Oppression

We are preaching a sermon series on the Exodus this summer. I preached this sermon on Sunday, June 23rd about the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt as told in Exodus 5:1-18. I apologize for the length of this one, but I had a tough time cutting stuff out!

Scripture continues to tell us the story of the plight of the Israelites. While Moses has been in the wilderness making a new life for himself, the Israelites have remained enslaved in Egypt. They have been forced to labor for the Egyptians, serving at their will and whim.

Many scholars believe that the Pharaoh of Egypt at the time of the Exodus would most likely have been Ramses II. One of the reasons this is important is because Ramses was obsessed with building and construction. He filled all of Egypt with new towns and, more importantly, statues of himself. It is very possible that many of the great works of Egyptians were built on the backs of the Israelites.

The Israelites find themselves bound in slavery in Egypt subject to the will of cruel taskmasters following the will of the Pharaoh. Upon their return to Egypt, Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh to ask him to allow the people of Israel to go into the wilderness in order to make sacrifices to their God. Pharaoh responds cruelly. Not only does he deny them the opportunity to go, but he reacts by punishing all of the Israelites.

Why does Pharaoh react so cruelly? What is it about going into the wilderness to worship Yahweh that he is so angry about?

In order for the Israelites to make the bricks that were used as building materials for all of the Pharaoh’s construction projects, they had to mix straw with mud. Up until this point, the straw had been provided for the Israelites.

But it is now Pharaoh’s decree that the Israelites will no longer be provided straw; they will now have to harvest their own straw. This may not sound like much of a burden, but they are being required to produce bricks at the same rate as they were being required to before. They must add a significant amount of work to their load while remaining as efficient as they had before.

The punishment the Pharaoh orders of the Israelites makes their task impossible. It is impossible for them to produce the same number of bricks while being forced to do twice as much labor. It is a subversive punishment, it is an oppressive punishment, and it is intended to dishearten the Israelites. To break them. This is oppression in a very real and palpable sense.

It initially seems strange to me that he should choose to punish the Israelites through labor. But as I think about it, I’m really not that surprised. There have been many groups of people throughout history who have been oppressed through the use of labor. Have been forced into a subservient role in society through the means of manual labor.

This image looms before me in my mind’s eye. A multitude of people are unloaded from train cars and shoved and prodded into a line. They are forced to march through an opening in a fence into a camp in which most of them will die due to exhaustion, overexertion, and starvation. This is a Nazi concentration camp. As they march through the gates into this place of horrors, three words loom overhead, cast into the iron. Arbeit macht frei. Work makes (you) free.

These were the words written at the gates of many Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz – one of the most terrifying. The phrase is almost as sickening as the knowledge of what happened to the poor people who were forced into those camps. There was an illusion created that, by working hard, the Jews would know freedom. The implication is that if you worked hard enough, you would be released. But I can’t imagine that any Jew in those camps believed that. It’s disturbingly ironic that the Nazis essentially did to the Jews the same thing that Pharaoh had done to them over 3000 years earlier.

But these are not the only instances of oppression in the world throughout history. Up until the mid-1960s, race relations in this country were overtly oppressive. The concept of “separate, but equal” was largely a farce that hid the problem of oppression of blacks. Through backhanded preference and exclusion to outright oppressive actions, African Americans in this country faced the heavy yoke of oppression. Martin Luther King Jr. described this oppression the best – I could actually just write this entire sermon with MLK Jr. quotes. He said that America was, "sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression."

And oppression has not just happened “back there” in time, or “out there” in location. It’s something that happens here and now. It’s something that happens to our friends, our neighbors, our spouses, our children, our parents. There is evidence of oppression all around us.

The number of young people who killed themselves last year because of who they are, and what kind of person they fall in love with is simply staggering. This is evidence of oppression.

The number of young people who hurt themselves or starve themselves because they want to look like a picture in a magazine – a picture of someone who doesn’t even truly exist but was airbrushed onto the page, is just astounding. This is evidence of oppression.

These are forms of oppression; these are the ways that vulnerable people in our society are being oppressed.

And as often as we are the victims of this oppression, as often as we feel that pain and the hurt, so also we are the ones who inflict that oppression. As often as we see ourselves as the Israelites, we can turn around to discover that we are the Egyptians.

Two months ago, there was a tragedy in a far-away land that shook that nation and rocked the entire world. On April 23, workers in the commercial building Rana Plaza in the capital noticed that some cracks had formed on the inside of the gigantic structure. The workers were sent home. Banks, shops, and apartments were immediately closed, but clothing workers in the building were required to come in to work the next day.

On April 24^th, the entire building collapsed due to structural damages. Witnesses said that the building looked as though it had suffered a violent earthquake. It was confirmed that 3,122 workers were in the building at the time of the collapse, and a rescue effort was immediately launched which lasted almost a month. During the course of that rescue effort, heros were born, and miracles were performed. More than 2,000 people were rescued from the rubble.

Yet, in the midst of the wonderful stories of rescues, the death toll began to climb: 200, 400, 700. After all was said and done, approximately 1,127 people were killed in the tragedy of the building collapse in Bangladesh.

There were many responses to this tragedy: sadness, disbelief, confusion. But perhaps the most appropriate was anger. How could this have happened? What is the cause behind such a terrible tragedy? There are experts who say that the cause behind this tragedy is exploitation and oppression gone rampant. It is unclear which clothing companies this factory supported, but ties have been made to many of the clothing retailers that we are familiar with on an everyday basis. 

Why clothing companies?

Scott Nova, executive director of Workers Rights Consortium, a labor rights organization says, “the real power lies with Western brands and retailers beginning with the biggest players: Walmart, H&M, Inditex, Gap and others…The price pressure these buyers put on factories undermines any prospect that factories will undertake the costly repairs and renovations that are necessary to make these buildings safe.”

And the oppression doesn't stop there. The life conditions of these workers is unfathomable for us. After reading about the tragedy, the new Pope decided to speak out. He read that these workers were being paid about $50 a month. He responded by saying, “This is called slave labor. Today in the world this slavery is being committed against something beautiful that God has given us – the capacity to create, to work, to have dignity…Not paying fairly, not giving a job because you are only looking at balance sheets, only looking at how to make a profit. That goes against God!”

These are the kinds of people that are facing some of the worst oppression and the world, and the thing we have to realize is that we have contributed. If we look at the clothing brands that we purchase for ourselves and our families, it’s highly likely that we have purchased clothes made in factories at least similar to this one.

To accomplish his process of oppression, Pharaoh used a system of supervisors that were both Egyptian and Hebrew. The Egyptian taskmasters were totally loyal to Pharaoh, but these Hebrew supervisors were in an interesting situation. They were in this strange middle ground. They had accomplished enough in the eyes of the Egyptians to warrant them a position of some authority. They had some upward influence.

Yet they interact downward as well. Because they are Hebrew by birth, they are punished as members of the Hebrew community. These supervisors have compassion upon their Hebrew brothers and sisters and they go before Pharaoh crying out against this injustice. When Pharaoh is unwilling to relent, the supervisors go to Moses and Aaron and cry out against them and beg for their help. These characters have the compassion, the motivation, and the power to do something about the oppression that they witness.

I think that many people can identify with the position in which the Hebrew supervisors found themselves. Just like the supervisors, we feel some of the effects of oppression, but most of us do not receive the very worst effects of it. We are not the worker in Bangladesh who lost a life. We are not the Hebrew people forced into slavery and much worse. Yet we feel compassion for those people. We sympathize with those people who are deeply oppressed because we have been raised to be empathetic. 

And just like the supervisors, we find ourselves in a position to effect change. We have the ear of power, of big corporations, of governments, of Pharaoh. And when that power - as often happens - turns away, we have the opportunity to call for change in other ways.

When Pharaoh ignored the supervisors they went to Moses and said, "What's the deal man - you brought this on us." Moses goes to God and says, "Why did you do this, the people are in pain!" And these appeals bring about all of the change that we will be reading about through the rest of the summer. It all starts with the action of the supervisors. With their unwillingness to stand by and do nothing.

It only seems inevitable that I should return to MLK Jr. In his letter from a Birmingham jail in 1963, he said that Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

This story and MLK Jr.'s words are a call to us. Injustice and oppression in the lives of our youth is a concern to which we should all pay attention. Injustice and oppression in Bangladesh is an issue about which we should be worried. These are things we can do something about. I can't necessarily say what that something always is - perhaps we need to be more careful where we shop, or what we teach our kids, or what we say to our parents. But the first step toward any of these actions is compassion.

Compassion is what stirs us from our apathy. Compassion is the emotion that leads us to love others as much as ourselves. Compassion is what makes us care when thousands of people die thousands of miles away making clothes that we can buy for $20 and wear for 2 months. Compassion is what makes us realize that people who face oppression are not faceless or nameless, but are our brothers and sisters; and they could just as easily be us. Compassion is the key to the destruction of oppression, compassion that makes us put our foot down and say, "All people are valuable."

These are the values that we find in the supervisors: the role of God-given compassion, a desire to see things made right.

Like Moses and like the Hebrew supervisors, God calls us to be compassionate people. God calls us to care for others – to care for others enough to make a difference. This is why we write letters to politicians to ask them to push for the end of hunger. This is why the church is so engaged in mission. We are a compassionate people.

What is the difference we will make? Where will we face oppression with compassion? 

Spirit of Truth

This is the sermon I preached for Trinity Sunday on May 26th.

I was reminded this week while attending a presbytery meeting at Paw Creek Presbyterian Church about something I had heard some time ago. The idea is that someone went out onto the streets of a major American city and asked random people two questions.

Contemplative Jesus

The first questions was, "Who is Jesus Christ?" The person asking the question obviously got all kinds of answers. A human man who lived a long time ago. A healer. A great dude. There was also a response that he was the son of God.

Then the interviewer asked another question. "When you think of Christians, what do you think of?" Unfortunately the responses to this question were not as upbeat as the responses to the first question. People responded by saying judgmental, close-minded, and hypocritical.

These responses indicate some interesting trends going on in America right now. The first trend is that people are getting strange glimpses of what the church of Jesus Christ looks like. I'm sure you can relate to this sentiment. It seems like many of us have heard something a Christian has said and we have felt like politely jogging in the other direction.

The other trend is that people are moving away from the church. This is something that religious leaders have been noticing for quite a long time now. There seems to be a trend developing that values personal faith over religious institutions. The role of spirituality versus the role of the "church." This has been indicated by the rise in what many people are calling the "nones." They don't typically attend church, yet many of them self-identify as spiritual, and they are growing like wild-fire.

A none might ask , "Why do you feel as though it is important to worship in a sanctuary? Why do you bother going to a church? I have a personal relationship with God without any of that stuff." You would of course answer, "I can't imagine my life without my church. If I didn't have to make money to feed my family I would be there every day!" Well, you might not say that exactly.

These nones and others that don't attend church have a point - personal spirituality is very important in the Christian faith. It is important to be close to God, to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. These things are crucial.

I have a friend in ministry who understands post-modernism much better than I do. One of the things he likes to say, and something that many people say now, is that we have reached the end of Christendom. We are in a so-called post-Christian world. So why do we even bother?

I can't help but wonder if the disciples felt the same way. In our passage today, Jesus is in the midst of his Farewell Discourse. Jesus was giving instructions to his disciples. You see, they may not have realized it at the time, but they were facing the end of something too. Mere hours later Jesus Christ would be arrested and taken off to face the cross. The disciples were facing an end to Christendom too, in a different sense...the end of the life of Jesus.

Jesus dies on the cross, and it is fascinating that his movement did not die with him on that hill right then and there. With so few followers having been gathered and such a gruesome end of the leader's life, it would not be surprising if this movement had died out within a number of years.  It would not really have been that surprising if the followers of Jesus had decided that they could be religious and believe in Jesus without having to uproot and live in one place.

Back in the his Farewell Discourse, Jesus has just finished telling his disciples not to fear, not to be discouraged. After he is gone, he will send them a helper. Something to be with them after he is gone. A presence.

Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit. He's talking about the part of the Triune God that will be with his followers after he has left. This includes us. This includes the believing community across the ages. This is not the first time Jesus has spoken about the Holy Spirit, but the claims he makes about the Spirit in these verse are particularly important.

Jesus says that the Spirit will guide us into all the truth. This is an easy part for us to get side tracked on because when we think of truth we usually think of facts, data, wisdom. Things that are true. John is talking about something different. When John speaks about truth, he is referring directly to Jesus. Jesus said earlier in this gospel I am the way the truth and the life. John not talking about something that is true, he is talking about someone who is the truth. The being of Christ is the truth. His presence in the world, his ministry, his healings, his death and resurrection, those are the truths to which the Spirit will guide us.

That is all well and good, I guess, but I have trouble imagining this Spirit. Maybe part of it is because of my first impressions of the Holy Spirit when I learned the Apostles Creed as a young child. I would get to the part about Jesus being conceived by the Holy Ghost, and, quite honestly, it skeeved me out a little bit. I didn't know about this ghost thing and isn't that kind of creepy?

Jesus says that he is departing but he is going to send this Holy Spirit to guide the community of believers. And I think this is our answer to why the followers of Jesus stuck around after he was gone. They realized that, as alone as they felt, God was still with them and they knew this was true because of this Holy Spirit. Jesus' teachings had not come to an end for the disciples. This was the role of the Holy Spirit - to ensure that the disciples will not face the future alone. This is what he means about how the Holy Spirit will tell the disciples about things to come. The Spirit will guide them into the future, not as a fortune teller or as a soothsayer, but as God who guides people to the truth of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit is at work in ways we could never imagine, instilling us with passion, guiding us to care for one another, dwelling in the midst of this human condition. The Holy Spirit was certainly present in Oklahoma this week. In the midst of so much chaos and destruction, teachers felt the love, compassion, and dedication necessary to cover their students trying to protect them. This is the Holy Spirit at work.

The spirit has been at work in people all over this country in the wake of these storms.

Marty Taylor is a pastor at a megachurch in a town south of Moore, Oklahoma. They have had volunteers at the church all week sorting diapers, teddy bears, ramen noodles, and an incredible amount of clothing. They have received so many donations that they are having trouble finding a space to worship. Now if that isn't a good problem, I don’t know what is. They have received so many items, that they are asking people to just send money to help at this point. Marty says, “So many people feel this urgency, I’ve got to do something.” This is the Holy Spirit at work.

One of the reasons I’m glad we have the denomination that we do is because of a group called Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, or PDA. PDA steps in to help connect congregations to those who have been affected by catastrophe. In recent years they have been present in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, the tornado in Joplin, and this tornado in Moore. PDA holds a place in my heart as they were one of the caring groups of people that made their presence quickly known at Virginia Tech in the days and weeks following the shootings there in 2007. And how is such an organization formed, funded, prayed for, and motivated? This is the Holy Spirit at work.

The Spirit works in community. The Spirit works in relationships. That is the truest and deepest gift of the Spirit, it keeps us together, it unites us when we don't feel united. It gives us hope when all hope seems to have passed.

These questions reflect a truth, the world is changing. But why can't they reflect another truth –that the church is changing too? We certainly have a Spirit in our midst that wants to guide us to the truth of Jesus, and why can't this be one of those truths?

The Presbyterian Church USA is hosting an initiative called 1001 New Worshiping Communities. This is an initiative designed to open 1001 new communities of worship in the US over the span of 10 years. But this is not just a push to open churches, this is an attempt to allow that Holy Spirit to work in us. It's an attempt to recognize this growth of people who are not in churches and to see that as an opportunity, rather than a failure.

These worship communities are designed so that they can look very different from churches. They are designed to meet people where they are. They are designed to say to these nones "you can worship God without having to step into a church." Why are we willing to do this? The Holy Spirit.

When we use the Holy Spirit to spread the truth that is Jesus, we are fulfilling our calling. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are a beautiful union. This is what we say at the end of worship. The grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us and all people.

We are filled with the grace of Jesus who would enter this world for us. We are overwhelmed with the love that God shows us in our creation and in the gift of this life. And we discover these wonderful things when we share our lives with one another in community. Would that we can love enough to reach out. Would that we can be the community in which the Holy Spirit works so that all people, everywhere, might have the chance to experience God in community. Amen.