A sermon on justice not greed by Rogate Mshana

This sermon was preached by Dr Rogate Mshana in the chapel in Geneva on 30 August 2010
The liturgy and readings can be found here. I should add that Rogate also told a great story that wasn't written down which I'll try to blog about later on.

The faithful have vanished from the face of the earth…….

The faithful are people who show faith, are loyal, show awareness of the truth and are trustworthy. They keep their promises and “walk the talk”. The faithful are those who uphold the truth and stand for the accuracy of facts.
Of course the term “faithful” also refers to those who believe in God. In short they are believers in a given religion.

The text we have said together from Psalm 12 offers us a combination of these definitions of who the faithful are. As faithful believers, we should also seek to embrace the first meaning, by which I mean that as believers in God we need also to be people who show faith, loyalty, keep promises and are trustworthy. What is interesting is that there are many who are not believers but are faithful in the sense that they embrace the values just described.

As Christians we are expected to follow Christ and do all that he taught us through his disciples about what it requires to be faithful. Because we proclaim Christ as the light of the world, we also are expected to be the light to the world – in all matters, in all aspects of life. In today’s unjust economic world, Roel Aaalbersberg speaks about the imperative for the ecumenical movement to lift its lamp from under the bushel and examine whether the current finance and trade rules do justice to the poor, the widow and the stranger. In other words, he writes in the recent WCC publication Justice Not Greed, that we need to examine whether we have been accurate in our understanding of the truth – have we got the facts right?

We have witnessed how, despite the fact that most of the G20 countries claim to be Christian nations they have not been faithful in eradicating poverty and promoting justice in the world even though they control about 85% of the global GDP. We are constantly bombarded with facts about the poverty in the world – and we need to keep these facts squarely in front of us, and confront the powerful of the world with them.

Why though do we not more often also reflect on the wealth in the world and what greed is doing to us as nations and as a global community? We hear continual promises made by politicians (who are sometimes Christians), but they never seem to keep those promises. We know of politicians and CEOs of corporations around the world who are corrupt, but make grandiose promises to end corruption. They never intend to do anything about it. We know of promises made by politicians during elections which are never met. Employers promise good pay and fair treatment of employees but such promises change into what the Psalmist calls “utter lies….with flattering lips and double hearts”. The punishment for this kind of unfaithfulness is grave indeed. The Psalmist prays, “May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts”.

My country Tanzania is nicknamed by its citizens as “Bongo Land” (A country in which one has to be clever to survive). Like other countries, systems have been put in place for the survival of the richest instead of addressing poverty. Promises are made by the World Bank and the IMF that the more you liberalize your economies the more you will move out of poverty. But in the 34 years since these policies have been applied in Tanzania up until today, the poor are “despoiled and the needy groan”. Policies are based on the principle that the more the rich gain, the more there will be a trickle down to help the poor. But this has not worked. The rich are not faithful – they are in fact greedy. What they do is to squander their riches in luxuries – they do not allow even crumbs to fall from the table. There is no trickle down.

The promises of the Millennium Development Goals are not going to be met by 2015 because they are based on palliative economics - just enough to keep the poor above water, but even that is not going to become a reality. How long will the international community pay lip-service to poverty eradication? Where are the faithful today?

This is where the ecumenical movement has to stand firm, to take on itself the mandate given by God through the prophets such as Habbakuk, to rekindle the faithful to do the right thing. The ecumenical movement cannot be vague – the prophets were not! The ecumenical movement cannot be double hearted when it speaks about eradicating poverty and working for justice – the prophets were not. The ecumenical movements must not stop calling evil and greed by their name – the prophets did not. Simply put, the ecumenical movement has to be faithful to the mandate that comes down to us as Christians from the prophets and the psalmists and most of all through the life and message of Jesus Christ, the liberator.

The fear of the repercussions to ourselves if we are truly faithful will be overcome by our God. Let us not be afraid. The Prophet Habakkuk reminds us that God, the Lord, is our strength. God makes our feet like the feet of a deer, and makes us tread upon the heights. Let us be faithful and in obedience follow God who is our hope.

Amen

copyright Rogate Mshana - WCC