By Marek Zabriskie
We live in a time when many television commentators, comedians, talk show hosts, and celebrities find it easy to put down individuals and groups as being less worthy.
School cliques thrive on this. I remember spending a lot of time with a high school friend who found fault with everyone. Our conversations got so negative that I had to end our relationship.
Even the nicest among us can succumb to being smug about ourselves while putting others down. We find ourselves feeling superior to others. Social media perpetuates this.
In the Episcopal Church, at each baptism we renew our Baptismal Covenant. We are asked questions. The final question is, “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” Respecting the dignity of “all” people is a tall order.
We respond, “I will, with God’s help.” While it’s easy to say this in church on Sunday, it’s harder to carry out at work or school or while waiting in carpool on Monday.
Jesus gravitated toward hurting and vulnerable. He mingled with women, healed lepers, cured the blind, ate with tax collectors and incorporated a radical zealot into his disciples.
He lifted others up and restored their dignity. He set them free. You and I are surrounded by many people who feel trapped and trampled. We need to lift them up. That is our calling.
In the fifth chapter of John’s Gospel, we read how on the day of the sabbath Jesus went to the pool of Bethesda where Jews would stop to ritually bathe before entering the Temple for worship. People who were invalid, blind, lame, and paralyzed sat around the pool.
It was believed that when the water was troubled, an angel was present and whoever entered the water first would be healed. One man had been sitting there for thirty-eight years. Jesus asked, “Do you want to be made well?”
The man replied, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
Jesus said, “Stand up, take your mat and walk. And at once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.” (John 5:8-9). This story is a metaphor for all that Jesus did. He raised people up and set them free. We can do something similar.
George H.W. Bush was five years old when he entered Greenwich Country Day School in September of 1929. His brother, Pres Jr., and he wore orange and black uniform sweaters, studied mandatory Latin, played ice hockey on the Rockefellers’ pond near their home and sledded down the big hill behind Country Day.
George was nicknamed “Have-Half” because he always divided any treat that he had in half to share with one of his friends. He was Country Day’s best athlete. The school year always ended with an obstacle course run, which George always won.
George was getting ready to attend boarding school at Andover. So, his teachers asked if he would let the other students get a head start. George agreed. When the teacher gave a sign, George started to run.
At one point, he had to get down and climb on all four through a barrel. As he exited, he discovered that a chunky classmate named Bennet McNickel had gotten stuck in the barrel next to him.
So, George stopped, leaned down, and freed Bennet. The delay cost George the race. Bennet and George crossed the finish line together. They tied. It was the highlight of Bennet’s life.
Bush’s biographer Jon Meacham said that this is the kind of story that you would tell about your dad or brag about yourself. But Meacham noted, “I never heard that story from a Bush. I heard it from Bennet McNickel. He went around telling that story for 70 years.”
While writing Bush’s biography, Meacham asked the former president why he did what he did. “President Bush looked at me like I was an idiot,” recalls Meacham. “He said, ‘I did it because I had never been stuck in a barrel, and I thought that Bennet needed some help.’”
Meacham notes, “The President didn’t say, ‘I did it because the Bible tells me so’ or ‘because my parents raised me to free people from barrels.’ He said that he did it simply because it was the right thing to do.”
George Bush grew up in Greenwich, where he was baptized, confirmed, worshipped and attended Sunday school at Christ Church. I suspect that something at church shaped his character, which eventually shaped our nation. Our places of worship play a vital role in forming our character and our values.
Our places of worship remind us that lots of people are stuck in barrels. We can help lift them up and set them free. That’s our job, and together, we can do it.
The Rev. Marek Zabriskie is Rector of Christ Church Greenwich
