I
\ndon’t know if you’ve noticed it, but things are not as they should
\nbe. \u00a0Actually, I suspect you have noticed it, but it feels like time
\nto explicitly name two of the very many ways in which this is true.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
First
\nof all, our society is and has been awash in sexual harassment and
\nassault. \u00a0Many, many men have used whatever power and influence they
\nhave in the world for their own pleasure at the expense of others,
\nmost often women. \u00a0This is not news, per say, and yet there is
\nsomething happening. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This
\nis much like the impact of the #BlackLivesMatter movement on police
\nbrutality, it isn’t that any of the behaviors are new or different,
\nit is that suddenly people are paying attention to the atrocities,
\nand calling for accountability en masse. \u00a0Important and powerful men
\nhave been removed from the positions they’ve used abusively. \u00a0The
\nstatus quo is being interrupted, and that’s good.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yet,
\nit isn’t good enough. \u00a0This week I had the incredible joy of holding
\nthe youngest member of our church family in my arms. \u00a0(It is GOOD to
\nbe pastor.) \u00a0I wanted to be able to promise her a world where she
\nwouldn’t know sexual harassment or assault, where she will be safe to
\nbe whoever she is, where-ever she wants to be, no matter who is
\nnearby, all the time. \u00a0The yearning that I had to offer her that
\nworld clarified how very far we are from it, AND how desperately
\nneeded it is.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Secondly,
\nwe live in a country that accepts poverty as a necessary component of
\nlife. \u00a0Based on our policies, it is OK if people are hungry \u2013
\nwhether they are working or not, whether they’ve applied for SNAP
\nbenefits or not, whether they are children or adults. Based on our
\npolicies, it is OK if people are homeless, and if a person struggles
\nwith addiction \u2013 by our policies – it is almost as if they don’t
\ndeserve to be housed. \u00a0Based on our policies, only people who can
\nafford to pay for it deserve the right to health care. \u00a0Based on our
\npolicies, it is acceptable for those without money to be
\nmisrepresented or underrepresented in court, and spend time in jail
\nfor crimes they didn’t commit. \u00a0Based on our current policies, not
\neven children have a right to health care. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
All
\nof these are choices, choices that we have made as a society about
\nwhat we value and who we value. \u00a0Budgets are moral documents, budgets
\nindicate what an organization really values. \u00a0Our society values the
\ngrowth of the economy, the growth of our exceptional military might,
\nand the flow of wealth from the bottom to the top OVER the capacity
\nto care for the vulnerable, the elimination of hunger, the
\naccessibility of health care, the safety of housing, or the fairness
\nof the courts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Things
\nare NOT as they should be, and those were just two examples. \u00a0There
\nare many ways that things are not as they should be.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This <\/p>\n Domination <\/p>\n We <\/p>\n Oh <\/p>\n At <\/p>\n This \n<\/p>\n \nSo, \n<\/p>\n \nIt \n<\/p>\n I \n<\/p>\n \nSome \n<\/p>\n According \n<\/p>\n \nThe \n<\/p>\n \nDear \nAND<\/p>\n \nGod \n<\/p>\n \nIt 1<\/a>Marcus 2<\/a>Borg, 3<\/a>Borg, 4<\/a>David 5<\/a>David 6<\/a>Luce.<\/p>\n 7<\/a>Bill Rev. Sara E. Baron<\/p>\n First United Methodist Church of Schenectady<\/p>\n 603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305<\/p>\n Pronouns: she\/her\/hers<\/p>\n
\nis not the first time in history that this has been true. \u00a0According
\nto Marcus Borg, the earliest human societies did not have significant
\nwealth differentiation nor oppression. \u00a0The first two types of
\nsocieties were hunter gatherer and early horticultural. \u00a0About them,
\nBorg says, \u201cDifferentials of wealth and power were minor.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a>
\n However, once full fledged agricultural societies developed about
\n5000 \u00a0years ago, \u00a0it became possible to generate wealth. \u00a0In the time
\nof Jesus agriculture was the primary form of wealth.2<\/sup><\/a>
\n Borg calls the system at the time of Jesus the preindustrial
\nagricultural domination system.3<\/sup><\/a>
\n <\/i>As far as I can tell, a few
\nthings have changed since the time of Jesus: we’re now industrial or
\npost industrial and wealth is no longer primarily acquired through
\nagriculture. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nsystems that have oppressed the many for the sake of the few have
\nbeen the norm in the world since the development of full-scale
\nagriculture. \u00a0The pieces of the world that concern me the most are
\nall parts of domination systems, ways that the systems are rigged
\nagainst the majority of the population for the benefit of a small
\nminority. \u00a0David Graeber, in \u201cDebt: A History of the first 5000
\nyears\u201d theorizes that the world’s major religions have all emerged
\nas a a response to the particular ways that domination systems
\nexisted in their parts of the world.4<\/sup><\/a>
\n I’m going to take a stronger theological stance on that and say that
\nGod has been at work in the world to disrupt domination systems as
\nlong as they have existed, and the particular forms of that work have
\nbeen formalized into religious traditions.<\/p>\n
\nhear in the texts today the same yearnings we know in our lives for
\nthe world as it SHOULD be rather than the world as it is. \u00a0These
\ntexts feel familiar to me, to the depths of my soul. \u00a0The Hebrew
\nBible text doesn’t JUST come from Isaiah, who is my favorite, it
\ncomes from third Isaiah \u2013 the last 7 chapters of the book \u2013 which
\nis the very best part of Isaiah. \u00a0The prophet speaks of deep yearning
\nfor God’s presence, a presence that would change reality from its
\nbrokenness to its fulness. \u00a0The prophet remembers times that God has
\nfelt present and has made things better. \u00a0The prophet celebrates that
\nGod is one who cares about how the people treat each other, and yet
\nbemoans that God feels very far away. \u00a0In fact, the prophet worries
\nthat God is angry because the people have so profoundly mistreated
\neach other, and made peace with a society of deep injustice. \u00a0The
\nprophet suggests that because God isn’t changing reality, they are
\nstuck living in the mess they made, without God delivering them from
\nit, and that isn’t OK at all. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nIsaiah, how can you speak from so long ago truths that can still
\nsting with truth? \u00a0I’m sometimes frightened that texts from 2500
\nyears ago are still so accurate, which means that domination systems
\nhaven’t lost their grip even as they’ve changed their ways.<\/p>\n
\nfirst glance, or first hearing, or for me first 100 hearings, Mark
\ndoesn’t sound like he is saying the same thing. \u00a0Luckily, there are
\nthose among you who share things with me when they seem useful, and
\none of you sent me a reflection that opened my eyes to this text.5<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\npassage in Mark appears just before the passion narrative begins,
\nMark is using this text as a foreshadowing of the meaning of the
\ndeath and resurrection of Jesus. \u00a0Like the passion narrative, it will
\nstart in the night and shake the powers of the world. \u00a0David Luce
\nwrites, \u201cMark,
\nin other words, isn\u2019t pointing us to a future apocalypse
\n(\u201crevealing\u201d) but rather a present one, as Christ\u2019s death and
\nresurrection change absolutely everything.\u201d6<\/sup><\/a>
\n For the gospel writer of Mark, the yearning represented in Isaiah is
\nFULFILLED by Jesus. \u00a0For the gospel writer, Jesus is the presence of
\nGod in the world changing things from how they are to how they should
\nbe. \u00a0At the same time, as Christians today, we know that the work
\nJesus did in the world wasn’t completed in his life, but is ours to
\ncontinue as the current Body of Christ.\n<\/p>\n
\nthe gospel writer speaks of things being pretty bad: suffering, the
\nsun and moon no longer giving the world light, the stars falling to
\nnothingness. \u00a0In the midst of that horror, Jesus will break in and
\ntransform it all. \u00a0The gospel writer encourages people to be looking
\nfor the signs that hope is about to break into the brokenness. \u00a0The
\ngospel writer, I think, is hoping to encourage people in the midst of
\nsome very bad days, to understand the brokenness itself as a sign
\nthat things were about to change.<\/p>\n
\nis hard, nearly 2000 years later, with all the brokenness that has
\nbeen between then and now to be as certain that the change is right
\non the horizon. \u00a0The yearning is easy to connect with. The hope is
\nimperative to connect with, the but the time frame is harder to buy
\ninto.<\/p>\n
\ndo think that God is present with us, and that God is ever working
\nfor justice, for dismantling the domination systems, for transforming
\nthe world as it is into the kindom itself. \u00a0While we seem pretty
\nresilient to God’s work, and while many things as are broken around
\nus, I’m told by historians who have a broader view than I do that big
\nand amazing things have gotten better.<\/p>\n
\nthings aren’t all that new, but are pretty cool anyway. \u00a0The
\nexperiment in universal public education that started in
\nMassachusetts has had a huge impact on the world and its literacy.
\nAll of those hospitals that various churches started over the
\ncenturies have had an amazing impact in global health and longevity. <\/p>\n
\nto the annual letter from the Gates Foundation (one of my favorite
\nreads), in the past 25 years childhood mortality rates for kids under
\n5 have dropped by 50%! \u00a0Most of these preventable deaths have been
\nprevented because global vaccine access has increased, and 86% of the
\nworld’s kids are now adequately vaccinated. \u00a0The Gates Foundation
\nsays that 300 million women in the developing world now have access
\nto and use contraception, which increases maternal and child health,
\ndecreases childhood morality rates, increases education, and lowers
\npoverty. \u00a0These 300 million women represent over half of the women
\nseeking to have it, but they’re actively working on it, and the
\nproblem will be cut by over half again by 2020! \u00a0As a reminder as
\nwell, since 1990, worldwide extreme poverty (living on less than $2 a
\nday) has been cut in HALF.7<\/sup><\/a>\t<\/p>\n
\nnews that we hear mostly focuses on the broken, and in the past year
\nentirely too much of my attention has been on the broken. \u00a0We live in
\na world of domination systems, and many many things are broken. \u00a0At
\nthe same time, God IS at work in the world, working with people, and
\ntogether we are making many things better. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nones, the world is broken, and things are not as they should be.<\/p>\n
\nis at work in the world, there are many things that are getting
\nbetter, and the work we do matters.<\/p>\n
\nis all true. \u00a0And here in the brokenness, we yearn for God’s kindom
\nto come, just as Isaiah did, just as Mark did, and as God’s people
\nhave through the ages. \u00a0May the day come when the yearning is
\nfulfilled. \u00a0Amen\n<\/p>\n
\n\tBorg, \u201cJesus:
\n\tUncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious
\n\tRevolutionary\u201d (USA:
\n\tHarperOne, 2006) \u00a079-80. (Quote
\n\ton 80.)<\/p>\n
\n\t80-81.<\/p>\n
\n\t79.<\/p>\n
\n\tGraeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years<\/i>
\n\t(Brooklyn and London: Melville House, 2011), p. 83.<\/p>\n
\n\tLuce, email\/blog \u00a0entitled \u201c…In the Meantime\u201d Posted:\u00a027
\n\tNov 2017 07:50 AM PST \u00a0Found at
\n\thttp:\/\/www.davidlose.net\/2017\/11\/advent-1-b-a-present-tense-advent\/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+davidlose%2FIsqE+%28…In+the+Meantime%29.<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\tand Melinda Gates \u201cDear Warren: Our 2017 Annual Letter\u201d \u00a0written
\n\tFebruary 14, 2017
\n\thttps:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/2017-Annual-Letter?WT.mc_id=02_14_2017_02_AL2017GFO_GF-GFO_&WT.tsrc=GFGFO<\/a>
\n\t accessed December 2, 2017.<\/p>\n