2024.05.05 | Liberated
“Liberated”
Exodus 3:1-15
Preached by
Rev. Dr. Marvin Lance Wiser
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, CA
05 May 2024
Christ is risen! Amen. Today’s resurrection story is entitled “Liberated.” You know, I actually take issue with this sermon title, for “liberated” is an adjective denoting a status, freed from imprisonment, slavery, or occupation. But in so doing it negates that liberation is a perpetual process for all of us in societies riddled with inequities that seek to keep captive. As a self-described “Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet” Audre Lorde said, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” Understood then as a collective and social process, liberation is not a status, but a place we are endeavoring to co-create together, bigger than any individual alone. This morning, I’d like to share with you glimpses of the resurrection story of liberation as understood in the social gospel.
Won’t you pray with me? May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be a blessing to You, O God, our Strength and our Redeemer. Que las palabras de mi boca y la meditación de todos nuestros corazones sean de bendición para Ti, oh Dios, nuestra Fortaleza y nuestro Redentor. Amén.
Hoy quiero hablar con ustedes acerca de la liberación. Nuestro texto de esta mañana hace un esfuerzo especial para hacernos saber que Dios ve, oye y conoce los sufrimientos de un pueblo cautivo. Y luego Dios se une a nosotros en nuestra liberación. Una lectura cuidadosa del Éxodo revelará que la narración no muestra a Dios simplemente dividiendo las aguas, ni a Moisés. La liberación requirió actividades por parte de cada cautivo y todos los trabajadores se unieron. Como dice el maestro de la liberación brasileño Paulo Freire: “Nadie se salva a sí mismo. Nadie salva a nadie. Todos nos salvamos unos a otros en comunidad”.
Our text this morning makes a special effort to let us know that God sees, hears, and knows the sufferings of a captive people. And then God moves from grasstops to grass roots to partner in their liberation, quite literally, God is recorded as saying, “I have come down.” A careful reading of Exodus will reveal that the narrative doesn’t have God simply parting the waters, nor Moses. Liberation took activities on part of every single captive, all laborers joining together. Very apropos for May Day.
The origin story of the Israelite people, the Exodus story is a workers’ rights story. It’s a story about organizing, a first in the social experiment of “united we stand, divided we beg.” Exodus 12:38 uses the term ‘erev, “a mixed multitude” to describe the diverse peoples united in their socio-economic status rising up against Pharaoh and staging one of the most famous walk-outs in history. As Brazilian liberation pedagogist, Paolo Freire, puts it, “No one saves themselves. No one saves anybody. We all save one another in community.”
Just because we read in Luke Jesus reading Isaiah,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed. . .” (Lk 4:18)
doesn’t mean it’s won and done. There is no truly liberated, until all are. That’s why he left us the helper, the Holy Spirit, to keep us building out liberation in wisdom and in truth for all.
A finales de este mes comenzaré mi viaje sabático. Tuvimos la bendición de recibir la beca nacional para la renovación del clero de Lilly Endowment para apoyar esto. Mi familia y yo pasaremos dos meses en México reconectándonos con amigos y familiares. El tema de mi programa de renovación es "cultivar", es decir, cultivar conexiones con la comunidad y el café. Podré visitar algunas granjas cooperativas indígenas en Chiapas famoso por su excelente café. Chiapas también es el estado natal del difunto padre de Yuliana, Javier, y su familia paterna. También alberga una larga y ardua tradición de construcción de la liberación. Quizás el más conocido sea el levantamiento lacandón.
El tratado de libre comercio (TLC) entró en vigor en México hace treinta años, el 1 de enero de 1994, después de lo cual el maíz subsidiado por Estados Unidos inundó los mercados al sur de la frontera, dejando fuera del negocio a los agricultores del maíz, y obligándolos a migrar. Algunos de esos migrantes encontraron su camino a Cherryland. Ese mismo día, en el estado de Chiapas, el Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), un movimiento de liberación comunal con su ex portavoz el Subcomandante Marcos (ahora conocido como Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano), se levantó desde la selva Lacandona para llevar su lucha a la ciudad de San Cristóbal de las Casas, luchando por el reconocimiento y la autonomía de ellos mismos, la población indígena contra el estado. San Cristóbal de las Casas será la base de mi familia durante un par de semanas el próximo mes.
No fue coincidencia que el levantamiento se produjera en la fecha en que el tratado de libre comercio entrará en vigor; también citaron el debilitamiento del artículo 27 de la Constitución mexicana, que permitía a los extranjeros comprar ejidos o fideicomisos de tierras comunales. El EZLN toma como nombre a Emiliano Zapata, el revolucionario y reformador agrario mexicano. El EZLN implementó tácticas de reapropiación de tierras de quienes se las habían robado a los agricultores indígenas. Al frente de esta estrategia, la Comandanta Ramona, un líder maya Tzotsil, tomó el control de San Cristóbal de las Casas el mismo día que entraron, y luego reclamarían un vasto territorio comunal en el sureste de Chiapas. El levantamiento zapatista fue contrarrestado por las Fuerzas Armadas mexicanas, pero la opinión pública se tambaleó cuando se afianzaron las marchas en la capital, Ciudad de México, denunciando cualquier signo de acciones genocidas por parte del estado, como lo que ocurrió en las tierras mayas de Centroamérica la década previo. El EZLN, con los escritos revolucionarios del Subcomandante Marcos, aprendió rápidamente que la pluma y la protesta eran más poderosas que la espada. Rápidamente atrajeron la atención y el apoyo internacional. Si bien no hubo genocidio indígena como en los países vecinos, tampoco hay una liberación total, pero sí una lucha por la autonomía que sigue hasta este dia.
At the end of this month, I will begin my sabbatical journey. We were blessed to be awarded the national clergy renewal grant from the Lilly Endowment to support this. Among the many activities that we as a congregation, and I and family will be doing this year, my family and I will be spending two months in Mexico reconnecting with friends and family. The theme of my renewal program is “cultivar,” as in cultivating connections with community and coffee, as I will have the opportunity to explore the intersection of a couple of my long held passions, cultivating community and communal transformation via specialty coffee. I’ll be able to visit some small indigenous cooperative farms in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico that borders Guatemala, renowned for its excellent coffee.
Chiapas also happens to be the home state of Yuliana’s late father, Javier, and her paternal family. It is also home to a long and arduous tradition of building liberation. Perhaps most well known is the Lacandon uprising.
NAFTA went into full effect in Mexico thirty years ago on January 1, 1994, after which U.S. subsidized corn flooded markets south of the border, suddenly putting the farmers of Mexico’s staple crop, corn, out of business and forcing them to migrate. Some found their way to Cherryland. On this same day in the southernmost state of Chiapas, the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) or Zapatista Army of National Liberation, a communal liberation movement with its former spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos (now known as, Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano), rose up from the Lacandon jungle to bring their struggle to the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, fighting for recognition and autonomy for themselves, the Indigenous population against the Mexican state. San Cristobal de las Casas will be my family’s base for a couple weeks next month.
It was no coincidence that the uprising occurred on the date NAFTA went into effect; they also cited the weakening of Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution, which allowed foreigners to purchase ejidos, or communal land trusts. The EZLN takes as its name’s sake Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary and agrarian reformer. EZLN implemented tactics of re-appropriating land from those who had robbed it from Indigenous farmers. Leading in this strategy, Comandanta Ramona, a Tzotzil Maya leader, took control of San Cristóbal de las Casas the same day they entered, and they would go on to claim vast communal territory in southeastern Chiapas. The Zapatista uprising was countered by the Mexican Armed Forces, but public opinion would sway as marches in the capital Mexico City took hold, denouncing any signs of genocidal actions on behalf of the state, like what happened in the Maya highlands of Central America the decade prior. EZLN, with the revolutionary writings of Subcomandante Marcos, quickly learned that the pen and protest were mightier than the sword. They quickly garnered international attention and support. While there was no Indigenous genocide as in neighboring countries, there is neither fully liberated, but a struggle for autonomy still continues.
Liberation is not a status, but something co-created. Across our televisions these past few weeks we have seen images that echo 1968, student protests. From Columbia to Cal, we’ve seen tens of thousands of students demanding a stop to the genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli government with U.S. support against Palestinians, primarily those within the now decimated Gaza enclave. They ask for divestment. While at some universities negotiations have been forsaken, police or the national guard called in, more than 2,000 arrested, and encampments razed, at others, votes on divestment have been called, and invitations to commencements have been rescinded. While media outlets call attention to aggressive and violent tactics of extreme otherizing, peering closer one can see a camaraderie forming across ethnicities and religious groups. Muslims participating in Jewish Passover seders in the encampments, which celebrates solidarity in co-creating liberation, and Jews protecting Muslim public prayer. Heads of Jewish studies and Ethnic studies departments are putting their bodies between their students and police. For they know in their bones what former Columbia student Audre Lorde vocalized, “I am not free until. . .”
On this May Day weekend, may we remember that in unity there is strength. In 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released he came to the East Bay, and thanked the students and faculty of UC Berkeley for their anti-apartheid protests, which demanded divestment from South Africa, the Regents of Cal did pull $3 billion out of companies supporting apartheid. Mandela attributed the change in tide for the anti-apartheid movement to the students.
Mientras muchos en Estados Unidos celebran hoy el Cinco de Mayo como una buena excusa para compartir un poco de Tequila, muchos no saben que esta batalla que ganaron los mexicanos contra los franceses en el estado de Puebla, de donde es originaria la madre de Yuliana, y donde nosotros también visitaremos, está ligado al éxito de la Unión en la Guerra Civil de los EEUU. Si los franceses hubieran ganado esta batalla, habrían tenido más éxito en apoyar a la Confederación desde el sur de la frontera. Nuestra propia Guerra Civil y la emancipación de tantas personas podrían haberse visto afectadas y retrasadas. Liberación. Toda nuestra liberación está ligada a los demás. Recuerde esto el Cinco de Mayo. Hay tantas maneras en que México ha ayudado a construir este país.
Entonces, ¿cuál es tu historia de liberación? ¿Pasado y presente? ¿Con quién te estás asociando en nuestra liberación colectiva? ¿Quién te está ayudando a ser aún más libre? Que nos esforcemos juntos por vivir la ética del Espíritu del Señor que Jesús reclamó para sí mismo.
While many in the United States celebrate today, Cinco de Mayo as a fine excuse to share a little Tequila, many don’t know that this battle that Mexican won against the French in the state of Puebla, where Yuliana’s mother is from, and where we too will visit, is tied up in the success of the Union in the Civil War. You see, had the French won this battle, they would have been more successful in supporting the Confederacy from south of the border. Our very own Civil War, and the emancipation of so many, could have been affected and delayed. Liberation. All of our liberation is tied to others. Remember this on Cinco de Mayo. There’s so many ways that Mexico has helped build this country.
So, what’s your story of liberation? Past and present? Who are you partnering with in our collective liberation? Who is helping you to be even more free? Who are you helping to be oppressed no more? Jesus dwelt much on these things, healing many from ailments individual and collective. May we recall stories of interdependency, of collective liberation, and may we endeavor together to live out this ethic of the Spirit of the Lord that Jesus claimed for himself. It’s an important key to the beloved Kindom of God. May we all be transformed by it. Amen.