Tag Archives: inequality gap

Feb27

Economic Justice: Would Jesus Occupy? – syncroblog 2 on Spirit of the Poor

Posted on by
Standard

{This post is my contribution to the Spirit of the Poor syncroblog with Newell Hendricks, Esther Emery, and Luke Harms.   It is hosted this month by Luke Harms.}

sotp-button1

Why Occupy? 

The year the Occupy Wall Street movement took flight I was in my last year of seminary and was serving as a community organizer at A Just Harvest in the neighborhood of Rogers Park in Chicago for my Urban C.P.E. (Clinical Pastoral Education) placement.

That year, in addition to participating in economic justice campaigns, actions, and marches through my community organizing, I also decided to be a presence at the Occupy encampment downtown several afternoons or evenings.  Because Occupy became quite the controversial topic around the country and it was particularly debated among my fellow seminarians and/or clergy colleagues as to whether or not clergy should get involved in Occupy or other “political” movements, I was asked this question constantly that year:

Why Occupy?

…And though this movement has lost its momentum, the issues thousands of people across the U.S. were Occupying for still remain, and many community organizers, clergy, and community members across the country continue to march.

So why Occupy?  Why take a public stand?

It is a daunting question to answer, as there are so many problems with the current economic and housing crises that have led to such large movements.  Though the list is long, here are a few of the many reasons to take a stand:

INEQUALITY GAP:

According to Henry Blodget in his article Charts: Here’s What the Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About in Business Insider, three years after the financial crisis, unemployment rates in the U.S. were still at the highest level since the Great Depression; jobs are scarce and at least about 14 million Americans who want to work could not find jobs; and the number of Americans with jobs were at the lowest its been since the 1980s.  And though the U.S. economy is adding more jobs and the unemployment rate is now the lowest its been in 5 years, its still “unacceptably high” – according to economic advisor Jason Furman.  Moreover, some of the reasons for the decline in unemployment rates are that more Americans over 16 are dropping out of or not even entering the labor force in the first place, and the longevity of unemployment status in growing.

At the same time, corporate profits hit another all-time high and CEO pay is now 350 times the average worker’s pay.

And according to a 2011 report released by the Congressional Budget Office, in the last 30 years the incomes of the top 1% of Americans increased 275% and the income for the next richest Americans increased 65% while the income of middle class households increased only 40% and the lowest incomes increased only 18%.

Moreover, in terms of net worth, the top 1% percent of Americans own 42% of the financial wealth in the country and the top 5% own 70% of this country’s wealth.

The crisis does not end here.

The richest 1% of Americans have a lower aggregate tax rate than the next 9% of Americans, and this tax rate is not much higher than it is for everyone else in the country.  On top of all this, a few years ago, the banks were bailed out with $14 trillion in taxpayer funds in order to help put money back into the economy and now currently hold $1.64 trillion in cash reserves – the highest its held in history.  Nevertheless, instead of lending to American businesses, banks were buying risk-free treasury bonds and collecting interest for their own profit.

At the same time, while banks and large corporations are still not paying their fair share in taxes, major budget cuts are constantly being proposed on programs for the people who need programs the most.  And the list of issues about this large inequality gap between the rich and the poor and the economic crisis goes on and on.

HOUSING CRISIS :

In addition to all this, the U.S. is suffering tremendously from the housing crisis.  According to The New Bottom Line’s The Win/Win Solution, the banks were responsible for the housing crisis because of their practices of predatory lending and subprime mortgages.  And now, after the Great Recession and the housing crash, thousands of home-owners have been and continue to be at risk of foreclosure.  As of March 31, 2011, in the U.S., 23% of homeowners had fallen underwater on the mortgages and together owed $709 billion more than what their homes were worth to the banks.  And though the housing market seems to be improving since 2012, the housing crisis is from being over.   While the number of households that are underwater are lower than they were during the Great Recession, they are still quite high.  According to a recent report, 6.4 million homeowners still owe more on their mortgages than what their homes are worth.  Additionally, since September 2008, a total of about 4.9 million homes have been foreclosed.  While this January, CoreLogic reports there were around 48,000 home foreclosures per month – which is down from around 59,000 in January 2013 – this is still far greater than the number of foreclosures in 2000-2006, which averaged about 21,000 home foreclosures per month.

Moreover, as more foreclosures take place in particular neighborhoods, the other homes in these neighborhoods lose value.  And since unemployment and/or unfair work wages have become the leading cause of the foreclosure crisis, the “housing crisis and jobs crisis fuel each other.”

… And thus, even with a little improvement over the last 5 years, this cycle continues…

RACIAL INEQUALITY:

Furthermore, the economic and housing crises have and continue to affect communities of color at some of the highest levels, and they are creating a larger racial inequality gap in the U.S.  For more details, see: “Wasted Wealth: How the Wall Street Crash Continues to Stall Economic Recovery and Deepen Racial Inequality in America.” 

…It is for all of these reasons – and many more – that a few years ago thousands of people were camping out on the streets for weeks at a time across the country occupying Wall Street and their cities, and many continue to stand and march for justice.

(Check out this short overview video about how we reached this crisis and the how to create a new bottom line): 

____________________________________

Occupy the Temple?

So, given the current situation, what does the Bible say about this?

Would Jesus support the Occupy movement and other organizing campaigns?  Would Jesus be okay with clergy and communities of faith participating in such public actions?

Well, for starters, we can look at several of the similarities between the economic situation in the U.S. today and the economic situation of First Century Palestine – which was an important issue for many of the biblical writers and particularly that of Luke.

Just like in the U.S. today, the economic gap between the rich and the poor at the time the Gospel of Luke was written was extremely large.  While the lower and middle classes made up the majority of the population – at least 90% – the small group of elites owned most of the wealth, received special treatment, often did not work for their wealth, and increased their wealth at the expense of the poor.  Additionally, there were great numbers of people who were labeled by society as unemployable – such as the lame and the lepers – and there were no governmental programs that enabled these people to have something to fall back on so that they could take care of themselves.

Not only this, but many of the religious leaders – for instance, the Sadducees and the scribes in Jerusalem – were part of this elitist class and used the temple as a place where they could gain financial profit at the expense of the poor and marginalized.  We see examples of this throughout Luke and particularly in chapters 19 through the beginning of 21.  In chapter 19, Jesus enters the temple, drives out all who were selling in it and declares that several of the religious leaders, merchants, and money changers turned what should be a house of prayer into a den of robbers.

According to Jim Wallis in his book Rediscovering Values, on Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street: A Moral Compass for the New Economy, Jesus’ anger in this chapter is not necessarily directed at the selling of items in the temple itself.  In other words, having a “gift shop” or a bake sale or rummage sale in a church today is not necessarily the problem.  Rather, Jesus’ anger here is about something deeper which related to the time of the event – during the Passover.  At this time of the year, pilgrims would travel long distances – often from different countries – in order to get to the temple in Jerusalem.  Once they got to the temple, they were supposed to make sacrifices.  These travelers would not be able to transport livestock from their homes on this long journey to the temple, so the merchants and money changers would sell animals to these travelers in the outer court of the temple in order for them to have something to sacrifice.

However, since the merchants had full control over the livestock for sacrifices, the money changers would inflate the currency rate (because there was only one type of coin that was accepted in the temple).

And this is when Jesus flipped his lid…

and the tables in the temple…

literally. 

JESUSOCCUPY

And what Jesus was most ticked off about was that God’s worship place was being turned into a “den of robbers,” where few who had control over the market “accumulated great wealth for themselves at the expense of those who could least afford to pay.”[1]

…What Jesus was angry about was greed and actions made by the people in the temple that took advantage of the poor.

As Wallis states:

“No doubt these money changers would have argued that they were only responding to a demand of the market, but Jesus didn’t seem to see it that way.  What was happening in the marketplace was a spiritual and moral problem, not just an economic one.”[2]

Wallis goes on to ask the question:

“So do Christians have a responsibility to turn over the tables of an unjust market?  Furthermore, as the body of Christ, which is the new temple, do we need to provide an economic witness in the marketplace that reflects God’s values of compassion, fairness, and justice?”[3]

Here, as Jesus turns over the tables, we see a Jesus who is furious at the unjust system of the marketplace that was taking advantage of the poor in order for few to satisfy their greed.  And not only does He get angry here, but He also confronts those who are taking advantage of the poor in these ways.

…In His temple outburst, Jesus teaches us that “there are some things that we all should get angry about, that there are situations where the only appropriate response is confrontation.”[4]

After Jesus cleanses the temple in Luke, He continues to teach in the temple and confront and stand up against leaders who take advantage of the marginalized.  In the end of chapter 20, He warns His disciples about the scribes – who walk around in long robes, like to receive special attention and high honors in public places, and who devour widows’ houses.  And in the first four verses of chapter 21, Jesus points out an example of how the elite devoured these widow’s houses: by allowing a poor widow to place two coins – all that she had to live on – into the treasury, and thus leaving her to fend for herself in such a brutal society with no money.

It is because of Jesus’ radical teachings and actions in the temple and throughout the rest of Luke that we might not just ask the questions: “would Jesus support Occupy?… Would Jesus support community organizers, clergy, and communities of faith as they take a public stand?”  But hopefully, these radical actions that we read about will also lead us to consider: if these events occurred today, was Jesus actually occupying the temple?  Was Jesus actually getting ready to organize an economic justice campaign that was carried out throughout His ministry and that He then passed on to all of His followers to carry out after He ascended into heaven?

____________________________________

Occupy the Church?

 If we are to consider these questions, we might also consider if the Western Church – like the First Century temple – is part of the problem.  According to Wallis, one of the major problems that has gotten us where we are today is that the U.S. is so focused on individualism.

“The value of the individual is central to American history, but extreme individualism teaches that life is all about me and not about ‘them’; about besting and beating our neighbors, rather than loving or even looking our for our neighbors.  It teaches that people basically get what they deserve, and if you start helping those around you, you may be destroying the natural order of a social competition…Advertisers confirm that it’s all about me and tell us that the next new product, purchase, outfit, vacation, car, or home will finally make us happy.  But it doesn’t… [And] community has been replaced by isolated individuals locked in an endless and stressful match to have the biggest house, the largest televisions, the sexiest bodies, the most exotic vacations, and even the most successful children.”[5]

This problem continues to be manifested and developed in the Western Church in the U.S.  In many churches throughout this country, it is pretty common to hear sermons preached from the pulpit about how faith is only a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and thus in order to develop one’s faith, one must read the Bible, pray, and make pure and pious choices in life.  While faith is personal and needs to be refined and developed through piety and spiritual practices, these are not the only aspects of faith.  And when the Church focuses so much on individualism and teaches that faith in Jesus Christ is all about “me and Jesus” or a person’s individual and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, individuals will focus on satisfying their own needs and thus lose sight of the importance of community, justice, and serving and loving others.

Consequently, the Church seems to be contributing to this economic injustice problem in the U.S. by producing greedy individualistic Christians.

In addition to this, the Western Church also continues to manifest and produce Christians who are focused on consumerism and materialism.  For example, how many churches pour thousands of dollars into their buildings and sound systems while – at the same time – ignore the fact that neighbors only a few miles away who are starving and/or struggling just to get by.   And even when churches do use their resources to serve others in the community, preachers and teachers often avoid discussing the sins of consumerism and materialism, and in some cases even preach messages of a prosperity gospel.

However, this is opposite of what Jesus taught about money and materialism.  Not only did He ask His disciples at the beginning of His ministry to give up their possessions and follow Him, but He also established a community that lived simply and emphasized a system of redistributing money and goods to others in the community who were in need.  Moreover, He taught that people cannot serve two masters – both God and money – because they will love one and hate the other.  Thus, His followers cannot serve money if they serve God.

For Jesus, it was/is important that His followers (all of them, not just 12) must not store up treasures here on earth, but rather store them up in heaven… because wherever our treasure is, that is where the desires of our hearts are.

Therefore, we cannot serve both consumerism/materialism and God.

Skye Jethani further explains this in her article Leader’s Insight: From Christ’s Church to iChurch – How Consumerism Undermines Our Faith and Community: “The problem is not consuming to live, but rather living to consume.”  In other words, consumerism/materialism/status seeking – rather than faith, community, justice, service to others, service to God, vocation – becomes the reason for and defines the meaning of life.  And so this explains why many Christians live very similar lifestyles to the rest of consumerist/materialistic America.  As Jethani further notes: “most churchgoers have not adopted a biblical worldview, they have simply added a Jesus fish on the bumper of their unregenerate consumer identities.”

____________________________________

The Church As Occupy-ers?

For these reasons, I believe Christians in the U.S. must begin to confront the issues of greed, consumerism, and materialism by occupying the Church… taking a public stand.  However, we cannot stop here.  We must continuously confront the systemic injustices in the U.S. that oppress and take advantage of the poor and middle class.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it in his discussion about the political responsibility of the Church in Ethics: it is “the Church’s office of guardianship that she shall call sin by its name and that she shall warn men against sin…If the Church did not do this, she would be incurring part of the guilt for the blood of the wicked.”[6]

In other words, leaders of the Church must preach to the individuals in their congregations about the sins of the government in order to move these individuals to action in confronting such sins.  If leaders/pastors fail to do this, and if laypersons fail to take action, we become just as much a participant in the sin as those who were already living into the sin.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” – Bishop Desmond Tutu

And so Christians cannot sit around and remain neutral during this time where economic injustice prevails as the greedy elite and powerful increase their wealth at the expense of the poor and middle class.
Christians cannot fail to testify the good news of Jesus Christ.
For, to Luke, the good news of Jesus Christ can be summed up in chapter four, where he begins his ministry by proclaiming:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And this year of the Lord’s favor He was referring to was the year of Jubilee – the year that the Jews had been waiting for.  It was the year when land would be returned to its original owners, all Hebrew slaves would be set free, and all debts would be remitted.
It was the ordered way of breaking down inequalities and injustice and making peace.
____________________________________
Our Opportunity to Protestify:
As Shane Claiborne puts it:

“No doubt Wall Street has some things to learn about Jubilee. Jubilee was God’s alternative to the patterns of Wall Street. As the Occupy Wall Street movement catches the world’s attention, those of us who are critical of Wall Street have a responsibility. We can’t just be defined by what we are against, but should be known by what we are for.  After all, the word “protest” originally meant “public declaration”. It wasn’t just about being against something, but it was about declaring something new and better. “Protest” shares the same root as “testify”.  So It’s time to protest-ify.”

As we begin this season of Lent – this time of wandering in the wilderness – may we be reminded that not only does the Resurrection and the promise of new life come after the wilderness, but that we – as followers of Jesus Christ – are called to help bring forth that new life here on earth.

And so may we find hope knowing that in the midst of these trying economic times – where so many of our parishioners, neighbors, and even family members are struggling to get by – that we have an opportunity and a responsibility to stand publicly for and with them.

For now is our opportunity to protestify!

____________________________________

Related Articles:

5 Things the world could teach America about economic justice (on cnn.com)

Sermon: “Time to Protestify” (on musingsfromabricolage)

Lift up your Voice!- Joining Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s Unfinished Movement for Justice and Equality (on musingsfromabricolage)

[1] Wallis, Jim, Rediscovering Values, on Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street: A Moral Compass for the New Economy, (New York: Howard Books, 2010), 34.

[2] Id.

[3] Wallis, 35.

[4] Id.

[5] Wallis, 68-9.

[6] Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Ethics, (New York: Touchstone, 1955), 345.

Jan9

“The Rich Man and the Man With a Name” – Sermon on Luke 16:19-31

Posted on by
Standard

In the midst of what is being called “Chiberia” – where the weather in Chicago has been colder than the South Pole this week – I cannot help but think about the thousands of Chicagoans who remain homeless and struggle to seek shelter from this bitter cold.  (According to the Chicago Coalition for Homeless, 116,042 Chicagoans were homeless in the course of 2012-2013.)

As many of us are able to seek refuge in our warm apartments, homes, coffee shops, and libraries from this Chiberia without giving much thought to those who are not so privileged, I thought I’d share a sermon I preached at Ebenezer Lutheran Church on Sunday, Sept. 29 (the Festival of St. Michael and All Angels)… “The Rich Man and the Man With A Name.”

________________________________________________

Luke 16:19-31

‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.

In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.”

He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’

neighbor

(photo courtesy of bohocommunity.org)

A few years ago while I was serving as an intern pastor at a church about a mile from here, I attended a pastor’s conference in Denver.  The conference was held at the Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center, which is quite the hotel: with a gorgeous lobby, beautiful rooms, incredibly comfortable beds, great food served by the hotel staff… you name it. And it is located right downtown on the 16th Street Mall, the main business district of Denver.  If you’ve ever stayed in a really nice hotel like this, you might know what it felt like for me – as a second year seminarian and a pastoral intern, having the opportunity to get away from my studies and messy apartment and stay in this luxurious hotel – I sort of felt like I was royalty for the week.

Our first full day at the conference included several workshops and classes beginning in the early morning and lasting until dinner-time.  So you can imagine how ready we all were to rush out of the convention center to enjoy our hour and a half break on the town. When our last workshop ended, we all quickly met up with our groups of friends and ran outside – everyone hurrying in order to beat the crowd of the 500 other pastors.  We all wanted to ensure that we got a table at our top-choice restaurant, since we knew that the bill was on the house, thanks to our home congregations.

As my new pastor and seminarian friends and I rushed down 16th Street to get to our desired restaurant, a man came up to us holding out his bare hands that were bright red from the cold and asked in a small shaky voice if we could buy him a little something to eat. I only noticed him because he had actually walked up onto the sidewalk next to one of my new friends who was walking directly in front of me. But just as he finished speaking, my friend quickly said: “Sorry, sir.  We are in a hurry.” And she and her friends next to her picked up their pace and scurried on by.  So this man, who was as skinny as a stick – so skinny that his eyes sunk into his skull – with only a stocking cap and an over-sized hoody sweatshirt to shield him from the January cold, was left standing on the sidewalk with his bright red fingers stretched out to me and with a look of complete hunger and desperation in his eyes.

I stopped, looked at him, and considered my options as the rest of my new friends continued to make their way quickly down 16th street without me.  I could stop and get him some food somewhere or I could brush him off, and rush on by to catch up to the rest of my group.   If I stopped, this would interrupt my overly comfortable and luxurious week and it would keep me from experiencing my very short social time that I really was looking forward to.

The easiest thing would be to just brush him off, ignore him, and quickly walk away.  I had a small time frame and a lot on my plate, after all. (Pun intended.)

homeless

I think that this is a somewhat similar situation for the characters in Jesus’ parable in our text for today in Luke.

In Jesus’ parable…

There was a rich man…

And this rich man wore some of the finest, top-of the line clothes of his day – fine linens and articles of clothing that were purple – a color that was favored by the royalty and that only the extremely wealthy could afford.

And this man feasted sumptuously… He consumed large amounts of the finest foods and delicacies that would have been prepared and served to him by his servants – not just on special occasions, as feasts were saved for – but he feasted every single day.

And he lived in a home: probably with the finest dining hall and most comfortable and warm beds.

And this home was protected by a gate: something that only the most elite urban resident would have owned and that would have kept out the most miserable weather conditions… and not to mention the least “desirable” city folk.

homeless-man

And then there is another man…

In extreme contrast to the rich man, this man is very ill and extremely poor.

Instead of being clothed with fine linens and purple garments, he is clothed in large sores that covered his body… that were so bad that the hungry wild city dogs would lick them as they impatiently waited for the scraps of the rich man’s food to be thrown outside of the gate.

This man is helpless, lying on the ground at the front of the rich man’s gate – for who knows how many days and nights.

How he got there, we don’t know.  Maybe a compassionate person in town dropped him off at the gate in hopes that the rich man’s scraps would save him from his ultimate destiny of a miserable death caused by hunger.  Or maybe this poor man went to this rich man’s quarters in hopes for just a bit of food to tide him over, and in the long, miserable wait, his body couldn’t take the malnourishment anymore and collapsed.

And we don’t know how or what caused him to be in such a dire situation in the first place: whether it was unemployment, lack of health care, or being taken advantage of by greedy business owners… Depression, lack of good education, family abuse in his early years that left him on the streets to fend for himself since he was a child, or a system that did not help him get back up when he was pushed down.

We just don’t know.

What we do know is that he was so hungry and desperate to satisfy his hunger, that he put himself in such a humiliating situation: lying so helplessly at the foot of the gate of one of the most elite’s living quarters, waiting for the scraps of food from the rich man’s luxurious and abundant daily feasts.  Scraps that would not have been even left-overs from the rich man’s plate, but rather pieces of pita bread that the rich man and any others dining with him would have dipped into a bowl of water, wiped their dirty hands with as a cleaning devise, and would have thrown under the table.  Scraps that after the feast was over, the rich man’s servants would have cleaned up from the dirty floor and thrown out to the trash… to the unclean wild city dogs.

This poor man was desperate, and he was seeking out his last possible chance to survive through the night.

And while we may not know how this man got to this dire and humiliating situation, the audience of Jesus who was listening to the story would have taken a guess.  The scriptures had been misinterpreted for years: the common belief was that such poverty was a consequence of sin and poor choices and that wealth was a consequence of piety and was a sign of God’s blessing.

So to Jesus’ audience, it would have made sense that the rich man would have stepped over the poor man in his condition in order to enter his gate and his home – possibly day in and day out – giving this poor man little notice.

The poor man was not deserving of anything else.  Plus, the rich man had a lot of important things to think about: a household to take care of, feasts and parties to tend to…  Stopping to help or acknowledge this man would interrupt his important agenda.  It’s likely that this rich man didn’t even see this poor man.  He was not his concern and was just one of the many unlucky and undeserving poor folks he walked by every day in the city.  Why would he see or notice THIS one?

IMG_4891

But isn’t this a familiar and common narrative in our capitalistic society today?

Don’t we often praise those who have worked hard for their extravagant paychecks that allow for mass and luxurious consumption and demonize those who can barely make enough to get by?

Don’t we often hear this type of demonization of the poor and homeless – and in many cases even think it ourselves?

It’s their fault that they got themselves into this situation.  We shouldn’t punish the hard-working wealthy class by increasing their taxes.  Why should we stop what we are doing to acknowledge and give to someone who is begging for some change, food, or time, when we have more important things to do and they are obviously lazy?

HomelessVetSignByan0nym0us

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a friend in college.  I had been talking to Larry, a man I became acquaintances with whose home was a tent on a campsite – when he was lucky and his tent was not stolen – and who hung out at the university union building during the day, hoping to get a meal or a few bucks for a hot coffee and possibly a bit of human socialization.

After I said goodbye to Larry one day, a friend of mine from the Christian campus ministry I was involved in came up to me quickly and said, “Emily, you should not be talking to that homeless man or giving him money or food.  He is just lazy and choosing not to get a job.  You are enabling him to mooch off other people.”

Yet, after getting to know him over the course of my four years in college, I had realized that this guy was not just a homeless man.

He had a name… Larry.

And the stories that Larry shared with me as we would eat a sandwich or drink coffee together – about his past, his losses, and his sufferings that led him to this place in life told me otherwise.  They opened up my eyes to see Larry as a beloved child of God…

As someone who was just like me…

Who was once a kid who wore a backpack and went to school; who had parents and siblings; and who had experienced many joys and celebrations as well as many losses and sufferings in life.

And yet, somehow I was the lucky one – not because I worked harder than he did – but because I had the resources and the opportunities to make it through high school and to go to college…  And to not have to ever live in a tent or worry about putting food – good food, might I add – on my table.

Yet, I am ashamed to admit that it took me a very long time to get to that point where I could truly look at Larry as an acquaintance and as an equal to myself: as someone who I just happened to share my stories with and listened to his while we sat outside the union over a coffee or a sandwich, rather than just seeing him as someone I was doing charity work for.

________________________________________________

This reminds me of a video that has been shared all over facebook this past year.  It is an interview with a man named Ronald Davis who talks about what it is like to be homeless in Chicago.  If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend that you watch it.

One of the most touching parts of the video is hearing about how he is treated and looked at while on the streets trying to get a few dollars in order to stay in a safe bed at night or to get some food to eat.

He explains:

“It’s really humiliating to be shaking a cup 24 hours a day, and people just look at you like you’re some kind of little bum.” He goes on to tell the interviewer about how passers-by have hollered at him to “get a job, bum.”

“I’m not a bum,” Ronald says, as he breaks down in tears. “I’m a human being.”

Yet, too often, we don’t look at people who are living differently than we are, who have not had the same kind of upbringing, or opportunities or resources, or second or third chances like we have – as human beings, with stories, and with a name.

And this is the problem that Jesus is identifying in his parable as Jesus continues the story in our text for today.  The rich man was so focused on his wealth, his possessions, his home… his feasts and parties, his status, his to-do lists, that he was unable to see the poor man who was desperately lying at his front gate.

The rich man’s blindness, his love of his abundant wealth, and his fear of having to give any of it up kept him from seeing and responding to the poor man for who he was: a human being and a beloved child of God… a man with a story and a man with a name.

To Jesus, this is such an offense against God and God’s children that it had major consequences.

In Jesus’ story, after both of the men die, it is the rich man – the one who was considered to have received divine blessings and a high societal status – who remains nameless and who is being tormented with a burning tongue in Hades (the place – according to Jewish thought – where people would go after they died and were buried.)

And it was this poor, desperate, dying man – the one who had been seen as no more worthy than a dirty, city wild dog to the rich man – who was given a name…

Lazarus.

A name that means: “one who is helped by God.”

And it is this Lazarus – not the rich man – who is carried up in the after-life by the angels to sit at a place of honor next to Abraham.

Jesus’ warning from just a few chapters earlier in Luke was likely now ringing in the ears of Jesus’ audience…

The last shall be first and the first shall be last…

And it is not until the rich man is experiencing a bit of the poor man’s earthly plight in Hades, that he somewhat sees Lazarus at Abraham’s side.

And yet, even in this after-life scenario, the rich man’s eyes are still not fully opened to who Lazarus truly is in God’s eyes.  And instead of taking responsibility for his own selfish actions on earth, he begs Abraham to send Lazarus – the one he, himself, refused to see and to help on earth – to now come to him and to cool his burning tongue – giving him relief from his own anguish.  So even as the roles are reversed, in his torment the rich man still does not see and affirm the poor man’s humanity.  And he is given no relief from his agony.

________________________________________________

Now, most of us here are probably not even close to as wealthy as the rich man in our story.  But many of us here do live lives that are full of abundance and comfort: the ability to go out to eat in Andersonville – maybe even once a week or more; to get the new update on our iphone; to sleep in a warm and comfortable bed on a cold January evening; to grab a hot cup of coffee at Starbucks on our way to work because we didn’t have time to make coffee at home; to travel to another city like Denver and go to a conference in an amazing hotel…

Or just to be able to fill our schedules with so many activities, meetings, and social events, that we are too busy to stop and even just acknowledge the existence of a man sitting at our gate – shaking his cup and asking for food.

We may not be as “rich” as the rich man in Jesus’ parable, but we do live rich and abundant lives in so many ways compared to the majority of people around the world.  Hey, we don’t have to go too far from Ebenezer Lutheran Church to pass by many of the individuals and families who could only dream of having a taste of our abundance.

Now it’s not this abundance that we have that Jesus is condemning… Abraham, himself, was a man of earthly wealth – and yet is sitting in a place of honor in the after-life of Jesus’ parable.  But it is the love of this worldly wealth, status, and abundance that Jesus is warning us about.

Such love of abundance keeps us from truly seeing the humanity of others and sharing some of that abundance with others in need.

As St. John Chrysostom put it: “Not to share one’s goods with the poor is to rob them.”  And as Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel explained: “The opposite of love is not hate.  It’s indifference.”

53709a4c83ae9d42c1a61e35dd2c7e13

Now some of you might be wondering what happened with the man I encountered in Denver.  While I was so tempted to go with my friends, something tugged on my heart that night to stay with this man and take him out to a sit-down dinner.

And even though it was obvious that other customers in the restaurant we went to didn’t think he belonged there – as we could feel the constant glares and looks and even heard the whispers of a few of the people around us – Richard still told me at the end of the night that for the first time in years he felt like he was a normal human being who was equal to the others who were dining in the restaurant – rather than a piece of dirt.

And he told me that he truly felt that I had been an angel sent to him by God that night.

But what was so amazing to me was that while I had gone into this dinner thinking I was making such a sacrifice and was doing my good deed for the night, in hearing the stories about Richard’s life and his continued faith through so many tragedies and crises: I began to realize that I was the one who finally was experiencing the beauty and joy of true humanity again in that moment.

And I began to realize that it was Richard who was an angel sent to me that night.

The stories of Richard’s life and his love for others touched me and inspired me in ways that I could not have possibly imagined and that I will never forget.

In my time with Richard, God opened my eyes to see the beauty and faith in him that I was so tempted to ignore.

And in allowing myself to see Richard for who he truly is, God also released me from some of my own torment – like the rich man in Hades – that comes with too much focus on the abundance, comfort, and busyness of life.

homeless_sign.267104437_std

So how might we hear what Jesus is speaking to each of us through his parable in our passage in Luke?

Maybe some of us need to first recognize the abundance that we do have and explore how God wants us to share that abundance with others: whether it be our money, possessions, food, time, gifts, resources, or stories.

Or maybe it is figuring out how we might better see, get to know, and respond to the needs of others around us – esp. those who we might otherwise ignore and disregard as fellow human beings and children of God.

And if we don’t know where to start on this process, maybe we need to begin with a daily morning prayer, asking God to help open our eyes each day to the fullness of God’s kingdom and God’s children around us.  In doing this, we might actually be pleasantly surprised at what God might help us see, how God might teach and touch us through our new relationships, and how God might release us from our own torment that comes with focusing on and worshiping our worldly abundance and riches.

I’d like to leave you with a benediction that was posted this week on d365.org, a daily online devotional:

“May God fill your soul with waters of generosity; Taking you to the gate of thirsty neighbors; That you might come to know them and, knowing them; Share from the richness of God’s love.”

Linking with: Hear it on Sunday, Use it on Monday

HearItUseItImage-1

________________________________________________

Related Websites and Articles:

Chicago Coalition for the Homeless

“What If the Homeless Man on the Bench Was Jesus?” (on eape.org)

“Life of a Homeless Man; Steve Gallagher’s Story” (on lakevoicenews.org)

“20 Things the Poor Really Do Every Day” (on benirwin.wordpress.com)

“Magdalene” (on gottafindahome.wordpress.com)

“It’s So Little” (on gottafindahome.wordpress.com)

“Spirit of the Poor” Link-up (on newellhendricks.wordpress.com)

Nov15

Sermon: “Time to Protestify”

Posted on by
Standard

While this is a sermon I preached two years ago to fellow seminarians and pastors at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, it is the lectionary text for this Sunday, Nov. 17 and touches on issues that we still are dealing with today.

Luke 21:5-19: “Time To Protestify” – 26th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 28C

5When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6“As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” 7They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” 8And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. 9“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.”

10Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; 15for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17You will be hated by all because of my name. 18But not a hair of your head will perish. 19By your endurance you will gain your souls.

___________________________________

Sukkot Action in downtown Chicago led by Jewish Council on Urban Affairs

Sukkot Action in downtown Chicago led by Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (Emily Heitzman)

If you talk to me pretty often or you are a friend of mine on facebook, you have probably heard from one of my rants or seen on at least one of my posts that I keep up with the Occupy Movement in the news and have been participating in several marches with numerous advocacy groups around Chicago.  Now the question I often get from people who hear that I participate in these protests  – particularly from church clergy – is: what are these folks protesting?

Let’s just start by giving a short answer to this very large and complex question.  According to an article in Business Insider by Henry Blodget: CHARTS: Here’s What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About, three years after the financial crisis, unemployment rates in the U.S. are still at the highest level since the Great Depression; jobs are scarce and at least about 14 million Americans who want to work cannot find jobs; and the number of Americans with jobs right now is the lowest its been since the 1980s.  At the same time, corporate profits just hit another all-time high; CEO pay is now 350 times the average worker’s pay; and according to a recent study: in the last 30 years, the incomes of the top 1% of Americans increased 275% and the income for the next richest Americans increased 65% – while the income of middle class households increased only 40% and the lowest incomes increased only 18%.

Additionally, in terms of net worth, the top 1% of Americans own 42% of the financial wealth in the country and the top 5% own 70% of this country’s wealth.  The crisis doesn’t end here. The richest 1% of Americans have a lower aggregate tax rate than the next 9% of Americans, and this tax rate is not much higher than it is for everyone else in the country.  On top of all this, a few years ago we may recall that the banks were bailed out in order to help put money back into the economy, but instead of lending to American businesses, they have been buying risk-free treasury bonds and collecting interest for their own profit.  At the same time, while banks are not paying their fair share in taxes and while there are currently more proposals to make tax breaks on large profit corporations, major budget cuts are being proposed on programs for the people who need programs the most: such as social security, HUD programs, Medicaid/Medicare, after-school programs and food pantries.  And numerous jobs are being cut: such as librarians, CTA workers, construction workers, and school teachers – to name just a few.

The list of issues about this large inequality gap between the rich and the poor and the economic crisis could go on and on and we haven’t even started on the housing crisis yet.  So this may give us a bit of an understanding of why Occupyers are camping out in the streets for months at a time in order to make their voices heard.  People are suffering, and the number of people who are suffering is growing fast.

Photo taken at Occupy Chicago

Photo taken at Occupy Chicago (Emily Heitzman)

There are several similarities between the economic situation in the U.S. today and the economic situation of First Century Palestine, which was an important issue for the writer of Luke.  Just like in the U.S. today, the economic gap between the rich and the poor at the time the Gospel was written, was extremely large.   While the lower and middle classes made up the majority of the population – at least 90%, the small group of elites, owned most of the wealth, received special treatment, often did not work for their wealth, and increased their wealth at the expense of the poor.  Additionally, there were great numbers of people who were labeled by society as unemployable – including the lame and the lepers – and there were no governmental programs that enabled these people to have something to fall back on so that they could take care of themselves.

Not only this, but the religious leaders – the Sadducees and the scribes in Jerusalem – were part of this elitist class and used the temple as a place where they could gain financial profit at the expense of the poor and marginalized.  We see examples of this throughout Luke and particularly in chapters 19 through the beginning of 21, which immediately precede our passage for today.  In these chapters, Jesus enters the Temple, drives out all who were selling in it and declares that they turned what should be a house of prayer into a den of robbers: where the money changers – who would often inflate the currency rates – and the merchants – who had control over the prices of livestock they sold to the people for Temple sacrifices – would often take advantage of the poor.  Soon thereafter, Jesus continues to teach in the Temple and warns his disciples about the scribes – who walk around in long robes, like to receive special attention and high honors in public places, and who devour widows’ houses.  And in the first four verses of chapter 21 – which are the verses that immediately precede our passage for today – Jesus points out an example of how the elite devoured these widow’s houses: by allowing a poor widow to place two coins (all that she had to live on) into the treasury, and thus leaving her to fend for herself in such a brutal society with no money.

And this is where we come to our passage for today.  At this point, some of the people in the Temple begin talking about the Temple structure.  What is interesting about this is that they do not seem to process what Jesus has been teaching about since he entered and cleansed the Temple.  It all seems to just go in one ear and out the other.  Because instead of responding to Jesus’ rebuking of and warnings about the elite and the leaders in the Temple who were taking advantage of the poor and the widows, they focus on the Temple building, which was made with expensive and beautiful elements, stones, and gifts that were given to the Temple.  Nevertheless, Jesus gets the people back on track and points out that there will be one day when these elements, gifts, and stones will all be thrown down.

Now, while the readers of Luke would have known Jesus was speaking about the destruction of the Temple – as they would have already lived through it, Jesus’ words had two additional possible meanings here.  First, this actual “throwing down” of the expensive gifts and stones symbolizes what those material items represented in the Temple.  You see, these gifts would have been given to the Temple either by:

A. the elite in order to gain respect and status  OR

B. the poor, who would have spent much of their finances in order to purchase these gifts, and consequently, would  have been left with very little to live on (like the widow immediately before our passage).

Thus, the “throwing down” of the stones also represented the “throwing down” of what the Temple had become: a den of robbers and a place where the elite gained additional wealth at the expense of the poor.

Secondly, the audience of Luke – who lived in the oppressive Roman Empire after the Temple had been destroyed –  was expecting Jesus’ second coming to occur soon.   So, to them, the foretelling of the Temple destruction also represented the coming judgement.

Back to our passage: the people in the Temple then ask Jesus when this will occur and what sign there be that will inform them of what is to come.  However, Jesus does not give an answer as to when.  Rather, Jesus warns the people not to be led astray by false prophets who claim that the time is near.  He says to them: “there will be wars and insurrections, but the end will not come immediately – so do not focus on when… Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, there will be earthquakes and famines and plaques.  But before ANY of this occurs, you will be greatly persecuted because of my name.  You will be arrested and brought before kings and governors and hated because of my name.  Even those closest to you – your parents, brothers, family and friends – will persecute you and even put some of you to death – all because of my name.”

Demonstrators with the Jane Addams Senior Caucus peacefully sitting in the middle of the street to say that cuts should not be made on programs for seniors.

Demonstrators with the Jane Addams Senior Caucus peacefully sitting in the middle of the street to say that cuts should not be made on programs for seniors. (Emily Heitzman)

As I think about the persecution of these early Christ-followers, I can’t help but think of the many Occupyers and protesters around the country who have faced hatred and persecution in the past few months.  Peaceful protesters have been described by Ann Coulter as “demonic,” “brainless,” and “brainwashed,” thousands of peaceful protesters have been arrested, and many have been sprayed with pepper spray, hit with batons or taser guns, and some have even been kneed in their stomaches by police officers.  One of the most haunting pictures I have seen is an image of an 84 year old woman who was doused in the face with pepper spray.

While protesters and Occupyers come from all different religious traditions and often no religious tradition at all, I believe that they are still in some capacity – whether they know it or not – being persecuted because of Jesus’ name.  As evangelical activist and CEO of Sojourners Magazine Jim Wallis puts it in his post Praying for Peace and Looking for Jesus at #OccupyWallStreet: “When they stand with the poor, they stand with Jesus…When they talk about holding banks and corporations accountable, they sound like Jesus and the biblical prophets before him who all spoke about holding the wealthy and powerful accountable.”

And as our passage in Luke claims, when people stand with Jesus and speak as he did, there will be great persecution because – we all probably know from experience – the good news is not always easy news.  However, according to Luke, while this persecution will be great, there is still hope.  For Jesus says, “this persecution will give you an opportunity to testify.”

To testify is to proclaim the message Jesus proclaimed, to speak as Jesus Christ – the Prince of Peace – spoke, and to make peace in this world like Jesus Christ made: peace in the midst of a society where inequality prevails and where the poor are being taken advantage of.

Photo taken at demonstration with Jane Addams Senior Caucus

Photo taken at demonstration with Jane Addams Senior Caucus (Emily Heitzman)

And so this message is particularly important for us as current and/or future pastors.  Like the early Christians in Palestine, most of our parishioners, neighbors, and even family members are suffering in some capacity from the economic crisis due to the greed and special treatment of the elite at the expense of the poor and middle class.  There are so many people today who are hurting – which explains why thousands and thousands of people have and continue to join the Occupy movement.  And so, in a society like ours and at a time like this, we must as Christian leaders become engaged with these people in our communities, our churches, and in the Occupy camps in our cities – Whether this means we protest and march, act as an Occupy chaplain and provide pastoral care, preside over the Eucharist at the campsite, or bring food and sleeping materials to the Occupiers, this is our opportunity to testify.

But we know that with this kind of testifying and peace making, there will come persecution.

Blogger Todd Weir explains this well in his post “Luke 12:49-56 ‘Not Peace but a Sword.'”  He writes: “true peace seldom comes without a painful process of being honest about the real issues.  Peace can only be built if there is truth, justice, equality and respect.”

Similarly, Tom Mullen writes in his book: Laughing Out Loud and Other Religious Experiences, “I learned upon joining Quakers that they attack large social and moral problems with conscientious determination. They work for peace – and if you really want to cause conflict, work for peace.” (pg. 59)

And Christian author and activist for nonviolence and service to the homeless, Shane Claiborne explains in his book, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical: “The more I get to know Jesus, the more trouble he seems to get me into.” (pg. 226)

When I attended the SCUPE conference: Peacemaking in a Culture of Violence – last spring, The Rev. Dr. James Forbes explained that there is a difference between peacekeeping and peacemaking.  He claimed that while peacekeeping is just being concerned with keeping peace between different parties in order to avoid conflict, peacemaking is actually creating peace that enables all of God’s children to live holistically.

However, too often, we as Christian leaders and clergy are so focused on keeping the peace, that we avoid standing for what is just and avoid being peacemakers.  Too often, we get so worried about keeping politics out of the pulpit, not being considered “too radical” by our parishioners, and therefore we decide to sit around and wait for the right time to act.   However, when we do this, we often fail to testify and proclaim the good of Jesus Christ.

During this Occupy movement, we must remember the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. which he wrote his letter from Burmingham Jail in response to four clergy who claimed he was too radical: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was “well timed,” according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This “wait” has almost always meant “never.” We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” (Ed. Washington, James M., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings And Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1986, 292.)

We cannot fail to testify the good news of Jesus Christ.

Marching with my Lutheran youth: ECT (Edgewater Congregations Together), 500 Rogers Park community members, and IIRON to the alderman's home: Invest and don't close our public schools! (My 8th grade youth gave a speech on the alderman's porch about not closing down Gale Elementary school. He ROCKED the house!)

Marching with my Lutheran youth: ECT (Edgewater Congregations Together), 500 Rogers Park community members, and IIRON to the alderman’s home: saying No to charter schools that close our public schools! (My 8th grade youth gave a speech on the alderman’s porch about not closing down Gale Elementary school. He ROCKED the house!)

You see, to Luke, the good news of Jesus Christ can be summed up in chapter 4 where he begins his ministry by proclaiming: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ (And this year of the Lord’s favor in which he was to proclaim was the year of Jubilee – the year that the Jews had been waiting for – which was the year when land would be returned to its original owners, all Hebrew slaves would be set free, and all debts would be remitted.  It was the ordered way of breaking down inequalities and injustice and making peace).

And as Shane Claiborne states in an article Moving Money: Investing in a New World on sojo.net: “No doubt Wall Street has some things to learn about Jubilee. Jubilee was God’s alternative to the patterns of Wall Street. As the Occupy Wall Street movement catches the world’s attention, those of us who are critical of Wall Street have a responsibility. We can’t just be defined by what we are against, but should be known by what we are for.  After all, the word “protest” originally meant “public declaration”. It wasn’t just about being against something, but it was about declaring something new and better. “Protest” shares the same root as “testify”.  So It’s time to protest-ify.”

As we begin this season of advent, and we prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ, may we find hope knowing that in the midst of these trying economic times, where so many of our parishioners, neighbors, and even family members are struggling to get by, that we have an opportunity and a responsibility to stand for and with them.  And as the weather gets colder and it becomes more difficult for the Occupyers to be out in this weather during the holidays, as our legislatures are getting ready to make budget cuts, as we get closer to the G8 – which will take place in Chicago, and we get closer to the upcoming elections next fall, let us jump at the chance to take this opportunity.

For now is our opportunity to protestify!

Marching with Jim Wallis during a Circle of Protection at Friendship Village Center in Chicago.

Marching with Jim Wallis and Northside P.O.W.E.R. during a Circle of Protection at North Park Friendship Center. (I’m the one with the white sign next to Jim Wallis in the front.)