Little Intifadas

  A sermon based on 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 and Matthew 22:15-22*

  *Please note that in referring to Intifada, I am referring to the original  non-violent intent of the Palestinian Intifada.  I do NOT advocate  violence–as a Christian and a Mennonite a do not advocate violence of  any kind.  

  In 1987, the first intifada began in Israel and Palestine.  I’m not an      expert on this (and I”m sure I’ll be corrected if I get it wrong), but this    is how I understand it, in very basic terms….

The intifada began in December of 1987 in a refugee camp in Gaza.    Events were escelating between Israelis and Palestinians and finally came to a head when an Israeli military vehicle hit a Palestinian car, killing four Palestinians.

The result was four years of civil disobedience and economic boycotts.  Palestinians refused to work on settlements, refused to pay taxes, and refused to drive cars that had Israeli license plates.  Some Palestinians sadly resorted to throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers.  The result of the non-violent resistant was a tentative peace through the Madrid conference in 1991, and the Oslo Accords in 1993, in which the Palestinian Authority was born, among other things.

The popular meaning of intifada is “uprising”, but a literal translation of the Arabic word means “shaking off.”  The Palestinians shook off the authority of the Israeli government in their lives–they essentially said in their nonviolent actions–I refuse to acknowledge your power over me.  I shake off any authority you may have in my life.

We see all sorts of versions of intifadas in our American history–Rosa parks and the bus boycott was also a shaking off–Rosa Parks and other African Americans refused to follow the law that required that they sit in the back of the bus.  They shook off that law, by refusing its power over them.  They’d sooner walk than adhere to that racist, unjust law.

Ferguson arrests were their own form of intifada or “shaking off”.  After the murder of Michael Brown, people in Ferguson and all over the nation attempted to shake off our racist laws and treatment of people of color.  This week, several pastors from all over the country gathered together to call the civil authorities of Ferguson to repentance.

Two hundred clergy–including Cornel West and Jim Wallis–gathered in a church in Ferguson to confess their part in perpetuating a broken system, then they marched to the police headquarters.  They were blocked from entering, but the clergy, one by one, went forward to the police officers who were blocking their path and began to speak quietly and personally to them face to face, asking them to become part of repentance.

This is what Jim Wallis of Sojourners magazine wrote about his experience:  “In all my previous arrests for peace or justice, I had never asked a police officer to join in repentance. My officer was a 36-year veteran of the police force. We got to talking. He admitted he was a Christian too and said these last two months have been the hardest time he’s ever had in his almost four decades of service. “I didn’t want it to end like this,” he told me. He so hoped this could all “end” and end “peacefully.” I said that would take a lot of big changes. He nodded his head.”

The clergy then asked to see the Ferguson Chief of Police and began to move forward to do so. That’s when they were arrested, and spent five hours in holding.”

All of these acts–in Palestine, in Ferguson, in the south during civil rights–are intifadas of one kind of another.  They were a shaking off–they are a way of saying, “The laws you uphold are unjust, and we will not honor their power.

All of these things are inherently political acts in that they impact the way government is run, and they say something about the rules in place.  But it is more than political–it is the way of saying, the rules of state do not apply because they are unjust.

Believe it or not this is what Paul is beginning to talk about in I Thessalonians.  The book of I Thessalonians, as described by Will O’Brien, is an intifada against the empire.  It’s a shaking off of the empire–it’s making a case for the church in Thesselonica to turn away from the Roman empire, away from the system in which they were so deeply entrenched.  Paul called this church to continue to turn away from idols, from the empire of idolatry and from the empirical religious system.

In this epistle, Paul uses the language of empire–even in these few brief verses of greeting.  The church of Thesselonica, would have understood what Paul was saying when he was referring to idols–he was talking about the Roman gods that they were asked to pay homage to.  And when Paul describes the church as “waiting for God’s son from heaven,” they would have understood the contrast of the Roman Son of God, the child of Julius Ceasar, versus Jesus, the son of God.  They would have understood that the coming wrath referred to the ramifications for turning from Rome, and towards the God of Israel.

Paul is calling the church to turn away from Rome and it’s unjust laws.  They are to act as if they have no power over them.

This is risky business.  This is life and death.  This is why Jesus was killed.  This is why the early church suffered.  The church in Thesselonica adheres to a higher law.

We often spiritualize the word of Paul, but here he makes a dig at the empire, and calls the church to continue to turn away from Rome and towards God, to follow the way of Jesus, not the ways of Caesar.

This is what Jesus is talking about in our gospel text today.  Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but give to God what belongs to God.

And what belongs to God?  All of this!  The fullness of the earth, and everything in it.  Our hearts, our minds, our bodies, our loved ones, our lives.  Our resource, our time, our energy, our passion.  The coin may contain the image of the empire, but all of this belongs to God.

The system–though we are bound up in it–will never save us.  The system in which we live is in favor of the privileged and opposed to the oppressed.  The system in which we are enmeshed is something we must confess, speak out against, resist, and turn away from, shake off.

So, give to the empire what rightfully belongs to the empire–whatever you think that may be–but give to God what belongs to God.  This is no easy task.  I do not say this lightly.  I say this filled with fear for what this means for me, for my security and for own comfort.

This is where discipleship gets real.

Now, before you think I’ve gone completely off the deep end, I want to suggest a couple little intifadas to you that could be possible right here, right now.

Our own intifadas against the empire are things like:

–Teaching our children the way of peace, when they are living in a world of violence.
–Choosing to see people as God’s beloved, when we are told that they are issues.
–Looking out for others in a world that tells us that we only need to be concerned about our own needs.
–It’s knowing our neighbors and loving them, even when we are tempted to close our doors and shutter our windows.
–And yeah, sometimes it’s getting arrested so that we can name the injustice our our system, and call our system to repentance.

Some of these acts feel more political than others, but all of them are a turn from the idols of this age, and toward the God of love.

God, give us the courage to speak out against the injustice of our world, in big and small ways, as we face the consequences of our actions together with your Spirit to guide us, and hold us up.  AMEN.