Christmas Morning: April 17, 2012

Cracking the door of a ceramic kiln is a moment of high expectation, anxiety and joy. 

A potter works for days, if not months, to form and glaze the work that will fill a kiln.  Learning how to do such a process can take a lifetime or the rookie frenzy of a "Pottery 101" class.  Novice or master, for the potter, opening a kiln, gas, electric or wood for that matter, big or small, is a moment of transcendent surprise.

Now, one would expect such romantic projections from a 40 year pastor-potter.  I tend to find the "spiritual" in just about anything and unapologetically confess that I am looking for it.  With that kind of presupposition any conclusion of mine is biased.  Yet upon opening "The Flying Z" wood burning, Tamba kiln of Dick Mackey at Canyon Creek Pottery in Northern California I sensed "something more than..."

There was something more there than the results of 40 hours of stoking, wood chopping and air-to-fuel-to-heat ratio adjustments by three life-long potter-friends.  There was something more than the hard and heavy labor it takes to prepare the kiln, its shelves and fuel before even lighting a match.  There was something more to discover on the initial view of the pots, mugs, bowls and jars that glistened in the heat as we opened the first section of the main door.

An engineer would deconstruct the chemical interaction of the clay and glaze properties as they interacted with heat and time that results in 'such-and-such' effect on a piece...or not.  A chemist could explain why metallic crystals are formed in the surface of the glassy silica under such conditions as oxidation and reduction in a kiln environment.  A novice potter could describe to a visitor the general process that results in a small work of functional art out of a lump of clay.  But none of that information... knowledge...truth.... really begins to express what one sees as they open the door of a kiln for the first time.

There is "something more than" at work.  There is a transformation in the fire that goes beyond mere rationality and logic, although both have directly contributed to the process from the start.  All of the varying inputs made to that moment, or that one single piece of pottery, can't explain the transcendent creativity of the fire.  Reducing it to numbers and formula doesn't describe beauty.

The modern mind has reduced truth to what we can measure and weigh, what we can reproduce in controlled conditions.  As important as the scientific method is there is "something more than" at work.  That's true of an art process, a relationship, one's sense of self, whatever.  Reducing life to the evolution of the chemical/biological interactions of self-conscious beings may be completely accurate but it doesn't begin to define the moments of our living.  There is "something more than" at work.

One can dismiss such a conclusion as the self-justification of a theologian.  But the next time you stand in awe of a sunset, or the giggle of an infant, or the helping hand of a friend take a breath and suspend that logic that seeks to limit such moments with what you and I can understand.

 

And. Be. With.

Our potter crew uses the affectionate term for the moment of cracking a kiln door as "Christmas Morning"; as like the joy and excitement of a child rushing to open Christmas presents under the tree in the warmth and affection of a family.  Whatever ideal you may hold for the surprise of transformation, for the unexpected discovery of "something more than" at work in your life, may such moments be many and full.

Daily Bread 2012

“How can gasoline go up in price $.25 in five days due to the speculation in the Middle East when it can take months for crude oil to be extracted, transported and refined into gasoline?”  “How is it that as one war (Iraq) winds down the drumbeat begins for another (Iran)?”  “How is it 7,000 people sleep on the streets each night in the 22nd wealthiest county (Santa Clara) in the United States?”

And why do such questions seem so inappropriate from a preacher?

It may seem out-of-bounds to ask such questions when we don’t have answers.  At least answers that fit in neat and tidy sound bites.

“Don’t mix politics with religion!”  We hear that usually from those who disagree with our concerns. Those who agree call it “prophetic”; I’m not sure that is any more accurate.

People who are dealing with the death or illness of a loved one, the tensions of marriage and family, or the uncertainty of economic options come to church for comfort and peace, guidance in how to love each other.  They don’t want to hear about issues out of their control which bother them just as much as me.  We get that.

Yet the Biblical tradition would suggest that economic justice, war and the suffering of the poor are spiritual concerns.

Consider this:  During the French revolution in the 18th century, or last year's Egyptian Revolution which saw the public overthrow of the Mubarak 30 year dictatorship, political violence was partially fueled by the price of bread, keyed by the huge increase in food grain prices.

Between June 2010 and June 2011, world grain prices almost doubled. In many places on this planet, that proved an unmitigated catastrophe. In those same months, several governments fell, rioting broke out in cities from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to Nairobi, Kenya, and most disturbingly, three new wars began in Libya, Yemen, and Syria. Even on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Bedouin tribes are now in revolt against the country's interim government and manning their own armed roadblocks.

And in each of these situations, the initial trouble was traceable, at least in part, to the price of that loaf of bread. If these upheavals were not "resource conflicts" in the formal sense of the term, think of them at least as bread-triggered upheavals.  ("Political Stability and the Price of Bread", Christian Parenti, MotherJones, 7/19/2011)

We think of bread as the simplest, most mundane form of food.  Yet its production, distribution and consumption can have the most profound of effects.  That is as true today as it was in ancient times.

When Jesus is tempted by the Devil to turn stones into bread during Jesus' forty day fast in preparation for his ministry in Galilee (Luke 4:1-4), the writer of the gospel of Luke may be referring indirectly to the Roman occupation forces' common practice of bread distributions to "win the hearts and minds" of the colonized poor.  Immediately following Jesus' rejection..."one does not live by bread alone..." Satan offers Jesus unlimited political power over all the kingdoms of the world, which this too is rejected by the Nazarene.

Jesus' proclamation of the long promised Kingdom of God as present in his life and teaching (Luke 4:16-30), and spiritually available to all who would follow (Mark 1:14-15), does not require, nor can be reduced to, political gimmickry and power.

In his insightful book, The Greatest Prayer (HarperOne, NY, 2010), professor John Dominic Crossan applies one of his consistent hermeneutical themes to the Lord's Prayer phrase "...give us this day our daily bread..."  He suggests that the gospel story of Jesus is the confrontation between the Hebrew eschatological faith in the reign of God versus the empire and worldview of Rome. 

...who owns the earth, the land and the lake [Sea of Galilee/Lake Tiberias]...God or Rome...and who, therefore, owns the food produced by earth land, and lake.  If '...the earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it' (Psalm 24:1)...if, as God claims, 'the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants' (Lev. 25:23), who owns the means of food production?  From where does our food really come?  (Crossan, p. 126).

In his book Crossan catalogues scriptural references to food in the struggle for and by the poor for a fair share of God's creation and the blessings intended (Genesis 1:1-f).  He concludes that all the stories of food and fish, meals and miracles of feeding, insist that "...it is always about God's food in God's world for God's people."  (Crossan p.137).  

This is especially true in reference to Jesus' instruction to pray "...give us this day our daily bread..."  When we give thanks to God for the food we are about to eat, our blessing doesn't make it sacred.  Rather we are reclaiming it "for God to whom it had always belonged."  (Crossan, p. 130)

The Lord's Prayer may be the most universal of Christian practice today.  Yet what about Crossan's assertion that it is a call for a counter-cultural rejection of systemic power and greed?

According to the United Nations World Food Program, nearly one billion people on earth suffer from malnutrition today; 24,000, mainly women and children, die each day of malnutrition related disease.  Yet there is more than enough food on earth to feed everyone.  People aren't hungry because there is a scarcity of food; for example, India, where there are more hungry children than any other nation on earth, is an exporter of rice and wheat.¹

People are hungry because of poverty; they can't afford to buy food or the land on which to produce it for themselves.  Economic and political structures have dramatically decreased the amount of malnutrition in the world in the last 100 years.  Yet severe hunger and poverty remain the existence for too many of the world's population, in part due to economic and political structures invested in systems that allow and in certain circumstances encourage hunger.

When people in the 21st century riot over increases in the price of bread, or decreases in its distribution, it is not just about the food.  It’s about the inequality of power, status and opportunity.  For those whose traditions celebrate the created order as divinely inspired and maintained, designed to provide enough for all of God's children (Genesis 1:1-f), injustice in the control and distribution of bread is an affront to God.²

That being the case it would be wrong for a preacher, or any disciple for that matter, not to say something in the face of the powers and greed that perpetuate economic injustice, poverty and war. 

Even if we don't have all the answers...or even some of the wrong ones...faithful people have got to ask "why?"

¹ Because of the size of its population India’s poor make up 41% of all the world’s poor, living on a $1 a day (NationMaster.com); 44% of its children under 5 are underweight due to malnutrition, the largest number of all nations.  A third of all the malnourished children in the world live in India, an exporter of rice and wheat (World Bank, 2006).

² Isaiah 58:1-9, Amos 8:4-14, Luke 1:52-53 as just three of over 2,000 citations in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures describing how God hates the reality of poverty and oppressive systems that perpetuate such suffering.  ("Black Evangelicals, White Evangelicals and Franklin Graham's Repentance" by Lisa Sharon Harper, God's Politics blog, Jim Wallis and Friends, sojo.com 03-01-2012)

So What?!

There are times when my words feel impotent.  As a pastor/preacher I seek the welfare of the people I love and serve.  I want to inspire the best in all of us.  In the words of Reinhold Niebuhr, I hope to offer “comfort to the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable”.  But it doesn't always work out that way.

One day I whined to my colleague:

"So what if my words are articulate and reasonable?!  So what if they are based on tradition and spiritual truth?!  It doesn't make the suffering they go through any easier.  Do my words really make any difference?  Are people even paying attention anymore? So what?!"

She was gracious and patient with my self-indulgence and simply answered, "The 'so what' doesn't belong to you, Pastor.  The 'so what' belongs between them and God."

Once again in my relationship with this wise pastor she stopped me cold.

I was taught long ago by one of the most outstanding preachers of the twentieth century to begin the work of each sermon by writing at the top of my page “So what?”   Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock argued that it wasn’t enough to dazzle people with your eloquence.  Neither was a sermon the opportunity to teach the “unlearned” of one’s vast biblical and theological wisdom; which for me would take about five minutes!

To respect the intelligence of the people with whom we are privileged to share our thoughts and faith, the exercise of a sermon has got to matter.  It has got to address a real hurt or hope in our lives and the world.  Worshippers need to leave the service with a thought, assurance or dream that has made a difference for their hour or so in the sanctuary.  A sermon points to a "so what".  It has to matter.

Now 36 years into this preaching business there are moments when I really wonder if, for all my craft, any of it really matters.  Such doubts are few and far between....thanks be to God.... but they are there.  Which is why, in part, my colleague's response was so profound.

We call the Bible the "inspired Word of God", which it is.  But that inspiration, that spirit available, isn't locked into the ink on the page or papyrus.  Rather it exists in the relationship between the reader/listener and God.

We love to hurl Bible verses at each other as if gauntlets in our debates but in that vast source of literature just about any notion, however misconstrued, can be referenced to a Bible verse.  Even the Devil can quote the Bible (Luke 4:10-11).

Members of White Supremacist groups or the Ku Klux Klan can read the words of scripture to justify their hate.  Well-meaning people can read the same verses and come to the opposite conclusions as to their application; note the church's history with slavery, women's rights or sexual orientation.

The "so what" of the Bible isn't a static fixture of the printed words.  Rather those words lead into a dynamic relationship to which the reader/listener brings all sorts of input and expectations that frames one's experience of those words.  Grace and love can be found there.  And if one is looking for violence and bigotry they can find it there too.  The "so what" doesn't belong to the words alone, nor the history and traditions out of which they have been passed down.  The "so what" of scripture belongs to the relationship between us and God in the here and now.  A wise lay man once reminded me that's why we call it "the living Word of God."

My colleague was suggesting that the same is true of a sermon.  With the best of intentions, preparations and skill, a preacher offers his or her best attempt to plant a seed of illumination and inspiration.  This calling is a privilege indeed and an enormous responsibility.  Yet where the seed may fall, how it will grow and whether it will bear fruit is not up to the preacher.  Rather the "so what" depends on who receives it and how it is received, interacting with the reality of the Spirit to which the sermon points.  Jesus knew that to be true as well (Matthew 13:1-23).

My colleague was reminding me of Who was actually at work in my modest efforts to preach.  And the reminder was a "so what" I needed to hear.  Indeed!

PDP: Public Displays of Piety

In India one can more often than not identify another's religion by their dress.  Sikh males wear turbans, well-kept beards and silver bracelets.  Muslim women wear head coverings for varying degrees of modesty, depending on local traditions of orthodoxy, from simple scarves to full body "burkas" with only a slit out of which to see.  Hindus, male and female, will often wear makeup on the forehead to identify their sect.  Certain members of the Jain religion and some Hindu hermits called "Sadhus" will wear nothing at all.

In North American Jewish communities Hassidic males can identify their degree of orthodoxy by the manner in which they manage their haircut and beard and by the type of hat they wear.  Amish communities wear distinctive handmade clothing.  Black Muslim members of the Nation of Islam can be identified by their bow ties for men or a sash worn by women.

Public displays of piety are more common place than we might think.  Consider the crucifix or Star of David necklace, the singing of God Bless America at the seventh inning stretch of a professional baseball game, our currency's "In God We Trust" or the Pledge of Allegiance phrase "...one nation under God..." added in the 1950's. 

Yet the media is having a field day with Tim Tebow's public displays of piety.

The Denver Broncos’ young quarterback has made national news with his amazing, 'last minute' football miracles; winning 6 games in a row during the regular season after the team got off to a terrible start; beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime in the Broncos’ first playoff win since 2005.  Denver's loss against the heavily favored New England Patriots will only dim "Tebowmania" for a while.

Tim Tebow's public displays of piety have been a major interest in the media since he was a successful football player at the University of Florida.  Throughout games, especially after a touchdown, he unashamedly bends down on one knee, places his forehead on his fist and thanks Jesus.  At press conferences he is quite natural and sincere about the role of faith in his life.  He doesn't appear to be a phony which is driving the mass media wild with speculation, parody and criticism.

Tim Tebow

The cynical are using Tebowmania to recite the litany of the all-too-many religious hypocrites whose public displays of piety did not match their immoral and/or criminal behavior as if the pundits are just waiting for this young man to stumble and fall.

In an increasingly secular North America Tebow's public display of piety is perceived as an irritant by some and offensive to others.   Reminiscent of the French controversy banning the Muslim head-covering "hijab" or scarf for girls in public school, a secular majority wants religious minorities to keep their religion to themselves. 

When was the last time we heard a word in the Mass Media about the faith communities' response to Hurricane Katrina?  Millions of donated dollars and volunteer hours have been spent by communities of faith to aid in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast in the last 6 years.  Such compassionate service continues in Haiti in response to the 2010 earthquake.  It happens in North America's urban core each and every day, where churches, synagogues and mosques feed, house and clothe the poor.

We might find a human interest story every now and then; the usual holiday articles around Thanksgiving and Christmas.  But no headlines, no in-depth analysis.  We won't find Saturday Night Live parodies of volunteers digging houses out of muck on YouTube.

Are such public displays of piety invisible to the editors of our society's media outlets?  But let a young football player bend to his knee in prayer and few can talk about anything else.

Religious identification by dress, custom, posture or slogan is superficial of course.  In the end the only real way we identify our core beliefs is by how we live our lives, which suggests that how we judge celebrity athletes' faith may say a lot more about us than it does about them.

Floating in Beeman Stone

Many years ago the Mackey family, owners and operators of the Canyon Creek Ranch outside of Alturas in Modoc County, California, acquired the old Beeman ranch adjacent to their property.  Its 300 plus acres weren't prime land, to say the least, but it was a good investment at the time. 

Entering Canyon Creek Ranch

Running through the property is a vein of iron rich volcanic rock.  The Northwest corner of California remains an active geothermic area with ancient volcano cones, ash deposits and obsidian everywhere; it’s only a few miles from the Klamath Basin, Tulelake and Lava Beds National Monument in Oregon.

Iron rich volcanic deposits are unusual; those two materials are rarely found together in such concentrations.  Dick Mackey, current operator of Canyon Creek Ranch, has had a life-long interest in the ecology and geology of Modoc County and in this particular vein of rock on his property.  It’s rare enough that he has spent years trying to figure out how to mine such a resource.  So far there seems little commercial use for "Beeman Stone".

This is not to say it’s not the source of great wealth!

Dick Mackey is also an avid and accomplished potter.  Years ago out of curiosity Dick dug up a bucket full of Beeman Stone to test as a possible glaze material.  A ceramic glaze requires glass (silica), a flux to reduce its melting temperature (Na₂O) and a refractory (alumina) to make it durable.  Volcanic ash is known to have all three elements and with the addition of iron Beeman Stone would also include one of the most common colorants in ceramic glaze formulation.  So Dick ground it up into powder and tested it in his kiln with nothing more than the addition of water for application. 

Beeman Stone has turned out to be a staple in the Canyon Creek Pottery pallet.  A natural rendition of a Japanese "tenmoku", dark iron brown, breaking with color on texture.  It is used with great pride at Canyon Creek as a local resource.

Just a few years ago the Federal government made it possible to irrigate challenging properties like the Beeman Ranch and the Mackey family took advantage of the opportunity.  They discovered a source of deep water under the property that could support pivot sprinkling for grasses and alfalfa hay.  This geothermic water, warmed by the fires of the molten earth, comes out of the ground at 120 degrees, which is just fine for this operation.  Today they harvest hay off of land that previously couldn't produce much at all.

Mackey creativity and ingenuity also produced yet another wonder as a result. 

In the process of installing the pivot sprinkler system, the family hired a large earth mover to dig out a hot tub and swimming pool in a prominent spot in the Stone ridge.  The temperature of the natural rock hot tub is a constant 103 degree, the swimming pool between 85-90.  The water is pristine as is the joy the family has in using this new discovery, especially in the cold of winter.  It is not unusual to swim in the tub or pool while there is snow on the ground!

Doing just that the other night, Dick and I conversed about the amazing circumstance of Beeman Stone.  Floating in a hot tub of perfect water held in place by the very stone with which we glaze our pottery we felt connected to the earth and the stars that filled the jet black night sky.  Our creativity joined with the divine's.  All my Buddhist cowboy friend could say of the stone, water, fire and sky that has made such a difference in our lives, "..it is a gift...it is all a gift..." floating in Beeman Stone.

I Am Already Against the Next War

Just saw a new bumper sticker and it hit a nerve:  "I Am Already Against the Next War".

CNN News had been reporting on a Pew Research Study regarding the attitudes of US Military Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars in comparison to the attitudes of civilians about those wars and military service (CNN.com, 10.05.11).

The research suggests that “half of post-9/11 veterans said the Afghanistan war has been worth fighting. Only 44% felt that way about Iraq, and one-third said both wars were worth the costs.” 

“Most Americans remain supportive of their all-volunteer military. (Only one-half of 1% of the population has been on active-duty service in the past decade.) Nine out of 10 expressed pride in the troops, and three-quarters say they thanked someone in the military. But 45% -- higher than among military respondents -- said neither of the wars fought after the September 11, 2001, attacks have been worth the cost……Half said the wars have made little difference in their lives.”

I am not a pacifist.  I feel strongly that the use of deadly force for self-defense or the defense of others is justifiable and at times necessary.  It is an evil, of course, but to stand by and do nothing while we are aware of the real threat of violence by another makes us complicit in that violence.  I have the highest regard for those who serve honorably in our military services, police and first-responder services.  They daily put their lives on the line for others, which for me is a Christian calling (John 15:13).

Yet I am very anti-war.  As a student of history I question its value for anything other than self-defense.  As a Baby Boomer I remain highly suspicious of our nation’s use of war and support of proxy war since the end of World War II.

I suppose those attitudes put me squarely in the conclusions of the Pew research.  I honor and appreciate our military very much while questioning the way our government spends their valor and sacrifice. 

The fear of not being prepared to deter an enemy born at Pearl Harbor has continued and expanded long after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Cold War paranoia justified preemptive war in Vietnam, proxy wars in Angola, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, CIA covert disruption of Chile and direct military incursions into Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Grenada.  The justification for the preemptive invasion of Iraq in 2003 was contrived on misinformation and accepted by the public based on our outrage over 9/11 and our fears of future attacks. 

We can debate whether our world or our nation is better off as a result of our constant war footing since World War II but it would be hard not to argue that the United States is convinced that war is the answer to our security.  

As the Pew survey suggests our population is quite satisfied that fewer and fewer of our country men and women actually serve the military and pay the direct price for our militarism.  Few citizens question the morality or efficacy of the increasingly successful use of robotic weaponry to eliminate our adversaries in targeted assassination.  Few question the trade off in military strategy that has "only" lost 1,800 US combat deaths in the ten years of war in Afghanistan compared to the 58,000 in the eight plus years of official war in Vietnam.  The direct collateral damage to tens of thousands non-combatants has remained among the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan while thousands of US families welcome home their wounded loved ones or bury their dead.

Is this peace? 

Why do we feel so afraid, suspicious and angry about our nation, the future...even our neighbors of different race and religion...if all this war was supposed to buy our security?

The Tenth Anniversary of the Afghanistan War motivated me to sit down and calculate.  In my 59.75 years our country has been at war for 22.75 of them….or 38% of my life!* 

I thank God for the men and women willing to defend me and our nation from the actual threat of attack.  And...I am already against the next war.

*I calculated the dates as follows:

Born in January 1952

Korean War                            

          June 25, 1950             -           July 27, 1953

Vietnam War                          

          July 30, 1964 Gulf of Token   -           April 30, 1975 Fall of Saigon

Gulf War I                              

          August 2, 1990            -           February 28, 1991

Invasion of Iraq:  Iraqi Freedom

          March 19, 2003           -           to date

Afghanistan:  Operation Enduring Freedom

          October 7, 2001          -           to date

[This reckoning does not include the covert wars in Latin and Central America, Africa and Asia supported directly and indirectly by the United States during my lifetime as well.]

Occupy Philippi

In the book of Acts while visiting the Macedonian city of Philippi the apostle Paul and his colleague Silas are beaten by a mob, whipped by city officials and thrown into jail.  Their crime was healing a slave girl of the demon possession that allowed her to tell fortunes in the market place (Acts 16:16-40).  Her owner objected to the healing of the slave girl because it took away from his profits.  

The story contains an extraordinary scene as the two missionaries, beaten and chained in the Philippi jail, are praying and singing hymns together.  Miraculously an earthquake breaks open the jail and their chains.   Before the jailer can commit suicide, due to his failure to keep the prison secure, Paul and Silas intervene on his behalf saving his life. Paul and Silas are freed, the jailer takes them home to clean and feed them; then he and his family are baptized.

Was this a first century version of "Occupy Philippi"?  Were Paul and Silas trying to make a public point of the inequality and injustice of institutional slavery?   Probably not.   Paul and Silas were more concerned about the evil possessing this young woman and making a public demonstration of the redemptive power of Jesus. 

Then again the proclamation of the Reign of God has always had economic implications. 

There are strong traditions of private capital and personal wealth in the biblical record. As there are strong traditions expressing concern for justice and equitable access to and control over the means of production.

The Hebrew traditions of Sabbatical set a 7-8 year cycle of land use by owners and insisted that the poor and disposed be given free access to harvest surplus (Ex 23:10-11, Lev 25:1-7, 20-22, Deut 15:1-6, 31:10-13).  The Jubilee set a 50 year cycle when land ownership would return to its original status and all people would have equal access to the means of food production, and all debts would be forgiven (Lev 25:10, 23; 27:2).   Both traditions assumed that a minority of people would use their time and talents to create wealth while the majority poor would be assured the basic necessities in dignity and fairness.

There is no historical evidence that the Jubilee tradition was ever practiced.

Yet as we listen to Jesus in the Christian scriptures, we can clearly hear the echo of these ideals.

   18 The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

   because he has anointed me

   to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

   and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

   19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

(Luke 4, quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2; 58:6)

"The year of the Lord's favor..." refers to the Jubilee tradition which by Jesus' time also referred to the hope for the End of the World.  It was the expectation of the Hebrew people in the first century that at the End of Time God would liberate the Holy Land from Roman occupation as well as restore the fortunes of the oppressed and downtrodden.  That is why Mary joyfully sings of the impending birth of the messiah, "....the hungry shall be fed and the rich sent empty away...".

The story of Paul and Silas illustrates a central point in Jesus' teaching.  People are more important than profits.

-To illustrate the radical nature of grace, Jesus tells a parable in which a land owner pays a worker the same daily rate for an hour of work as the owner pays a worker who has labored all day (Mt 20:1-16).

-Irate that the money changers have taken over the courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple Jesus turns their tables over in a violent protest against the corruption that limits access to worship privileges by class (Mk 21:12-17).  

-Jesus invites himself to dine with Zacchaeus, who has grown rich by collecting taxes for the Roman occupation government (Luke 19:1-10).  The pious see Zacchaeus as a traitor and sinner yet Jesus is not only willing to eat with Zacchaeus but to forgive him, the result of which is a reversal of fortunes for the tax collector and the collected.

People are more important than profits.

In a pastoral prayer not too long ago Pastor Dirk Damonte said, "....oh God help us to imagine ourselves the way You imagine us....". 

For some reason the "Occupy Wall Street" scene flashed through my mind.  Here's a group of people, becoming a movement, that knows something is wrong in a society that allows, encourages and tolerates the enormous inequality in the distribution of its wealth.   And the Occupy movement feels empowered to say it.  What their dream is for the future, how they imagine it, doesn't appear clear at this point but they know it’s got to be better than the future that human society is producing now.

The God worshiped and adored in the Judeo-Christian tradition has a compelling imagination, especially for our future.

5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle

   and every garment rolled in blood

will be destined for burning,

   will be fuel for the fire.

6 For to us a child is born,

   to us a son is given,

   and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the greatness of his government and peace

   there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne

   and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

   with justice and righteousness

   from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the LORD Almighty

   will accomplish this.  (Isaiah 9)

   He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,

   or decide by what he hears with his ears;

4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,

   with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;

   with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

5 Righteousness will be his belt

   and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

 6 The wolf will live with the lamb,

   the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling together;

   and a little child will lead them.

7 The cow will feed with the bear,

   their young will lie down together,

   and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,

   and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

9 They will neither harm nor destroy

   on all my holy mountain,

for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD

   as the waters cover the sea.  (Isaiah 11)

   My soul glorifies the Lord

 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48 for he has been mindful

   of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,

 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—

   holy is his name.

50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,

   from generation to generation.

51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

   he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones

   but has lifted up the humble.

53 He has filled the hungry with good things

   but has sent the rich away empty.

54 He has helped his servant Israel,

   remembering to be merciful

55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,

   just as he promised our ancestors.  (Luke 1)

These are but a few of an entire tradition in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures that imagines the future of the human society with recurrent themes:

-no war and violence

-the inequalities between the rich and the poor will be addressed and reversed

-social systems such as financial institutions, courts and government will be just, with access to all, not just the privileged

-those who have been marginalized will experience healing and hope

However we understand these traditions there is no escaping that within the biblical record at least, God imagines a future where human society lives in peace, equality and justice.   Although framed in metaphor with apocalyptic personalities and implications, this future is also historic, to be played out in this world, in human time.

On paper the world is a much better place than it was a century ago and positively ideal compared to a 1,000 years ago.   Today our wars "only" kill and maim in the thousands rather than the millions.   "Only" 24,000 mainly women and children die of hunger related disease each day now compared to 40,000 just 25 years ago.   Most of the world's governments are democracies or include democratic institutions to greater or lesser degrees compared to a handful just 100 years ago.   The global per capita income distribution has increased dramatically in the last century, especially with growing middle class populations in China and India, the two largest nations by population.

The world is a much better place than it was.

Yet as a member of earth's privileged class that is easy for me to say.   The statistical truth of such a statement gives me little comfort.   Admonitions to the "only" to be patient, to work harder, study more may be realistic but seem painfully trite if not outrageous when 20% of the world's 7 billion people live on $1 a day.   My conclusions about the state of the world must be framed within my social status.    I do not know what it is like to go to bed at night not knowing if my children will eat tomorrow...or if they will be collateral damage in someone else's war.

Jesus and the tradition on which he stood didn't condemn private wealth per se but the greed and corruption that restricts fair access to and control over the wealth that belongs ultimately only to God.   It is greed that has driven the global economy to the verge of collapse; as governments have set policies to ensure their power rather than sound economics; as the financial elite have rigged the system of capital exchange for their own benefit at the expense of others. 

And it is greed that allows a slave owner to keep a slave girl in the market place telling fortunes for his profits at the expense of her soul.

Paul and Silas were not in the Philippi marketplace to advance their version of the Occupy Movement.  Yet their miracle story confronts the spiritual reality of economic injustice.

Doesn't it confront ours as well?

Do we imagine a future of peace, justice and equality where all human societies have enough?  Do we share God's dream for us, God's imaging of what we might become?  Or have we reduced our dream to the boundaries of what’s possible for 'me and mine and forget the rest'?