Mission Trip 2023

Sermon

CHRIS DELA CRUZ:

The truth is, where our youth went this week was not a typical mission trip. In fact, though we changed the name to Youth Summer Service Trip, just calling it service is misleading as well.

We were at the Yakama reservation with Native folks who identify as Christians. Annawanita, Director of S.L.A.M. Trips, set the tone the first day.

She said, “You are not here to save us. We are here to teach you.”

S.L.A.M. stands for Students Learning About Missions. The title takes the concept of the “mission trip” and turns it on its head. Yes, we learned about missions—how the white American church sent missions to indigenous communities like the land where the Yakama nation sits. But we also learned what it’s like to sit at the feet of another culture, to get a glimpse of God’s love from the very people our country and church have been complicit in harming.

I’ll invite Janet, chair of our Youth Team, to say a few words about what we actually did on the trip and the impact the trip had on her.

JANET PATIN:

This past week, seven middle- and high-schoolers from the NE Youth Collective were immersed in Native American history and culture, accompanied by the Reverend Chris Dela Cruz, me, deacon Bonnie Beedles-Bohling of Central Lutheran, and the Reverend Erin Martin of Fremont Methodist Church. S.L.A.M. Trips are Students Learning About Missions, run by Mending Wings, a Native-American, Christian nonprofit on the Yakama Reservation in Washington. From the Yakama, we learned some of the painful history of repeated relocations and broken treaties, and we were reminded that God does not break His promises. We visited a sacred burial site and learned about respect for elders. We explored the cultural heritage museum. We went to the longhouse and walked the earthen floor, heard stories of celebrations and burials, and witnessed Native dance, drumming, and regalia. We ate blueberries and salmon and huckleberry ice cream. We made moccasin slippers for each other and learned the Native tradition of giving away one’s first—the first huckleberry picking, the first root dig, the first moccasin made—and we experienced the delight of our partner in receiving the gift. We, in thanks, set our hands to help Native elders in the community with yard and debris clean up and flower-shop organization. All our senses were brought into this experience, including an emotional final worship circle with sage smudging and communion with water, as water is life. It was intense, and wonderful, and challenging. We each came home with something that made a deep impression.

For me, I have come to question everything I thought I knew about mission work. I wonder if they did more harm than good, even my beloved Jonathan Edwards, who ministered to Indians at the end of his life. We have a long history of lording our views and power over others, and while it’s now apparently legal, it is still wrong. It is especially wrong for Christians, at odds with Jesus’ examples of right relationship with God and with each other. The news is still good; our delivery, not so much. But that Good News has staying power; we must trust Creator to help us cycle through to a path closer to His. He loves us, He does not break his promises, and of that, I have no doubt.

CHRIS:

We now have a few words from the youth who went on the trip.

ELLA HIGGINS:

One thing that I loved was the friendships, the bonds I made, friendships with people from other churches, from our church. And the staff with S.L.A.M. Trips was a really great group of people and a lot of them were my age, so that was really nice. I loved getting to know everyone. There were no people that I didn’t like. I really enjoyed the people, the bonds that I formed that I still have now after leaving.

Another pro was just the culture, the people on the reservation, how beautiful the reservation was. The people and how they love their culture so much and how they never gave it up. Their outlook on life is just so beautiful.

A con was just that it was really hot. The things we were doing were really dirty; the gardening, I felt icky the whole time. I got stung by a bee. That wasn’t very fun. It was just really hot and I was sweating all the time and I hate feeling sticky and gross. And that’s how I feel when I sweat and I have a ton of sunscreen on. So that wasn’t amazing.

But compared, I feel the pros outweigh the cons. I really didn’t think this trip would change my life, but it really did. I had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it, and I hope I can go on more mission trips in the future.

LUKE OWENS:

I feel like I learned a lot and there were many things I didn’t know, that I know now, that I should have known earlier. The people there were really nice and I would totally do this again. They were a really welcoming community.

I feel like the worship circle at the end was eye opening because it made me remember that a lot of people have lives that aren’t like mine. People have really different lives.

We visited a sacred site that the Yakama people hold as the burial spot of an ancient giant they revere. The moments honoring the courage of “Kloh-mohma,” during the prayer songs and rituals, those were really powerful moments. It was like there was a presence of everyone’s emotions and prayer.

I feel like now that I went there, I see more similarities to their culture than differences.

RILEY COX:

I know I could say my experience this past week learning about the Yakima has changed my life. In the beginning, I didn’t want to go on this trip and was scared of what was to come, but I can say going on this trip has been one of the best things that has happened in my life. We did a lot in a week, and I don’t even know where to start. I had a fun week with the youth collective and met a bunch of amazing people from other churches and made some special relationships. I was taught a lot on this trip; for example, this trip taught me how to give, how to respect, and how we work better together. Those are just three things out of the many things the Yakima taught me. The trip was very emotional and powerful for me and changed my perspective on life, our history, and even Christianity. We did everything from doing work for elders, ceremonies, visiting sacred sites, and having fun. The staff was amazing and greeted us with open arms and treated us like family. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and one I will never forget. If you are old enough I encourage you to go on this trip; you will feel emotions you have never felt before, you will experience things you have never experienced. I could tell you that everyone who went on this trip was impacted in some way but not all in the same way. I am gifted to have brothers and sisters from the Yakima Nation.

CHRIS DELA CRUZ:

I’ll say some final words rooted in our Scripture for today. When speaking to us about the history of the Yakama Nation, including the broken treaties and forced assimilation through boarding schools and genocide and rape, all done by Christian Americans in the name of Jesus, Corey Greaves said that the Parable of the Good Samaritan is about the Native people. He said it’s about the Native people because his peoples were beaten and left on the side of the road by thieves. And the priest and the Levite, the religious people, left his people for dead.

And do not forget, in Jesus’ time, the Samaritans were despised, the Other of the Judean people. Jesus making the Samaritan the hero of the story was purposely provocative, challenging those who saw themselves as the most holy to see just how expansive God’s loving “mission” really was.

Christians of the dominant culture are quick to see themselves in the story as the Samaritan helper. But in the case of the Church in America, we as an institution have to wrestle with being more like the thief, like the priest who leaves the robbed for dead. Who, through collusion with the state in the name of Jesus, ripped indigenous people from their land and tried to erase them. Who, through collusion with the state in the name of Jesus, stole Africans and put beloved human beings in chains, building the wealth of a new nation on enslaved Black labor. And through this Original Sin, the ripple effects permeate our systems, our culture, and indeed our very spirit to this day. Witness the rise of Christian nationalism, taking this corruption of the gospel to its logical conclusions.

And there’s no way that this overarching system and culture of violence and dominance hasn’t also permeated down to the very personal aspects of our lives—the way we treat one another, the way we parent, the way we conduct business and run our institutions, the way we love in relationships. Suddenly, theologies about how we need grace and healing from the inside out make more sense.

But here’s the good news. You see, Corey said the Native was the one beaten on the side of the road. But in the Yakama people’s history and indeed what we experienced on S.L.A.M. Trips, we also witnessed them as the Samaritan healer, first and foremost in the way Native people brought healing for themselves in their own empowerment and resilience despite all our country’s and Church’s oppression. The same way that Black people, I should mention, brought their own healing, fighting for their freedom from white enslavement, fighting for their civil rights that we all benefit from.

And then we also experienced the Samaritan healer in how Native folks brought healing for us. One of our middle schoolers pointed out how incredible it was that the very people who were harmed by the American Church are now inviting us to their land, and on their land they are willing to share their culture with us, to feed and care for us, to worship with us, and provide Christian teaching and pray for us. You realize how absurd that is? It sounds to me a lot like grace. A grace that many white churches preach about but could only dare to touch.

On this holiday that we commemorate the declaration that began our nation, I believe the call of the American Church is to repent from the greater 500-year project of colonization and domination that unfortunately many non-Christians associate us with these days, especially in the march of Christian nationalism. And so, my sermon to you is that, yes, be like the Samaritan and be a neighbor to others. But in order to get there, you may first need to realize that you are also the one in need of healing, from the inside out. You are not here to save anyone.

You need to reach out to Creator, whose grace knows no bounds, and ask for healing from the Samaritan Jesus, the oppressed Jesus who was nailed on the cross by Religion and the State. Then, and only then, can you start to understand what it means to be a neighbor.