That is the title of the “new” novel by Harper Lee, author of the beloved classic, To Kill a Mockingbird. There has been lots of controversy about this book for a variety of reasons but I believe it stands on it’s own as a good read. Julie and I both read it on our recent vacation and found it especially relevant today as it seems that pesky issue of racism just doesn’t want to go away.
When considering this book in relationship to Mockingbird one has to remember that this was actually the first book, even though it takes place much later in time. When Harper Lee first submitted this to her editors they didn’t think much of it but they did like the flashbacks to her childhood and asked her to expand on that, hence To Kill a Mockingbird was born.
In Go Set a Watchman, Jean Louise (or Scout as you may remember her) is twenty-six years old and living in New York City. She comes home to Macomb for her annual two-week vacation and discovers some unsettling things about her father and her community. That being said, nothing is ever quite what it appears to be. I don’t want to say anything more about the plot because I do encourage you to give this a read. I do however want to reflect on a couple of lines from the book that really spoke to me.
First off the title, Go Set a Watchman, comes from Isaiah 21:6, “For the Lord said to me, go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.” Jean Louise is in essence that watchman, looking with new eyes at something she thought she knew totally and completely; that being her community, her family and her friends.
There is a character in this book not found in Mockingbird…”Uncle Jack”. He provides the voice of reason that helps Jean Louise make sense of what she is experiencing. At one point he says, “As sure as time, history is repeating itself, and as sure as man is man, history is the last place he’ll look for his lessons.” I couldn’t help but think of these words as I read this week about a group of armed vigilantes called “Oathkeepers” who have taken it upon themselves to patrol the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. This same group has been hired by some mine-owners to “protect” their facilities. Someone on Facebook compared them to Hitler’s brownshirted thugs and I don’t think that’s far from the truth.
But the line from Uncle Jack that really caught me was this…“Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.” I guess I never thought of prejudice being the opposite of faith but when you consider trying to see all people as your equal and worthy of your love and respect versus seeing people who are different from yourself as somehow lesser in value and not entitled to the same things we assume as our own…well, I guess it works. But what really scares me is when faith is used to feed people’s fears and prejudices. That is what we must watch out for and when we encounter it, have to courage to call it what it is. Let me know what you think of the book!
Pastor Andy