People of the whole Judean countryside
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
were going out to him... and not be reminded of the political phenomenon of 2016, Donald Trump.
I am thinking of the rallies in which people drove for hundreds of miles and waited for many hours for the doors to open.
Analogies should never be pushed too far, and I wouldn't want to push this one much farther. In fact, no similarities spring to mind between the persons of John the Baptist and Donald Trump. But it is not the protagonists themselves, but rather their effect on people who were hungry for change, that I'd like to call attention to. People are dissatisfied. They know something is wrong. And so, when someone comes along promising that it doesn't have to be this way, it is electrifying. (And, although it is outside the scope of this week's Gospel passage, the reaction of the powerful elites to the outsider with popular appeal is another disconcerting parallel.)
Here is precisely where the phenomenon of Donald Trump and the phenomenon of John the Baptist diverge. Donald Trump whipped up excitement by appealing to what is base in people: their resentment and their rage against people of other races, against immigrants, against those who are prospering in today's world. The problem, according to Donald Trump, is Them - all the people who are different from Us. This is the classic formula of demagoguery. Needless to say, this appeal is not salvific. I join those who see it as evil - a temptation to indulge in sin.
John the Baptist, on the other hand, points, not to Them but to Us - even to Me. He preaches, not against other groups, but against the sin that is inside each of us. Inside me. And he invites me, not to blame Others, but to seek personal repentance.
Donald Trump exploited resentment for purposes of his own personal gain and empowerment. John the Baptist, as we'll hear in upcoming weeks, preached, not for his own gain, but as a servant. He prepared the way for another. He deemed himself unfit to tie that other person's sandal. Can you imagine Donald Trump saying that about anyone?
Donald Trump fed rage. John the Baptist preached comfort and hope. The latter is Good News. The former isn't.
We should listen to John the Baptist. We can try to accept his words of comfort. We can try to open our hearts, to let his herald's words fire them. We can look at our lives, and repent of those things that wound others, the things we've done and have failed to do that have hurt our relationships with others and with God.
Donald Trump and John the Baptist agree on one thing: not all is right with the world. We all hunger for something that is more peaceful, more just. Let us resist the temptation to blame Others. It is not in looking outward with resentment at others who are different than us that we'll build a better world. Rather, it in looking inward, at ourselves and our failings, that we can prepare the way for one who is to come.
In 2016 we had two populist movements.
ReplyDeleteAn authentic grass roots movement focused on Bernie Sanders. It was completely ignored by the national media. Sanders attained and still maintains a 60% approval rating. He is good news of liberation from the tyranny of the billionaires, of taking of government back from its slavery to wealth of an oligarchy. Like Francis he is for the poor and the environment.
The other populist movement was completely media driven. Trump is the ultimate media person, He watches TV and tweets all the time. He is a "reality show". There are about a third of the people in this country who are addicted to the right wing media who see Trump as their hero. People in other countries have seen Hitler, Stalin and Mao as their heroes. While political movements may look like religious movements in some respects, e.g. total commitment. They are not religious movements. We should not dignify Trump by comparing him to a religious movement.
The Evangelicals however are a problem. We Christians (Catholics and mainline Protestants) must begin to recognize how great a distortion of Christianity they are. The prosperity gospel is worship of Mammon, it is idolatry. It is not Christianity. In its endorsement of Trump it is revealing its true nature, i.e. a disguise for the interests of the wealthy and the powerful.
"The Evangelicals however are a problem." I would be careful about putting all Evangelicals in one basket. It's a broad term, and they don't all fall into the right-wing fundamentalist category.
DeleteJOHN THE BAPTIST MESSAGE WAS ABOUT HOPE, BUT IT WAS UNCOMFORTABLE (AS PRESERVED BY LUKE FROM THE Q TRADITION). HE DID REQUIRE PEOPLE TO CHANGE THEIR LIVES
ReplyDelete7 He said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
8 Produce good fruits as evidence of your repentance; and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
9 Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."
10 And the crowds asked him, "What then should we do?"
11 He said to them in reply, "Whoever has two tunics should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise."
12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him, "Teacher, what should we do?"
13 He answered them, "Stop collecting more than what is prescribed."
14 Soldiers also asked him, "And what is it that we should do?" He told them, "Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages."
Nice sermon. Can't help wondering if this was the one you gave out in those conservative, white Chicago burbs. LoL
ReplyDeleteBut, of course, that reveals prejudice in my part, doesn't it? My resentments of the white, comfy upper middle-class and their entitlements. Could it be that, as a Bernie-ite, I fall into Trumpism when I start feeling bitter about America's class system? Probably.
In contemplating on the corporal acts of mercy while saying my nightly decade during Advent, my thoughts turn inward. It hits home to me how much more I could and should be doing, even in a somewhat diminished state, to prepare the Way for Christ to come again.
As my career comes to an end (December 18!), I am also doing a lot of thinking about what old age and infirmity will bring and how I want this last trimester of life go.
Helpful post in many ways.
Jean, thanks for your kind words. You're right that we have some comfy upper-middle-class types in my parish. We have some less-comfy folks, too. Actually, quite a few of our parishioners are retirement age, and it's always difficult to tell just how comfy they are. Their houses may be worth a lot more money now than when they were paying them off, but many of the retirees don't have much retirement income coming in, and as for savings - who knows? I think it's all over the map. And of course there are quite a few health issues among them, which as we all know sucks up whatever money we have lying around.
DeleteThe younger families seem to be every bit as much paycheck-to-paycheck as we were.
As for conservative - they're not that conservative. If it's possible to quantify how conservative a community is, I'd bet that many of the folks you live among in Michigan are more conservative than the folks in my parish. I can preach from time to time about things like racism and the environment, and the preferential option for the poor, without people stomping out in a huff or writing nasty letters to the pastor. Our Outreach ministry is pretty well supported.
Jim, Did you really deliver this?
ReplyDeleteHere is a quote from something I read this morning:
"The system is rotten. Those whom it oppresses should submit to its tyranny no longer. It deserves nothing more than to collapse upon itself, a collapse we will engineer."
That was written by John Howard Yoder in 1971 and referred to the uprisings in ghettos, on campus and in the halls of mainstream religion. Leaving me to note that the kvetch remains, whether it comes from the left or the right, and le plus change.... Yoder was writing about the same passages from Luke you wrote about. He even quoted verse 11 as Jack Rakosky just did. And he came to about the same conclusion you did.
(I read it in Watch for the Light, the Plough and now Orbis collection of readings for Advent and Christmas. I do not want to leave an impression of casually spending my days reading 46-year-old books by Mennonite theologians.
Hi Tom (and Jean) - the reflections I've offered so far for the 1st and 2nd Sundays of Advent were not actual homilies I preached. I've learned through experience that if I go "too political" in a parish homily, people get all hotted up about the politics and filter out whatever spiritual content I was trying to put in.
DeleteBut there is an intersection between our faith life and politics (hence, the existence of Commonweal magazine) and I'm trying to tailor these reflections for this audience.
Tom, in answer to a question you posed last week - I can tell you that it's my intention to try to post a reflection each week during Advent, and perhaps during Christmas season. Whether I am able to carry the intention through without missing a week, we'll all find out together :-)
Keep them coming.
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