As a card-carrying, born-‘n-bred Hoosier married to a native Charlestonian, I claim the debatable privilege of questioning the standard derivation of “Hoosier.” It is a long accepted name for the State and its residents, popularized by John Finley’s 1833 heart-tugging poem, “The Hoosier’s Nest,” but its origin remains uncertain. Linguists surmise it is an elision of the question “Who’s here?” or perhaps “Who’s there?” Granted, these are logical questions in the sparsely settled Indiana Territory of the late eighteenth century, at least by the Scots-Irish and German settlers hoping to prosper in the uncharted land west of the Appalachians after the British defeat. The indigenous native residents would beg to differ regarding its being uncharted and uninhabited, doing so with a vengeance during the War of 1812. Still, it perhaps makes more sense for our topic to consider the folks who migrated there, including my ancestors, and the questions they tended to pose. These folks were part of a great migration westward out of the Southeast, a region quickly becoming crowded by Colonial standards. They were OUR ancestors, as a matter of fact, given evidence gleaned from Ancestory.Dot.Com® regarding my own family trees and assorted underbrush. They brought with them not only their tenacious ways of homesteading and tending crops and livestock, but also their dependence on and thankfulness for their ever-widening family circles. Brothers frequently married sisters from a neighboring family and daughters set their caps for the farmer’s sons down the road. As in the not so unusual case of my Rev. wife’s great-grandfather, a man might upon the death of his wife marry a sister of hers. My mother’s “people” came from central South Carolina. My father’s family may well have hailed from around Little Mountain. I once was informed about the complicated branches of the Shealy and Aull families, but that still is beyond my understanding. People worked hard to remain connected and informed. While folks knew the families in their immediate vicinity, when encountering a stranger, the first question would probably be “Who’s yer people?” Then, the game of mentally constructing family trees pertaining to the encounter commenced so that a foundation for kinship or friendship could be established. If one couldn’t find an acceptable pedigree, that stranger “…jes’ may be a no-account skunk or scoundrel!” Thus, my conclusion is that my Hoosier ancestors were among those former Southerners who bugged everyone north of the Ohio River with a nosey “Who’s yer” people? [Hoosier (who’s yer) people, indeed!] Linguists may feel free to reject my theory outright.
While the question “Who’s yer people?” is often invoked as one of the myriad “Southernisms” which delight and befuddle the rest of the United States [remember Blanche Devereaux of The Golden Girls sitcom?], that question certainly didn’t originate in the Southeast. In fact, the first reading for this coming Sunday [Exodus 20:1-17, the giving of the Commandments on Sinai] presents the Almighty in the act of reminding the Israelites on their exodus out of Egypt exactly who “their people” are. While the parallel passage in Deuteronomy 5:6-21 simply lays out the commands, the Exodus passage provides the context. After several weeks of hearing Gospel passages expanded with their connecting, introductory verses, we know just how important context can be for appropriate understanding and application. God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery… [Exodus 20:1-2]. God is reminding them of good news: God has been with this people in their enslavement, never forsaking them. God has freed them as well from their bondage and is working to lead them to a “green and pleasant land.” This is the same God who already had established a covenant with Abraham, an everlasting covenant to be exact: I [the Lord] will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you [Genesis 17:6-7]. It is God’s hope to provide words of guidance and connectedness for God’s beleaguered people, asking Moses to present them with stone tablets of commands / laws / teachings [all of those words inform their full meaning] about living as God’s people. […and that really is the answer to the question: Who’s yer people?]
The daily devotional book that my wife and I read noted this morning: “The Pharisees hand down a tradition of the Mosaic law, which admittedly originated with God, but has become encrusted with burdensome observances that drive people away from God instead of bringing them closer to God’s love. This happens in every age…” [Daily Prayer 2024, Liturgy Training Publications, Chicago, p. 87]. We see this happening in our day when misguided politicos attempt to erect plaques of the Decalogue in public places to goad folks into acceptable behavior, the public weal to be coerced by moralistic threat. It is the same type of manipulation that the massive red and yellow signs scream along the interstates of the Southeast: “Jesus died for you: repent of your sins!” [While, perhaps, true, it nevertheless is presented as a threat.] It is the same logic as the parental threat at the supper table: “Children are starving in [you name the place], so eat your vegetables or no dessert [It’s enough to make the food stick in your throat]! Where is the invitation into God’s life sealed by an everlasting covenant? Where is the God of love who protects, forgives, and redeems the sinner? God doesn’t use threats to usher in the Kingdom. NEITHER should we!!!
German theologian Otto Hermann Pesch penned a small paperback about the Ten Commandments years ago. He suggested that the “shalls” and “shall nots” might be more clearly and better translated as “It is self-evident that you will do this. / It is self-evident that you will refrain from doing that.” WHY, we might ask, regarding commandment one, should we NOT revere any gods save for the Almighty and Ever-living God? Good question, and it is forthwith answered by that significant preface to the Commandments in Exodus 20: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery… God has demonstrated time and time again that the holy, devout, and faithful life is lived in community, the Almighty being a very significant member along with the rest of God’s people. It is self-evident that we don’t lie, cheat, steal, or kill because such actions fundamentally compromise or destroy community, family, and friendship. We honor parents because it is central to supporting communal living. It is also a reminder to family elders that their lives actually ARE to be clearly honorable. Being the parent in and of itself is not sufficient; rather it is the modelling of a loving, supportive family circle which is what prompts the young to go and do likewise. God’s people are to be known by their integrity, too.
Not only has God been everlastingly faithful to us, that wondrous but tricky visionary writing at the end of the Bible also observes: And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and be their God; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” [Revelation 21:2-4]. While God is interested in bringing to light “who yer people are,” God’s ways and means do not pervert that into insular, clannish behavior as “family compound” mentalities can do. Luther, when writing the Small Catechism of 1529, knew that the homes of the faithful are in essence a reflection of the home of God, a loving community of “many rooms” or “mansions” depending upon your preferred translation [John 14:1-7 if you’re checking. Our parish churches, chapels, and places of prayer and quiet reflection are ALSO to be the welcoming embodiment of God’s perpetual invitation to come “home” to be healed, freed, and sent forth as “new creatures” for the sake of God’s creation. Again, a faith community is not a clannish, judgmental enclave of the like-minded [too often meaning small-minded].
No wonder Jesus’ frustration erupts in Sunday’s gospel when he overturns the tables of moneychangers and drives out the animals folks were peddling in the Temple: Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace [John 2:16b]! We can easily turn our parish churches into marketplaces by ignoring or worse, being ignorant of the divine presence of God right in our midst. Does our behavior frustrate those near us seeking rest and quiet, the grieving, the prayerful, the hopeful, and the joyful searching for signs that God is near to them? Have we bid the stranger in our midst welcome, or just wonder who in the world that person is over there? Ordering our lives as God’s people should be somewhat of a no-brainer since Paul reminds us that we don’t need a blinking sign to warn us that “God is closer than the reflection in your mirror might suggest.” Neither do we need to overthink things; the Greek philosophers and Pharisees alike did that to people’s everlasting harm by turning faith into burdensome, detailed demands. Rather, Philippians 4:8 reminds us how to set the rhythm of our days: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.