“Our Liberation”

A Sermon Preached by The Rev. Karen Hill

July 12, 2009

Hello, my name is Karen Hill. You may not remember me, as it’s been so long since I’ve worshipped with you, but three years ago you called me as one of your associate pastors. From the end of May till the end of June, I’ve been on the road, traveling with some of you and on behalf of the rest of you.

On one of these trips, I had an epiphany. I realized that as a church, we were quite literally following Jesus’ command to witness to him “in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” In that one month, we engaged in local, national and international mission - we’ve been to Ghost Ranch, to Mississippi and to Guatemala.

There has been a dominant theme this summer – a theme of building community within the kingdom of God. I hope you will see that theme reflected in our readings this morning in Zechariah and Luke. [Luke 6:17-26; Zechariah 8:3-8]

This morning I want to reflect on our travels, share a little bit of what I’ve seen, and invite you to join me, as I struggle to process what, I think, God is teaching us. Let’s begin with the first trip to Guatemala. This was my third trip to the country, and probably my favorite so far. This time we traveled with members of an organization called “Saq B’e.” Saq B’e is a Mayan phrase which means “way of light.” The name says something important about the ministry. Saq b’e is a ministry of the Iglesia Presbiteriana Betel in the city of Quetzaltenango or Xela. It is a church that is very similar to ours – it’s a historic church with a large and beautiful building. Many of its members are well educated professionals; they tend to be middle to upper-middle class. In comparison to their fellow Guatemaltecos, they are wealthy. Hurricane Stan hit Guatemala in 2005; many people were devastated; they lost their homes and their livelihoods. The church reached out, to help and to respond. They formed the organization called Saq B’e. We visited a Mayan community called Tajamulco. To get there we drove down a very frightening, dirt road filled with switch backs. Think Route 66 in the 20s and 30s, and then imagine speeding buses careening down the opposite side. I’ve never seen a quieter, more prayerful group of Presbyterians. We went to Tajamulco to meet with a women’s cooperative – we learned that many of them left their homes before dawn to walk down the mountain to meet us. They were dressed in their finest and they had a wonderful lunch prepared. It was extremely humbling. The women come from eight different villages to work together on community issues. These are communities in which there has been a great deal of conflict and violence, but the women are coming together to study scripture and to work on community development. Saq B’e is providing audio Bibles, so the people can listen to scripture in their own language. It’s from an organization called “Faith Comes by Hearing”, which is based in Albuquerque. The Proclaimer, as the audio Bible is called, looks like a radio, but it has a microchip in it which contains a reading of scripture. It is powered in four ways – a rechargeable battery, a solar panel, a hand crank and an AC adaptor. I think you could use this thing on the moon. We are so used to being bombarded by entertainment from all sides, that it’s hard to imagine how important this audio Bible can be. People in these villages do not have television or computers or iPods; most of them have no electricity; many of them are illiterate, so they cannot read scripture. To hear scripture read dramatically and well, in one’s own language is a gift. It’s a gift to the whole community, because large groups of people come together to listen. We also visited another Saq B’e project in the town of Champerico. They’ve just begun a senior center through one of the local churches. In Guatemala, there are no services for the elderly. Families are responsible for their care. The elderly with no families are left to fend for themselves. There are 15 ancianos or elders who come to the church three days a week for occupational therapy, for basic medical care, for fellowship and for a good meal. Many of them have very little to eat, so this meal is very important. The center director told me that the woman who cooks for them, cooks con carino – with love or affection. We could see that as we watched all of the staff interact with the elders. Wherever we traveled, we noticed a lack of medical care. Saq B’e is doing the best it can – they are training their volunteers in basic first aid, but it’s not enough. Several of the places we visited are so isolated, that there is little to no access to health care. We were blessed to have with us, George Leiby, from our congregation who is a retired medical doctor, and Martha Powers, from Second Pres, who is a retired nurse. Where ever we went, the word would get out that we had a doctor and nurse along and the people came to see them. It was heart-warming and heartbreaking at the same time. No where more than at the senior center. George and Martha set up a little clinic at the table, and all of the seniors lined up. George held their hands and prayed for them, while Martha listened, diagnosed and treated each one, as best she could. I know this was very painful for George and for Martha – all they had to offer these hurting people were band aids and a few aspirin. Many of the people we met had serious injuries or illnesses. But as I watched, I found it beautiful and healing. These are people who are disenfranchised; they are poor and powerless. Some of them have been completely forgotten by the rest of the world, but not by Saq B’e, and in those short meetings, not by us. George and Martha, so patiently and lovingly, sat and listened to every symptom, every ailment and every story. I saw the kingdom of God right there.

Soon after our return from Guatemala, George Leiby and I traveled together again. We went to Jackson, Mississippi with seven of our young people to work with the John Perkins Foundation. John Perkins is a pioneer in the Christian Community Development movement. He was born in the 1930s in rural Mississippi to African-American sharecropping parents. His mother died when he was seven months old from a disease related to malnutrition. JP, as he’s affectionately called, was raised by his grandmother, after his father left the family. He dropped out of school around the 3rd grade and later watched his older brother die at the hands of white policemen. John Perkins escaped Mississippi, by moving to California. In California, his son began to attend Sunday school and begged his father to come to church with him. JP went to church and began to really hear the gospel for the first time. He studied scripture and found a Presbyterian elder who tutored him for several years. God called him into the ministry and back to Mississippi. JP and his family returned to Mendenhall, Mississippi in 1960, and began The Voice of Calvary Ministries. JP lives and preaches a gospel that addresses the whole person – their physical needs as well as their spiritual needs. This led to his involvement with the Civil Rights movement - in registering voters, boycotting segregated businesses and integrating schools. It was extremely dangerous work. In 1970, after a demonstration in Mendenhall, John Perkins and two other organizers were stopped by Mississippi Highway Patrol. They were arrested and jailed. While in jail, they were beaten and tortured by highway patrolmen and police officers. John Perkins nearly lost his life that night. It’s a terrible story. JP fought the state of Mississippi for years trying to get justice – there was none. Then he had to deal with the anger and hatred he felt for his attackers and for white people, in general. As he healed, JP began to consider racism from both sides – he writes, “But after I was beaten by white policemen, I began to see things a little more clearly. I was able to see the needs of white people and what racism was doing to them. You see, I had gotten set to the fact that the sickness of racism had affected the black community in a way that kept them from functioning as a healthy community….But I had never thought much before about how all that had affected whites; how they had been affected by racism, by attitudes of racial superiority, by unjust lifestyles and behavior.” John Perkins went on to forgive his attackers. He made a conscious choice to forgive by following Jesus’ example, and forgive, he did. While in Mississippi, we met John Perkin’s daughter, Elizabeth. She took us on a tour of Mendenhall and told us stories about her parents. Here’s her story about John Perkin’s forgiveness. Elizabeth said that one day they were in a restaurant outside of Mendenhall, having lunch with the family. At some point, her mother looked up and noticed a white man sitting nearby. Her mother whispered his name to alert the family. It was one of the policemen who beat John Perkins. After they finished their lunch, John and his wife, Vera Mae, went over to greet the policeman. John called him by name and shook his hand. Elizabeth said she could hardly believe it, and she could not speak to the man or acknowledge him in any way, but her parents did. In that moment, her parents demonstrated more about their faith in Jesus Christ then anything else they ever taught their daughter. So, John Perkins has gone on to create a community center in a poor neighborhood in Jackson and that’s where we stayed and worked. One of their ministries is called Zechariah 8, which is designed for poor families who typically live in substandard rental units. The Perkins foundation, buys old homes, rehabs them and rents them below market value to single mothers. They help them to find some stability, so that they can stay in the community while they get on their feet. The Foundation measures Zechariah 8’s progress by the number of degrees and training programs the women are completing. Their vision for this ministry came from Zechariah’s vision of old men and old women safely sitting in the streets of Jerusalem and children playing on the streets. John Perkins came to meet with us each morning while we were in Jackson. He led us in Bible study and discussions about what we were seeing and learning in Mississippi. Jackson is still a sharply segregated city – we were very aware of racial and economic differences while there. JP challenged us to think about our own city and to examine our own neighborhoods and schools. We talked a lot about what it means to live in Albuquerque’s diversity. We wondered why Albuquerque has a section of the city called “the war zone” and another called “the white heights”? How might God call us to work for reconciliation in our own backyards? Do we need Zechariah’s vision of old and young safe in the streets of Albuquerque?

Finally, we traveled to Ghost Ranch – three young people from our congregation and two from Second Pres. There we focused on Jesus Sermon on the Plain from Luke, the passage which Paul read. We talked about Jesus’ blessings and woes – we talked about poverty, hunger, weeping and persecution. It was a challenge to hear these hard words and to accept that we are rich – the woes are for us. On the first day, our speaker quoted Lilla Watson, an Australian aboriginal activist. She said, “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” Listen to that again, “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

This is the lens through which I am seeing my travels this summer. Jesus came to liberate us from everything that separates us from God and other people. Poverty, hunger, weeping and persecution separate us from each other. John Perkins came to learn that racism enslaved white people as much as it did black people. He was forced to stay in relationship with white folks in order to work out his own salvation, his own liberation. The people of Betel Presbyterian Church needed a hurricane to force them outside their church building and into the indigenous communities surrounding them, but they did it. They are using their education, their skills and their privilege to work out their liberation alongside their neighbors. I’m convinced that this kingdom work that we do, this life that we live is necessary for our own liberation, as well. The work that we do with Interfaith Hospitality Network, the food that we collect for Rio Grande Food Project, all the volunteering we do in the community - this is liberating for each one of us. This is kingdom work. We need it, just as much as our world needs to receive it. I want to end by quoting that famous poet, Garth Brooks. Garth Brooks is not really a famous poet, he’s a country singer. I’m sort of embarrassed to admit that I know his work, but I love this song that he wrote in 1992. It’s is called, “We Shall Be Free.” Brooks was in LA, during the uprising after the Rodney King incident; he was horrified by what he saw and wrote this in response. “When the last child cries for a crust of bread When the last man dies for just words that he said When there’s shelter over the poorest head We shall be free. When the last thing we notice is the color of skin And the first thing we look for is the beauty within When the skies and the oceans are clean again Then we shall be free When we’re free to love anyone we choose When this world’s big enough for all different views When we all can worship from our own kind of pew Then we shall be free. We shall be free.” Thanks to Mr. Brooks for saying so eloquently what I’ve been struggling to say throughout this sermon. Thanks to all of you for supporting the mission and ministry of this church in such a way that we can travel to places as diverse as Guatemala and Mississippi and Ghost Ranch to learn more about God’s kingdom.

Amen