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John Shellito
Rollins Sermon: April 10, 2008
I used to believe in the market.
In my senior year, one of my college applications asked what I would do with
a “free year”, one where I could do anything I wanted. Thinking I was a smart
idealist, I said I would get a job in finance, making $100,000 a year, so I
could live on $20,000 and then hire 4 other enthusiastic young college
graduates at $20,000 each so that they do four times more altruistic work than
I could do alone. Very simple mathematics, I thought. The other students might
even be better suited to the idealistic work than me, leading to further gains
in efficiency. What would the work be? I supposed it might be improving
agricultural technology in Africa or starting an orphanage and vocational
school similar to the one my hometown church still supports in Honduras--
direct social service to improve the lives of those who are powerless and
hungry.
And yet, here I am, 5 years later, and I am no longer vying for a job that
will pay well or even for a job where I would do direct social service. I have
opted out of both the pre-wealth track and its slightly more altruistic
variant, the pre-med track. I am left with a chemistry major, an economics
major, and a whole lot of uncertainty.
I struggle with the question of whether the church is really called to
continue applying small band-aids to the massive numbers of poor and
malnourished individuals that are disenfranchised by our current economic
system. As long as the church keeps itself preoccupied with constantly picking
up the pieces left by the large corporations of the world, it will be unable to
engage with the institutions that have created the problems in the first
place.
Yet doing political advocacy alone doesn’t seem to be the answer either.
Just two weeks ago, I turned down one of those idealistic jobs that our
competitive society approves of as a secular yet altruistic occupation after
graduation. I could have been a campus organizer for the U.S. Public Interest
Research Group, writing letters to senators about climate change, working to
increase youth voter registration, fighting against unjust textbook pricing
schemes and campaigning against hunger and homelessness. But I refused it,
because it was not what I feel called to do—somehow it felt to hierarchical,
too established, and too commoditized.
Sadly, I do not see the solution as a political one: unless there is a
drastic change in campaign finance laws, or the structures supporting our
current political system are changed, politicians will forever compromise,
forever sit on a fence smack dab in the middle of U.S. opinion, balanced
between what is good for those with little money and what is good for those
with lots of money. No matter how many letters are sent, I feel like 98% of the
secular U.S. is neatly and firmly seated on a train going in the wrong
direction—towards consumerism and away from stewardship.
Our entire economic system makes very little account for future ecological
costs, and we are exporting this system to the rest of the world at an amazing
rate. Jim Merkel’s choice to live on $5,000 a year, the average income on
earth, is inspiring, but he is not an example that anyone will ever model on a
large scale, because if he ever went on TV he would become just another
entertainment commodity. And it is hard for others to realistically follow his
lead if he becomes a performance and not a person. Our culture is one of
immediate gratification—everyone wants to package up an experience so that it
can be canned and sold. Instead of worshiping God, and seeking to love him over
the course of our whole life, I feel like our culture idolizes the innocence
and beauty of youth, even as it destroys those very same qualities. Perhaps the
saddest part about this for me is that our grandchildren will pay the price for
our irresponsibility in ignoring the needs of the natural world.
I believe God draws us to be stewards, but how are we to hear his voice if
we are constantly bombarded with advertisements that turn our desires into
commodities? How are we to find peace within ourselves if we are
constantly and literally bombarding others for fear that we might be bombed
ourselves? As long as I watch a commercial, I am allowing my values to be
warped into something that serves the interests of a large corporation, instead
of God, my community, or my community’s children.
But if I believe we are called to avoid commercials, what are we called to
confront? What are we called to do? I think that rather than approaching
social justice within a culture of achievement, we need to approach it within a
culture of equality. There is need for loving-kindness, for understanding, for
breaking bread with others, and for sharing our own hopes and dreams with
others.
I heard one of the most inspiring sermons I have ever heard this past
Sunday. I am going to pass on what I heard from father Atkins, a man who
endured torture in Latin America for his commitment to liberation theology and
his stance against the current economic system.
His sermon was on Luke 24: 13-35, about the two strangers who unexpectedly
met with the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus— in the meeting, Jesus enacted
the two crucial parts of any worship—interpretation of scripture, and the
breaking of the bread. However, it wasn’t until they shared food together and
became companions that they recognized the stranger as Jesus. Companion comes
from the two Latin words for “with bread”: “com” for “with” and “pan” for
“bread”. Companions are those who share bread together.
And what is the appropriate response to seeing the risen Lord? It is a
180 degree turn, from running away in fear, to returning with hope and joy to
witness to others about the Risen Lord. Father Atkins talked about how the real
location of Emmaus is unknown today, but to him, Emmaus is everywhere where
people are sharing bread with a stranger. The Risen Lord is anywhere
where people are becoming companions across boundaries of race, class, gender,
sexuality, and even belief. Because it is in sharing of food that the risen
Lord becomes apparent. It was in sharing bread with impoverished workers in
Honduras that Father Atkins first truly heard his call to do justice. Bishop
Gene Robinson talked about how easy and fun it is to be an admirer of Jesus,
but also how it is much harder to be his disciple. We are not called to be
admirers but disciples, and this is a calling that involves much more
commitment and sacrifice.
Ruby Sales also came to Dartmouth recently. At 16, Ms. Sales was pushed out
of the way of a deputy sheriff’s shotgun shot by Jonathan Daniels, a seminarian
at the time. He had taken the shot that had been meant for her. Jonathan
Daniels is now recognized in the Anglican communion as a civil rights martyr,
but at the time, he was just another protester working to register black voters
and confront the hatred and fear of white supremacists with love. Even today,
Ms. Sales is still doing activism around racism in the current prison
system.
However, her inspiring request to me was that I help imagine a different
youth culture, an alternative to the current culture that she saw as
dehumanizing, misogynist, and consumptive. And for me, I think the culture I
see and hope for is already happening in several feeble and separated ways
right here at Dartmouth—for me, the new culture is born out of the wilderness,
out of the Outing Club’s willingness to get outside and go to contra-dancing on
Saturday night because there is beauty in being deliberately old-fashioned. It
is tied to the loving community I have found at the Edge, and the many
questions and missteps taken in community as we seek to understand what Jesus’s
call might look like today. It involves time for prayer and reflection, as well
as time for listening to one another. I believe it is also connected to the
small but growing community currently organizing around climate change—there
were many great Sierra Club folks doing activism during the New Hampshire
primaries in Manchester and Concord, and they would be happy to have others
join them. This is my alternative culture, and although I still feel like it is
lost and confused in many ways, I hope to keep giving it space to grow. I feel
inspired by Robert Pirsig’s words in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance:
“"What’s new?" is an interesting and broadening eternal question, but one
which, if pursued exclusively, results only in an endless parade of trivia and
fashion, the silt of tomorrow. I would like, instead, to be concerned with the
question "What is best?," a question which cuts deeply rather than broadly, a
question whose answers tend to move the silt downstream. There are eras of
human history in which the channels of thought have been too deeply cut and no
change was possible, and nothing new ever happened, and "best" was a matter of
dogma, but that is not the situation now. Now the stream of our common
consciousness seems to be obliterating its own banks, losing its central
direction and purpose, flooding the lowlands, disconnecting and isolating the
highlands and to no particular purpose other than the wasteful fulfillment of
its own internal momentum. Some channel deepening seems called for.”
I believe that I desperately need God’s love, and that need to love God with
all my heart and soul, loving him above all else. Looking back, I realize that
I have let my selfishness and pride lead me to a place where I was so caught up
in fear, panic, and short term goals that I was unable to adequately care for
myself. The inexorable speed of Dartmouth prevented me from properly seeing the
massive problems with U.S. culture and my own role in perpetuating them.
In the course of competing, accomplishing, resume-building, and consuming, I
closed myself off to my emotions and became a commodity myself. Our system
buying and selling had become so ingrained that I felt like I needed to be
something of value to others in order to have inherent value myself.
I believe I cannot stress enough how much advertisements have invaded our
consciousness and made us believe untruths about ourselves, our society and our
world. Perhaps I received more of this than usual as an Economics major, but I
feel that buying and selling has been accepted too completely as a means of
explaining the world and people’s well-being. Problems arise when progress is
seen as more toys, larger houses, and more travel, instead of more love.
We should start thinking that something is wrong when sex and physical
attraction become confused with intimacy and caring for another. In place of
peace and acceptance of our mortality there is fear that death might come to
“too soon” to us or our kin. I believe we are going down the wrong path if we
think that bombing others first will lead to any kind of certainty or
reassurance that we won’t be killed ourselves.
A series of fearful responses to dramatized stimuli is not any kind of life
at all. I can feel myself becoming more nervous every time I sit down to watch
the evening news, and all of the events on the screen have already happened—I
have absolutely no ability to change them. In some ways, I think we can be
enslaved more effectively by our own irrational fears than by any outward
shackle or cage.
I find this to be a particularly challenging topic because I believe a
better world is possible. I believe Jesus’ Good News is that there is
possibility for greater joy, hope, and love when we take the time to respect
each other and honor our interconnectedness. When I think about what really
makes me deeply joyful, I realize that I value caring relationships, not status
or possessions. I value sharing food with others, not just a tasty meal. I
value working towards goals that challenge me, not evading responsibility. I
believe it is in striving to live out our dreams and create something better
that we all are most loving, most present, and most fully alive.
Thank you.
Luke 24:13-35
That very day, the first day of the week, two of the disciples were going to
a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with
each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking
and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were
kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are you discussing with
each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. Then one of
them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in
Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these
days?" He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of
Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the
people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned
to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem
Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things
took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the
tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came
back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he
was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as
the women had said; but they did not see him." Then he said to them, "Oh, how
foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have
declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and
then enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he
interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they
came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were
going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is
almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with
them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it,
and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and
he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Were not our hearts
burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening
the scriptures to us?" That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem;
and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were
saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" Then they
told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in
the breaking of the bread.
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