Blessed are the Peacemakers
AM Psalm 75, 76 • PM Psalm 23, 27
Ecclus. 46:1-10 • 2 Cor. 13:1-14 • Luke 20:1-8
On my walk in the neighborhood between rain showers this morning, I noticed a small cedar tree growing six feet from the ground out of a hollow in a huge old oak. Neither seemed disturbed by the other’s presence, and I suspect the cedar will grow there as long as that great oak lives. Coexisting peacefully, I thought, something we humans who call ourselves followers of the Prince of Peace find difficult.
In today’s Lesser Feasts and Fasts of the Episcopal Church, however, we remember a man who lived by Christ’s teachings of peace, often at great personal risk. Enmegahbowh (“he who stands before his people,”), the first Native American to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church, was born around 1820 to parents who were members of an Ojibwe Band on Rice Lake near Peterborough, Canada, his mother a native Christian and his father a chief who trained him in the traditional healing arts. Despite, or perhaps because of, his dual heritage, Enmegahbowh lived his entire life weaving together the best of his indigenous learnings and Christianity.
Before seeing his name in today’s lectionary readings, I’d never heard of this intriguing person. Beyond the facts about his missionary work as a Methodist and later as an Episcopal minister, I learned that during the Dakota War of 1862 he discouraged his people from attacking Fort Ripley, knowing they couldn’t win against the U.S. Army. He was imprisoned by his own people but escaped and traveled by night on foot to warn the fort of the possible attack. Realizing the futility of attacking Fort Ripley, many Ojibwe continued to resent Enmegahbowh for years for having revealed their plans, even though what seemed to them a betrayal had saved terrible bloodshed on both sides and further abuse and oppression from the U.S. government. Throughout his life, he continued to negotiate peace not only between the native peoples and the U.S. Army, but between warring indigenous peoples.
The Rev. Johanna Morrigan, a priest with Spirit of the Heartland Episcopal Churches in Minnesota, calls Enmegahbowh a true peacemaker. “He knew,” she writes, “that all of God’s children, no matter how reprehensible their behavior might be, must be treated with the same dignity and respect we would offer Jesus of Nazareth—for that is the only way that the Christ within him could touch the Christ within the other, and find that common ground upon which to build a true and lasting peace.”
Every Sunday after Eucharist at St. Mark’s Cathedral, Minneapolis, the pastoral care team offers healing prayers, laying on of hands, and anointing with oil at the Enmegahbowh Healing and Reconciliation Station, honoring this hero of the faith whom they describe as “a powerful voice for reconciliation between Native Americans and white people from the 1860’s until his death in 1902.”
Written by Kay DuVal
Lord, make us peacemakers, in things both great and small.