By Joanne Stevenson Jenkins
“From there Jesus set out for the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house there where he didn’t think he would be found, but he couldn’t escape notice. He was barely inside when a woman who had a disturbed daughter heard where he was. She came and knelt at his feet, begging for help. The woman was Greek, Syro-Phoenician by birth. She asked him to cure her daughter. He said, ‘The children get fed first. If there’s any left over, the dogs get it.’ She said, ‘Of course, Master, but don’t the dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?’ Jesus was impressed. ‘You’re right! On your way! Your daughter is no longer disturbed. The demonic affliction is gone.’ She went home and found her daughter relaxed on the bed; the torment was gone for good” (Mark 7:24-30, The Message).
When I agreed to reflect on Sacred Ground for this newsletter honoring Women’s History Month, I searched for a woman’s story that captures how Sacred Ground has reshaped my life. The line “the torment was gone for good” from this story of the Syro-Phoenician woman stopped me in my tracks for its richness and power of its many themes.
When I have the privilege of joining a Sacred Ground circle, I witness women who seek a lasting solution to the suffering brought on by hate and fear; women who bring their deep desire for “the torment to be gone for good” into our circle. As a facilitator of color on this arduous pilgrimage, I acknowledge their hunger and their fatigue. The burden of racism and supremacy of whiteness leaves a deep, gnawing emptiness in each of us.
Year in and year out many of us come to a great variety of anti-racism tables, ready to be nourished and renewed, reconciled, and redeemed, liberated from the past, and welcomed into a new future. Despite the best efforts of many, we are served the scraps, and we know it. We smile, nod, lean in for a moment or two, lean back when it gets uncomfortable, and leave promising to do better next time. Accepting the scraps is just another way that racism convinces us that we have enough to get by for now. But then the next incident happens, the next assault comes on our dignity and worth as human beings, and here we go again.
Sacred Ground offers a more satisfying feast, where we can ask for second or third helpings if that is what we need. Our people, all of us, deserve a better, more nourishing meal when it comes to healing our hearts, minds, and spirits, so that racism, othering, bigotry, and indifference in all their forms can be gone for good, eventually.
In the meantime, come and feast, don’t be shy, and don’t be afraid to eat everything on this Spirit-filled Sacred Ground plate. It’s good mind, body, and soul food, and we deserve to be nourished, just like our Syro-Phoenician sister. This is a long journey, and we need our strength.