An
Anglican Priest once reflected, "Wherever the Apostle Paul went, there was either a revival or a riot. Wherever I go they
serve tea." Are we, the church, a threat to anyone, especially the
powers that be, other than to bore them to death? Should we be?
The
church has often been told that it should stay out of political and social
issues; its role is to deal strictly with spiritual matters. We are often all
too content to do just that. Oh yes, we are also expected to care for the
needy, give food to the hungry, and heal the sick. And often
the powers that be invite us into the public realm to invoke God's blessing on
a completely secular meeting, which then conducts itself without any sense that
the Spirit of God is present! Of course, we are also expected to pronounce
judgment on personal, often bedroom, behaviors.
But
if that is who we are, why did our prophetic forebears in the Jewish faith rail
against the injustice of how society and the state treated the vulnerable? Why
did God dismantle the religious state because of its unjust treatment of the
poor and the vulnerable? Why did Jesus call the poor and the peacemakers
blessed? And why did he confront the dual systems of oppression in his day-the
established religion and the Roman Empire?
This
is the third in a series of Sundays where we are looking at three pillars of
Plymouth's ministry: 1.Our ministry to one another of worship, education,
fellowship, and care. 2. Last Sunday was focused on our mission of caring for
the needs of others beyond our doors. 3. Today we look at our ministry of
Social Justice and Advocacy.
What
is the difference between Mission and Advocacy? To some extend it is an
artificial separation and partly how we choose to define words and make
delineation. But, most simply put, "Mission" is giving people material goods or
life skills they need to survive and hopefully thrive. Put crassly, it is
picking up victims, be they victims of social systems of injustice or personal
mistakes or shortcomings, or the result of bad luck. "Advocacy," or Social
Justice, is seeking to change systems that create, depend upon, or are built on
inequity and injustice.
You
all know the old, but illustrative story, told with many variations, but the
gist of it goes like this: A community one
day found a baby floating down the river along which the town was established.
They hurriedly waded out and rescued the infant. They fed and cared for it.
Soon another came along and they did the same thing, then another, and another.
They enlisted the whole town to help in the effort. They built an orphanage to
care for the ever-growing number of children they fished out of the river. That
is Mission. And it is extremely important.
One
day, one of the town's folk said, "Maybe it's time that we put together an
expedition to go upstream and do something about what is creating all of these
orphans!" That is advocacy.
We
don't believe that evil and injustice are only acts that bad people do unto
others. Injustice and evil are also embedded in systems that devalue, ignore,
exploit, and oppress whole groups of people. Those systems have a life and
power of their own. They are, I believe, the principalities and powers that
Jesus referred to. And they can carry on, perpetuating their injustice, even
when good and well-intentioned people are part of, or running the system! They
keep on unless they are intentionally altered or dismantled.
There
can be no doubt that the Just and Peaceable realm is what God intends for this world, not just the next. Plymouth's
identity statement says that we believe all people are children of God, that we
seek to realize this about ourselves and all others, and that society should
reflect that truth. Oh, indeed, much of the Church yet, and certainly in the
past, has seen this earthly realm simply as a preparation for the next, for the
heavenly realm. That is the stated motivation behind the idea that the church
should only be about "spiritual" things. (The real motivation is so that we do
not interfere with the secular realm, the "real world!") That thinking says
that this life is just to get over to the next, so one has to graciously,
piously accept their lot, live humbly and obediently, suffering as Christ did.
That was the theology of the Pharisee's in Jesus' day, and it is still
prevalent in many forms in the Christian Church. But, if God is God of all
things, certainly God is God of this world and seeks for this world to reflect
God's intention. In fact, when Jesus talks of the Reign of God, he is not
speaking only future tense, he is speaking of any and all times when life is
lived in his presence, where the just and peaceable realm is present. And if we
are whole people, we cannot dissect ourselves into "spiritual, psychological, and
physical." I believe it was Gandhi who said, "There are people in the
world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of
bread."
Even
if we believe that God intends this world to reflect God's intention, many seem
to believe, or act like, ours is a waiting game-that ours is only to wait for God to make it happen. But we believe
that we are called as partners, agents in God's bringing about the world God
intends. That's what it means to be disciples of Christ,
ambassadors of Good News. When we lament at some great scene of injustice or
cruelty, "Where is God?" no doubt, God is lamenting, "Where are my people, my
voice of outrage, my call for healing?"
Advocacy
is an important area of ministry for Plymouth Church and we have been
recognized for our work for peace and justice. Way back in the 80's, when
nuclear proliferation was at its height, we declared ourselves a nuclear free
zone. (And if things keep going the way
they are, we may have to declare ourselves a gun free zone!) In 1991 we
became a Just Peace Church, seeking in all that we do, to create and promote a
Just Peace. In 1998 we became Open and Affirming,
making a public stand in solidarity with our LGBT sisters and brothers (as well
as those for whom that description is too limiting). This wasn't just to make a
place, but to change church and society, not just so that LGBT persons would be
tolerated and not harmed, but so that they could be affirmed as full and whole,
seen as integral to the wholeness of church and society. And when the sabers
were rattling for an unjust, reckless, and evil invasion of Iraq, we found our
voice and helped scores of others do the same. Yes, we were in opposition to
the invasion, but also we were, and are, seeking to change how our nation's
resources and influence are used that they will support the things that make
for peace.
Our
Justice and Peace Task Force continues to actively
work on and to provide avenues for all of us to influence policy makers in
relation to a number of things: justice for Palestinians, healthcare for the
poor, racist systems that devalue and disenfranchise people of color. Our
particular focus this year are the exploitative values and systems that rape
the environment as if we were the last generation that God intended to have
occupy this precious and fragile Eden. Some of our benevolent giving as well
supports advocacy efforts - some of what goes to our Church's Wider Mission,
our support of Partners for a Racism Free Community, some of what goes to the
Urban League, some of what goes to Gays In Faith Together, and to the National
LGBT Coalition. And many of the community gatherings for which we open our
building are for advocating changes in exploitative systems.
I
hold this up, because I believe this is core to being a faithful people and a
faithful church. I also hold it up by way of encouragement, for this can be
difficult work. There are many compelling reasons, personally and corporately,
to shy away.
One
is that it can be controversial. Few will oppose feeding the hungry or helping
innocent victims. That is clear and it feels good. But pointing the finger at
injustice, systemic greed, callousness, and systems of privilege, from which
most all of us here benefit, can ruffle feathers. You are probably familiar
with the statement by Dom Helder Camara, late Archbishop of Recife, "When
I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no
food, they call me a communist."
It can be difficult because systems are complicated
and it can be hard to know what to do. We can spend our time and energy
wrestling with problems that seem intractable. And we may stop ourselves
because we don't have a comprehensive alternative. But sometimes we forget that we do have a comprehensive understanding
of justice, of mercy, of how people ought to be treated. We know that there
is no real peace without justice. We know that violence begets violence, that
the only thing that deescalates violence is love, care, and mercy. Jim Wallace
of the Sojourners community spoke of the church's role, "...our
prayer and clarion call is for the common good to prevail, and that all people
of faith might rally together to kick at the darkness until it bleeds
daylight."
Our advocacy can make us and others uncomfortable because it often
puts us in opposition to our own government, like our opposition to the
invasion in Iraq did. So, too, did our questions about the treatment of
Palestinians, the Michigan Prison System, and school funding, to name just a
few. That kind of advocacy challenges what is too often our first loyalty.
Again, as Jim Wallace put it, "Many American Christians are simply more loyal
to a version of American nationalism than they are to the body of Christ. I
want to suggest that the two are now in conflict, and we must decide to whom to
we ultimately belong."
Advocacy can be difficult because of our very positive virtue of
wanting to make a difference. We at Plymouth Church want to make a difference,
and indeed, we do. Even in some of these areas of advocacy, many things are
changing. Look at how things are changing regarding LGBT rights and treatment.
Yes, there is a ways to go, especially here in Michigan. Look at the change that has taken place in
relation to Nuclear Weapons proliferation. But even before anything began to
change, I remember reading a study about children in the 80's, in the worst of
the nuclear proliferation days. Children of parents who were actively working
to oppose nuclear proliferation were much more hopeful and less fearful about
it than children of parents who were not working on the issue. (That somebody
cared and was trying to do something about it gave them hope.)
But, systems are large, entrenched and it can be very difficult to
see if, where, or how we make a difference. They change, indeed, but instant
gratification is hard to come by. It is hard to claim that "we are making a
difference." We can feel like we are jousting at windmills. But Christian
motivation has never been simply for the self-gratification of seeing the
fruits of our labor. The Christian community transcends time and space. We are
the grandchildren of those who have gone before as well as the grandparents of
future generations. Like the great pastor and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr put
it, "Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we
must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes
complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved
by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore
we are saved by love."
My friends, we follow a Lord and Savior who was all about changing
systems. "You have heard it said, (that is, the old way, the old system) 'An
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you do not resist the
evil doer... turn the other cheek." "You have heard it said, 'You shall love your
neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, pray for
those who persecute you." In other words, break the cycle of violence.
When you think about it, God coming in Jesus, born to a young
nobody woman, from an out of the way place, pregnant out of wedlock, is the
clearest sign of all that this God is not playing into the humanly established
systems of privilege and power. It was the humble Jesus who made Pilate
tremble-Pilate the symbol of this world's power system. And Jesus' crucifixion
disarmed the worst that the National Security State can do, torture and death.
He proved that they do not have the
last word.
Ultimately, our motivation must be the desire to be faithful,
seeking to do what God calls us to do, following Christ, imitating Christ. Faithfulness
must be its own reward. In one of his speeches in the last year of his life, no
doubt answering his critics about his opposition to the Vietnam War, Dr. King
said, "Cowardice asks the question: Is
it safe? Expediency asks the question:
Is it politic? Vanity asks the question:
Is it popular? But conscience asks the
question: Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that
is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular-but one must take it simply because
conscience says it is right."
We
are led forth and emboldened by the vision of God's intention: a world "where
the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the kid, the
calf, the lion, and the fatling together." "Nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore, but they shall sit, each
under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid."
May
it be so. Amen.