Jesus and Labor

Scripture shows us that Jesus aligned with the least, the last. He held the privileged to account for how they treated the poor. James reflected this Jesus ethic when he warned profiteers how God hears how they do harm. “Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”(James 5:4).

"From Jeremiah's 'Woe to him... who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing, and does not give him his wages," to Timothy's admonition that the rich "are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, liberal and generous." Our holy writings are rich in guidance for behavior toward workers."

As he entered public life, Jesus chose in his debut message to recall the Torah’s jubilee ethic of fair distribution of wealth. “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 of the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”(Luke 4:18-19)

Who are the oppressed in today’s workplace? Who are the working poor who deserve good news? Who are the ones enriched by the work of others, the blind ones who need recovery of sight to see the damage done by allegiance to greed over dignity for the working man? Standing on scripture, Christian denominations as a whole have joined with the call of unionists for justice.

Questions on Race

Political

* Setting aside the politics of the moment do you think Obama's speech advanced the national conversation of race in America?

* why are we allowing White America to demean Barack Obama because he's Black. Is this not racist?

* Is America really ready for a black leader or a leader of any other race for that matter, are the words in the constitution about equal rights and liberty about to be proved true should Obama be elected.

* Should equality of condition between the races be a public-policy goal?

* Will the American public accept explicitly race-based policies of any kind?

* Will all blacks in America vote for Obama just because he
is black ?

Biblical

* Are black people the result of a curse on Ham?
* Is interracial marriage biblical?
* How did different skin colors come about?

* Who should be the prophetic voice by making congregations aware of the reality facing black Americans and by speaking this truth into the larger society. People and institutions of faith should use their human capital to invest in and work for social and systemic change.

* Should blacks and whites be working together, side by side in efforts to create new partnerships, drive forward funding reform and by engaging in initiatives to work for real change.

* Should whites support the efforts of blacks to build a better future. Commitment to working together to see improvements in public education, housing, health care, wage levels, employment skill enhancement and access to equal opportunity?

* The 21st century should be the century of multiracial congregations. Work must be done to change the fact that 90% of blacks attend predominately black congregations and at least 95% of whites attend predominately white churches. All sorts of obstacles exist, but a change in behavior and mindset is called for. Can we change that?

Other

* Should whites work hard with blacks to see significant human, social and educational capital growth in our national community?

* Moving forward, what questions do you think we should be asking about race in America?

* What roadblocks do you think have preventing us from having a productive conversation about race previously? How can they be avoided going forward?

* Where do you stand on the question of how good or bad things are right now?

* Where do race relations in the U.S. stand in the year 2008? Are there racial issues that need further discussion?

* Origin Of Races - where did Black Americans come from?

* What are the consequences of racial prejudice and false beliefs about the origin of races?

* Were all of America's Founding Fathers racists, pro-slavery, and hypocrites?

* How have Black Americans been represented in U.S. popular culture? Are there any consistent images or patterns that you can identify? Examples: drug dealers and gang members.

posted by alj/voices of the tribe ministries @ 7:08 PM 0 Comments

Jesus Endorsed by Galilean Fisherman's Union. By John Petty

The Sea of Galilee was also known as the Sea of Tiberias. Tiberias was Roman Emperor -- Caesar -- from AD 14 to AD 37. The Sea of Galilee was "Caesar's Sea," in other words. Caesar said who could and could not fish on "his" lake.

The first century Galilean fishing economy was not a "free market." Fishermen had to get a license from the local tax collector, quite likely in Capernaum. Capernaum had both a tax office, and a major harbor. In fact, it was probably the major fishing village on the Sea of Galilee. The tax collector might well have been Matthew, in fact, who was a tax collector in Capernaum.

Licenses tended to be sold to associations of fishermen, quite often based in kinship--James and John, for example, who had a "kinship-based fisherman's association," you might say, as did Peter and Andrew. Incidentally, all four of them were from Capernaum.

The fishermen's relationship to the larger economy was quite complicated. The main dynamic was the flow of money from people on the bottom to the people on the top. There were taxes on almost everything. The total level of taxation approached 50%. (K.C. Hanson, whose article "The Galilean Fishing Economy and the Jesus Tradition," is the source for much of the information in this post, has an interesting diagram of those relationships.)

The political "higher-ups" got enormously wealthy from taxation. According to the Jewish historian, Josephus, annual revenue for Herod Antipas, ruler of the region of Galilee, was 1.2 million denarii, roughly equivalent to at least $15 million today. Jesus spent a lot of time in these fishing villages, and seems to have used Capernaum as something of a "base" for his campaign. Various other fishing villages, some also with harbors, are mentioned in the gospels.

Jesus spent time in Bethsaida, Gennesaret, Magdala, Gerasa, Tyre, and Sidon. (Magdala, home of Mary Magdalene, Jesus' girlfriend, was also known as Tarichaeae, which means "processed fish town.") In terms of social pecking order, fishermen would have been about one notch up from land-less artisans, such as carpenters, for example, but half-a-notch lower than a landed peasant. Having even a small plot of land made it possible for a family to provide for its physical needs.

During the Roman occupation, the number of peasants with land was declining rapidly as a result of Roman tax and commercialization programs, thus driving more and more people further into poverty. When people couldn't pay their taxes, whatever property they might have would be confiscated. (If you didn't have any property, they might take one or more of your children.) It's not for nothing that the four gospels often record Jesus talking about debt and appearing before magistrates.

First century Palestine was a place of seething ferment. There were repeated insurrections and rebellions. When Quirinius became Governor of Syria in AD 6, replacing Herod Antipas, he promptly wanted to raise taxes. (Quirinius was appointed Governor because he was a political and military associate of Tiberias. Appointments such as this were tickets to immense wealth.)

When Quirinius called for a tax census -- the mechanism for increasing taxes -- there were uprisings throughout the region which were brutally put down by Roman soldiers. In fact, it is believed that the "zealots" -- the Palestinian terrorists of their day -- had their beginning in this revolt. (One of Jesus' disciples is identified as "Simon the Zealot.")

People today look upon the ministry of Jesus as primarily spiritual and not political. In the world of his time, however, there was no such neat distinction. Jesus talked much about the "kingdom of God," for example, and "kingdom" is a political word. In the kingdom of God, said Jesus, hierarchical relationships are upended, and replaced by radical egalitarianism, gender equality, and open table fellowship. This had significant political import, and was threatening to the hierarchical powers-that-be.

Jesus directed his ire directly at the Jerusalem Temple and, more indirectly, toward the Roman government. The two entities had strong connections. The Temple was controlled by the chief priests and elders. Chief priests served at the pleasure of the Romans, and the elders were, basically, the rich ruling families of Jerusalem. They both had an interest in preserving the political status quo. Moreover, these "sophisticated" city-dwellers tended to look down their noses at the boorish plebeians in the northern hinterlands.

In effect, Jesus was rallying the peasants, who constituted over 90% of the population, to an active, but non-violent, resistance to Roman occupation and Temple complicity in that occupation. This campaign would have had considerable resonance among the fishermen of Galilee who were facing not only increased taxation but also increased competition from landless peasants trying to work their way into the fishing economy. In rough times, Jesus' message of resistance would have had considerable appeal.

Statement of Belief and The Peoples Creed

Statement of Belief

The Christian Faith motivates man,
To aspire for the fullness of life,
In the HERE and NOW.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ
Is the Whole Gospel of the Whole person.

It seeks to redeem us in totality,
It dose not compartmentalize us.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ
Has the power to heal

The bleeding wounds of the
Moral, Social, economic,
and Political ills of our age.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ,
Affirms the worth of every person
It exposes the dominant myth of Divine racism.

It advocates the brotherhood and sisterhood,
of all as the hope of the world


The Peoples Creed

I believe in a color blind God,
Maker of Technicolor people,
Who created the universe
And provide abundant resources
For equitable distribution among all his people.

I believe in Jesus Christ
Born of a common woman
Who was ridiculed, disfigured and executed,
Who on the third day rose and fought back;

He stormed the highest councils of men,
Where he overturns the iron rule of justice.
From now on he shall continue
To judge the hatred and arrogance of men.

I believe in the sprit of Reconciliation,
The united body of the dispossessed;
The communication of the suffering masses,
The power that overcomes the dehumanizing forces of man.

The resurrection of personhood, injustice and equality,
And the final triumph of brother and sisterhood.