Growing the Light: Advent Reflections on Farmworker Justice — Week 4

This Advent, join unwavering allies of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Rev. Brian McLaren, Rev. Traci Blackmon, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis in preparing to grow the light of farmworker justice throughout the new year. The season of Advent draws us into a time of anticipation and preparation with all who long for release from oppression. Through the Fair Food Program (FFP), the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, together with student and faith allies, kindles the flame of justice for farmworkers in the tomato fields of Immokalee and now on farms across seven states.

Singing Out God’s Justice by Liz Theoharis

The Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis is an ordained minister with the Presbyterian Church, the director of the Kairos Center for Rights, Religions, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and supporter of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW).

Luke 1:46-55

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

This year in the final week of Advent we read a section from the book of Luke called the Magnificat, also known as the “Song of Mary.” The Magnificat is a hymn sung by Mary when she is visited by the Holy Spirit and told she will give birth to Jesus. Upon receiving this message she visits the home of her cousin Elizabeth who is only months away from giving birth to John the Baptist. Mary enters Elizabeth’s home full of hope, proclaiming that God has,

“looked with favor on the lowliness of God’s servant.”

She goes on to sing of the God that she knows.

“God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;”

“God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”

Mary’s burning faith knows that change is at hand. Radical change. The Spirit of God has helped her to see that the world around her, where the wealthy are exalted and the poor are violated and forgotten, will soon be transformed. The presence and the promise of new life in her body and in that of her cousin’s fills her with faith -  faith that something beautiful and liberative can come even in the darkest places of violence and oppression.  

This song of Mary's has brought strength and vision to the struggles of the poor and dispossessed throughout history. It sings of a God that is in solidarity with the poor and stands with them in the fight for justice. Indeed, Mary’s hymn resonates much with a song that we have used for many years in our work to build a movement to end poverty. That song is called, “The Rich Man’s House.” It tells of the same kind of radical reversal that Mary envisions in the Magnificat.

“Well, I went down to the Rich man’s house.

And I took back what he stole from me.

I took back my dignity. I took back my humanity.

Now he’s under my feet, under my feet, under my feet.

Ain’t no system gonna walk all over me.”

The power of a God who is with us in the struggle against the forces that violate and degrade life is well known to those whose lives are discarded by those forces. God is present in our experiences of hardship, but also in our resistance. God takes sides with the poor and dispossessed, especially when the poor and mistreated unite and organize together. This is the God that is revealed through the fight of farmworkers in the fields of Immokalee and across the world. Their struggles teach us of the deep immorality of our economic and political system, a system that produces unprecedented wealth alongside grinding poverty. It is a system that hides and justifies the exploitation and degradation of millions of lives in this country and across the world. It is the same system that poisons the water in Michigan, forces the unhoused into encampments in Aberdeen, Washington, and compels millions to flee their homes as refugees for this land. But the organizing of farmworkers and others also reveals that the poor have the power to change history. It is when we understand our various struggles as connected in the fight against this system that we can build the power necessary to win.

In these dark times we draw strength from the hope of Mary’s song and from the struggles of the poor across time. We get inspiration from what is happening in Immokalee in the tomato, pepper, and strawberry fields and in other industries being impacted by a mighty group of farmworkers and the larger fair food movement.

Through our study of history and the urgent work of the present, we come to know the cruel injustice of our world, but also the promise of God that tells us that the powerful will be laid low and the poor raised up. We remember the warning of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, that a country that prioritizes policies of violence over “...programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death”. We connect to the spirit that breathes life for all and to our faith that the sadness and pain inflicted by this soul-sick world will be reversed. It will not have the last word.

Prayer -  We believe in a God that identifies with the least of these. A God of love and of abundant life. A God that stands on the side of justice. A God that is with us in the fields of Immokalee, in the tent encampments of the unhoused in Aberdeen, and with the mothers in Flint without clean water. A God that walks with us on the picket lines and in our organizing work. We remember the strength and love of those unsung saints of yesterday and today who resist and lead us all to freedom. Together we lift up our freedom song knowing that the tables will turn and the world will be made right.

An Advent Call to Action:

Be a part of turning the world toward justice on January 28th, 2019 at 7 p.m. at St. Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic Church in NYC!  Join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Brian McLaren, Obery Hendricks, and faith leaders from throughout the NYC metropolitan area for 'On Common Ground,’ a gathering to explore the vital connection of faith and the advancement of human rights. For event details and to RSVP follow this link.

About the Author:

The Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis is an ordained minister with the Presbyterian Church, the director of the Kairos Center for Rights, Religions, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary and the co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. She has spent the past two decades organizing amongst the poor and dispossessed in the United States. She has led hundreds of trainings and bible studies and recently published Always with Us?: What Jesus Really Said about the Poor.

In 2018, alongside the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, Theoharis helped to launch the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Over the coming years, the campaign will organize poor people across race, religion, geography, political party and other so-called lines of division to fuel a moral revolution of values in the country. Theoharis has been recognized for her work with the Poor People’s Campaign by many national bodies, including being named in the 2018 Politico 50.

Growing the Light: Advent Reflections on Farmworker Justice — Week 3

This Advent, join unwavering allies of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Rev. Brian McLaren, Rev. Traci Blackmon, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis in preparing to grow the light of farmworker justice throughout the new year. The season of Advent draws us into a time of anticipation and preparation with all who long for release from oppression. Through the Fair Food Program (FFP), the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, together with student and faith allies, kindles the flame of justice for farmworkers in the tomato fields of Immokalee and now on farms across seven states.

You’re My Joy by Jacqui Lewis

This poetry/song in First Isaiah is so beautiful, even more so in Eugene Peterson’s The Message:

Isaiah 12:2-6 

Dr. Lewis is Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church, a 1,100-member multiracial, welcoming, and inclusive congregation in New York City. She is an activist, preacher, fierce advocate for racial equality, economic justice, LGBTQIA+ equality and longtime supporter of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)

2 “Yes, indeed—God is my salvation.
    I trust, I won’t be afraid.
God—yes God!—is my strength and song,
    best of all, my salvation!”

3-4 Joyfully you’ll pull up buckets of water
    from the wells of salvation.
And as you do it, you’ll say,
    “Give thanks to God.
Call out his name.
    Ask him anything!
Shout to the nations, tell them what he’s done,
    spread the news of his great reputation!

5-6 “Sing praise-songs to God. He’s done it all!
    Let the whole earth know what he’s done!
Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out, O Zion!
    The Greatest lives among you: The Holy of Israel.”

I see the words, “…wells of God’s salvation,” and my heart remembers Jesus blessing those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and the promise that they will be satisfied. I think of drought in the Sea of Galilee, and wildfires in California. I see the scorched and charred Mama Earth, desperate for water that will save her and her creation. I think of children in Flint, Michigan, whose little minds will be forever altered by water that did not save them, but rather poisoned them. I think of some who patrol the border, who find gallons of precious, life-saving water, left there for those who would sojourn to a land flowing with milk and honey, and pour the water onto the desert floor. I think of the water I sometimes waste, standing too long in a deliciously hot shower, singing my favorite Advent Song.

They say you walked around in the flesh,

and if that is true, then I guess

You must understand how it feels,

When your faith is wavering

And you want to pray but can’t find the words to say

Oh, God, what a mess I’ve made of things

And no reversing it, that’s how it seems

But a second chance from you is always guaranteed

And I know they don’t accrue

But you say my child take as many as you need

You’re my joy, you’re my peace

And all my cares I’ll cast on thee

Never take your love away from me

From You’re My Joy by Tituss Burgess for Middle Church Music

No matter what, God never takes her love away from us. Our constant, faithful God is our joy. Isaiah expresses this ever-present, salvific power of God in a song almost identical to the one Moses sang, following the deliverance of the people of Israel from bondage in Egypt:

The Lord is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation. Exodus 15:4

The healing, salvific quality of water is everywhere in the Hebrew scriptures. God provides water for desperate people (Genesis 21:19) and communities (Exodus 17:1-7). Water is a metaphor for salvation (Isaiah 35:6-7 and 55:1; Ezekiel 47:1-12). And water represents the very presence of God with individuals (Psalm 42:1 and 63:1) and with communities (Isaiah 44:3). We who are incubated in a pool of water know its power to heal us.

Moses, Isaiah and my friend Tituss, who penned You’re My Joy (a track on the album, Welcome!) all testify to the way God continues to provide deliverance of God’s people from all that oppresses them. Those on the margins, without power, thirsting for hope can find comfort in this text. Those who toil in the fields, picking the fruit of the earth, backs bent, knees sore. Those paid low wages, exposed to the elements, unsafe at times from predators; it is to these people across human history our God has come. Hearing the cries of the enslaved and the vulnerable; lighting a path home to those outside and cast away. Offering a cool dip of living water to those whose souls are scorched by the hot mess of their circumstances. God is our salvation. This eternal truth is cause for an eruption of joy.

This is our blessed assurance, and this is our prayer.

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, Lord please answer them, do not forsake them, or us. Amen.

Based on Isaiah 41:17 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

An Advent Call to Action:

Give joyfully to fuel the fair food movement! By supporting the Fair Food Program, you are standing shoulder to shoulder with farmworkers who are eradicating sexual violence, forced labor, and many other human rights abuses from U.S. agriculture. Become a Fair Food Sustainer today!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

When she was eight years old, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis hid under her bed as bullets flew in her Chicago neighborhood following the assassination of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In that moment, she felt called to work for racial equality in the United States. Dr. Lewis is Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church, a 1,100-member multiracial, welcoming, and inclusive congregation in New York City. She is an activist, preacher, and fierce advocate for racial equality, economic justice, and LGBTQIA+ equality. Middle Church and Lewis’s activism for these issues has been featured in media such as The Today Show, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Essence, and The Huffington Post.

Growing the Light: Advent Reflections on Farmworker Justice — Week 2

This Advent, join unwavering allies of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Rev. Brian McLaren, Rev. Traci Blackmon, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis in preparing to grow the light of farmworker justice throughout the new year. The season of Advent draws us into a time of anticipation and preparation with all who long for release from oppression. Through the Fair Food Program (FFP), the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, together with student and faith allies, kindles the flame of justice for farmworkers in the tomato fields of Immokalee and now on farms across seven states.

Preparing the Way for Justice by Traci Blackmon

Rev. Traci Blackmon is the Associate General Minister of Justice & Local Church Ministries for The United Church of Christ, Senior Pastor of Christ The King United Church of Christ in Florissant, MO and supporter of The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)

Luke 3:1-6 ESV

“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, of and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Luke’s beginning litany of leaders does more than provide a chronological timeline for John the Baptist’s ministry. By the time the gospel of Luke is written all seven of the imperial, regional, and religious rulers named in today’s text are dead and, with them, many of their oppressive decrees.

This would not have been lost on the readers of Luke’s day, nor should it be lost on us, that any claims to authority these rulers may have made during their reign were not ultimate, and their perceived power was always limited by the authority of God.

This point is further emphasized by the fact that, in spite of the listing of those in perceived power at the time, the writer of Luke follows the roll call with the assertion that the word of God does not come to any of them but rather to John, one who has no position of authority.  It is not imperial leadership that commissions John into service; it is God. Luke 3:1-6 situates John the Baptist as a prophet bridging the gap between the Hebrew prophets of old and Jesus, the promised prophet to come.

Given this connection it is no surprise that the word of God comes to John “in the wilderness.” The wilderness is relevant to the ministry of John. He does not just appear in the wilderness. Scripture suggests that John’s strength and spiritual maturation are actually developed there (Luke 1:80).

In this way, Luke is not presenting this historical context for the sake of locating John and Jesus in world history.  Instead, Luke is reinterpreting for the reader of that day the history of the world in light of the story of John and Jesus.

And what does this mean for us?

It doesn’t take much effort to imagine our world as a wilderness. Scarcity, isolation, inequity, hunger, and violence seem to rule the day. The oppressive pain and injustice around us can make us wonder whether God is still at work. But Luke suggests that this wilderness is precisely where God provides what we need, so that we can now be the ones “crying out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’”

Preparing the Lord’s path means challenging systems and structures that we have institutionalized as normal but that God condemns as oppressive and crooked. It means clearing the path of self-aggrandizement, self-absorption, and greed to make way for a community where all of creation is valued. As we look to the example of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, it means pointing the way to human rights for farmworkers and demanding that corporations follow their lead.

And as we prepare the way, as we continue to clear the path, we will not only believe but - scripture says - we will begin to “see” the salvation of the Lord.

We will the taste the sweetness of fruit harvested by farmworkers laboring in fields free of abuse. We will see the Lord’s salvation in the healing of wounded spirits and the equity of provisions and fair wages for our labor. We will see hope for our future in the dreams of our children.  And the tyrannical power of Empire will be overcome. The way of the Lord is a pathway to peace. Peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is the presence of justice and love. Let us continue to cry out, preparing the way of the Lord.

Prayer - Holy One, In the midst of our wilderness experiences it is often difficult to see our way. The  painful disappointments and injustice of our days can cause us to feel all alone. Help us to see beyond the barrenness of this day to the bounty of your presence. Help us to see your salvation in the midst of our struggles. Our hope resides in you. Prepare us as we prepare the way. In Jesus’ name, Amen

An Advent Call to Action:

Prepare the way for justice by writing holiday cards to Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor urging the fast food giant to join the Fair Food Program in order to ensure the protection of farmworker’s human rights. Click here for inspiring #BoycottWendys Christmas Card examples and details for the action.

About the Author:

Rev. Traci Blackmon is the Associate General Minister of Justice & Local Church Ministries for The United Church of Christ and Senior Pastor of Christ The King United Church of Christ in Florissant, MO. As a featured voice on many regional, national, and international platforms, Rev. Blackmon's life’s work focuses on faith-filled communal resistance to systemic injustice.  Her response in Ferguson to the killing of Michael Brown resulted in national and international recognition, gaining her many audiences spanning the breadth of the White House to the Carter Center to the Vatican. Rev. Blackmon is listed as one of Ebony Magazine’s 2015 Power 100 and she is a featured writer in several Justice publications. Last year Rev. Blackmon was inducted into the Morehouse College MLK Board of Preachers, an honor of great significance to her in the year that marked the 50th Anniversary of Dr. King’s death.