The Catholic Churches of this area have started a mortgage counseling program. A Church of God in Christ in Detroit has started Faith Community Mortgage Company, a non profit exactly like what we have started with our school 82nd Street Academics. We are living in a time when both the middle class and those in poverty are suffering. The church of Jesus Christ has always understood its mission as both proclamation and living out of the gospel. The United Methodist Church has 75 colleges and countless nursing homes, hospitals, community centers, immigration offices, drug treatment programs and other programs to help.

 Even our own school, 82nd Street Academics, came about in response to community need. When Jackson Heights was a controlled community, you could not buy or rent a co-op if you had children. The explosion of children later caught the city unprepared as there were not enough schools. We still only have the violence troubled Newtown High School now as the zone high school for this area. Community Church works with 500 children now because of community need.

 Tragically, many needs in our current moment are caused by oppression. The people at the top have steadily gotten more wealthy in the last 10 years. Rising prices may be the challenge that oppression is bringing to you. Perhaps you are caught in a mortgage bind. Oppression has other sources as well. Family violence, poor parenting, discrimination – these are active evil forces in our society. As in the Book of Job, the Devil still roams the land.

 We’re looking at a scripture today that empowers people for the challenge ahead. If you have negative forces pushing you, bills to worry about, stress in your family, I pray that after this service you will feel stronger and better equipped for the mountains you are climbing.

 The passage in Isaiah shows what God wants for your life and a key condition for you to obtain it. The first part of this chapter is beautiful and elegant. I never grow weary of imagining what God plans for the earth. I don’t know if anybody here wished they were richer as a child. My family was poorer than many of the kids I went to school with and it was more apparent at Christmas. I still remember one girl who could ask for $50 in toys at Christmas and my limit was $30. My consolation was the Sears Christmas Catalog. It arrived by mail in early Fall and the toy section was a treasure trove of delight. I read the descriptions carefully and noted even the smallest differences since they often had variations on the same toys for different prices. I never got tired of dreaming. Even now, I enjoy looking at a catalog.

 The same is true for the new Kingdom. Its just a place of delight where hunger is gone, credit card bills will be payable, there will be more support in trials, illness and failing bodies will be replaced by the energy of youth and the wisdom of age. The first part of the chapter is like the Sears catalog for the Christian, it lays out what we can expect and what to day dream about. This passage is repeated in Jesus first sermon in Luke 4:18.

 God knows what is going on in your life right now. And the Lord promises not to falter or be discouraged until you participate fully in the vision of the new kingdom. What does salvation include? Remember in the seven stories of the gospel which you can find on the web site, you should expect personal peace with God, no more self oppression. You should expect a meaningful task because God created you as a very special person. You should expect justice, to be treated fairly and have enough resources to thrive and have a family. You should expect a Christian community in the church and a family that functions. You should have hope with the promise of eternal life. You should expect joy – more than peace or sufficiency, but a sense of glory and happiness through the resurrection and finally a sense that God understands you because of Christ coming in human form to know us.

 This is why we present our faith to others. And we need to dream more about it ourselves.

 The condition that makes this move forward is speaking out. For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth,
I cry out, I gasp and pant. Finally, with the chance to respond, God’s response is profound and powerful; sweeping away all that might stand in the way of the people, bringing them into a place of smooth travel, light from their darkness, where they will no longer seem forsaken.

 Walter Brueggemann has spoken about recovery from violence. As people try to rebuild lives where Americans have tortured them for information, they have discovered that the power of speech is incredibly healing. It hurts my heart to know that my tax dollars have supported the reign of evil instead of the coming of the gospel. God has created speech as more than communication. Speech changes things. Speech changes you and me. A social worker said recently that family violence only changes when people start to speak about it instead of acting it out. Brueggemann says that It is a Jewish

understanding that an adequate relationship with God permits and requires a

human voice that will speak out against every wrong perpetrated either on

earth or by heaven. He quotes other sources that I have not yet read such as Elaine Scarry. She writes that when governments or movements torture people they never do it in order to obtain information. They do it to unmake persons so that they cease to exist as identifiable agents. The most remarkable thing about Scarry's book is that the second half, partly informed by the Bible and partly informed by Marx, claims that the only counter to torture is speech. As torture unmakes persons, so speech makes persons.

 Carol Gilligan, in a series of studies beginning, as you know, with In a Different Voice, has now documented the way in which twelve-year-old, thirteen-year-old, and fourteen-year-old girls grow silent because they have figured out that in a male world the only safe role is to cover over your competence and withdraw and be silent.

 While you are silent, you are a victim. When you speak, you start to recover the image of God placed on you in your creation. If you are oppressed by economic conditions, speak. If you are oppressed by family violence, find a safe place to speak. If you are struggling with discrimination at work, find a way to speak. Speech is what God uses in response to the condition of Israel in the time of Isaiah.

 You may not feel that comfortable with speech. We are taught to be quiet about our oppression. I can’t figure out why people are not in the streets when we see major presidents of companies get millions of dollars at a time when the deficits from war are being paid at the gasoline pump and grocery store. We can fund Iraq for 100 years and we can’t save Social Security. People are trained to be silent. You are encouraged to feel sympathy for your oppressor. You are encouraged to blame yourself.

 And most of us are ashamed because we know that we have failed ourselves. Some of the wounds have been self inflicted.

 Now our silence takes more than one form. Many of us simply do not speak about our oppression. If you are suffering from immigration troubles, it is very important to speak only in safe places. That is true of domestic violence as well.

 Silence can also be created by too much speech. Some people speak all the time, but always about topics that draw attention away from their real oppression. A few of us need to learn silence, so that God can direct us to speak about the areas of life that most need healing.

 Community Church developed a health team last fall and you have heard about the need for adult small groups. We are having a training to start those groups on June 8. The training will be intense and if you go further, there will be regular supervision and support for small group leaders.

 I want these small groups to be more than Bible studies. They should be grounded in Scripture, but I hope that some of these are topical and give you chances to name your oppression and share with others who are struggling and empower each other through speech and through prayer. I already hear that someone has asked for training on leading a group for people who need a job. Why not a group for teen age and college women on sex discrimination and how to succeed? Why not a group for those who are struggling economically and want to share strategies on how to bring home more money? What about a group for gay people on religious discrimination? What about a group for victims of violence? What about a group for people who get discouraged by aging?

 I am praying that God is speaking to people here, raising you up as leaders and facilitators so that our congregation finds more liberation. We don’t just dream about the new kingdom, we use speech in safe ways to get to the new kingdom.

 We have a great opportunity, but it takes leadership. Some of you have gifts of leadership that are a secret to the rest of us. If I knew that you could do it, I would be after you as soon as this service ends. But you know you can do it and I pray that you will accept this request as one from the heart of God.

 

May 18, 2008