Pentecost 25 Year C 11/11/07
Luke 20:27-38
Resurrection
By Rich Gamble
The Sadducees were the elite of Jewish society. They were generally wealthy, well educated, socially prominent, and in charge of the Temple which was the heart of religious, economic and political life in Judea of the First Century.
The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. That makes sense. People who have everything going for them are not as inclined to need an alternative reality. They think things are perfect right here and now.
It is the people who are getting stepped on, who have seen their parents get stepped on and who know that their children and grandchildren will be stepped on- these are the people that need to look beyond the way things are and have always been, to a future where everything changes.
Resurrection speaks of a time when death will not be a factor. No death, no fear, no hunger, no intimidation. How are you going to keep people slaving away for you if they can’t be intimidated? For every abused worker who can’t afford to quit, resurrection speaks of the day when the boss has no power over you.
Now a pie in the sky bye and bye belief can be used to keep people slaving, life is hard and then you die and go someplace else. What do you care if nothing on earth ever changes, you are heaven bound.
But resurrection speaks of a new earth. A new reality on the earth. No death. No fear. Whose going to clean the Sadducees toilets? No, the Sadducees don’t like the idea of resurrection. And they don’t want their servants thinking about what things would be like if they were no longer cowed. Those same servants might start trying to hasten that new reality. A woman trapped in an abusive marriage may stay in the marriage and accept her lot if she feels that she deserves her treatment or if she can see no alternative. But if she meets someone who says that no one deserves to be abused or if she meets someone who shows her how she can live a good life apart from the abuser then she is much less likely to accept the abuse.
Speaking about an better reality undermines the present injustices.
Little wonder why the Sadducees would want to make uppity prophets like Jesus look foolish. Jesus is exactly one of those folks who tries to hasten that new day.
So believing that Jesus’ message centers on the promise of an afterlife they focus their intellectual powers to try to make Jesus look foolish and so lose favor among his followers. They use the form of argument called Reductio ad Absurdum.
They take an instance of a man who marries a woman and dies before she produces an offspring. Jewish law allows that the woman may then be married by the dead man’s brother. If that brother produces a child by the woman the child would be considered the child of the dead man and hence be his connection in name to future generations.
Ah says the Sadducees but the brother dies before producing an heir and so the woman goes to the next brother but he dies before and so she goes to the next and then the next and the next on and on through seven brothers. The last one dies and then the woman dies.
So the Sadducees ask, with a cheesy smile on their faces, in the resurrection to whom does the woman belong?
The Sadducees think that by painting this ridiculous picture of a bunch of resurrected brothers trying to figure out who has property rights over the life of the resurrected wife that they have shown what a ridiculous idea the resurrection is.
But there is a problem with the logic. They make the mistake of assuming that life beyond death is the same as life in the shadow of death. They make the assumption that in the resurrection wives will still be the property of their husbands.
Jesus points this flaw in logic out to the Sadducees. In the resurrection things will be different. Jesus, in talking about the dynamics of the resurrection, is talking about the direction of human existence. He is talking about human beings living in the light of God’s power for life.
In the ideal human community, women are not the property of men. The dynamics of the resurrection stands as a critique of life in the here and now. The Sadducees are shown to be so locked into the way things are (good for them bad for poor and working people) that they cannot imagine a world other than the current. Why should they? Everything is right for them in this world. But for the people who are hungry, homeless, without work and with very little hope of bettering themselves, the current world holds nothing but hardship and pain. The poor long for another reality and it is that longing which feeds their discontent with the way things are, and it is that discontent which can be the driving force for change.
If people believe that nothing can be done to change the conditions of the world around them they will simply accept things as they are and not try to make a change. Their belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In Tuesday’s election, the majority of the people voted their frustration. They voted their anger. They voted their fear. They didn’t vote with a vision. They didn’t vote for the world they want to see, only the one they don’t like, the present one.
So they voted and because they did not vote with a vision of justice for their homeless and hungry neighbors, because they allowed themselves to be seduced by the arguments of the well off, their votes contributed to a state that is substantially worse today than it was on Monday. Not worse for the well off, just worse for those who are hurting already.
On Monday a handful of religious leaders met with the Governor. She predicted the outcome of the elections and told us that there would be a storm of cuts to programs for the poor. She believes that she has no choice but to cut essential programs for needy people. She asked the religious community to step up and take on even more of a role in aiding those who will be in need of essential resources. Because the voters chose not to take money from those who have way more than enough, our state and local governments will be taking aid from those who have little or nothing. No doubt church groups will strive to do more to help but we will not begin to make up for the cuts that are coming. We need a bigger vision of what people of faith need to be about than slightly stemming the tide of suffering caused by the cuts. We are called to boldly take up the struggle for justice in creative new ways.
Knowing that our God has moved us beyond the power of death, can give us the power to resist the forces which seek our passivity. This is the power of the promise of resurrection. It helps us imagine another reality and helps us see that alternative as a reality for our lives and living out of the power of that promise we can speak up without fear. For us, the ritual of Baptism is the symbolic step into a resurrected life, no longer governed by fear. Resurrected life for us is not some distant promise but a living reality. That new world, free of those who use fear and greed to pacify us, is a present reality. We need only embrace it and live in it.
The fact that the cause of justice was largely defeated on Tuesday does not mean that we were defeated. It just means that our work is that much more important.
The last election merely highlights how much more work needs to be done. We need to find ways to inoculate our neighbors against misleading media. We need to find ways to spread the vision that a world free of poverty and fear is as close as our ability to wake up and live it. Just as Moses led a confused and fearful people, so we who have a vision of a better world and path to get there, must lead where we can, speak where can, and take the lumps where we must.
On Monday I worked, on Tuesday I hoped, on Wednesday I mourned. Today we pray and tomorrow we pick up the work again. If Crucifixion couldn’t keep Jesus down then Tim Eyman sure isn’t going to slow me.
When I used the example of an abused spouse before, it was with full knowledge that programs for abused spouses are right now horribly under funded and will soon lose even more funding. Others may shrug and say ‘the will of the people’ and abandon them to their abuse, but we know that this is not the way things have to be. There is another way we can be a community, a nation and a planet.
Those people who will lose their medications when the program is cut, those homeless people waiting for a place to live out of the rain, the abused women and children and mentally ill people waiting for safety, they cannot afford the luxury of our weariness. They cannot afford to be written off as government belt tightening or budgetary discipline.
There is a new day coming. There is a light at the end of this tunnel and it’s our job to lead our neighbors towards it. Every once and while, while I am waiting for someone to take the lead, it hits me that I am the one I’m waiting for. We in tiny Keystone, not the conference, not the denomination, not some large and well off congregation, we are the ones who are called to be leaders in the struggle for a better world. Not because we are so talented or blessed with resources but because we are willing to take what gifts we have and use them for the work ahead.
The income tax initiative was always but a small step in the long walk to a just world. Our vision was always bigger. Our work was always greater. Now we take the lessons of that struggle and move on to the next. That’s who we are. That’s what we do. And everyone who was moved by our work to vote for that initiative is a potential ally in the work ahead and so a victory.
Our God doesn’t want us to spend our lives in passive anticipation of heaven or passive acceptance of a fallen world. We are called to see that God’s power for life is stronger that all the powers wielding fear and greed; and with the courage of that conviction, we can be the people God would have us be. We can be the voice of hope, the source of strength and ones who see the coming light even in the darkest night. We are called to be resurrected people, raised to walk a new life in Christ. We are called to be living embodiments of a hope that transcends time and death, a hope that comes from the God of love, whose promise is as powerful today as it was 2000 years ago. And that is good news.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
UCC History - A Short Course
For all those in the Keystone family who would like more information on the history and origins of our denomination, the UCC, you can find a concise version on the national UCC website. You will learn some other exciting history in the process!
New Photo Directory!
Dear Keystone Members and Friends!
Keystone has been keeping up so well with the Church Directory, and most of you have a copy of the latest one from summer of 2010.
A few weeks ago the Communications Committee decided it would be a good idea to add photos to it. And guess what?! After taking pictures of obliging church-goers for the past few Sundays, we are more than halfway there! (For the Active Members and Friends at least). I will continue to take snapshots of those who we have not gotten pictures of, and of course am happy to accept digital copies from you if you already have a good head shot! The pictures are coming out great, and we are hoping for a Christmas delivery of the new and updated Keystone Photo Directory. Thank you for all your cooperation!
Cheers,
Sophie Morse
Keystone has been keeping up so well with the Church Directory, and most of you have a copy of the latest one from summer of 2010.
A few weeks ago the Communications Committee decided it would be a good idea to add photos to it. And guess what?! After taking pictures of obliging church-goers for the past few Sundays, we are more than halfway there! (For the Active Members and Friends at least). I will continue to take snapshots of those who we have not gotten pictures of, and of course am happy to accept digital copies from you if you already have a good head shot! The pictures are coming out great, and we are hoping for a Christmas delivery of the new and updated Keystone Photo Directory. Thank you for all your cooperation!
Cheers,
Sophie Morse
Sunday, October 17, 2010
It Gets Better: Sermon 10.17.10
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Luke 18:1-8
“It Gets Better”
In the past few weeks, the suicide deaths of seven teenagers have captured the attention of the news and so many of us: Tyler Clementi, Seth Walsh, Billy Lucas, Asher Brown, Justin Aaberg, Raymond Chase, and the most recent, Zack Harrington. As many of us know, these teens were targeted by their peers for their actual or perceived sexual orientation, bullied ruthlessly at their most vulnerable age, and mostly while the adults in the community stood by without interfering. Coinciding with the fate of these young men, a NYT article last week described the ritual beating and torture of a 17-year old gang recruit in the Bronx. He was suspected to be gay. After the man had been stripped, kicked and punched, he was given a choice between a bat and a pipe for the weapon for his further torment, which would last for hours. He chose the bat. The nine suspects that were charged with this beating, also beat and tortured three other men in connection with the first.
The shock of the teen suicides, the Bronx beatings, and other national news relating to homophobia has cast a new spotlight on our cultural intolerance toward sexual minorities. It has also galvanized a wide response. One response has been media host Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better Project” which he launched last month. This project invites members of the GLBT community and others who have suffered particularly harsh bullying to submit videos that communicate a message of hope to teens. Each person’s testimony is meant to communicate that no matter how bad or intolerable it seems now, that life does get better. The intense microcosm of the teenage years that breed prejudice and cruelty does in fact come to an end. So far there are over 800 videos that have been submitted, each broadcasting the message to teenagers who are suffering abuse and who feel hopeless and isolated, not to lose heart, the message that It gets better.
These stories seem particularly apropos during a week that the gospels speak to us of ‘not losing heart.' The parable we heard today is the gospel version perhaps of the “It Gets Better” project. Luke knew his audience was in danger of losing heart. Jesus after all was late. His return was supposed to have happened already and his followers had been waiting faithfully to witness the coming of the Kin-dom heralded by his return. Now the first generation of those who had actually been alive with Jesus was starting to pass away and the community was in crisis, a crisis of faith. The author of Luke was eager to reassure Christ’s followers that despite what they saw, despite their disappointment, despite the fact the Jesus had not returned on schedule, that God was indeed working amongst them, God had not abandoned them, and that God’s promises were still real. Specifically in this story Jesus highlights the promise of God’s justice. If a cynical and self-serving judge can make the “right” decision on behalf of justice for the wrong reasons, how much more gracious, caring and swift is the justice that will be poured out by God. How much more quickly and completely will God respond to us, when we allow ourselves to open up to God, to pray. God is not remote, anonymous, abstract, but real and concrete, and God has not betrayed the people’s faith.
The message in today’s reading strikes at the heart of this faith. If we do not believe that God is there we will lose heart, and our vision of what is possible will continue to shrink until it fits the flawed and often brutish world that we live in. What we see in the way of mercy, justice and compassion in this world becomes all that is possible, the measuring stick with which to gauge how much we can have. Jesus is reminding his hearers to throw away the world’s measuring stick. There is another measuring stick, God’s and the Kin-dom of heaven where compassion, justice and mercy surpass all that we could possibly imagine. When the crumbs of justice occasionally fall from the table of the powerful, as they did for the widow in this story, we cannot allow this meager reward to be confused with the Kin-dom of God. When our cultural intolerance (of sexual minorities) continues to allow teenagers to be bullied to death, when it continues to allow you to lose your job if you are gay, lesbian or bisexual in 29 states and in 38 states if you are transgendered, when continues to deny same sex partners the right to marry, when continues to deny GLBT women and men the ability openly serve in the military, we cannot allow this reality to be confused with what is possible. It is precisely from a lack of vision of a better life that these teenagers took theirs. It is precisely from a lack of vision of God's Kin-dom that causes us to lose heart, and not stand up for ourselves or for the least of our sisters and brothers.
Jeremiah echoes this message. The Israelites who have insisted on a king and military might to protect them, are now scattered by the forces that had opposed and are overcome. They are in exile from their city, their temple, their land. And now God is offering them a new relationship. Like the Oldsmobile commercial, God is telling the Israelites, this new relationship “not your grandfather’s” covenant. “Just because our relationship does not resemble what it has been for so many generations, does not mean that I am gone. Rather, I am here in a new way. Instead of a covenant that is formed through learning of the law, this new covenant will be etched on your hearts. The law is not thrown out, but out of your new intimate connection with me acting according to the law will follow naturally. I will love you so much and you will love me so much that we will be in harmony with one another.”
When we are losing heart, this harmony may seem beyond our reach, this promise may seem like cold comfort. What good is it to know that God has something more in store for us, when our despair, or our grief, is at its worst? When we feel abandoned and overwhelmed, what does this promise of mercy, justice and compassion really matter? What good does it do when again and again and again we cannot see the Kin-dom manifesting here on earth? I suspect that what drove the widow in Luke’s gospel to persist in asking for justice, was not an illusion about how sympathetic the system was to her. She knew it was stacked against her. But she knew what was right. Today’s message is not about ignoring what is around us; it is about abandoning it as the measuring stick for what is possible. These stories from today are God’s message that “It Gets Better.” And this relates to all of us. Not just members of the GLBT community of course, but to all us who for whatever reason are finding we are losing heart. The reasons may vary, but the message is that if we are losing heart, now is the time to pray. Now is the time to hear God’s assurance that It Gets Better, I have something more for you, and it is etched in your hearts where you can never lose it.
You may have noticed that we are being asked to pray. This message may seem hard to relate to precisely because it is a one we so desperately need. We live in a culture estranged from the God of Luke. The God that is introduced to us from our culture, is more often a God that is external, a God that is domineering, a God that is exclusive, a God that does not care about the goodness of our heart but about how often we perform the precise tasks needed to earn God’s love. When we are taught to pray we are taught to pray to a God that is “out there,” whose attention we have to fight for, to a God who stopped speaking 2000 years ago, a God who manipulates history, who spreads more terror than love, a God that will vindicate us at the expense of our “enemies.” No wonder we need this message so badly. This cultural God is not the God of the new covenant, and it is not the God of Luke’s gospel. Their God is a God that reaches out to us in the pit of our despair and does not care if we are “good Christians,” or whether we are straight or gay, rich or poor, whether we are alcoholics or drug addicts, or what mistakes we’ve made in our lives. This God reaches out to us through these words in Jeremiah and Luke and tells us “if you believe in me, if you trust me, if you cry out to me, you will believe that this is not all there is, not all that is possible, and this will give you heart. It Gets Better.”
Last month during a visit to the Bay Area I took a sojourn to #575 Castro Street in San Francisco. This is the address where Harvey Milk launched his political career over 30 years ago. As many people know, Harvey became one of the first openly gay men in the U.S. to be elected to a major political office. He was gunned down along with the mayor just 11 months into his term as city supervisor. Harvey had been a hero of mine for a number of decades and what I had been struck by all those years was not just Harvey Milk’s political persistence, or even his larger-than-life personality. It was his ability to galvanize and give voice to a community that was losing heart. He was the catalyst that inspired the gay and lesbian community (as well as others) who were criminalized and targeted by the law, to turn away from fear, to stand up, to demand a different world. Harvey’s motto in fact, was, “You gotta give ‘em hope.” He might have said, “You gotta give ‘em heart.” His gift was his vision, a vision so powerful it gained, not lost, momentum with his death. This vision did not depend on a change in circumstances, but a change in conviction. This is the message of the Good News today. As long as we have a vision of what might be, not what is, and faith that what God wishes for us is so much greater than what see, we will have heart, we can find strength, we can find peace.
I cannot imagine what is like to, at the age of 13, throw a rope over a branch and prepare to hang myself. I cannot imagine what is going through the mind of someone asked to choose between two torture weapons. All I know is that if such a person can keep from losing their heart, how much more am I called to not lose mine. If such a person is not able to keep their heart, how much more are we called to keep ours on their behalf?
And if we are losing heart, how much more are we called to turn our hearts to God and remember. God has a vision for us, not based on what is manifested in the world, but on what is possible, and what is guaranteed to come. And we might find comfort in the prayer the psalmist wrote:
I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
God will not let your foot be moved; God who keeps you will not slumber.
God who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; God will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.
Amen.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
New Faces
In case you missed it we have some new faces at Keystone.
Sophie Morse is the new Associate Pastor. Sophie is a recent graduate (Master of Divinity) from Seattle University (where Peg goes).
Elliot Kraber is our new Cantor. Elliot will be leading us in song on those occasions when Peg is helping our sister congregation Broadview UCC.
Sophie Morse is the new Associate Pastor. Sophie is a recent graduate (Master of Divinity) from Seattle University (where Peg goes).
Elliot Kraber is our new Cantor. Elliot will be leading us in song on those occasions when Peg is helping our sister congregation Broadview UCC.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Sermon God's Economy
Pentecost 18 Year C 091910
Luke 16:1-13
God’s Economy
By Rich Gamble
Last week’s scripture had Jesus responding to the holy men of his day after the criticized him about hanging out with and even eating with “sinners and tax collectors.” In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus responds by telling a series of stories. This story is part of that response.
In Luke’s story the man in charge of his master’s investments knows that he is about to be fired. So in order to make sure that he has friends out there who look after him after he is fired, he starts forgiving part of the debt that various people owe his boss. In essence he is giving his boss’ money away in order to buy friends.
But there is a twist in this parable as there usually is in parables. The boss finds out about the loan and commends his employee for his shrewdness.
Jesus then goes on to make a comparison. We are like that employee. We don’t own anything. It all belongs to the boss, the big boss, God. It all belongs to God, so why not be generous with it and make yourself some friends. This is the exact opposite of American monetary policy. When we give out money, we use it as a tool to control. Our nation, our banks our corporations don’t give money away to people they loan money with an expectation of profit. Of ten we loan money to impoverished nations through the World Bank or other such organizations. Those loans are then used as a tool to get the impoverished nation to sell off its resources or allow the exploitation of its people as ways of paying off the loan. Loaning with the expectation of profit gives power to the one who makes the loan over the one who takes the loan.
The poor family farmers of Jesus day knew all about debt as a tool of exploitation. That is exactly how the Roman Empire operated. And in the distant memory of our Jewish spiritual ancestors sits a clear line connecting loans taken and the road to slavery.
But here everything is upside down. Here we are called to use money as tool of friendship and not exploitation. The shrewd employee partially lifts the burden of debt from people. He does so for his own gain, not as an act of charity.
Debt is a way to gain control over people. It is a primary tool of economies of domination. In our faith history, debt is a tool of exploitation and slavery. It is no surprise then that we pray every Sunday about the act of forgiving debts. Our God is the God who stands in utter opposition to the economics of empire and exploitation. The way of our God is the way of debt forgiveness, and because it is the way of our God, it is the way of those who choose to become followers of this God. We pray that God will forgive our debts and we commit to the economic process of debt forgiveness (as we forgive our neighbors).
The tool of imperial exploitation so often used against members of the Third World is now being used against America. We are in great debt. Debt caused largely by a transfer of our common resources into the hands of large corporations and wealthy individuals through massive military spending and the bailout of the banking industry. People, even compassionate people, are saying, “well we just don’t have the money to… Improve public schools, have universal healthcare, end homelessness, substantially reduce our carbon emissions. After that will come the calls to privatize things like social security and public lands and close down programs for the poor.
Yesterday I was at a public meeting held by the Lutheran Church about 10 blocks south. The church had recently opened up their building to a homeless shelter and many of the neighbors were upset by the fact that they did not have a say in the matter. For many, the presence of the homeless shelter in their neighborhood was the first time that they became aware that homelessness was an issue for people living in Wallingford.
The future of our current economic path is leading us to greater and greater cuts of programs for low income people as our city and county and state and perhaps even federal governments cut back on essential programs. That means that there will be greater pressure on places like this one to provide shelter and food. Living in Wallingford or Mercer Island is no longer proof against encountering desperately poor people and churches will be looked upon with distrust as possible portals for the poor into more well-off neighborhoods. I don’t think churches should be homeless shelters. I don’t think that there should be homeless shelters because I believe that there should be adequate sources of affordable housing for everyone; but when our nation's economic system leaves people hungry and homeless we must respond. And if our current economic system is inadequate to the task then we should do more than furnish the bandaids of a mat on the floor or a bowl of chili on the victims. We should find a better systems.
The solution is found in our faith: Constructing an economic order which is based on sharing rather than hording wealth. What’s good for people of faith is good for everyone whether they believe in God or not. Building an economic order whose primary goal is broad distribution of wealth rather than on the retention of wealth in the hands of a very small number of people is possible. There are lots of ways to move towards that goal. Utilization of income and inheritance taxes to finance programs for impoverished people is one direct step we can take. That is why there is a “Yes on 1098” sign in the window of this church. That is not just a political sign, it is a sign of our understanding of the will of God.
Like Jesus we have to find ways to change people’s thinking about wealth. Giving food away at Sacred Heart is a good thing, and advocating for things like Public Schools, and Universal Healthcare and non-profit housing are good as well. As the Body of Christ we are challenged to be as creative and daring as Jesus was in his day. Stories, poetry, song, worship, Facebook entries, letters to the editor, protests, painting, parties, and thousands of other activities can spread this vision of a compassionate nation and a just economy. In the midst of the suffering caused by the politics of fear and economics of greed, we know that there is another way and so we have hope, and that is good news.
Amen.
Luke 16:1-13
God’s Economy
By Rich Gamble
Last week’s scripture had Jesus responding to the holy men of his day after the criticized him about hanging out with and even eating with “sinners and tax collectors.” In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus responds by telling a series of stories. This story is part of that response.
In Luke’s story the man in charge of his master’s investments knows that he is about to be fired. So in order to make sure that he has friends out there who look after him after he is fired, he starts forgiving part of the debt that various people owe his boss. In essence he is giving his boss’ money away in order to buy friends.
But there is a twist in this parable as there usually is in parables. The boss finds out about the loan and commends his employee for his shrewdness.
Jesus then goes on to make a comparison. We are like that employee. We don’t own anything. It all belongs to the boss, the big boss, God. It all belongs to God, so why not be generous with it and make yourself some friends. This is the exact opposite of American monetary policy. When we give out money, we use it as a tool to control. Our nation, our banks our corporations don’t give money away to people they loan money with an expectation of profit. Of ten we loan money to impoverished nations through the World Bank or other such organizations. Those loans are then used as a tool to get the impoverished nation to sell off its resources or allow the exploitation of its people as ways of paying off the loan. Loaning with the expectation of profit gives power to the one who makes the loan over the one who takes the loan.
The poor family farmers of Jesus day knew all about debt as a tool of exploitation. That is exactly how the Roman Empire operated. And in the distant memory of our Jewish spiritual ancestors sits a clear line connecting loans taken and the road to slavery.
But here everything is upside down. Here we are called to use money as tool of friendship and not exploitation. The shrewd employee partially lifts the burden of debt from people. He does so for his own gain, not as an act of charity.
Debt is a way to gain control over people. It is a primary tool of economies of domination. In our faith history, debt is a tool of exploitation and slavery. It is no surprise then that we pray every Sunday about the act of forgiving debts. Our God is the God who stands in utter opposition to the economics of empire and exploitation. The way of our God is the way of debt forgiveness, and because it is the way of our God, it is the way of those who choose to become followers of this God. We pray that God will forgive our debts and we commit to the economic process of debt forgiveness (as we forgive our neighbors).
The tool of imperial exploitation so often used against members of the Third World is now being used against America. We are in great debt. Debt caused largely by a transfer of our common resources into the hands of large corporations and wealthy individuals through massive military spending and the bailout of the banking industry. People, even compassionate people, are saying, “well we just don’t have the money to… Improve public schools, have universal healthcare, end homelessness, substantially reduce our carbon emissions. After that will come the calls to privatize things like social security and public lands and close down programs for the poor.
Yesterday I was at a public meeting held by the Lutheran Church about 10 blocks south. The church had recently opened up their building to a homeless shelter and many of the neighbors were upset by the fact that they did not have a say in the matter. For many, the presence of the homeless shelter in their neighborhood was the first time that they became aware that homelessness was an issue for people living in Wallingford.
The future of our current economic path is leading us to greater and greater cuts of programs for low income people as our city and county and state and perhaps even federal governments cut back on essential programs. That means that there will be greater pressure on places like this one to provide shelter and food. Living in Wallingford or Mercer Island is no longer proof against encountering desperately poor people and churches will be looked upon with distrust as possible portals for the poor into more well-off neighborhoods. I don’t think churches should be homeless shelters. I don’t think that there should be homeless shelters because I believe that there should be adequate sources of affordable housing for everyone; but when our nation's economic system leaves people hungry and homeless we must respond. And if our current economic system is inadequate to the task then we should do more than furnish the bandaids of a mat on the floor or a bowl of chili on the victims. We should find a better systems.
The solution is found in our faith: Constructing an economic order which is based on sharing rather than hording wealth. What’s good for people of faith is good for everyone whether they believe in God or not. Building an economic order whose primary goal is broad distribution of wealth rather than on the retention of wealth in the hands of a very small number of people is possible. There are lots of ways to move towards that goal. Utilization of income and inheritance taxes to finance programs for impoverished people is one direct step we can take. That is why there is a “Yes on 1098” sign in the window of this church. That is not just a political sign, it is a sign of our understanding of the will of God.
Like Jesus we have to find ways to change people’s thinking about wealth. Giving food away at Sacred Heart is a good thing, and advocating for things like Public Schools, and Universal Healthcare and non-profit housing are good as well. As the Body of Christ we are challenged to be as creative and daring as Jesus was in his day. Stories, poetry, song, worship, Facebook entries, letters to the editor, protests, painting, parties, and thousands of other activities can spread this vision of a compassionate nation and a just economy. In the midst of the suffering caused by the politics of fear and economics of greed, we know that there is another way and so we have hope, and that is good news.
Amen.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
9/11
Matthew 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Parent in heaven; for God makes Gods’ sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
Loving (and the word here is agape) your enemies is the means by which we change the world. Loving does not meaning capitulating to those who practice evil, in the example of Jesus it means directly opposing them nonviolently. So that they may turn from their violence and oppression.
When President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize he sought to justify violence.
“We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations - acting individually or in concert - will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.”….. “A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism - it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.”
The president’s recognition of history is an interpretation of history, not a fact but a faith statement about his belief in the necessity and righteousness of violence. No one knows whether non-violence would have stopped Hitler’s armies. We do know that
“The Danish and Norwegian resistance to Hitler used direct action such as sabotage of rail lines and factory equipment. Their most important methods involved withholding support from the Nazis -- defiance by teachers, strikes by workers, public boycotts. By the end of the war, Nazi leaders were cabling Berlin to urge that the Germans withdraw -- the costs of staying outweighed the benefits! While thousands of protesters were killed and many more were imprisoned, the casualties were far fewer than would have been caused by armed resistance.” (Glen Gersmehl)
In 1989-90 alone, fourteen nations underwent nonviolent revolutions, all of them successful except China. These revolutions involved 1.7 billion people. If we total all the nonviolent movements of the twentieth century, the figure comes to 3.4 billion people, and again, most were successful. And yet there are people who still insist that nonviolence doesn't work! Gene Sharp has itemized 98 different types of nonviolent actions that are a part of the historical record, yet our history books seldom mention any of them, so preoccupied are they with power politics."(Walter Wink)
Often we resort to violence because we have devised no alternatives. If the only tool you have is a hammer then every problem looks like a nail.
“The 2003 US federal budget again provides over 200 times as much money to military options and resources as it does to all our nonviolent responses to conflict combined, from US contributions to peacekeeping operations or State Dept. conflict resolution efforts to US Institute of Peace research and training programs. Even if you add all the money the US spends to address the roots of conflict and violence in the world – programs like the Peace Corps and development aid – nonviolent methods don’t receive even two percent of the money spent on military options! Contrary to popular belief about the extravagance of US foreign aid, the US trails every industrialized nation in the world in per capita spending to address the root causes of violence and conflict in the world such as hunger and extreme poverty!” (Glen Gersmehl)
In calling on us to love our enemies Jesus was showing us an alternative to the endless cycle of violence. To choose that path is just as much an act of faith as is believing that the use of violence will end the use of violence.
“It cannot be stressed too much: love of enemies has, for our time, become the litmus test of authentic Christian faith. Commitment to justice, liberation, or the overthrow of oppression is not enough, for all too often the means used have brought in their wake new injustices and oppressions. Love of enemies is the recognition that the enemy, too, is a child of God. The enemy too believes he or she is in the right, and fears us because we represent a threat against his or her values, lifestyle, or affluence. When we demonize our enemies, calling them names and identifying them with absolute evil, we deny that they have that of God within them that makes transformation possible. Instead, we play God. We write them out of the Book of Life. We conclude that our enemy has drifted beyond the redemptive hand of God.
I submit that the ultimate religious question today is no longer the Reformation's 'How can I find a gracious God?' It is instead, 'How can I find God in my enemy?' What guilt was for Luther, the enemy has become for us: the goad that can drive us to God. What has formerly been a purely private affair--justification by faith through grace--has now, in our age, grown to embrace the world. As John Stoner comments, we can no more save ourselves from our enemies than we can save ourselves from sin, but God's amazing grace offers to save us from both. There is, in fact, no other way to God for our time but through the enemy, for loving the enemy has become the key both to human survival in the age of terror and to personal transformation. Either we find the God who causes the sun to rise on evil and on the good, or we may have no more sunrises.” (Wink)
On this anniversary of a terrible act of violence, let us as a people of faith proclaim the hard truth of love as the path out of the cycle of hate, fear and violence.
Rich
Loving (and the word here is agape) your enemies is the means by which we change the world. Loving does not meaning capitulating to those who practice evil, in the example of Jesus it means directly opposing them nonviolently. So that they may turn from their violence and oppression.
When President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize he sought to justify violence.
“We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations - acting individually or in concert - will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.”….. “A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism - it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.”
The president’s recognition of history is an interpretation of history, not a fact but a faith statement about his belief in the necessity and righteousness of violence. No one knows whether non-violence would have stopped Hitler’s armies. We do know that
“The Danish and Norwegian resistance to Hitler used direct action such as sabotage of rail lines and factory equipment. Their most important methods involved withholding support from the Nazis -- defiance by teachers, strikes by workers, public boycotts. By the end of the war, Nazi leaders were cabling Berlin to urge that the Germans withdraw -- the costs of staying outweighed the benefits! While thousands of protesters were killed and many more were imprisoned, the casualties were far fewer than would have been caused by armed resistance.” (Glen Gersmehl)
In 1989-90 alone, fourteen nations underwent nonviolent revolutions, all of them successful except China. These revolutions involved 1.7 billion people. If we total all the nonviolent movements of the twentieth century, the figure comes to 3.4 billion people, and again, most were successful. And yet there are people who still insist that nonviolence doesn't work! Gene Sharp has itemized 98 different types of nonviolent actions that are a part of the historical record, yet our history books seldom mention any of them, so preoccupied are they with power politics."(Walter Wink)
Often we resort to violence because we have devised no alternatives. If the only tool you have is a hammer then every problem looks like a nail.
“The 2003 US federal budget again provides over 200 times as much money to military options and resources as it does to all our nonviolent responses to conflict combined, from US contributions to peacekeeping operations or State Dept. conflict resolution efforts to US Institute of Peace research and training programs. Even if you add all the money the US spends to address the roots of conflict and violence in the world – programs like the Peace Corps and development aid – nonviolent methods don’t receive even two percent of the money spent on military options! Contrary to popular belief about the extravagance of US foreign aid, the US trails every industrialized nation in the world in per capita spending to address the root causes of violence and conflict in the world such as hunger and extreme poverty!” (Glen Gersmehl)
In calling on us to love our enemies Jesus was showing us an alternative to the endless cycle of violence. To choose that path is just as much an act of faith as is believing that the use of violence will end the use of violence.
“It cannot be stressed too much: love of enemies has, for our time, become the litmus test of authentic Christian faith. Commitment to justice, liberation, or the overthrow of oppression is not enough, for all too often the means used have brought in their wake new injustices and oppressions. Love of enemies is the recognition that the enemy, too, is a child of God. The enemy too believes he or she is in the right, and fears us because we represent a threat against his or her values, lifestyle, or affluence. When we demonize our enemies, calling them names and identifying them with absolute evil, we deny that they have that of God within them that makes transformation possible. Instead, we play God. We write them out of the Book of Life. We conclude that our enemy has drifted beyond the redemptive hand of God.
I submit that the ultimate religious question today is no longer the Reformation's 'How can I find a gracious God?' It is instead, 'How can I find God in my enemy?' What guilt was for Luther, the enemy has become for us: the goad that can drive us to God. What has formerly been a purely private affair--justification by faith through grace--has now, in our age, grown to embrace the world. As John Stoner comments, we can no more save ourselves from our enemies than we can save ourselves from sin, but God's amazing grace offers to save us from both. There is, in fact, no other way to God for our time but through the enemy, for loving the enemy has become the key both to human survival in the age of terror and to personal transformation. Either we find the God who causes the sun to rise on evil and on the good, or we may have no more sunrises.” (Wink)
On this anniversary of a terrible act of violence, let us as a people of faith proclaim the hard truth of love as the path out of the cycle of hate, fear and violence.
Rich
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