“Community Unoccupied”
Occupation Occupy
There are a variety of ways to use these terms...
Occupation, as in someones’ principle employment.
Occupation as in possession of land or property, by military force.
There is the state of being occupied and the act of occupying.
we try to occupy Zia’s time by giving her a pacifier.
The Romans occupied Jerusalem during the time of Jesus and John the Baptist.
Occupy Wall Street - residents of many cities around the country have taken up the banner of this effort in their particular context, and here in Albuquerque Native Americans who became involved rejected the name Occupy, as they are a people group born on land called the United States who have experienced foreign occupation. The dominant culture calls those occupiers...settlers.
I sympathize with the Native American sentiment and want us to consider this morning,
ways in which we have been complicit in occupation, and consider the possibility that we are occupied:
Are we occupiers? Have we experienced occupation?
My mother-in-law was with us for six weeks....uhuhuh.. not going to say what you thought I was.
Many friends suggested some sort of occupation.
We were very grateful to have her with us....See it’s a matter of perspective.
we are in the second week of Advent, the time when we anticipate God doing something AMAZING in the world and in our lives...anyone up for that?
Last week, I talked about how important it is, for me anyway, after 7 weeks of leave, to be part of the community of faith -this particular one, and the larger faith community.
In the faith community I am kept awake and aware of being part of something bigger than just myself and my own selfish desires; In community I’m challenged to be part of that great agency of God to proclaim hope in this world.
Along the same lines, this week, we seek to claim God’s call in our lives, God’s occupation of our lives, and in claiming that we are empowered to be part of a divine unoccupy movement.
God affirms the divine call of the faithful again and again throughout history.
This morning’s scripture from Isaiah testifies to one group who have experienced the call: the Israelites -
a captured and weakened people of God subjected to Babylonian rule for over several generations.
And the voice comes: Comfort. Comfort.
This comfort is not due to fabric softener and it is not a type of toilet tissue.
That’s what they called toilet paper in chile. Confort.
It’s not a soft pillow, warm blanket, and a mattress set on your number.
Comfort, God commands. a divine imperative.
You are on the road to freedom, so prepare the way.
Grass withers flowers fade: Recognize your own finality and that your time is limited on earth...
But God’s word stands forever,
So shout it from the mountain tops, and be a messenger of Good news while you have a voice to shout.
You who have been occupied by others rulers, meet THE ruler Yahwah,
mighty, yet a shepherd to his people.
Can I get a witness.
Freedom from bondage. From sin. Freedom for life in God. Comfort.
Comfort but not complacency.
And God’s call echoes down throughout the corridors of history to our generation.
If ever there was a time when God needs God’s people to be the church, the time is now.
And God is calling us...This is our moment of Exodus...where we seek to become unoccupied...
Look at the way greed and consumerism and militarism and egotism and commercialism and all kinds of other isms occupy us! Are we ready to be free!!
But there are problems...Is God really calling me?
Am I really worthy to do the work of God? Do I really know what that work is? And look at all the problems in the world where do I even begin?
And life in community...Sometimes doesn’t always feel very encouraging or empowering.
Look at what goes on when you get a group of people together with any organization, much less a church organization. Where two or more are gathered, there is great potential for disagreement and dissension. Where two or more are gathered, there are projections of personal frustrations onto others,
there is jealousy, competition; and in church, as opposed to secular organizations, where two or more are gathered, there is the potential to pull God into a match of tug-o-war, God is on my side...on this issue.
But, still, we carry on. Something deep down, something inside, something outside, something all around is saying, stick with it. Keep going. This is the call itself.
Occupy, Occupiers, Occupied, Let’s look more closely at how we may be experiencing occupation.
I’m sure it has happened before in other powerful civilizations in history. But, I believe that we who reside in the US, are both occupied and the occupiers at the same time. All of us. None of us escapes this reality of occupier and occupied living within such a great global power. We have military bases and thousands of troups all over the world. According to 2010 documents from the Pentegon:
U.S. military personnel are on the ground in a whopping 148 countries;
the U.S. has 662 overseas bases in 38 foreign countries,
We may not see this as problematic until we simply ask, what if China had a military base in the US? Or Russia? Or Iran?
As Ron Paul noted in a recent Republican primary debate:
"We're under great threat, because we occupy so many countries,"
And at the same time that we are occupiers, Are we not also the occupied.
In what ways might you be occupied?
In what ways does our society experience occupation?
We are occupied by commercialism.
And it starts so early and is unassuming.
Ruby was watching a little children’s program on the spanish channel “VME” and half the commercials that came every five minutes were selling consmetics...targeting the mom?
planting that early seed in my soon to be three year old?
We are occupied by consumerism.
We wish you a merry christmas... sing the retailers with glee!
and this is a “good” for the economy, according to most analysts.
We are occupied by an insatiable hunger for power to dominate. We must be right. We must exert our will. And most of the time, this desire comes from our own sense of inadequacy.
And then I reduce it even further:
I’m Occupied by others perceptions of me
I’m Occupied by fear of failure, fear of displeasing....fear of not being good enough.
Which is why John the Baptizer’s message is just as, if not more important today than it was 2000 years ago. Repent from sin. Sin, an unpopular term in many circles. It makes people feel bad. But, the truth that John was proclaiming was that sin refers to our own captivity. Our own bondage.
Oh that we would be a free people. O that we would be unoccupied.
God wants us to experience comfort,
so that we can stand up for truth and freedom.
I’m interested in being part of an unoccupy movement...
but I don’t really know how to get there. How do I become an unoccupier and an unoccupied?
Can you do me a favor and take home two questions for me and let me know what you think?
And maybe we can apply it to practices in the life of this congregation.
How do I become free from the occupation that I am part of?
How do I become free from the ways that I am occupied?
Maybe a little inspiration, motivation, and ecouragement will empower me at this point.
My uncle has really taken to sending forwards...sometimes three or four a day can come into my inbox. And at one point he sent an email to the family because no one was responding to his forwards...if you don’t want me to send you emails don’t respond to this email!! Your silence is deafening!!
I responded..and sometimes when I take the time, I get some good ones.
Here is an example, that I hope will really bring home the importance of our experiencing comfort, so that we can be witnesses to the good news of God for this world. The freedom that God desires for all of us.
our deepest fear...1:30 - 3:30
this is holy work to claim Gods commandment that we take comfort. it doesnt just help us. it helps the world.
This Advent, we claim a God who commands, enables, and becomes present once again to us.
There is great joy in knowing God has called you...
Comfort. Comfort o my people.
prepare the way
Shout from the mountains, messengers of Good news.
Your light must shine.