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| Remembering, Ai Weiwei |
Jeremiah 38:1-13
Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehukal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah was telling all the people when he said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague, but whoever goes over to the Babylonians will live. They will escape with their lives; they will live.’ And this is what the Lord says: ‘This city will certainly be given into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.’” Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.” “He is in your hands,” King Zedekiah answered. “The king can do nothing to oppose you.” So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud. But Ebed-Melek, a Cushite, an official in the royal palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, Ebed-Melek went out of the palace and said to him, “My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is not any bread in the city.” Then the king commanded Ebed-Melek the Cushite, “Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”
Ai Weiwei is a trouble maker. Not an Ashton Kutcher "Punk'd" type trouble maker or Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone kind of trouble maker ... scratch that. Ai Weiwei is exactly a Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone kind of trouble maker. He is a contemporary artist from China who is active in almost every type of media but greater than that he is a cultural critique and activist. Just like Macaulay Culkin's character in Home Alone does outlandish things to protect his family's home. By home I mean China in general, or rather the Chinese people. Through his art and activism Ai Weiwei questions the unjust and imprudent actions of the Chinese government. Recently he spent a stint in prison after an arrest for tax issues... it was presumed to be government harassment. It started when Ai Weiwei just disappeared one day and the Chinese government was silent as to his whereabouts. Ai Weiwei is no stranger to arrests and government censorship. After the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake.that killed an estimated minimum of 89,000 people, Ai Weiwei called for a citizen's investigation into whether or not shoddy government construction was to blame for the deaths of thousands of school children in this disaster. While collecting names and stories of young students killed in this disaster and testifying in defense of one of his fellow investigators Ai Weiwei was confronted by police officers and beaten severely. He suffered internal bleeding and underwent brain surgery in Germany to address a cerebral hemorrhage that he suffered from the attack. While in Munich, Germany he held an exhibition entitled "So Sorry" that addressed the Chinese government's response to the Sichuan Earthquake. One piece (pictured above) involved placing 9,010 children's backpacks of different colors on the front the museum's exterior front wall. All together they were arranged to spell out a sentence (in Chinese characters) from one of the parent's of a school child who died in the tragedy, "She lived happily for seven years in this world" Ai Weiwei says of the piece,
"The idea to use backpacks came from my visit to Sichuan after the earthquake in May 2008. During the earthquake many schools collapsed. Thousands of young students lost their lives, and you could see bags and study material everywhere. Then you realize individual life, media, and the lives of the students are serving very different purposes. The lives of the students disappeared within the state propaganda, and very soon everybody will forget everything."[
Punishment and abuse at the hands of authorities was also commonplace for certain biblical prophets. Jeremiah was a troublemaker. He proved to be a thorn in the side of his local government officials. In Jeremiah 38 he is shown suggesting that everyone in town surrender to the power of the invading Babylonian forces without fighting. Of course this is seen as both foolish and treasonous, but being a prophet Jeremiah has foreseen that how the upcoming events will unfold. Jeremiah is punished by being seized and imprisoned in an empty water cistern. He is intentionally left for dead. He is eventually freed but he still maintains a message of disobedience to the powers that be. This is a good place to bring up the discussion of Faith and Civil Disobedience. At it's core civil disobedience is showing disapproval of government policies by intentionally disobeying laws.
Christianity is often viewed as a tool of appeasement that maintains the cultural status quo.
Romans 13 (which is usually cited in religious discussions about government) St. Paul states that Christians should not be troublemakers but stay obedient to the rulers over them. Then later in Ephesians 6:5-9 Paul admonishes slaves to obey their masters. As any self respecting African American would be, this later verse is a hard one to swallow... and as a student of hermeneutics I understand that scripture is to be interpreted in the light of scripture. One cannot understand the mind of God in one verse but must use the whole counsel of God to reason the truth. With this in mind I can turn over a few pages to the epistle to Philemon and see St. Paul urging a Christian slave master to accept his runaway slave (who is also a Christian) back as a brother, or the first chapter of 1 Timothy where St. Paul list slave traffickers as one of the greater sins and immoralities that the Law was made for. Civil disobedience in the later biblical sense could at times be viewed as more subtle and subversive. Civil Disobedience acted out in Christianity is to undermine the system of Sin and erect in its place the system of righteousness.
Thanks to individuals like Martin Luther King, Jr., civil disobedience mixed with Christianity is usually associated with non-violence. However there is debate over whether civil disobedience is always necessarily peaceful. This is when disobedience to authorities leads to outright Rebellion. There are at least two good examples of just causes that lead to violent rebellions that were lead by Christian preachers: Nat Turner and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Nat Turner was an African American slave and Baptist preacher in Virginia. He believed that he received visions that told him to rebel against his oppressors (much like Joan of Arc story) and in 1831 he lead a slave revolt that went door to door freeing slaves and killing slave owners. Nat Turner was eventually captured and executed. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor In the time of Nazi rule. He was a vocal opponent of the Nazi's persecution of Jews and euthanizing of the mentally handicapped and mentally ill. Dietrich lead an underground seminary and also authored the classic book The Cost of Discipleship. He also became involved with the German Intelligence Office's covert plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He was caught, imprisoned in a concentration camp and hung 23 days before the German surrender in World War II. Even though Nat Turner and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's situations are unique (and their actions even understandable in their immediate context) as Christians we cannot encourage violence. Not just because non violence stands a better chance of winning over the public (or winning over mercy from oppressors in sentencing) but because of Christ's demand that his kingdom be constructed through peaceful means. Even though it is hard Christ commands his followers to "turn the other cheek" when struck by oppressors. This response to violence with spiritual strength is truly a revolutionary move. I cannot personally judge Nat Turner and Dietrich Bonhoeffer because the natural part of me agrees with part of their actions, however, when I take inventory of all that Christ's non-violent approach has brought I am forced to look at the option of violent rebellion and confess that their is yet a better way.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God....
In honoring the precept of using scripture to interpret scripture I combined the Old Testament and New Testament readings for today. It appears that St. Paul in Hebrews 12 may offer a few answers to believers who find themselves in a Jeremiah 38 case of civil disobedience and government oppression. The polar opposite of violent rebellion as an act of civil disobedience seems to be withdrawal. This is not withdrawal in the sense of asceticism but rather withdrawal with the intention of recreating a better society. This is the approach of some groups that are historically known as the "Peace Churches" because of their creedal belief in practicing Jesus' command of non-violence literally. One of these Peace Churches, the Mennonites, started around the time of the Reformation by a former Catholic priest Menno Simons. He actually rejected asceticism but thought that the Church should create an alternative to the evils that one finds in general society. One of the more popular offshoots of the Mennonites are the Amish. Because the Amish/Mennonites refuse to take up arms in conflict they spent the beginning centuries of their existence being persecuted and rejected from one European state to another. The contemporary Amish still wear the clothing of this era as a testament of their historic persecution and as a commitment to a simple life unaffected by greed and consumerism. Due to their hard work ethic the Amish usually found another European monarch that would accept them into their land for a time. They eventually came to America when they were invited to settle land in the new religiously tolerant colony started by Founding Father William Penn. William Penn was a member of the Quakers (another Peace Church). It is true that many fled to America to exercise their Christian religious convictions freely, however, it is not true that they were always tolerant of others with differing religious convictions. It is due to this original religious intolerance that Roger Williams founded Rhode Island as a safe haven for Baptists and Lord Baltimore founded Maryland as a colony where Catholics could safely practice their beliefs. William Penn's colony was the first to invite religious believers of all types (Quakers, Amish, Jews, etc.) to live and practice their religious convictions in a community of pace. They even peacefully traded with the local Native Americans and bought (not stole) land from them at a fair price. Pennsylvania and its capitol city of Philadelphia (whose name means "city of brotherly love") was designed as a place where people of different beliefs and races could peaceably reside and live out Christ's notion of being a neighbor. It stood as an alternative to every other model of civilization. Later on when the French and Indian War developed Quakers withdrew from politics because of their refusal to take up arms against their Native American neighbors. What the Quaker's established in Pennsylvania and what the Amish and Mennonites maintain in their communities are remarkable historic accomplishments. They are also illustrations of what Christ did in his earthly ministry. St. Paul reminds us that Christ withdrew from Heaven to recreate a better human society here on earth... his kingdom. We as the Church are called to be a city of brotherly love; a new Jerusalem, where God is worshiped in our hearts and in our interactions with our neighbors.
Hebrews 12:1-4
...looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
Truth be told our greatest tool in our arsenal to fight injustice is the gift that Christ armed his Apostles with: preaching. It is the gift that changes hearts and minds. It is also the one that oppressive regimes fear as the most subtle and therefore the one that is to be stamped out. Bishop Charles H. Mason was one of the co founders of the Church of God in Christ. This denomination is one of the many that came from the Holiness movement of the late 1800's. By the turn of the century Bishop Mason had aligned his denomination with the Pentecostal movement that had erupted out of the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles. In the midst of the Segregation Era this revival and the movement that it started was multicultural. Since Bishop Mason (who was African American) led the only established national Pentecostal denomination at that time, all of those that desired to be ordained as ministers went through his church regardless of their race. Bishop Mason also believed that practicing true personal holiness entailed practicing pacifism as Jesus did. This position proved to be unpopular with the U.S. government and lead to an FBI investigation of Bishop Mason during World War I. It is during this time that he was arrested in Mississippi for having a German preaching assistant. he was released but this episode illustrated his belief that God is no respecter of persons and is the first advocate of peace. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador, Oscar Romero, also faced government investigation and oppression but his would prove fatal. In the later end of the Cold War El Salvador found itself in the Salvadoran Civil War between the Leftist forces of Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front and the government led Revolutionary Government Junta. Originally many priests who were proponents of Liberation Theology disapproved of his appointment, fearing that he did not focus on the poor and suffering enough. Eventually the government's Right-wing paramilitary execution campaigns led to Archbishop Oscar Romero to speak out. He would preach against the injustice to the poor and execution of priest who worked with them. He would celebrate public Mass and read the names of the governments victims. he wrote letters to the UN documenting War Crimes and to the U.S. President, Jimmy Carter< asking that the U.S. remove its support of the Salvadorian government. On March 24, 1980 Romero led a ass where he called on soldiers (like the Prophet Jeremiah) to lay down their weapons out of Christian conviction and refuse to do the government's evil bidding. Later as he held up the communion chalice while celebrating the Eucharist he was assassinated. The embrace of peace and righteousness in the face of government policies can lead to imprisonment (like Jeremiah and Bishop C.H. Mason) and even martyrdom (like Jesus and Archbishop Oscar Romero). The enforcement of the Kingdom of God's values must be done by the Lord's means. This does not involve committing violence but violence may indeed be committed on us. Just like Jesus and Jeremiah these men were willing to proclaim the will of God under threat. To this Jesus says in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5):
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
So what does it mean to "speak truth to power." In the Christian context it means more than just speaking your mind to authority, it means speaking the mind of God as an Authority. Christian voices against power used for evil run the gamut in their responses. As a rule we must bee less willing to pursue violence, even when violence may come to us. The greatest tool against any form of evil is our greatest art form: the art of preaching, the art of singing, the art of loving, the art of spreading the truth of God's Word by any peaceful means necessary. The proclamation of the truth of God dispels the darkness and the lies Evil. Preaching is the most powerful weapon we have: it cannot be killed and it cannot be silenced or purged because it has gone viral. Jesus was seen as a troublemaker and sometimes it is necessary for Christians to be seen as troublemakers too. Once Jesus left his Disciples/Apostles in Acts they were later arrested by religious authorities for preaching the Gospel in disobedience of authorities. In light of punishment by beating the Apostles answer through Peter “We ought to obey God rather than men." That is the heart of Christian Civil Disobedience: we are called to love all people, we are admonished to act neighborly but when the laws of the land conflict with the Laws of God and the Love of God we must remember that we are beholden to a higher law. The Judge of that higher law is a rewarder of non-violent martyrs, peaceful rebels, utopian dreamers, persecuted prophets... and yes, troublemakers.
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