone else. They do not feel as if it is their place tojudge.

The Amish faith has a long history of persecution andmartyrdom. These stories of martyrdom have an overarching theme of forgivenessand acting gracefully. One in particular that is shared in the book is thestory of Dirk Willems. He was arrested and he escaped. As he ran, the guardwent after him. He and the guard ran across a frozen pond. Willems got safelyto the other side, but the guard fell through the ice. Willems actually goesback and rescues his captor. He ultimately gets executed for his trouble. As heis burned at the stake, he cries out loud repeatedly for God to forgive hisexecutioners.

Another major idea discussed in the book is that the Amishdo not have the secular American idea of the individual; they stress thecommunity over the individual. They don’t encourage independence in the waythat we typically do. They don’t encourage the questioning of authority orindividuality. Instead, they have a strong sense of community where theysupport each other through thick and thin. They depend on one another foreverything and they are very closely knit.  In a society where community is of the utmostimportance, forgiveness becomes an important virtue for living togethercooperatively. If being a part of the group is the most important thing, youcannot have grudges or hatred breaking the community apart.

This book was outstanding. I highly recommend it foreveryone and anyone. We all have people in our lives we have not forgiven. Thisbook gave me the encouragement I needed to list those people and start to worktowards forgiving them. The story of this community in Lancaster Countycannot be told often enough.

I know I’m supposed to be a forgiving person, but it ishard. I can only imagine how hard it was for these people to be so kind to thefamily of the gunman. This idea of forgiveness is not only an Amish idea, it’sa Christian idea. “They will know we are Christian by our love.”   

What do you think about this story? What do you think about forgiveness?

Why "The Syrophoenician Woman"?

At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.”
But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her. Jesus’ disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”
He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, “Lord, help me.” He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”
Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour. -Gospel of Matthew 15:21-28

This past Sunday we heard Matthew’s version of the story of the Syrophoenician Woman. Matthew calls her a Canaanite, but the point of the story is the same. Here is a woman, a *gentile* woman, pleading Jesus for help. At first, he doesn’t seem to want to help her. She’s not one of his people, the Jews, and he came to help his own people. But she argues with him. With her wit and her perseverance, Jesus is persuaded to heal her daughter.

This story inspires me in two main points:

1. The strength and the courage of a woman fighting for her daughter.

2. God can change His mind.

Put yourself in her shoes: Your daughter has been acting strangely for months. She never feels well and rarely gets out of bed. She apparently has no control over what she says or does. She randomly screams and throws herself on the ground. She threatens you. You’ve done all you can to watch over her and care for her, but you’re at your wits end. You hear about a Jewish man coming through your neighborhood. He’s healed many people. He seems to have some authority over demons. You go to see if he can heal your daughter, too.

When you get there, the apostles all around him glare at you. You fight for the miracle man’s attention, but it’s clear that the crowd around him does not want you there. You’re not a Jew, you’re a gentile. The crowd wants nothing to do with gentiles. The miracle man ignores you. You watch him heal other people in the crowd. That only makes you more desperate for his attention. When he finally looks at you, he tells you he won’t help you because you’re a gentile.

After months of stress caring for your daughter, this finally pushes you over the edge. You know he can heal your daughter, he just doesn’t want to. You beg him for his help. He calls you a “dog.” So be it, you think, he can call me whatever he wants as long as he heals my daughter. In one last act of desperation, you turn his argument on it’s head. “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” He finally grants your request and your child is healed.

I’m sure there are people out there that can relate all too well to this woman. We can all relate to the feeling of being at one’s wits end for one reason or another. There are definitely parents out there who can relate to this sense of desperation, looking for someone to help their child. I am impressed by the Syrophoenician woman’s courage, standing up to a crowd who didn’t want her there. I am inspired by her perseverance, there are many times I just want to give up. I admire her wit. I know I couldn’t have thought that well in the heat of the moment. I’m not the only person inspired by her, she’s in two gospels and a search for her online yields over 56 thousand results.

This is a gentile woman who argued with God and won. People typically have difficulty with that idea. If God is all-perfect, God must be never changing because change is imperfect. God, Who is perfect love, must have been intending to help this woman all along, because it would be cruel to not help her. God knows no prejudices!

The story of the Syrophoenician woman is not the only time in scripture that someone argues with God. In the Hebrew Scriptures, we see Abraham argue with God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah. These cities are ultimately not spared because God does not find 10 righteous people in them, but God does spare the righteous people that God does find. Later on in Genesis, Jacob even wrestles with God, being consequently renamed Israel. Just because God is all-knowing, all-powerful and perfect doesn’t mean humans can’t argue with God and it doesn’t mean we can’t sometimes change God’s mind. I like an analogy I saw somewhere. It’s like children arguing with their parents. Just because parents are wiser and more powerful than their children, it doesn’t mean that children can’t argue and sometimes even win.

While God does not know any prejudices, the human Jesus may very well had. Christians hold that Jesus was truly God and truly man. So he knew our faults. He knew that it was not customary in this time for a Jewish man to have anything to do with a gentile woman. At that time, he may have honestly thought that his mission was only to the Jews.

Being perfect does not mean not changing. My experience with perfection does not support that hypothesis at all. But that is definitely a topic too big to tack on to this post.

I love the Syrophoenician Woman

Judas Iscariot as a literary device?

So, it’s always dangerous to watch shows on the History channel that touch on religious topics. I know this very well. As a theology and world religions student, I’ve seen many specials on television that I could tear apart for inaccuracies and for simplifying things that can’t be simplified. This particular special was about Masada. Judas’ name came up because there is a theory that he was a member of the Sicarri rebels. The expert being interviewed argued that Judas’ name had nothing to do with the Sicarri but his last name actually means “from the place,” making his full name meaning “the Jew from the place.” Now, I haven’t heard this theory before. Looking at my textbooks, this idea doesn’t come up. It’s entirely possible that it’s a case of a History Channel “expert” saying nonsense. However, this made me wonder, what if Judas is a literary device? Could this be true? What would it mean to me as a Catholic?

This idea is not a new one. Scripture scholars as of late have played with the idea for various reasons. They see that some of the earliest Biblical materials don’t mention him (i.e. Paul and the disputed Q). They see some very good reasons to make a character like that up. The one reason that I find to be the most provocative is that Judas draws even more blame away from the Romans. The early Christian church was in a difficult position. They didn’t want to emphasize that the Romans killed Jesus because they wanted to be in the Romans’ good graces. Rome was already persecuting them, they didn’t need to make more barriers between themselves and Rome. They were also very angry at the Jews who had recently kicked them out of the synagogues. So, what better way to deflect blame from the Romans than to blame the Jews for Jesus’ death.

Now let’s look at the story of Judas from that perspective:

Here we have a clearly Jewish disciple of Jesus who betrays his rabbi for money to the Jewish leadership who aren’t painted in a very positive light either. This group turns Jesus over to the Roman leadership. The Roman leadership are not portrayed as the good guys, but they aren’t portrayed as the bad guys either. Pilate washes himself of his guilt, and the crowd is given a second chance to free Jesus from his fate.

Seeing the story of Judas’ betrayal in light of the situation of the early Christians does not make a convincing case for Judas being a real person. It would make sense for the early Christians to make such a character up in order to place blame for Jesus death on the Jews.

What does this mean to me as a Catholic? I don’t think that questioning the existence of Judas is heretical. Judas isn’t in the Nicene Creed. The important thing for Christianity is the belief that Jesus, the Son of God, was crucified and resurrected. [Edit: Joe Heschmeyer has corrected me as far as the previous flawed 2-3 sentences: His blog is here.] The story of Judas still has some value as a reminder of the dangers of greed and the importance of trust and friendship. It also brings about fruitful reflection on questions such as, “If a particular sin is preordained by God, is it really a sin?”

Also, it serves as a reminder of the painful history of Jewish/Christian relations. May we never forget that the Jewish people are our brothers and sisters. The Christian faith does not supersede the Jewish faith. The Jews did not kill Jesus, the Romans did.