Excerpt from Matthew 22: 23-46

"a question . . ."

Reflection by Donna Schaper

Nine of us were in the same van, driving from the Detroit airport to the Renaissance Center for a two-day conference on racism.  The van driver was white.  In the middle seat were two black women, in the front seat three white men, in the third seat, three white people, including me. 

As we approached downtown, we heard music coming from the big square in front of the Renaissance Center.  Tents were up, stages were set, a great sound system was letting the music massage the city.  Thousands of people were wandering around. There was a jazz of joy in the air.  As we stared out the window, the driver said, "Now, I want to make sure you all know you can walk out of the hotel at night and be safe."  My row's occupants turned from staring out to staring in at each other.  The middle row shook their heads.  They shifted to side to side to take in the weight of the warning. 

The van's dead air joined our dead silence.  I wanted to speak but words didn't come.  I know it is not on the people of color to speak but on those of us who live with the privilege of not having to notice.  By on, I mean ON, as in ball is in your court, in your hands, on your lips.  I also know that I have a streak of punishmentalism and that just about anything I could have said would have been said with a moralistic thud.  I knew I had to come up with something funny but I appeared to have misplaced my funny again.  So there I sat, missing the music outside, deep in my doubly bound gut knowing I should speak but not knowing what to say. 

We arrived at the hotel, were liberated from the van, and I did all I knew to do. When you don't know something, you ask questions. I asked a lot of my fellow experts about what I should have done. The best response came from a 22-year-old Detroit-based poet.  She said, "Why didn't you ask him why he needed to tell you that?"  She said put a smile in your tone of voice, find a way to mean the question when you ask it, be genuinely curious, like you really want to know why.

Prayer

Teach me how to ask questions, O God, even if they bother people.

About the Author Donna Schaper is the Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Her latest work is 20 Ways to Keep Sabbath, from The Pilgrim Press. Check out her work at www.judson.org.

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