Thought One
Ruth was at work recently when she sneezed. A colleague who sits near her said, “Gesundheit” to which she replied, “Danke.” Then up on her computer screen popped a message. It said, “Bless you.” The message was from another colleague who had heard her sneeze from far down the hall.
I love that story because Ruth was socially connected to the person by her side as well as the one down the hall. One chose to communicate God’s blessings verbally and the other over Skype. What a world.
When I was in the cell phone store recently a father of a 16-year-old girl was aghast over his bill. Apparently his daughter had sent 13,000 text messages…in one month. By the time he walked out the door he had changed her phone account to “unlimited texts.” I wondered if maybe he needed to sit her down and ask “Why?” and possibly “When?”
Fred Craddock tells the story of paying a visit on an elderly farmer. As they sat and talked in the farmer’s home the phone began to ring. It rang and rang. Finally Fred asked, “Are you going to get that?” The farmer said, “I put the phone in for my convenience.” Meaning, you and our conversation are more important to me than anything else.
Have you ever thought about our infatuation with immediate gratification, and how instant communication feeds our need? Make some time to reflect on whether your use of social networks is healthy for you. Is it a tool that you can walk away from and not miss? Do you have an addiction to it, meaning that you have unhealthy cravings and obsession when away even for a little while?
As you know, computers and phone screens lack two essential elements in sustaining the human condition: touch and tone. We need to feel and sense one another’s presence, and we need to hear the tone of human speech in order to grasp nuance and emotion. Both touch and tone communicate far more than any text or tweet!
Thought Two
Don’t get me wrong. I see much good in humans connecting with one another. The purpose of religion is to connect us to God and one another. I am all in favor of human communication and interaction. And now we have a new blessing via the social network (a form of instant communication that is enabled by internet access and lightening quick tools). The Net has tapped into a new sense of purpose: catalyst. Consider the sudden, recent geopolitical changes in the Middle East.
The people of Tunisia had had it up to here with their repressive regime. The late Fannie Lou Hamer’s words would fit here. Tunisians were “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Fed up with their tyrannical government, inspired by hope, and connected by social networks via the internet, the people began to meet. Messages received told them where to meet on the street and protest for social change. Motivated by words on touch screens and cell phones, Tunisians poured out of their homes, schools and shops to march and stand up for freedom, knowing full well that they were risking life and limb, arrest and death. Literally within days the ruling party made for a smooth transition and future elections, and then simply walked away. Tunisia was liberated.
The seeds sown over the internet social networks of Facebook and Twitter, texts and blogs moved like the wind across the Middle East. Egypt caught on and within a few weeks the 30-year regime of Mubarak, despite his power and protestations, was overthrown. The winds of freedom still blow across the desert sand. Keep your eyes on the brave people of Iran, Jordan, and elsewhere around the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. Look toward the horizon. When will the people of Myanmar (nee Burma) rise up? Are Tweets of freedom filtering across North Korea? Can you imagine a new uprising in Tiananmen Square in China? Whenever and wherever divine winds of freedom start to blow, with God nothing is impossible.
My friends, use the social networks at your disposal to spread the Good News that freedom has its roots in the love of God. Genesis opens the Bible with the inspiring language of freedom from nothingness. In the beginning the breath, the wind, the ruach of God swept across the seas and lands and breathed new life into the world.
You and I know this wind, this breath, this Spirit. We are witnesses of the winds of liberation, winds which have always blown across the land and seas, mountains and deserts, inviting oppressed and downtrodden peoples to lift up their voices and stride toward freedom. The litany of freedom movements is long and inspiring, as are the root causes that led to the oppression of God’s people the world over. Our nation was populated by people who fled tyranny, and then we gained independence by overthrowing a tyrant. Our nation was also populated by peoples brought here in chains and sold into slavery, and it would take a bloody civil war before freedom was gained. Within the last four generations alone we have witnessed the uprising of the disenfranchised in India in the 30s and 40s; the Civil Rights Movement here in the 50s and 60s; and in the succeeding decades we saw people’s power explode in the Philippines, South Africa, and West Germany, dramatized by the toppling of the Berlin Wall and then the USSR.
While standing in the shanties and slums of Jamaica, the Wailers (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer) boldly lifted up for their people songs that spoke of liberation. They used their voices and radio airwaves as their social network, singing,
Exodus, movement of Jah people
Exodus, movement of Jah people
Jah come to break down ‘pression, rule equality
Wipe away transgression, set the captives free
Whether you know the one true God by the name of Jah (short for Yahweh) or Allah or Lord Almighty, what matters most is that you connect socially with the one truly divine Networker who has the power to liberate. God breaks down oppression. God rules with equality and grace, is slow to anger and quick to forgive. God wipes away our confessed transgressions and sets us free to be, you and me. Amen! And what happens when this message is spread amongst a people who have known only repression and rejection? The Word has the power to unite and bring hope. If there is one thing a tyrant fears, it is hope.
As always, First Christian Church of Decatur, I am delighted to be your pastor. Shalom, James L. Brewer-Calvert