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“Fat Farmers”
Brimfield Faith UMC / August 22, 2010 / James 5:1-6
Brimfield Faith UMC / August 22, 2010 / James 5:1-6
I want to begin this morning talking about a topic that has only recently come to my attention. Human trafficking and enslavement is becoming a growing problem in the world. Human trafficking is defined as “is the illegal trade in human beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor: a modern-day form of slavery.” A friend of mine, Amanda Marshall, who is an advocate against human trafficking, sent me these slides on human trafficking to share with you this morning.
· 4-27 million people enslaved worldwide - $32 billion dollars (2nd largest criminal industry)
· Numerous causes: demand, $$, corruption, conflict, insufficient penalties
· Happens everywhere in the US
· Map
The passage we encounter in James this week, addresses two groups of people that are considered opposites: the oppressor and the oppressed. To begin, I want us to take a look at these two opposites and see what James has to say about each of them. After we do that we are going to look at a third option when it comes to relating with the oppressed and the oppressors.
THE OPPRESSOR
Let’s look at what James says about the oppressor. He doesn’t say much of anything nice, in fact, his words are the harshest words that we encounter in the entire letter. James identifies the oppressor in antiquity as rich people. He says, “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.” James sees the rich as the powerful business owners who have hoarded wealth at the expense of the workers. He accuses them of not paying their workers. The historical context informs us that large land owners dominated the marketplace and had all kinds of ways to fix prices, increase profits, and crush smaller farmers. Significant social evils were perpetrated in James’ day that no one was doing anything about. The government didn’t stop it. There were not civil rights or worker advocate groups to petition against it. There was nothing to hold the corrupt rich people accountable to their actions. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer.
Good things that has changed today… society is still plagued with this type of corruption and people. With the collapse of the economy over the past several years we have seen plenty of rich, corrupt businessmen and women. Bernie Madoff, Layman Brothers, and Enron are the poster children for these offences. While these people and companies have caught the public eye, countless other businesses and people use their power to abuse others on a daily basis. This makes James’ words as pertinent for us today as they were 2000 years ago.
As we understand what oppressors look like , I think it is important to look in the mirror. Do we try to take advantage of those with less power than us? Oppression happens when there is an imbalance of power. We’ve all heard the saying, “Power corrupts.” In the case of the oppressor, this is true. The oppressor is anyone who misuses power. Oppressors view power as self-serving and see people as a commodity to be exploited. Have you ever misused the power you have in a given situation? When we choose to use power to curse instead of bless, we become one of the oppressors that James rebukes.
THE OPPRESSED
Now that we have some understanding of the oppressor, let’s take a look at the opposite, the oppressed. In antiquity, there were very clear lines of social class and status. The land owners, farmers, educated, and rich were at the top and the uneducated, laborers were towards the bottom. They did not have unions to represent their cause. Work was so scarce the day laborers would gather in the marketplace and wait for someone to offer them work for the day. Many wouldn’t be offered work that day and they would hang around hoping someone comes with work. There was a great supply of workers than demand of work. This shifted virtually all of the power to the land owners. It enabled them to abuse the workers and withhold pay if they wanted to. There were few legal ramifications for this behavior because there were always more workers to be found. The day laborer had no ability to stand up for themselves and was at the complete mercy of his employer.
While James makes mention of the laborer, they were far from the only oppressed people in antiquity. The slave population was considerable and was not based on race. If your family came upon hardtimes, you could get sold into slavery to pay off the debt. The ladder went laborers, slaves, and then women and children. Women and children had absolutely no rights at all. They were considered property and were frequently treated as such. These are some of the faces of the oppressed within James’s day.
Many of these faces remain the same today. Plenty of people in our society continue to be powerless and oppressed. We may not have clearly defined boundaries between societal classes but there are still distinct barriers between the lower class, middle class and upper class. Many people get caught in the cycle of poverty without anyone to help them escape it. They don’t know the unwritten rules of the middle class. They don’t understand how the government system can help lift them out of poverty. They suffer the judgment and stigma from the rest of society.
A number of people groups continue to suffer oppression to one degree or another in our society and even our own backyards. African Americans, immigrants, women, children, and the disabled are just a few of the groups that find themselves oppressed at one point or another. Those that are oppressed feel hopeless. I am here to tell you, there is hope for the oppressed. And there is accountability for the oppressor.
THE LORD OF HOSTS
While it may feel like the powerful get more powerful and the weak get weaker, God is still at work. In the Scriptures, God had a special and unique way of balancing and even tipping the scales of injustice. In James 5:4, it reads, “The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.” The name, Lord Almighty, does fully reflect the meaning of this name of God. It is actually a Hebrew name for God, YHWH Sabaoth or Lord of Hosts. This name occurs 279 times in the Old Testament. The Lord of Hosts depicts God as the commander of heavenly armies. It conveys a sense that God has the ability to fight and crush the evil forces in the universe.
Although this warring imagery makes many of us uncomfortable today, if you are a powerless, oppressed person, this imagery is extremely comfortable. It gives you a sense of empowerment and hope to know there is a God in heaven that doesn’t ignore injustice in the world. Even when the world seems to enable the oppressor, God is and will rage against it.
In the Scriptures, God rages against injustice through the person of the prophet. The first prophet we read about in the Scriptures is Moses. Moses, of course, leads the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. The Egyptians had enslaved and oppressed the Israelites people and God was going to use Moses to put an end to it. In fact, God sends ten plagues as retribution and punishment for the sins of Pharaoh and the Egyptian people. The ten plagues I think are a powerful illustration of God’s names, YHWH Sabaoth. God is able and willing to act on the behalf of the oppressed.
DEFENDING OUR BACKYARDS
God doesn’t only use the prophets of the Old Testament to battle oppression. He calls all of his followers to act as prophetic voices to call out against injustice and to work as defenders and peacemakers on the behalf the weak, powerless, and oppressed. We need to wake up and realize that injustice is happening all around us.
Ohio ranks 5th in the U.S. for the most trafficking of persons. We have an extensive highway system, growing immigrant population, and high levels of poverty. In the last 5-10 years, we have seen some significant human trafficking cases exposed. Just last year in Akron, a couple was using their own children and neighborhood children to produce child pornography. We can turn our backs to it or believe it only happens elsewhere, but the reality is that it is happening in our own backyards. As Christ followers, we must be defenders of the weak and work to stop these kinds of oppression. In closing I want to suggest three ways we might work to defend our backyards from oppressors.
#1. Pray for and defend the oppressed.
In Psalm 82:3-4 it reads, “Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. 4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” We must wake up to the fact that injustice happens all around us. We cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand about issues as serious as human trafficking. We need to educate ourselves about who are the faces of the oppressed. There are several good websites that can inform and give a face to the injustices of human trafficking. I visited several of them this week and they will bring tears to your eyes. As you see the faces and the plight of the oppressed, you can pray for them to look for ways to help defend them.
#2. Pray for and lobby government officials.
While many of the Psalms are songs to God, Psalm 72 is a prayer for the king to lead and govern in a certain way. The psalmist hoped that the king would be a defender of the Prayer for the king to be a defender of the poor and to crush the oppressor. It says in verses 1-4: Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son. 2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. 3 May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness. May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.”
Instead of simply complaining we need to pray for the government officials and leaders. And because we live in a democracy, we also need to lobby them for pass laws that protect the poor, weak and vulnerable among us. You can write your local congressman
#3. Work to empower the oppressed.
In Isaiah 58 “Loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free.” We should go beyond simply praying and defending the oppressed. We need to find ways to empower the oppressed. The only way to eliminate oppression is to shift the balance of power in the world. There are a number of organizations and ways you can work to empower different people caught in the bonds of injustice.
If you want to help empower those that have been affected by human trafficking, I would encourage you to visit the websites. Another easy one, is to donate your old cell phones to a program like “Phones 4 Freedom.” The phones are given to survivors of human trafficking to help them stay connected with the Survivors Connect Helpline. It is a great way to get rid of your junk, save the earth, and help survivors become empowered. You can also buy fair trade products made by survivors of oppression.
Here in Portage County we have an initiative called, “Empower Portage” that is working to combat poverty, one of the causes of human trafficking. Many of your would be perfect mentors in the Circles program. I would encourage you to visit their website to learn about the great initiatives happening right here.
CONCLUSION
Whatever you decided to do, I hope that you will act. We are called to be defenders of the weak. We may not be oppressing others. If we don’t cry out on the behalf of others, when we become the oppressed, there will be no one to cry out for us. The Lord of Hosts wants us to join the battle against oppression and injustice.
Let’s pray.
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