To listen to this sermon on sources of hope, click here.
I enjoy reading foreign newspaper commentaries from time to time, and lately, there have been some interesting headlines. For example, one reads, “American Gun Use Is out of Control. Shouldn’t the World Intervene?” The author of this commentary notes that there are 32,000 deaths from firearms in the United States each year. Since arguments for international intervention are made with far smaller death tolls at stake, there is a kind of logic to the idea. Another headline reads, “Are Americans Dumb? No, It’s the Inequality, Stupid.” In case you find this headline rather insulting coming from a foreign newspaper, note that the New York Post had a competing headline on the same subject that read, “US Adults Are Dumber Than Your Average Human.” The writer of the foreign commentary actually gives a very sympathetic look at our situation in considering why adults in our country score so low when tested in basic math and technology compared to their European and Asian counterparts. In particular, she considers how economic inequality leads to a large number of low scores because the wealth gap between the rich and the poor mirrors an educational gap. Finally, let me give you one last headline that came from this past week. It reads, “Americans Need to Discover How the World Sees Them.” The commentary specifically argues that the United States needs to discover how the budget crisis eroded our global credibility.
I appreciated reading all of the articles I just mentioned, and they all brought home for me this sense that our country is in dire straits. I am guessing that during the shut down one didn’t need to read the foreign press to feel this way, so for me, it might have simply compounded what most of us were already experiencing. In this gloomy situation, I want to reflect this morning on how our hopes might be lifted. How might Jesus, the Jubilee movement, and our church’s vision for the future lift our hopes? This past week I came across a couple of metaphors that helped me see how each of these can raise our sense of hope.
The first metaphor is that of a mystery box. The screenwriter and producer J. J. Abrams talks about how he has had an unopened mystery box on his shelf ever since he was a child. He bought it at a magic store in Manhattan. The box had a large question mark on the outside, and the idea was that you didn’t know what you were getting inside. The purchase was compelling for at least two reasons. First, the box cost $15 but was advertised as containing $50 worth of magic. Quite a savings. Second, the box had the allure of an anticipated surprise. What sort of cool, fun things might be inside? In reflecting on the special meaning of the box for him, Abrams realized that the box in many ways represents both his technique for storytelling and his actual experience of the writing process. Abrams is famous for producing the television show Lost and a couple of Star Trek movies. What he realizes he does in his shows and movies is lead people from one mystery box to another, so that viewers are continually on the edge of their seat wondering what’s going to be revealed next? How did this plane crash on this island? In talking about the mystery box, Abrams interestingly does not describe it as being first and foremost about suspense. Instead he says that the box represents infinite possibility, hope, and potential. For him, the actual process of writing also reminds him of the mystery box. He says that when he sits down at the computer to write the blank page that stares back at him is the mystery box. What he is going to find out are all of the amazing things that can fill not only that page but all the pages that follow.
If you think about it, our scripture reading for today is essentially Jesus opening up the mystery box. His ministry career has yet to begin. At this point in Luke, the reader is still wondering who this Jesus guy is going to be, and then Jesus unrolls the scroll and reads, “The Spirit of God is upon me. God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim release to the captives…to let the oppressed go free.” Ah-hah, the box has opened. That’s who this guy is going to be. In this passage, we are getting a glimpse of what we are going to see in much greater detail as the gospel continues.
The mystery box also might be a fitting metaphor for where our church is at right now. As we envisioned our future over the past two days, the exciting question underlying all of it was, “What are we going to be next?” At the retreat, we got a glimpse of what that might be. Now, we are in the position of eagerly wanting to see the details as our own story continues. We are still in the process of seeing all that our mystery box holds.
Another uplifting metaphor that occurred to me is something I learned while reading Noam Chomsky years ago. In his role as a political scientist, Chomsky frequently talks about the threat of a good example. Those in power often find alternatives to their system of rule very threatening. Wars start in an effort to quash the threat of a good example no matter how seemingly small that threat might be to an objective observer. We might even say that Jesus was threatening to the Roman Empire because he and his followers provided the threat of a good example. They were living their lives according to values and beliefs that directly opposed those of the Roman Empire.
Good examples are not always quashed or executed. In fact, they are what sow the seeds of widespread social transformation. The executive director of Jubilee USA, Eric LeCompte, recently wrote an op-ed that gave a contemporary case of this. He talked about how on the small Caribbean Island nation of Grenada the nation’s religious leaders are at the negotiation table to resolve their nation’s debt crisis. They are seeking to restructure the nation’s debt so that the poor of their country will be protected from program cuts and other dangers common to debt agreements. LeCompte writes that the religious leaders at the table with the International Monetary Fund “know that any reforms they move forward could mean better IMF deals for millions of other poor people around the world who are always the most affected when a country restructures its debt.” The small country of Grenada could be the good example that other impoverished countries need.
When I think about our future as a church, when I think about what might come out of the mystery box, I get extremely excited because I think we have this tremendous potential to be not simply a good example but a great example of what churches can accomplish in living out the gospel. An incarnational church that brings to life the ministry of Jesus in its own ministries can read our scripture about bringing good news to the poor and letting the oppressed go free before it then declares, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” We have already been a great example on marriage equality, child hunger, and much more. What will be next for us? I invite you to be a part of finding out. Help us open the box. Amen.