“Turning myself in Mr. Beck”

For Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Lectionary Scripture - Isaiah 43:16-21


Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.

“Turning myself in Mr. Beck”

Sojourners sermon preparation (www.sojo.net - subscription required) for the above lectionary scripture provides commentary from Walter Wink, professor emeritus at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. In his commentary, Wink quotes philosopher Alfred Whitehead who once said that it can take a thousand years for a truly new idea to be universally accepted in human experience. Why does it take that long? The answer shouldn’t be hard to determine; it’s because we’re so resistant to change.

To provide an example, Wink notes what the Prophet Isaiah had to say about the Hebrew Exodus from Egyptian slavery and what is said is that the Exodus was the first time a divine being sided with the powerless, i.e. the slaves and not the masters. Now some eight hundred after the event, Isaiah declares that God is about to do a “new thing” and in time that “new thing” will be a restored creation and nonviolent world in which human beings have finally learned to live justly and peaceably and in ways that honor nature.

So after all these millennia has humanity listened and arrived at what God’s prophet envisioned? Has it changed its ways? Has it helped God’s “new thing” make headway? Many would probably say there’s been little progress.

Throughout time however, God has sent agents of his “new thing” to help us along. One agent who arrived on the scene had many call him, “Son of God.” Jesus Christ, as this son was known, demonstrated in three short years how God’s “new thing” of Isaiah’s prophecy could be reality. This Peaceable Kingdom as God’s “new thing” would change us so completely from a world that more often seemed depraved than compassionate. Yet the world wasn’t ready to change its violent nature enough and would not tolerate another prophet proclaiming a call to peace. So Jesus was executed. The problem however is that the world was a bit too late trying to silence Jesus. His message about the Peaceable Kingdom got out and could not be silenced. And so other great teachers and prophets followed, persons such as Mohammed, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Anwar Sadat, Mother Teresa, and the list goes on. Through what they gave and modeled to the world, the cause of Isaiah’s Peaceable Kingdom rooted itself even further into our lives.

Yet we continue to struggle to make that vision reality and why so? Well I think the answer lies in what’s the profit in it? For how will one reap all that one can possibly want from this world and possess all the comforts and control and influence one could possibly have if there’s to be the kind of social justice and economic justice that God’s Peaceable Kingdom expects for each and every person? The answer is that such appetites will not be able to be unfettered or controlled only by the forces of what the marketplace will bear. If the marketplace in all the millennia that it has existed had been the answer and proved itself capable of a global conscience that benefitted and provided for all of the Earth’s seven billion inhabitants, then God’s Peaceable Kingdom would have arrived by now. Since that hasn’t happened, we human beings must continue to call one another to the task of social justice and economic justice until it’s a reality for everyone. What that will mean is that of the 170,000 children, women, and men who die every day on planet, that number will be reduced to where it no longer reflects those who die each day due to violence, war, poverty, disease, inadequate healthcare, hunger or starvation.

There are those however who are hostile to such justice. For me, one person projecting such hostility toward the kind of social justice and economic justice needed to accomplish the vision God gave Isaiah is Fox News personality, Glenn Beck. According to James Wallis, President of Sojourners (www.sojo.net), Beck said on his March 11th show that social justice was a “perversion of the gospel” and that social justice and economic justice were nothing more than “code words” for communism and fascism. Below is a sampling of Beck’s statements over the course the past week or so:

Where I go to church, there are members that preach social justice as members–my faith doesn’t–but the members preach social justice all the time. It is a perversion of the gospel.

and

Social justice was the rallying cry—economic justice and social justice—the rallying cry on both the communist front and the fascist front. That is not an American idea. And if we don’t get off the social justice economic justice bandwagon, if you are not aware of what this is, you are in grave danger. All of our faiths–my faith your faith–whatever your church is, this is infecting all of them.

and

I beg you, look for the words ’social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!

and

If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop and tell them, “Excuse me are you down with this whole social justice thing?” If it’s my church, I’m alerting the church authorities: “Excuse me, what’s this social justice thing?” And if they say, “yeah, we’re all in that social justice thing”—I’m in the wrong place.

I couldn’t resist and had to share the above comments with a conservative Republican ministerial colleague. On hearing Beck’s comments, my colleague shook his head and said, “I have no idea where Beck is coming from because following Jesus and being a Christian have always been about social justice.” As a liberal progressive Christian, I would agree. If you feel similarly, then there’s something that James Wallis and I would like you to do. We’d like you to report yourself to Glenn Beck as a social justice Christian. We’ve done it and you can do it too by following the link below:

http://go.sojo.net/campaign/glennbeck_socialjustice?rk=GpafgXEajJ8pE

If you decide to report yourself to Beck, may you have and enjoy Christ’s Peace for doing so! And then be a pal and let me know that you’ve done it. Have a great weekend.