A disturbing moment

Jesus’ parable of the unfaithful tenants (Mark 12:1-11) was read in church yesterday. In the story, some tenants decide that they can keep the vineyard for themselves and attack the servants the master sends to collect the rent.
The church team from Sussex who were leading had asked the girls from one of the diocesan schools to put together a short drama illustrating the story. As we have seen several times with Rwanda teenagers, they rose to the challenge admirably, with a small bowl of soil and some real plants as props, plus LOTS of added conversation to pad out the events. It went o for about 10 minutes.
The really chilling moment, however, was half-way through. Having chased 2 servants and while standing waiting for more, 2 of the tenants turned on the third and accused her of not being active enough in the violence. “You are not really with us”, they said, “you need to get more involved”. Sure enough, as the next unfortunate servant arrived, she was at the forefront. It was a moment of revelation and deeply disturbing.
These girls would have been very young during the genocide, but somehow the notion of group violence requiring everyone to be involved has found its way into their minds, probably at a subconscious level. It’s an indication of something I am becoming increasingly aware of, namely that the effects of the genocide are still very much here, but usually well under the surface.