Praise Cheeses

July 4, 2008. The sun was shining overtop of the sky scrapers casting rays of light and shadow in downtown Brooklyn. The sun was hot and the crowd that gathered watched with sunglasses waving fans to cool themselves as they watched the competition. The competitors that gathered were from all over the world, but two of these athletes stood out from the rest. It was Japan vs. the US. These two men stared at each other knowing that only one could walk away as the winner and be hailed by their respective countries. The smells, the taste, and the feeling were all focused on one attribute, victory. The athletes took their mark and awaited the sound of the gun to begin. Ten minutes. Ten minutes and their fate would be decided. A year's worth of training boiled down to ten minutes of competition. The sound of the gun and both competitors sprung into action. They opened up their mouths and threw a hotdog in. Quickly they both were consuming as many hotdogs as possible. The crowds cheered and when the ten minutes were up, the two "athletes" walked away tied with 59 hotdogs in ten minutes.

Out consume.

There is no doubt that this country is composed of consumers. I watched a credit card commercial the other day which stated that, "There is nothing wrong with being a consumer." I wonder if that is true. Innately, we all have to consume at least the bare essentials. Food, water, medicine, air etc; all must be consumed into our bodies in order to survive. But I don't think this is what is meant when a person is defined by the action of consuming. The story of the hotdog eating competition struck me this morning on my way to work. I was thinking that it is interesting that people praise others for consuming more than anyone thought possible. It seems backwards to me. Is it any wonder that we have a nation who is fatter than the entire world and who are so far in dept that it will take several live times for people to pay it off?

And yet we still ask God to bless us. I am seeing that we are like the servant who squanders the master's money. God placed in our hands as Americans freedom and resources. These things have caused us to enjoy their pleasures and have caused our nation to be very wealthy. But God never asks in the Scriptures for anyone with a blessing to keep it and consume it for all its worth. He asks instead for the blessing to be spread to all the nations and to the entire world.

Webster's defines consume in several ways. The first is to enjoy thoroughly and the second is to spend wastefully. I believe that we as Americans are participants of the later. This is so easy to do when you have things like buffets, supersizing, and credit cards. I have said before that we are dehumanizing our enemies, but I think we also are very good at dehumanizing ourselves. We are forgetting the basic three responsibilities that we have as humans which are mandated by God; to be fruitful, multiply, and be good stewards. It seems we are living with the direct opposite; be fruitless, subtract, and rape the earth.

We fail to realize that this attitude has/is destroying us in our humanity.

Pax Romana part III

After reading the last blog, I am sure it can be easily understood the correlation between America and Rome and for that matter any other empire. What I find the most interesting though is that in the times of greatest, "Peace" no peace was to be found for those who lived in the margins. You don't have to go very far to find people who live with a mindset that to serve is weakness. N.T. Wright points out that while the Evangelical Christians are crying out that evolution is being taught in school, they (And we all) live with a social Darwinism, meaning that in order to survive we must be the strongest. This can be seen from the earliest civilization in the East to the business executive in London. Worse, Empire is built on these ideals. From the very beginning of American history we see a, "By your own boot-straps" mentality. Climbing the corporate ladder meant that you climb over those at the bottom. This is how empires are made.

Rome's peace was for those who were in the highest positions of leadership and wealth, those who were on the margins, only need to keep quiet about their quality of life. Complaining or uprising came with the price of a cross. The marginalized thus had no voice and were silenced. Rome not only internalized this attitude towards its own glorious city, but made it the staple for all the conquered territories including Jerusalem.

Perhaps that is why God chose the nation of Israel to bring his kingdom to earth through Christ.

One of my favorite stories in the Hebrew Scriptures is the story of Israel's exodus from Egyptian captivity. The power and majesty of God's rescue is remarkable. God's kindness and his mercy in dealing with is people, is like the love of a Father. As God leads them to their new land, it becomes quickly evident that they are not concerned about God nearly as much as they are consumed by "…being like the other nations".

Something I learned very early on in my education was that God had placed them in a location to teach all nations about his love. Israel was centrally located in a sort of cross-roads of the nations. Canaan, the land that the Israelite nation settled, was the center of the main trade route. God's original plan was to teach all of the nations about him from the lowliest nation on the earth. But the people turned their back on the mission of God and served themselves. Israel began to see itself as a, "Better off" nation than any other and mocked and hated the Gentiles even up to the time of Jesus.

And then you have the message and heart cry of Jesus who teaches the same thing that God has been trying to teach the world for centuries. He starts saying controversial statements that unravel the very fabric of empire. Things like, "Turn the other cheek" and carry your enemy's load an extra mile. Those who followed Jesus (Including in large part the disciples) wanted a revolution. They wanted Jesus to rise up and make an empire that would squash the Gentiles. But Jesus had something else in mind.

Jesus says that he wants the disciples to teach all the nations about his love.

After the glorious resurrection, the church starts to take root and grow. In the background, you have men who were strongly against this new…"Way". I feel strongly (On speculation) that hate had crept in to the followers of the Way towards those who were persecuting them. Saul enters the scene. God reaches down and teaches Saul about his love and Saul is given a new name and a new calling. This calling would reach out to the furthest regions of the known world and to those who are on the fringes of the Empire both geographically and socially. God calls a man who was a truly wicked oppressor to do this. Equipped with a new name and new calling, Paul enters the scene.

I see throughout Scriptures that God is continually reaching out to those who are the lowest. I have been challenged with my response to this calling. I wonder in my own context who is the lowest, the marginalized, and the outcasts of society. I didn't grow up in a time when any certain race was hated. To be honest, my context makes it very hard to see any of "the least of these". Instead of seeing them, I hear them. I hear their cries in orphanages where mommy and daddy were killed by a bomb that dropped out my country's airplane. I hear the little boy, who is no older than my nephew, who is making shoes in Vietnam for American business men. I hear the prayers of the moms and dads for their children to have a better life than their own which has been victimized by American's need for oil.

Sometimes these voices from other countries are silenced by American Peace. TV shows, consumerism, politics, and religion silence those who are on the fringes of society. Painted as either our enemy or something to laugh at, these destitute cry and only God hears them. When I started to peel back American Peace, I saw the ugly skeleton that was underneath. It was rotting and decrepit. The voices became a thunder that I could no longer ignore.

It is no longer good enough to pray. It is no longer good enough to watch the evening News and ignore the problem. It is no longer good enough to forget these people. It is time for action. It is time to show the kingdoms of this world that there is only one Kingdom and only one peace. We do not bow to Caesar, king, or president.

It is through the Pax Christi that we all will have peace. Christ who taught that if we want to be great in his kingdom we must become low.