Tag Archives: Privilege

Privilege and Justice

Eastertide

May 4, 2021

Scripture Reading:
Acts 10:44-48

While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

Welcoming gentiles as followers of Christ was a culturally challenging part of the early church. In the scripture above, Peter identifies the gift of the Holy Spirit as God’s sign that the gentiles should be accepted. Who do we cast as outside God’s love, and how do we open our hearts to all God’s children?

As we arise from the savagery of COVID, I find myself to be short on patience and restless. I wonder if others feel the same. The people I observe via media seem eager to get back to what they deem normal. My impatience is targeted at all the injustice that the virus revealed, and my restless response is to wonder why we are not moving faster to restore not what to us is expected but wholeness to our fractured world. Our former normal did not and will not address justice issues.

I have been attending a class on White Privilege, and it dawned on me as I listened to the discussion that there is no justice in privilege. We often use the term underprivileged to describe poverty, lack of a good education, or loss of hope. There is nothing normal between the privileged and underprivileged. Our society tracks many measures of success by the percentile they are above, at, or below norms. There is no identified “at” related to privilege. I believe the “at” of privilege must be justice.

In our society, we stumble about measuring poverty with antiquated tools to find its impact on our world. Do we measure poverty to determine at what point it negatively impacts privilege? How do we measure privilege and its effects on the society? Is it as essential to get a handle on privilege to bring about justice as it is to address the underprivileged? At what point does justice end and privilege begin, and who gets hurt in the process?

Prayer: God of Justice, send your Spirit to show us how to wedge justice into our consideration of the impacts of privilege in our world today. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

There is no Magic Wane

Epiphany

January 17, 2021

Scripture Reading: John 1:43-51
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ We have morphed into a society that longs for magic wanes to wave and get whatever we want. I do not understand from where that attitude comes. Most people would not word it that way, but I think it describes well our attitudes. We hear about white privilege a lot these days, and I know that is real. I think we may also need to deal with the concept of privilege being expected in most aspects of our lives. Parents bribe schools so the school will accept their children who might or might not otherwise be accepted. Wealthy, influential people are trying to go to the front of the line for the COVID-19 vaccine. A young woman attacked a 14-year-old claiming he had stolen her phone when he was using his phone. She thought she had done nothing wrong.  People think being required to wear a mask to curb the spread of a deadly virus is an infringement of their first amendment rights. A mob storms the Capitol of the United States, resulting in five people’s deaths and many injuries because their candidate did not win the election.

Privilege is not a new phenomenon. Amos addressed it when he described some of the women of Israel; he called the Cows of Bashan (Amos 4:1-3). Cows are fed well as they are prepped for slaughter. Greed and lust for power always pave the road to destruction.

As we start a new year and a new administration in Washington D. C., let us evaluate ourselves for attitudes and actions that are not of God but represent the privilege we have come to expect.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when our self-centeredness and self-righteousness prevents us from doing your justice. Show us the better way. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Take our Heads from the Sand

Living in the Spirit

June 5, 2020

Scripture Reading: Acts 2:1-21

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
“In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
   and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
   and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
   in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
     and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
   and signs on the earth below,
     blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
   and the moon to blood,
     before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” –Acts 2:14-21

A new day is dawning. A pandemic and senseless bigotry are tugging our heads from the sand. Our eyes are being opened to the harm from focusing our lives on things that do not matter.  The pandemic has shown us that the rich getting richer ultimately leaves no one to undergird their wealth. Who will wash their clothing, build their houses, pave the roads on which they drive, grow and prepare their food, care for them when they are sick, and transport goods across the country for them?

The question now is, will we learn from this experience? Will we move out through our nation and the world as the disciples did following Pentecost to take the message that loving one another and caring for one another is our primary purpose—rich or poor, persons of color or white, male or female, or LGBTQ. God created an interdependent world where each of God’s children is worthy and honorable.

All people need to have enough. Not just food, clothing, and shelter but also love, acceptance, appreciation, and respect. People of faith know the way to attain such a world. We need to act on that knowledge.

Prayer: Lord, instill in us the motivation and courage to step up and step out to create a world ruled by love Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Practicing Privilege

Epiphany

February 6, 2020

Scripture Reading:
1 Corinthians 2:1-12

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. –1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Paul describes himself in 1 Corinthians 9:21b by saying, I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. That is not being two faced, it is recognizing that when we encounter others where they are in their lives, we will most likely have better success in communicating with them.

White privilege is taken as an insult by some, but it is a reality with which those of us who are white must deal. I frankly think we need to face any privilege that sets us apart from others. Anytime we are conditioned to think that our group’s way of being is the proper way of being we have boxed out many people with whom we need to work to fashion a world ruled by God’s love that is indeed our primary mission. When we feel a need to judge whether we will interact with another by whether that person is wearing the right clothing or hair style, speaking the way we were taught to speak, possessing the same type of education we have, or even loving the kind of people we think they should, we are practicing privilege. What we often end up doing is causing people to focus on changing their lives to be like ours or turning them off from any good news we might share. Our goal is not to make others become more like us. Our goal is for us together with others to become more like Christ.

Prayer: Lord forgive us when we work harder to make people become like us rather than work together for all to become more like you. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Grace is Sufficient

Kingdom Building

October 26, 2019

Scripture Reading: Luke 18:9-14

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’

Is Jesus saying there is no privilege in the Kingdom of God? That would be shocking news for those who self-identify the way they live as righteous for that is essentially what the Pharisee is saying. There is no mention of loving one’s neighbor, no mention of feeding the hungry or clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger or restoring the prisoner, and no concern for the health of others. The Pharisee does not refer to serving as a light to the world or being the salt of the earth. His prayer is very egocentric concerned with self rather than society.

In the USA society today, we seemed to have shortened the list of rules we must obey to be righteous. On average, Christians give 2.5% of their income to churches*. Adultery is so commonplace; one might think it was removed from the Ten Commandments. Everyone seems to be bent on finding the fastest and best way to make more money no matter who it hurts. We admire those who succeed. We surely do not call them thieves and rogues.

We would all benefit from time to time discerning where our money is being spent for that is where our hearts will be**. We might want to dust of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and search for its influence in our lives. The same could be said for Matthew 25.

The only privilege we need in our lives the the privilege to serve God. The grace of God is sufficient for our self worth.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we invest more in self rather than building your Kingdom ruled by love. Amen/

*https://pushpay.com › blog › church-giving-statistics
**See Mathew 6:21

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

There Are No Borders in the Kingdom of God

Kingdom Building

August 3, 2019

Scripture Reading: Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ –Luke 12:13-15

Jim Wallis, public theologian, describes racism as America’s original sin in his book America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America*. While I do agree with him, I also think we must recognize that greed is the idol that is the basis of racism and that we all to one degree or another suffer from the pandemic of greed awash in our world. I thought as I heard a politician on the news recently justifying the treatment of families on our southern border. “I wonder how long he would last sleeping on concrete under a metallic blanket with barely enough room to half set half lie down unaware of where your family is, and not speaking the language of the people in charge.” Being hungry, perhaps sick, with few places to go to the bathroom, no way to go anywhere beyond the cage is impossible to comprehend. I wonder how long I would last.

A few days earlier in a discussion with a friend, we considered how we react when we are left without a convenience. I described how on discovering that my microwave would not work; I immediately got in my car, drove to a big box store, and purchased a new one without any thought. I remembered driving all over the state as a state employee without any means of communicating with anyone as I panicked recently upon realizing I left my cell phone at home while driving 14 blocks to the pharmacy. And I am in a dither over the sports news source that provides my NBA Thunder games refusing to re-up its contract with the service on which I watch the games. I hope they get their dispute settled before the preseason starts or I will have to find a new service. This paragraph describes my privilege laced with greed. There is nothing inherently wrong with owning a microwave or a cell phone or watching basketball games. The sin occurs when we attain privilege at the expense of others.

Our immigration laws are broken because people get rich from their being broken. Until we the people rise and demand that those laws be adjusted fairly, it will never happen. The power brokers of greed are controlling our country and we end up supporting them because we, in the middle, have grown to enjoy the scraps of their privilege in our lives.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we allow greed to filter in and rule our lives. Teach us the worth for each of us when all have enough. Amen.

*https://sojo.net/about-us/news/jim-wallis-slavery-racism-and-america-s-original-sin

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Privilege

Kingdom Building

July 2, 2019

Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 5:1-14

So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.’ But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, ‘I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?’ He turned and went away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to him, ‘Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, “Wash, and be clean”?’ So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean. –2 Kings 5:9-14

It seems that what we now call privilege existed at least as far back as the 12th century BC. A man named Naaman coming to be healed from leprosy is insulted because the healer sent a messenger with the means of healing rather than coming himself. The man even thought his rivers were better than the Jordan! The problem with privilege is that it is so much a part of our very being we cannot discern that it exists. We cannot purge ourselves of privilege if we cannot see it. We cannot be one in Christ if we cannot rid ourselves of thinking we are intrinsically better than some of God’s other children.

The sad thing about privilege is that ultimately no one can live up to being better than anyone else and it leads to the need to set up artificial measures of worth that are meaningless, but that we incorporate them into our personas and our culture. Bullies are probably the best example of this.

God’s love is all we need and all anyone needs to be a person of worth and it is ours unconditionally. For those us who know and accept that we are called to share that good news with those who may not know God’s love.

Prayer:
Open my eyes that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.


Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready, my God, Thy will to see;
Open my eyes, illumine me,
    Spirit Divine!* Amen

*First verse and chorus of Open my Eyes by Clara H. Scott https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/807

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Privileged Paul

Lent
April 4, 2019

Scripture Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14

even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. –Philippians 3:4b-6

In my Pro-reconciliation/Anti-racism work, I am personally dealing with the idea of white privilege and being part of the dialogue with others grappling with white privilege. Apparently, privilege is not limited to white people, as our society now must address the wealthy buying their children’s way into prestigious college, taking a slot that someone with less money deserved because of his or her academic and personal achievements. Wealth has its privileges as, being male and being heterosexual do. And I am sure the list could become longer if we thought about it enough.

Paul was privileged. He was apparently from what I would call an upper middle-class family, had a good pedigree, was well educated, and obeyed every Jewish law to the letter. He had the go-ahead to persecute a new sect that identified as followers of Christ because they did not practice the Jewish faith properly. Of course, Paul did not identify as privileged at all and most likely would have said these Christ followers were the oppressors of the Jewish faith.

There are degrees and layers of privilege and to be honest most people hold some type of privilege that some others cannot claim. One of the traits of privilege is that people rarely recognize it in themselves, although it is clear to see in others. I am left handed and must make all kinds of adjustments to a world designed for right handed people.  In a lot of cases one just learns to accept it as a nuisance. Privilege becomes problematic when it results in discrimination or oppression.

For followers of Christ, privilege gets in the way of loving ourselves and our neighbors. Thus, it is imperative that we examine ourselves to find out how privilege is impacting our ability to serve God as conduits of love in our world and that we turn away from what is harmful to ourselves and others and strive for wholeness where privilege is no longer needed as God’s nurturing love is all anyone needs to be complete persons of worth.

Prayer: Lord, cleanse us of all that divides us. Make us whole. Make us one. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Privilege for All

Lent
March 30, 2019

Scripture Reading: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Then Jesus said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’”                                                                                                                                                 –Luke 15:4-19

One of the hardest cultural realities that we must overcome is an abiding sense of privilege being special to only a few and not to all. Our Constitution does not say that:

no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States — U.S. Constitution

For Example: any of various fundamental or specially sacred rights considered as peculiarly guaranteed and secured to all persons by modern constitutional governments (as the enjoyment of life, liberty, and reputation, the right to acquire and possess property, the right to pursue happiness)*

 Funny we seem to be so ensconced in privilege meaning, for a special few, that we consider whether something is a privilege or a right with right meaning that it is available for all.

The Prodigal son learned the hard way that privilege is not to be taken for granted. It is a precious gift from God and part of our job is to assure that all are privileged with enough—love, joy, food, clothing, health care, and so on. That is a picture of the Kingdom of God.

Prayer: Lord, save us from sparing privilege based on some false sense of superiority. Help us to see that all of God’s children are privileged. Amen.

*http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/Privilege

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Untapped Potential

Living in the Spirit
August 20, 2018

Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 8:(1, 6, 10-11), 22-30, 41-43

Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands to heaven. He said, ‘O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart, the covenant that you kept for your servant my father David as you declared to him; you promised with your mouth and have this day fulfilled with your hand. Therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant my father David that which you promised him, saying, “There shall never fail you a successor before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children look to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.” Therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you promised to your servant my father David. –1 Kings 22-26

God is working his purpose out* is a 19th-century hymn that we do not sing much anymore if at all. I do not know if it is even in our current hymnal. It has a slow, plodding accompaniment that many today would find boring. Even the plodding music has a message. I have my own rendition of the title. I think it should read: God is working God’s purpose out whether we are a part of the process or not. Solomon’s prayer above stipulates God’s promise to God’s followers: “There shall never fail you a successor before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children look to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.” (Emphasis Added)

God is working his purpose out,
as year succeeds to year,
God is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea. (Verse 1)

We live in a world where we take far too much for granted because we perceive ourselves as privileged. God’s promise is made to all God’s children and we are called by God to assure that all God’s children experience God’s grace whether it relates to the necessities of life, security, or shalom.

What can we do to work God’s work,
to prosper and increase
the love of God in all mankind,
the reign of the Prince of peace?
What can we do to hasten the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea? (Verse 3)

Prayer: God, help us see past our privilege and see and enable the release of the untapped potential of all your children. Amen.

*First and Third verses of God is Working his Purpose out by  Arthur Campbell Ainger, see at https://hymnary.org/text/god_is_working_his_purpose_out

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.