Sunday’s first reading uses a dominating tree to symbolize their God, Yahweh. The tree represents Yahweh’s protected empire and the submission all will pay to the deity, “Every tree of the field will know that I am the Lord.” Jesus has no interest in empires, their borders, or their violent warlords who protect and sanctify it all. He acts to replace them. This Sunday Jesus replaces the symbol of a dominating tree with a vulnerable yet powerful “mustard seed.” It will grow “and become the largest of plants… so that all the birds of the sky can dwell in it.” Jesus replaces bordered empires for chosen people with borderless communities for all people.
The U.S. Empire includes chosen people who are fearful about its borders. They are fearful especially about the people they charge with violating their borders. The racist immigration policies they implement are ironic. Ironic because the U.S. has long been violating borders. Rulers and their soldiers invade people’s lands to enslave and colonize people across the world. Especially targeted are people of color. The U.S. Empire causes suffering and death and prevents humanity from living together in peace. The U.S. has partners in its global terrorism; big – G-7/G-8, NATO, The Nuclear Club – and small – local despots – and the more brazenly brutal, who are becoming closer allies – Putin, Erdogan, Duterte. It is because the U.S. intentionally ignores political, financial, and physical borders, that people are currently fleeing their homes. A result is refugees and asylum seekers at the U.S. Borders. Current border violations by rulers and soldiers of the U.S. Empire, are a continuation of the empire’s centuries long border violations: colonialist and racist warfare against Native Americans, indigenous Latinos, and Central Americans through invasions and raids, as well as United Fruit, NAFTA, et al. The violations exists along side decades of racist warfare against Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East. Those who most vigorously claim, “This nation is a nation of laws” consistently draft supremacist laws and reject egalitarian laws to ensure that people area not displaced from their homes. Admonished from making Hitler and Nazi comparisons does not alter their truths. Indigenous Latinos, Mexicans, and Central Americans are the Gypsies of the U.S. Empire. Immigration and Customs Enforcement act as this Reich’s brown shirts. They are deporting and incarcerating people in military installations, aka concentration camps. and killing men, women, and children who are in flight for their lives. It is exactly what the anti-Gypsy early SS did (SchutzStaffel, “Protection Squadron”). Arabs and Muslims are this Reich’s Jews. They are judged less than human and deserving of stereotype and violence. The U.S. has spread out the old Reich’s oppression and 4 years of incendiary ovens into decades of oppression and incendiary weaponry. The U.S. is matching the deaths of 6 million Jews with just as many slaughtered Arabs and Muslims across the Middle East. Every Sunday, self titled Christians in the U.S. today, like self titled Christians in Germany in the 1930s and 40s, pray for ‘our brave troops’ who are violating borders to dominate across the world. When will the church goers pray for vulnerable peacemakers to gather together all people of the world?
Institutional christianity in the U.S. supports the empire and reflects its racist policies. For example, Jeff Sessions and Sarah Huckabee Sanders preach Biblical / Yahweh based borders and reject Christ’s borderless Community. An exception is The Summit. It is convened yearly by the D.C. based Sojourners community. It gathers diverse people from across the U.S., doing so this past week, June 12-15, 2018. Peacemakers gathered around the theme of being Radically Rooted. Such rooting entails a shift from the dominating tree metaphor to the vulnerable mustard seed metaphor. Sojourners at large and The Summit in particular, are bringing together social activists and artists as powerful group of seeds. “From the roots of our faith and commitment to one another, a new future will emerge. For, as wise ones know, ‘They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”
Prayer: Radical Spirit, renew us as radical and vital seeds, small yet powerful energies able to grow a peaceful community amidst a violent empire.
Question: What can I do this Father’s Day weekend and beyond to be a seed?
June 17, 2018 Gospel Mark 4:26-34 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time