Sermons
“Come, Weary People, and Rest” based on 1 Corinthians 11:23-26…
I adore World Communion Sunday. It fills my head with images of tables, laden with the communion elements, the tables change shape, size, structure, and composition as they are set around the world. I love the idea that people in so many varied parts of the Body of Christ share together today – Roman Catholics and many different Orthodox traditions, along with the mainline Protestant denominations and many who are unaffiliated. I love the diversity people with varieties of of ages, races, ethnicities, languages, sexual orientations, gender identities, and abilities that will fill the tables. I just love that God’s table is found in so many forms, feeding so many people.
I love that we get to be a part of it, and that it extends our table into places we’ve never even been. Honestly, I get misty-eyed as well as mystical about this. The communion table has an inherent timelessness about it, when we remember one meal from 2000 years ago, but it also connects us to the many remembrances of that meal from the intervening 2000 years, and are reminded that our meals at God’s table become a part of this long history that will be in the shared tradition long after our lives have passed.
World Communion takes us around the world, and backwards and forwards in time, connecting us as the Body of Christ, feeding us so we can be healed and whole for the work of building the kindom of God.
With all that being said, my brain isn’t super good at generic. I can’t manage to feel connected to all the peoples of the world all at once, much less all the people who ever have or ever will live. So, I have encourage us to pick one part of the world, to truly hear and connect to the people of that place, as a way of expanding outward from our table into the world. Therefore, please indulge me in a history lesson. I promise it does connect, but it isn’t short.
This year, we’re intentionally expanding our table to Puerto Rico, a part of the United States, with a Methodist Church that became autonomous from the United Methodist Church in 1992. Until that point, the then United Methodists in Puerto Rico were considered part of the Northeastern Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church. Our sibling in Christ relationship with Christians in Puerto Rico is a tighter bond than with much of the rest of the world, and yet, it feels entirely deserving of our attention.
To get my head and heart aligned with Puerto Rico, I did some basic research on Puerto Rico’s history, and I’d like to share it with you. Because, until we know a person or a people’s story, we can’t really be in solidarity with them.
It is believed that Puerto Rico was first settled about 1000 years ago by people who called themselves Taíno and called the island Borikén.1 There were about 30,000 people living on the island when Christopher Columbus landed on it in 1493. He claimed it for Spain, named it San Juan Bautista, and left 2 days later, 2 thus making it one of the world’s oldest colonies. The colonization was passive for 15 years, but in 1508 the Spanish started building a military base and began forced labor of the indigenous people. By the 1530 census, only 1148 Taíno people still lived.3
In order to maintain the island as a military and economic force, the Spaniards intentionally brought Africans to the Island as slaves starting in 1513, and slavery continued for 360 years until 1873.4 The population was rebuilt by immigration from Spain and forced migration of people from other West Indies islands.
In 1898 the United States annexed the colony from Spain. The island’s economy was dominated by a considerable wealth-generating plantation system, cultivating sugarcane, tobacco, and coffee.”5 The US mainland mostly wanted it for a military base, but it took the economic benefits as well. Because of pressure exerted by Puerto Ricans on the island, they became US citizens in 1917, and Puerto Rico became a U.S. commonwealth in 1952, although many argue it is still functionally a colony.6 Debates are still prominent over whether Puerto Ricans want to maintain its status quo, become a state, or become independent.
There was a large increase in manufacturing in the late 1970s and 1980s because of a intention, effective, tax loophole. Then, in 1996 Congress, without representation from Puerto Rico and against their desire, acted to close the loophole. Rolling Stone Magazine summarizes,
“The pharmaceutical companies fled. The economy tanked. Tax revenues collapsed. In May 2006, much of the government, including all the public schools, was temporarily shut down. But rather than cut spending to make up for lost tax revenue, the Puerto Rican government went the other way. It started borrowing money. Two years later, when the global financial crisis hit, it borrowed even more. Broke and desperate, it turned to high-risk capital appreciation bonds and other financial instruments with astronomical interest rates. A 2016 report on Puerto Rico’s debt describes these loans as “the municipal version of a payday loan…. Instead of jump-starting the economy, it pushed the island deeper into joblessness, recession and bankruptcy. In 2015, then-Gov. Alejandro García Padilla warned that the debt was not payable.’… A consequence of this decade-long financial decline was little investment in infrastructure — the roads, highways, bridges, water and sewage systems, and electric grid were all more or less abandoned.”7
The attempt to pull Puerto Rico out of debt felt to many like a return to deeper colonization. The U.S. Congress created the economic collapse, and Congress rejected repeated requests for economic help, choosing the economic interests of Puerto Rico’s creditors over the human interests of the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico themselves. As a result, last year before the hurricane, Puerto Rico had 3.3 million citizens, the poverty rate was 43.5% and more than 10 percent of the workforce was unemployed.8Then came Hurricane Maria. National Geographic describes the status of the island after the 155 mile per hour winds had come:
“The result was the longest major power outage in U.S. history, and many communities on the island were left without running water for months. Toilets couldn’t flush; there was no water for showers, baths, or washing clothes. People had to rely on bottled water, but supplies were limited. Useless electric stoves had to be replaced with propane ones. Without refrigeration, food rotted and vital medicines spoiled. Only those with gas-powered generators could ward off darkness after dusk—for a few brief hours. Forget about air conditioners to relieve the sweltering heat. All the modern conveniences we take for granted were left behind.”9
Rolling Stone summarizes the impact in a different vein:
“Hurricane Maria was the third-costliest storm in U.S. history. It damaged or destroyed more than 300,000 homes, left 3 million people without power and caused about $100 billion in damage. … It’s also powerful and tragic evidence that climate change will hit the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest. … Three months after the storm, 1.5 million people were still without power. It took nearly a year for electricity to be restored on the island, making it the second-largest blackout in history. It contributed to thousands of deaths because of everything from failed air-conditioning systems to hospitals that couldn’t power dialysis machines.“10
The Puerto Rican government has now adopted the figure of 2,975 dead based on recent studies that have calculated not only the number that died during the immediate devastation of the hurricane but also those who died in the 6 months that followed, the “excess” deaths above those over the same period during the previous year. This method of calculation accounts for the people who died as a result of the hurricane’s devastation of the island and its services over and above those who died of natural causes.11
The devastation isn’t over yet. The failing infrastructure from before the storm didn’t just make it hard to fix it. FEMA rules says you can’t use its funds to build better than what you had before! Thus most of the rebuilding that can be done with relief funds will not improve matters and will not be able to create infrastructure that will be sustainable against the next storms. In the midst of this, all those small-scale coffee farmers in rural areas have been forced to abandon their land entirely, knowing that no help is going to come.
I believe it is to Puerto Rico, and others in the world whose circumstances are similar, that Jesus’ words in the gospel are aimed. “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” The burden has been SO heavy for SO long, and the end is not in sight. People continue to walk by faith, not by sight. People rebuild by faith, and not by sight. The people of God in Puerto Rico need a lightened load, and a good, long rest.
It may be that some of us might be able to lighten that load. Some of us may still have energy to call or write to our representatives to ask them to do all that they can to help the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico. Some of us may be able to donate to the United Methodist Committee on Relief, better known as UMCOR, which continues to be present in Puerto Rico assisting in the long-term rebuilding efforts. UMCOR doesn’t have restrictions on rebuilding better! We can pray for the people of Puerto Rico. We can reach out to the Puerto Ricans we know – those who live on the Island and those who live on the mainland – and check to see how they and their loved ones are doing. Some are feeling lost or forgotten. There may also be creative ways that we can help lighten the burden of our siblings in Christ in Puerto Rico.
Today, our table extends from Schenectady, NY to Puerto Rico – to San Juan and to the rural farmlands. Our table is one of feeding the hungry, of uplifting souls, of giving thanks even in brokenness, of unity in the Body of Christ. May this holy day be a day of connection, a day of rest, a day of laying down heavy burdens, and a day of shared yokes. Amen
1Russell Schimmer, Yale University Genocide Studies Program, “Puerto Rico”https://gsp.yale.edu/case-studies/colonial-genocides-project/puerto-rico, accessed 10/4/18
2Schimmer.
3Schimmer
4Schimmer
5Schimmer
6Smithsonian “Puerto Rico – History and Heritage”https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/puerto-rico-history-and-heritage-13990189/written November 6, 2007, accessed 10/6/18.
7Jeff Goodell “The Perfect Storm: How Climate Change and Wall Street Almost Killed Puerto Rico” in Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-damage-722570/ published on 9/12/18 at 12:17PM ET, accessed on 10/6/18,
8Goodell.
9David Brindly, “Months After Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico Still Struggling” in National Geographic https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/03/puerto-rico-after-hurricane-maria-dispatches/ published in the July 2018 issue, updated 8/30/18 with new death toll. Accessed 10/6/18.
10Goodell.
11 BBC News “Puerto Rico increases Hurricane Maria death toll to 2,975”https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45338080 published August 29, 2018. Accessed 10/6/18.
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Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she/her/hers
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady
October 7, 2018