Unclean

Living close to the city but working out in the villages is like bouncing back and forth between two different worlds.  Sometimes when I'm at work I feel like I have stepped back in time. Visitors who have come to Huehue think we lack modern conveniences here in the city and to some extent we do, but it's nothing compared to life in the villages where the majority sleep on boards, cook over an open fire or a wood-burning stove, and have no electricity or running water.  I have run into some crazy stuff out there--witchcraft, old wives' tales, gossip that would curl your hair--but just when I think there's not much left that can surprise me, something surprises me.  

Some months ago one of the new ladies from the program called me to confirm the time of our weekly Bible study.  I gave her the time, and she paused as if there was something else she really wanted to say.  Finally, she lowered her voice and said, "I'll come, but I have to sit outside the church." Curious, I asked her why.  After another few seconds, she answered, "I'm not clean." It took a few seconds for it to dawn on me what she meant.  I have heard of indigenous cultures in other parts of the world who have the belief that menstruating women are unclean and therefore are not allowed in places of worship.  In fact, in some countries--Nepal, for example--there are villages where women are banished from their homes to sleep out in the barn every month, even during the winter.  But I have never run into this belief here in Guatemala until recently. Honestly, I didn't even know how to respond in that moment other than to tell her that she was most welcome at the church, regardless of what she'd been told.  And she came, although hesitantly.

I have since asked my assistant, Marina, if she has heard of this belief before.  She told me that she most certainly had--that she'd even heard some evangelical pastors preaching it from the pulpit!  Then she informed me that others of my LI ladies have had this same concern.  Until the LI ministry center is built, we are using a church building to divide up the food.  The ladies know that everyone has to come inside to help, and I occasionally get frustrated when I see one or two of them just hanging around outside while everyone else works.  Now I understand why, and I believe some biblical teaching is in order.    

In the Old Testament, there were laws regarding a person's physical purity and when they were and were not allowed inside the tabernacle.  Check out Leviticus 15 if you're curious.  When amazes me is that preachers will zero in on the second half of the chapter that refers to a woman's uncleanness while completely ignoring the first 18 verses that deal with a man's!  I've never heard anyone ever telling a man not to come to church because he's unclean.  I suppose that's enough of that soapbox.  What's even sadder to me though is that rural people here are not taught that we are under grace. Most of us have heard the story of the woman with the issue of blood who actually touched Jesus who is far holier than any earthly place of worship could ever be, and yet He had no rebuke for her. In fact, He called her daughter--the only place in recorded scripture where Jesus refers to a woman this way. Then He comforted and healed her.  We know this story well.  We understand that Jesus took all our uncleanness, both that of our bodies and that of our souls, and that we can now stand before the Father in purity.  The fact that my friends do not understand this deeply saddens me, and it's something I plan to rectify soon.   

This whole thing has really made me think long and hard about myself, not just as a woman but as a believer in general.  I have put myself in these women's shoes and imagined how I'd feel if some man, a supposed Bible scholar, told me I was unclean and couldn't come to church.  It'd make my blood boil!  I'd probably read him the first half of Leviticus 15 and tell him to go stew on that for a while--definitely NOT a Christian response--which leads me to my next thought:  the fact that without Jesus I am unclean...unimaginably dirty, in fact.  That is something that we Christians seem to have forgotten these days--our own filth...how incredibly rotten we are at our core...how many skeletons are in our own closets...how much it cost our Savior to clean us up and make us "white as snow."  It's so easy for us to turn our noses down at the people marching in rights-of-various-types parades, at people addicted to heroin, at the drunk guy passed out on the sidewalk, at the parents who raised the kid who shot a bunch of people, or for that matter at the young mother in the store who can't seem to control her 2 year old.  We secretly judge everyone, somehow deluding ourselves into believing that we're just a little bit better.  The older I get the more amazed I am that God loves any of us at all.  I can't wrap my brain around why He would want to; we're not a lovable bunch.  And that is why this holy day, Easter, is my very favorite one.

Catholics here in Guatemala make a very big deal of Holy Week, especially of Good Friday.  People make intricate "carpets" out of colored wood shavings in the streets and then have long processionals through them with elaborate floats portraying Jesus's crucifixion and burial.  Images of Jesus anguish  or of His dead body are all over the place, and it just makes me want to scream, "That's not all there is!  You're missing the BEST part!"  It is the resurrection that gives us hope! It is the resurrection that secures my place with Jesus one day.  It is the resurrection that makes me a joint heir with Jesus Christ...ME, a rotten sinner, a joint heir with God's perfect, holy Son.  It is the resurrection that makes us able to say that the "sufferings of this present life cannot be compared with the glory that's coming!"  Because He lives, we too will live!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that never fades away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time!  --Peter, an eyewitness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ