World AIDS Day and the Church

December 1 is World AIDS Day.  This year the international day of remembrance of those whose lives have been changed and, too often, lost marks the beginning of the fourth decade of the AIDS epidemic.  The march of time has brought with it moments of shame (think Ronald Reagan's refusal to even say AIDS) and moments of triumph (medical breakthrough after breakthrough). 

World AIDS Day is a day that transcends any nation or religious community.  It is owned by humanity as a whole.  Nonetheless, it is worthwhile to consider what World AIDS Day can say to and through the church.

At its heart, World AIDS Day reflects three important theological values of the church: care for neighbor, grace for broken souls and the power of hope in tomorrow.

Care for neighbor is what happens every time a caring hand, a sympathetic ear, a compassionate embrace or a word of compassion is shared.  AIDS is not someone else's disease.  It is humanity's.  Like every health crisis that impacts the well-being of the children of God, when one is impacted we all are.  As Dr. King said, we are all gathered in a web of mutuality.  Unlike so many opportunistic health crises, AIDS has impacted the full cross-section of humankind from Hollywood stars and power brokers to African villagers and Haitian city dwellers.  AIDS underscores that every one of God's children is my neighbor.  On World AIDS Day, we recall that Christ's call to care does not stop at the corner of the street but in every corner of the world.

Grace for broken souls is the grace Christ brings to the world.   The World AIDS Campaign motto for 2011-2015 is "Getting to Zero."  The goal is not only to get to zero new infections but to achieve zero discrimination toward those who are living with HIV and AIDS.  Every time discrimination is set aside and a heart is opened, it is grace that rushes in to fill it.  On World AIDS Day, we recall that Christ's grace has the power to open the most closed mind and soften the hardest heart.

The power of hope for tomorrow is what continues to sustain the millions of men and women who live with HIV and AIDS.  It compels us all to continually strive toward the promise of God's tomorrow.  Recall the Psalmists words.  The lament, "my God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?" in Psalm 22 is followed by the affirmation that, "The Lord is my Shepherd.  I shall not want."  On World AIDS Day, we recall that God's love and God's care do not abandon us ever; not today, not tomorrow, not ever.

As I join others from my community to read the names of those who have lost their lives in this epidemic, I will pray that this World AIDS Day will remind the church of our responsibility to our neighbors, the power of Christ's grace and the promise of God's tomorrow.

Dignity and Deals

“People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can't pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as ''exotic'' but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.”

Former Vice-President and Senator Hubert Humphrey said these words almost half a century ago as the last remnants of 19^th century colonialism were giving way to 20^th century movements for independence.  In the decades following WWII, millions of people in the 2/3 world stood up to the powers of the world and claimed self-governance and dignity.

Over the last year, we have seen much of the same thing happen in the events of the Arab Spring.  Millions of people have stood together and cried, “enough!” to forces of oppression and degradation.  At the heart of much of the rhetoric of the Arab Spring has been the importance of liberty as a necessary ingredient of full human dignity.  We as a world have witnessed the power of the many against the few and the refusal of whole nations to continue to submit to systems of enslavement and degradation.  They demand nothing less than their basic human dignity.

What a contrast between the masses of people in Tahrir Square in Cairo risking their lives and putting themselves in harm’s way for a taste of freedom and the masses of American shoppers camping out and putting themselves in harm’s way to get a $2 waffle maker or $100 plasma TV.

At few times in modern history has the juxtaposition between societies been so great.  While millions around the world demand the most basic of human rights and the most elemental level of human dignity, millions of Americans shove and struggle not for their rights but for their waffle irons and TVs.

Personally, I don’t care whether someone wants to get a cheap deal on Black Friday.  If lining up all night to save $50 is your thing, then I say go forth and shop.  The shopping itself is not the problem.  What troubles my soul is the idea that while so many of our neighbors are struggling for their very dignity as children of God, we are so easily distracted by shiny objects with a sale sign over them.

With seeming obliviousness to the difficulties in our own society much less around the world we line up for the sales as though our only concern is more effecient and cost-effective consumption.  Is our freedom and liberty as a people really so perfected that we have nothing more to worry about than how much we pay for an appliance or electronic component? 

In a nation where the division between rich and poor is greater than at any point in human history; where tens of millions of children go to bed hungry; where cities are willing to spend millions to move out protestors whose message they dislike but nothing to house the homeless; are our priorities really where they need to be? 

I am not sure that it is an either/or proposition in the end.  It may very well be possible to be a saavy shopper without becoming so distracted by consumption that you forget the world around.  The trouble comes when saving money blinds our eyes and our souls to the world and the very real needs in it.  A good deal is a good thing until it demands of us so much of our time and energy that we become enslaved to the very desire for the deal and, in our enslavement, robbed of our dignity.

So line up for the waffle irons and TVs and other super-duper deals, but while you wait to save a few dollars take a moment and consider what this system of consumption and consumerism and human commodification is doing to your and your neighbor’s dignity. 

In other words: what does it profit a person to gain a cheap waffle iron but lose their God given dignity?

The Gospel and the 99%

“Take care!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”  Luke 12:15

A holy thing is happening across America today.  Men and women; old and young; religious and irreligious, people are coming together in a chorus of protest against the culture of greed and avarice that dominates American society.  Braving the brutality of the police, the indifference of their neighbors, the scorn of the media and the nearly unstoppable tide of American culture, they are taking a stand.  Their motivations may not all be rooted in the message of Jesus Christ, but what is happening is an embodiment of the gospel.  It is a holy thing.

Christ knew that perhaps the greatest violence that can be committed against a people is to keep them trapped in poverty.   Poverty imprisons not only the body but the soul.  Unfair wages, the concentration of wealth and high unemployment keep the vast majority of people in this nation dependent on a very few.  The economic freedom of the 99% is controlled by the whims and wills of the 1%.   The net result is that in the wealthiest nation the world has ever known, 49 million people live in poverty and 16 million of those are children. 

We have more than enough wealth and resources to feed and house every man, woman and child in this nation but, like the wealthy farmer in Jesus’ parable; we hoard and store our surplus just in case.  Rather than feed the hungry in front of us today, we hedge our bets against our own hunger tomorrow. 

The greed that is so endemic in our culture is more violent than any weapon.

The violence does not stop with the poor, however.  Like any unjust system, the violent consequences of our unjust economic system imprison not only the poor but the rich as well.   When life becomes about the protection of wealth and possessions, we become prisoners to them.  The fear and anxiety of loss overtake our souls and rob us of the fullness of life.  Material self-satisfaction may satiate us in the moment, but we will be hungry again an hour later.

The movement of the 99% against the economic enslavement of our culture is a holy movement.  It is an affirmation that the life and freedom, economic as well as political, of every child of God must be at the heart of any just system.  It is a declaration that despite the dominance of injustice in our midst, there is yet a confidence in God's justice in the world. 

Until we are freed from the violence of poverty in our culture, we will remain spiritually imprisoned as a people.  And God in Christ yearns as we do for our freedom.

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Sell your possessions, and give alms.  Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Luke 12:32-34