Talk and thought on this blessed Thursday also has to do with smiling wide and hospitality.
But before I go there, please be reminded that some one or the other must have unlatched the gate to the hog pen.
As a consequence, sows, boars and their piglet offspring were to be heard far and wide, grunting here and wallowing there.
And from some of what I heard about some of the younger pigs, I am convinced that they are yet to get a full hold of what it means to be a hog in this sad place.
Now please do not get me wrong, no reference I make here to hogs who got loose last weekend should -in any way, shape or form- be allowed any connection or allusion with the scenarios that unfolded when the Immigration people descended on Eleuthera last week end.
And for sure, not one mumbling word written here should be construed as suggesting that what they did bore any relation to what hogs do when they find themselves smack dab in the middle of a vat of mud.
But for as much as I know or care, I could very well in this Satanic place stand accused – and justifiably so – of maligning the hogs and their piglet offspring of being anything like Yu Noh Hu when they descended on an island that looks and sounds so very much like the real Eleuthera, where Immigration did what they say they had to do.
I am told that in the real Eleuthera, whole families were roused from their beds; some of them cozy enough and warm enough for a besotted maharajah and his equally besotted lover.
I am told that in the real Eleuthera, women wailed and men – impotent in the moment – could only stand in mute wonder as their women and children were made to contemplate the meaning of "…bam-bam/you’re dead…and something else about the Bahamas for Bahamians."
Then I heard there was the cold click of a trigger finger – bam-bam/you’re dead and The Bahamas for Bahamians.
And I am told that some younger officers tried to refuse to carry out orders to "shoot them if they resist". And I am made to understand that – mercifully – no one was shot.
Then I heard there was the cold click of a trigger finger – bam-bam/you’re dead and The Bahamas for Bahamians.
But while no one was shot, I also know that some good and true and decent people came to understand that Bahamians are –in the main – lying through their teeth when they smile wide and when they talk about how hospitable they are.
Oh boy!
Am I sorry for what I have done? What I’m trying to say is that I owe the hogs and their feral offspring an apology.
Not even hogs would have done what [I am told happened in Eleuthera this past weekend]. So there, brother hog – I do verily apologize.
More to the point and for that matter, truth is that [in the Bible]
Offering hospitality is a moral imperative.
Know and appreciate that, God's people remember that they were once strangers and refugees who were taken in by God (Deuteronomy 10:19).
Now the question: How might this memory make someone respond to a stranger or a refugee? What would it mean to "love the alien as yourself" (Leviticus 19:34) in this country, we call home.
Please remember that, when an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19:33-34.
Note well that, Haitians and other human persons are aliens or strangers in this strange land.
Now that you have that down pat, remember the time when, By the rivers of Babylon where we sat down And there we went when we remembered Zion.
For the wicked, carry us away [Captivity] require from us a song
How can we sing King Alpha’s song in a strange land?
This is a strange land. And for sure, there are Bahamians ‘some where out there’ competing among themselves in the sale and packaging of hope, dope and compassion.
Interestingly, sales – again as I am being told – are brisk; with hope, dope and compassion racking up sales and raking in the money.
So there, who ever said that these are hard times?!?!
Let’s say it again: Who ever? Said! That these are hard times?!?!
And for sure, let it also be known that, if the price is right, some Bahamians can smile as wide as the Panama Canal.
And for sure, if the price is right, some other Bahamians can sink themselves deeper than the Titanic.
And for sure, as they either smile wider than a mile; and as they bow, scrape, grovel and shake their assorted money-makers, they tell themselves that they are Christians.
With but few exceptions, they take it for granted that hospitality is something that can be bought, sold and traded.
This might also explain how it now comes to be that some thugs in uniform are selling compassion and an assortment of other packaged kindnesses to all who would buy.
Here I venture into deep waters when I say that I have been told that dope, hope and compassion can be bought in packages and parcels that come attached with an assortment of price-tags.
I am told that three hundred dollars can buy an undocumented immigrant some of the time he needs in order to work so that he can next time around buy some more compassion.
As my own Aunt Ju’ would say, you get nothing for nothing and after that, you get very little for your penny. So now that the thugs are out-there somewhere selling hope, dope and compassion, I look forward to nothing from any of them. As for hope, my hope is that these fiends will find their way – sooner rather than later – to the foot of the cross, where they can pray and confess their sins against decency and their violation of strangers.
I would also recommend that these thugs should pray to be brought to that place where they understand that they are to, "Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. This according to St. Peter.
Note also that, "Paul, in his epistle to Titus, included being hospitable as one of those marks of a mature Christian that ought to be present in our church leaders. (Titus 1:7-9)
Peter also bids us to be hospitable without grumbling.
Clearly, hospitality rendered with a truly humble spirit, without pretense or pride, is a beautiful manifestation of the work of the Spirit of God in the lives of His people.
Evidently, through this happy labor we are given the opportunity to touch other lives, promote peace within the church and our families, witness and disciple, encourage those who are laboring for the kingdom, uphold those who are suffering, and comfort those in the midst of trials.
Today I uphold the Haitian people; and today, I pray God’s favor on them as they stand in the midst of their trials.
And the Church said Amen!
