The Power of a Few

As we come to the finish line of this election season, so many of us are feeling great anxiety about the outcome of this election as well as the future.  During the Mission and Justice Ministry Circle meeting this week, we talked about our fears and concerns, as well as how we, as a Just Peace Congregation, feel called to both prepare for and respond to the outcome of the election.  There was consensus that, whatever the outcome is, we want to find ways to support not only each other, but those who will be most impacted by a new administration.  We don't yet know what that might mean, but I got the sense that the M&JMC wants our congregation to be a place of both sanctuary and hope for the "least of these".  

The question looming is how.  If Donald Trump wins the requisite Electoral College votes, we know his team is fully prepared to begin implementing Project 2025.  This will mean Black, Brown, Queer, Trans, Liberal and Progressive people, college students, civil servants, and women of childbearing years will be in the immediate cross hairs of the Trump Administration.  Others will follow but this is the clearly stated plan that the Heritage Foundation and others are ready to make a reality.  How would we be called to respond and live into our Just Peace and Open and Affirming statements in light of a Christian Nationalist Trump Administration?

And if Kamala Harris wins, how might we respond?  Do we overlook the US's complicity in the horrors being perpetrated in the Middle East by the Israeli Government?  Do we leave the issue of gun violence to others?  Do we wring our hands over the laws being passed that make providing healthcare for Trans people a crime, or taking a pregnant person out of state to get health care illegal?  Do we accept economic inequality, draconian border policies, or the lack of healthcare for all (to say nothing about the climate crisis) as issues too big for this little band of seekers to address?  

Perhaps a story might help us find an answer to these questions.

50 years ago, a small group of activists in Eugene, OR associated with the Movement for a New Society decided to focus on stopping the construction of new nuclear power plants in Oregon. At that time, there was one under construction and 8 others planned. Their first action was to create a traveling show to dramatize the issue at stake and disseminate informational material about it. They called the project Dr. Atomic’s Medicine Show and Lending Library. They performed in every community where a nuclear power plant was planned. Regardless of your opinions about nuclear power, because of the passion of a few, none of the proposed nuclear power plants were ever built. 

This story of a small group making global impacts has been repeated over and over again throughout history, for better and worse. As a faith community who seeks to be like Jesus, we are called to discern how we will respond. How can we call in those who would follow even if the way is not yet clear? How can we offer comfort and grace to those society has deemed unworthy? How will we call out those who abuse power and take advantage of the most vulnerable?  

Many have walked this way before us, and many are walking with us now.  Many have chosen silence and safety, and some have chosen the Foolishness of Christ, risking death for the sake of life. 

And what is this foolishness?

Rev. Adam Thomas, rector at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Mystic, Connecticut writes,

The idea of God’s foolishness comes from our reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Church in Corinth. Corinth was a Greek city known for its philosophers, and Paul was keenly aware that the Gospel message he was proclaiming did not make sense to those scholars. They called it “foolish.” So instead of trying to go toe to toe with them philosophically, Paul realigns his message away from the rigors of systematic proofs and leans into the opinion the scholars already have. But Paul puts his own spin on it. Foolishness is not a reason to dismiss the Gospel; rather, the mystery of “God’s foolishness” is the whole point of the Gospel!

Paul says: “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” A few verses later, he continues: “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”

So, what is God’s foolishness? And why would we want to follow a God with the trait “foolish” on God’s performance review? It all comes down to the contrast of God’s foolishness against the “wisdom of the world.” For the New Testament writers, “the world” is short-hand for all the ways humanity has reshaped existence in ways that run counter to God’s original vision for the flourishing of all creation. The world’s so-called “wisdom” includes the systems of domination of all types that have dealt death and limited opportunity across history. So-called “wisdom” includes the human practices of separating us and them, of allowing extreme disparity, of hoarding resources, of destroying the environment to keep the economy strong. So-called “wisdom” creates hierarchies and power structures and cultural norms that embrace zero-sum thinking and scarcity mindsets. The “wisdom of the world” certainly looks foolish if you’ve ever imagined what the world could be if we decided to reconstruct the world without all our violent historical baggage.

St. Paul flips the concepts of wisdom and foolishness, essentially saying, “If this is what the world considers wise, then I’d rather be foolish.”

To be "foolish" in this sense is to believe that we have the capacity to do something significant, that we have the capacity to change the world by aligning with God, and not the world.

Rev. Thomas reminds us that throughout scripture, "God chooses people the world would not choose, God lifts up those who are poor and oppressed, God makes God’s-self known in ways that the powerful least expect."

Today we need to ask, who is God using to speak to us through? Who is embodying the Gospel of Hope - a Gospel built around the savior born in the humblest circumstances who gathered a bunch of blue collar and low wage workers to be his followers, a messiah who touched those deemed untouchable, who preached nonviolent resistance, who lived his mission of justice to the point of death, even forgiving those who nailed him to a cross. And then we must ask, are we listening and able to hear this Good News?

In an echo of the phrase from Esther 4:14 - for such a time as this - Harry Emmerson Fosdick penned the words to his famous hymn in 1930, God of Grace and God of Glory. Fosdick, a pastor and professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary, wrote this poem for the dedication of the Riverside Church in NYC while the United States was in the throes of the Great Depression. As a champion of the Social Gospel Movement, he believed that the church was called to live the foolishness of Christ in word and deed. It is the call that has echoed across time, one that asks us to face the hour in which we live and chose how to respond.

No matter who wins, let us answer the question - What are we called to be for such a time as this? Let us celebrate the beauty among us, the powerful history behind us, and the foolishness before us.

May the Gospel of Hope and the Foolishness of Christ renew your faith in the power of a few to change the world for the better.

Pastor Robin

Click here for the entire sermon by Rev. Thomas.