Dismantling empire

 

Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
August 29, 2021

Throughout human history, what is defined as sacred and what is deemed profane has changed, in essence, proving that what is sacred and what is profane is not a simple fixed binary but more like moving overlapping circles. Every generation gets to define for itself what is sacred, what is profane. As an example, since the 1960’s we have been evolving toward a more sex-positive culture and ethic. Though the United States hasn’t progressed as far, in many other countries sex work is professional labor and is treated as such, with regulations, a sizable income, and health and safety standards and protections. We may balk at some people making hundreds of thousands of dollars with their bodies, but then don’t professional athletes do the same?



Purity laws or rules, which were initiated to distinguish one group from another, have become purity tests. If we think of the body as a temple, as created in the image of the divine, as the vessel that will carry us through our lives, then it is appropriate to consider what is good or healthy to put into our bodies. Muslims abstain from alcohol, Hindus do not consume beef, Seventh Day Adventists are vegetarians, and Orthodox Jews keep kosher, a host of religious dietary laws. Some folx choose to be vegans for health reasons or because of the environmental effects of our current food production system. Some people give up or refrain from drinking or smoking or caffeine. And some are of the mind of “everything in moderation”.

The trouble begins when we try to enforce rituals and habits as morality and use them to exclude others from community and connection. When Jesus confronted the Pharisees about his disciples’ unwashed hands, he was not objecting to the purity laws of Judaism but to the legalism with which they were being applied.

The gospel of Mark, indeed all of the early Christian writings included a non-Jewish audience. By this reckoning, Jesus was expanding what it means to be inclusive. He was called a glutton and a drunkard because of who he hung out with. In the movie Agnes of God, two of the main characters, one of them a nun, let down their guard and share a smoke together, pondering if Jesus and the disciples would’ve partaken occasionally, humorously wondering which cigarette brands and forms of smoking they would they have chosen. Even though we have no evidence of Jesus having been married or not, we have relegated him to celibacy and what we deem as sexual purity despite the strong cultural expectation of marriage in his time.



The danger is when we then weaponize this supposed morality to control and shame people. Judging people based on their weight. Dress codes aimed at young women. Eroding the right to a safe and legal abortion. Young men 18-25, citizens and immigrants living in the U.S., required to register for selective service. Laws and policies to deny healthcare and bathrooms to trans and gender non-conforming folk. Laws and gerrymandering that restrict voting access to anyone who isn’t White. School boards deciding to do away with free lunches. Evicting people in the middle of a pandemic. The evil that Jesus says defiles the human heart is being written into the very fabric of our body politic.

One of the marks of empire is the control of human bodies that are other than those who control empire. Even though the 117th Congress is the most diverse in history, 77% of Congress is White and 74% members of Congress are male, even though roughly 58% of the US population identifies as White and 50.8% identifies as female, according to the US Census Bureau. The median age of Congress members is 60, which is higher than the country’s median age of 38, again from the Census Bureau. A record number of 11 members of Congress or 2% identify as LGBTQ compared to 5.6% of the US population, according to a Gallup poll. 48% of representatives and senators have a net worth of at least $1 million compared to between 5% and 12% of the general population.



I don’t know about you, but I am feeling very uncomfortable in the face of those facts. I’m closer to 60 than I am to 38, I’m White, cisgender, heterosexual, and because I am married, my net worth is at least $1 million. I am one of the ruling elite or at the very least, one who benefits from the status quo. I have no desire to control or shame anyone else’s body and yet am I willing to pay enough taxes so that healthcare and housing are guaranteed as human rights? If I am not actively dismantling empire (hint: the Bible is anti-empire), at the least I am only bandaging those wounded by it as I comfortably live in it.

Ironically, the Church owes its life to empire, having joined hands with it in the 4th century with probably both sincere and political motivations on both sides. Since then, Christianity has colonized every continent and almost every country. Only in the last forty years or so has Christendom been coming to its end.



Jesus spoke of what defiles or dishonors a person but what defiles a nation like denial? We wish we could wash our hands of the massacre and genocide of the indigenous peoples who first lived on this land. We wish we could wash our hands of almost three centuries of the enslavement of Black and brown people. We wish we could wash our hands of the internment of Japanese citizens. We wish we could wash our hands of homophobia and the AIDS crisis. We wish we could wash our hands of climate change. We wish we could wash our hands of Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan. We use patriotism and authority as a purity test. We’ve become so used to submitting our bodies to empire, to authority and control, and we are told we are moral for doing so, that when we are asked to protect each other with a vaccine and wearing a mask, an unsafe number of people think they have the right to resist public health. Because not all bodies matter.



And so today, what is the good news we share as Church, which is the very definition of evangelism? Evangelism was how Christianity colonized the world: Jesus died to save you from hell. And that colonization made hell on earth for millions of people and their descendants. What is the good news now? I used to think the good news was this: “you are not alone”, which is inclusion. Inclusion is important, it can be healing, but it’s not enough. Inclusion doesn’t put food on the table, it doesn’t pay the rent and your student loan debt, it doesn’t pay for your healthcare, your childcare, it doesn’t always honor and value the whole person. Inclusion doesn’t get to the heart of another’s pain. The really good news is this: Just as Jesus and his disciples disrupted their lives for the kindom of God, I am willing to disrupt my life for you, which is justice and liberation, which is the dismantling of empire, the turning of the very tables we sit at.

In our benediction song we will sing these words, “And justice will come when it is embodied in us.” It’s up to us to make them more than just words. I don’t know how we will do this, but it will mean giving up control. Let’s figure it out together, Church. God help us, may it be so.

Benediction – enfleshed.com

Go forth in confidence, beloveds,
for you belong; all parts of you belong.
No one can make the table of God un-set for you,
Nothing can make the Spirit’s arms un-opened to you,
No permutation of you is anything but blessed.
Resisting every force that demeans us and others,
may we, as a people, feel our belovedness deep in our bones,
that all beings might feel their True Selves
in the light of our compassionate gaze.