Selling Out

 Last Fall, I read a book called, "A History of Burning." It is a multi-generational story about a family that migrates from India to Uganda for hopes for a better future to help the British build a railroad, whose children through education secures a government job, but then Uganda throws off their colonial oppressors and gains independence and turns against the Indians who live there, and they have to migrate again and start all over in Toronto, Canada. It is a sad story of colonial power of the British Empire bringing in foreign cheap labor to build their infrastructure that leaves out the local population. And once Uganda gets independence, the corporations still control much of the economy and fosters division between the Ugandans and Indian to keep the country unstable. It is a triumphant story of human determination in the face of adversity, but only a few make it. 

One of the first paragraphs in a Wikipedia search about Africa told me that Africa is politically unstable with few countries having free and fair elections because of the corruption and authoritarian style of leadership. It doesn't mention the facts in that paragraph of colonialism, slavery, and the massive corruption of multinational corporations continuing to put profits above people's rights for a stable government, much less life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, have created the history and environment of the current instability. 

It is estimated that 40,000 children are enslaved working on the cobalt and nickel mines in the Congo. This happens because international corporations, mainly from China whose products we buy, want the labor costs done as cheaply as possible and put corrupt government officials to overlook any enforcement to bar this practice. Young men are made to work in the mine because they have no alternative and young women are in nearly camps to service the young men through sex trafficking. It is an utter failure of humanity at its worst. In 2016, Apple stopped briefly the purchase of cobalt from these mines when public awareness and pressure arose, but then public pressure died down and they resumed buying from these mines again. 

I have heard some people say that we cannot go to electric cars because all it would do is enslave the people of Africa, breeds corruption, and harms the environment for the minerals needed. I would say, that this also happens with oil around the world. We have long sold out people, countries, and habitats for the freedom of cheap oil that currently powers our world's economy. The choice isn't between oil and cobalt, it is between corruption of greed and liberation for local people. 

Now comes the difficult part of the sermon. In today's gospel story, we have a young rich man who wants to inherit eternal life and follows the commandments and is loved by Jesus, but one thing is lacking, the rich young man needs to sell all that he has and give it to the poor. There are many saints who have done this, including St. Nicholas, who became Santa Claus, and St. Francis of Assisi. Jesus tells his disciples that people have to leave everything to gain the kingdom. How many of you struggled with this scripture? How many of your consciences have been pricked by this story? 

If you went to my house and saw all the stuff, you would probably not think that I have left everything to follow Christ. I could give you reasons that much of the stuff was not bought new, or other people have bigger TV's, fancier stuff, and the parsonage is the church's and we don't need all that room and I was lucky to be born in the United States. 

I don't want to bash us and say we will never measure up. Neither do I want to let us off the hook in claiming everything is all right. We can and must hold our citizens and corporations to a high standard when it comes to enslaving people for profit and corrupting governments and officials through public pressure campaigns and better laws. We can be better consumers and pay more attention to where our products come from, buying from the more ethical corporations (if it isn't too much of an oxymoron). I invite you for those who maybe have done some of this work to share it by sending it me and I can put it up on our website and into our newsletter such as petitions, campaigns, ways to help, and information about what is happening. It is impossible for us to do everything, but a glacier is made up of one snowflake at a time. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing. We can do something. Let us seek to continue to build the kingdom of God where the poor are brought good news and the oppressed are liberated. Amen.