Date: December 9, 2012
Scripture Lesson: Luke 3:1-18
Sermon: The Poor Have Good News Preached to Them
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells
“What do you think is the biggest human rights issue today?” Our son, Malcolm, asked me this question in the car driving home from school recently. First of all, I was surprised at such a significant topic of conversation. Secondly, I was surprised that he wanted my opinion. Then there was the matter at hand. I had to ask for some clarity. Were we talking about human rights or civil rights? Human rights. And are we talking about the US or the world? The whole world. OK. There are issues around immigrants and immigration. There are issues around race and religion. There are issues around sexual identity and sexual orientation. But I decided the most pressing human rights issue is gender: Full human rights for women is the most pressing human rights issue in the world.
Malcolm told me that his sister said the same thing. When he asked Jeff, his father, he got the same answer. Malcolm thinks the biggest human rights issue is around sexual orientation.
Ever since that conversation, I have been thinking about the question. And I am having second thoughts about the most pressing human rights issue being the rights of women. On further reflection, I am thinking that the biggest human rights issue of the day might be poverty. If you have money, you have more access to human rights regardless of your gender, sexual identity, race, religion, etc. Money gives you rights and access to those rights. But if you are poor, really poor, even if you are a white, heterosexual man in the US, you might be denied your human rights. And I think it is pretty much the same the world over. If you are poor, you have less access to your rights – legal, civil, and human. And this is nothing new. It has been this way for all time and in all cultures and all settings. Money is power. No money can mean no power. Poor people are routinely denied human rights.
Just this week we heard about how people in developing countries who have cancer often die in extreme pain and suffering because they don’t have access to relief. In the US, people in the last, painful stages of cancer are usually treated with morphine. It reduces the pain and is easy to administer through oral medication or an IV. While the cost of morphine to treat a dying patient is only about $2 per week many people in the developing world have no access to this treatment. Lack of funds, lack of medication, and other issues prevent the poor from dying comfortably and in peace. Given that this issue could be remedied, it is almost as if those who are dying in pain are being tortured. It is immoral and unconscionable. The human right to basic health care is being denied to those who are poor.
We also heard this week about the death of Oscar Niemeyer, the Brazilian architect, who designed the capital city of Brasilia. In the original design for this planned city there were apartment buildings for all economic levels. The intent was that ministers of the government and janitors would live together in the same buildings that offered differing kinds of apartments and accommodations. What happened was that the rich people chose to live out of town, in single family homes on the lake. And the poor were never welcomed into the planned housing. The issue wasn’t money; it was the stigma against the poor. The poor being treated as less than, second class, degraded and demeaned. Not welcome.
There is great prejudice in our world against those who are poor. It is not just that poor people don’t have money and thus certain things that create the appearance of respectability. The subliminal message is that if you are poor you are deficient, lazy, and stupid. You are not worthy of dignity or respect from others. The underlying assumption is that if you are poor, there is something wrong with you.
Of course this kind of attitude is completely at odds with the teachings of Christianity. Our central spiritual figure, Jesus, was poor and chose to associate continuously with people who were poor. He told stories about welcoming poor people to feasts and banquets. He singled out a poor widow as an example of generosity and faithfulness. He preached about laborers and those with no jobs. He shared food with the poor, he healed the poor, the invited the poor into the faith community. In the story of the last judgment in Matthew we are told that when we are in solidarity with the poor, we are in solidarity with Jesus. On practically every page of the gospels, there is a story about Jesus and people who are poor. Throughout the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Testament, there is the declaration of God’s preferential option for the poor. One of the characteristics so compelling about the early communities of followers of Jesus was that they included rich, poor, and those in between. This was glaringly radical and subversive. It undermined the structure of society. So in ancient times as well as today, prejudice and stigma against those who are poor is completely contrary to the values and ethics of the Christian gospel.
And, of course, we see this theme of concern for the poor in the Christmas story itself. Mary and Joseph are poor peasants. In the story of Jesus’ birth, they stay in the barn with the animals. They are visited by shepherds who are on the bottom rung of the socio-economic ladder. They are dirty, smelly, people who live out in the fields away from human society. This might be like Jesus being born under an overpass where some homeless people crash amidst scurrying rats and the ever present smell of urine. But in the Christmas story, it is those shepherds who are sought out by the angels and given the message to go and see Jesus, who is glad tidings of great joy to all people. The invitation signals that God is including everyone, welcoming everyone into the community.
This season, we are reflecting on the Christmas proclamation, “Glad tidings of great joy to ALL people.” This morning we will think about how the message of the gospel is glad tidings to those who are poor, as well as those who are rich and those who are in between. The reading about John the Baptizer illumines this for us.
First let’s look at John. We are given specific details about when he was preaching. It was in the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the regions of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas. All these leaders are mentioned, both Roman and Jewish. This was the power elite of the day. It would be like saying when so and so was President of the US, and so and so was Secretary of State, and so and so was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and so and so was Secretary General of the United Nations, and so and so was Pope, and so and so was Bishop. We are told immediately of the power structure of the day. And yet we are told that God chooses to speak through John, a random person who is poor and who lives out in the wilderness, not in the center of power. We’re told elsewhere that he ate wild locusts and honey and that he dressed in animal skins. He is the epitome of poor and unrefined. He is beyond a country bumpkin. He has no sophistication or class. And yet we are told that the people are leaving the city and the Temple precincts, and heading out to the hills to listen to John and to be baptized by him. So in the very person of John, as a messenger of God, we see God’s affirmation of the poor. That in itself would not escape the notice of those who are poor. They see God working through the poor and for the poor. And the selection of this unlikely messenger would not escape the notice of the rich and powerful either. They felt that God should be working through them not through this eccentric religious fanatic. And yet we are told that God chooses to speak through John.
Now let’s look at what we are told that John says. John is preaching about drastic change: A transformation of the lay of the land – social, political, religious, and economic. How are people to prepare for this drastic in-breaking of God? For this salvation? This restoration? This healing? Interestingly, John doesn’t tell the people to fast, pray, or go to services. He doesn’t tell them to straighten out their theology. He doesn’t advocate putting God first in your life. He advocates specific behaviors of an ethical nature. If you have two coats, give one away. And the same with food. The message is: Share. If you have more than you need, give something up. See that those who are in need have their needs met. John is advocating for equity and justice. The presumption is that if you have two coats it is because you have one that should rightfully belong to someone else who needs it. If you have more than you need, you are depriving someone else. If everyone has a coat, then enjoy the two you have. In God’s economy everyone has what they need.
Then John tells the tax collectors to take only their due. Well. This amounts to doing what is fair, and no more. Don’t take advantage of people. Don’t abuse your power. Don’t be greedy and selfish. Don’t cheat. Because that amounts to stealing from others. Think of the message here for CEO’s making millions while workers have no pension or health insurance. Think about banks and financial institutions charging enormous fees and interest rates. Think of auto dealers and other financiers who take advantage of those who are poor by charging exorbitant fees and interest rates. To all this, John says: NO. Do what is decent and fair. Take no more than you need. Don’t take advantage of others, especially the vulnerable and poor.
And John has a word for soldiers, for those in the military. Don’t abuse your power. Don’t harass and bully people. Don’t take advantage of people. Be satisfied with your wages. No false accusations. Don’t extort money. John would have plenty of fuel for his fire today. What about those WMD’s? Talk about a false accusation! What about those oil execs and their interests promoted through war? What about perpetuating armed conflict to serve the business interests of the weapons companies? While individual soldiers in our day may not be abusing their power or extorting, the military complex is certainly abusing its power and economically hurting many on the bottom tiers of society. The billions poured into the military are depriving citizens of housing, jobs, food, education, job training, and many other necessities. Military spending is a significant force that’s holding the US economy hostage. And this is largely driven not by the military, but by politicians who want to maintain their power and standing with voters.
John is advocating dramatic reconfiguration of government, military, and business interests. He is promoting a drastic transformation of the structures of human life and the institutions that hold society together. He is talking about moving mountains and filling valleys! And all of this is good news to the poor who are the victims of the corrupt systems driven by power and greed.
Notice that this word of God that John proclaims involves radical change in the behavior of people and the social structures that govern human behavior. And John’s admonitions are all addressed to those who have – who have power, who have money, who have jobs, who have economic influence, who have material wealth.
We want to be sure to notice what is not said. John does not tell the poor people to get over their laziness. He does not tell them to apply themselves. He does not tell them to be more industrious. He does not tell the poor to work harder. The implication is that poverty is not the result of the deficiency of the people who are poor, but is a result of the greed and abuse and selfishness of others. Poverty is caused by some people taking advantage of other people for personal gain. It is due to the immoral, unfair, unethical behavior of some. The people who have more than they need have it because they have taken advantage of those who have little. We still see this today. We can have a closet full of clothes because there are people in developing countries working for a pittance. Our material wealth and comfort is at the expense of others. And there is a complex system that maintains this injustice and some benefit from it while others suffer because of it. As Archbishop Dom Helder Camera observed, “When I fed the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why the poor had no food, they called me a Communist.”
It’s o.k. to help the poor with charity because that doesn’t change the system. But justice is about changing the system. All people thriving, not some people flourishing at the expense of others. In the gospel of Jesus Christ there are no victims. The realm of God that Jesus shows us has no victims, no abuse, no degradation, no oppression.
In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights created by the United Nations and adopted on Dec. 10, 1948, there are several specific articles that address economic issues, because basic economic opportunity is a human right:
Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
By addressing economic issues, the Human Rights Declaration is promoting peace because there will never be peace when there is poverty and lack of access to economic opportunity for sustaining life.
The Bible tells us that God is about leveling the playing field and advocating for those who are made poor by the system. John’s message, as we heard this morning, for those who are benefitting from unjust systems is: Change. Change your behavior and that will change the systems that victimize others. Scientists, economists, social scientists, agronomists, and others tell us that the earth can sustain the current population with food, clothing, shelter, and water if there is fair distribution and if consumption is moderated by those in developed countries. The ability is there. The problem is the will. John is exercising influence over the will of people. He is saying that they have to choose to change. He is preaching to Jews and Romans alike, to all factions and strata of society. There is good news. There are glad tidings. And as repentance takes hold and behaviors change, the fruit of transformation will appear. God will be seen breaking in. Glad tidings will be heard by all.
One day, as usual, a young waif of a girl stood at the street corner begging for food, money, or whatever kind of help she could get. She was wearing tattered, dirty clothes. Her hair was uncombed.
As usual, a well-to-do young man passed the corner without giving the girl a second look. But when he got to his comfortable home, and his happy family, and a wonderful dinner, his thoughts returned to the young girl and he became very angry at God for allowing such conditions to exist.
That evening in his prayers, the man reproached God: “How can you let this happen? Why don’t you do something to help this girl?”
Then he heard God, in the depths of his being respond, saying, “I did. I created you!” [The Sower’s Seeds: 120 Inspiring Stories for Preaching, Teaching and Public Speaking, Brian Cavanaugh, p. 28]
Instituting justice is good news for all. For those on the bottom, it means access to life-sustaining resources and the ability to make a contribution to the well-being of all. And for those in the middle and on the top, it means security and lack of fear; freedom from greed, selfishness, and control which drains abundant life and undermines mutual relationships. Justice means fullness of life for all. And our faith tradition makes it clear that we all have a role in establishing God’s justice. Everyone can help eradicate poverty and unfairness which leaves people behind and leaves people out so that others unduly benefit.
This season is one of glad tidings of great joy for all people. John reminds us that we all can respond. God welcomes our repentance, our change of behavior, attitude, and heart. The beautiful image of the mountains brought low and the valleys lifted up affirms that society, structures, institutions, economic systems, government, business, and even the military, can be reconfigured and transformed. And in this process, all flesh, all people, all animals, and all of life will experience the saving, the healing, and the restoration of God. No one is left out. Everyone hears the glad tidings of great joy for ALL people. Amen.
A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.
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