SERMON BY THE MOST REV. HOWARD GREGORY ARCHBISHOP OF THE WEST INDIES & BISHOP OF JAMAICA & THE CAYMAN ISLANDS AT THE ST. ANDREW PARISH CHURCH
EMANCIPENDENCE – AUGUST 2, 2020
Let us pray.
Lord, you have promised to meet those who seek your face. Come now and reveal your presence to us as we make ourselves present to you. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.
Isaiah 55:1-5 (NRSV)
Ho, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 See, you shall call nations that do not know you,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
A few months ago I was travelling along one of the secondary roads in one of our rural parishes which I happen to traverse fairly frequently when, as we negotiated a corner, we came upon a large truck carrying some form of construction material with an axle broken and parked in the middle of the road. We were, perhaps, the second vehicle to arrive on the scene but, it did not take long before a few taxis arrived behind us. And with the best of manoeuvres by adventurous and impatient taxis, it became obvious that no other vehicle could pass the truck in either direction, and as one driver indicated, it would take a crane to move that truck. We knew then that it would take us many miles and a long time to retrace our steps and approach our destination from another direction, in fact, taking us into another parish.
Overhearing the conversation of the taxi drivers, we soon learnt that there was an alternate route through some hills and we decided to follow suit. But, before we could negotiate a turnaround, they took off and we were left to fend for ourselves. We had no idea where we were going once we took the turn-off. And we were anticipating impassible roads, total isolation, and our anxiety level went high. We were taking a turn-off which we had noticed on various occasions, but figured that it led to a dead end. Much to our surprise, we discovered good roads, residential and farming communities and a housing stock which was as diverse as that found in any developed community in this country. And, we had to comment on how much Jamaica has changed over the years and how much we have taken for granted.
It wasn’t long after that I was on the North/South toll road; and a passenger wondered aloud what would her grandmother say if she were to come back from the dead today and see the roadway on which we were travelling. A state of shock is too mild to describe what she thought would be her grandmother’s response.
Now, I have used these two examples from the sphere of physical infrastructure to highlight the fact that a lot has changed in this country over the decades since Independence. And I can just hear some persons saying that this is no real measure of progress, and I can agree in part, as there are other spheres of life and indices which must be considered. And this is precisely what I believe our celebration of Emancipendence calls us to do, namely, to affirm that which is obviously positive in our development as a nation, while raising questions about where we are as a nation, and what is the vision that we have for the future that would allow us to build in positive ways on what we have already achieved.
As a nation, we are observing over these few days Emancipendence, a term which captures two of the significant moments in our transition from an enslaved people to an independent nation. And the truth is that we can elucidate and recall all the struggles of our ancestors for emancipation and their struggle for independence, but it is far more difficult to say what we have done with their legacy and what it means to speak of emancipation and independence in today’s world.
The experience of freedom and liberation which the former enslaved population experienced was only a step along a journey – a journey which had to move beyond the personal experience of freedom to the embrace of a national vision. And that has been no easy undertaking as it involved a struggle for social justice, at times taking the form of social unrest or uprising, leading eventually to enfranchisement, and the right to self-determination in Independence. At no point were these accomplishments seen as an arrival at a personal or national destination but, the expression of personal and national hopes, aspirations, and ideals, ever to be pursued. As the Black Lives Matter Movement is raising up before us, formal declaration of emancipation does not make it the reality with which people live even today.
So we need to remind ourselves that the threat to freedom and independence is not just something which was left behind in a past century. As long as there are present systems and structures within and beyond our borders which deny citizens of this nation social justice, rights and respect, emancipation remains an ideal. There are many forces at work in our world today that challenge and seek to undermine notions of independence for nations like ours. And the global forces which perpetuated and prevailed during slavery and the era of colonial rule, are still evident in the multilateral groupings which control global affairs today, with few exceptions. And we know that the rules of engagement in this environment are not defined in ways that provide a level playing field or give nations like ours a competitive edge, but in ways that leave us vulnerable, a lesson which the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to our attention in a forceful way, and which I dare to suggest, will become even more evident when a vaccine for the coronavirus is found.
It would appear that what we need as a nation at a time like this, is not just the engagement of a spirit of celebration, subdued though it may be for this year, and a recall of the historical background, but a serious national dialogue on what Emancipation and Independence mean for us in the light of today’s struggles and today’s national and global realities. In this regard, I believe that the text for today offers us both insights and challenges regarding life in our nation and our vision for the future.
The text from Isaiah 55:1-5 takes us into the life of a people who had experienced a major derailment on their journey, their pilgrimage to nation building. It was indeed a national crisis of major proportion, which did not last for a year or two, but ran across generations, lasting approximately 60 years. Unlike our current experience, it was not a pandemic brought on by a viral outbreak. They had lost their nation status, having been taken into exile in Babylon and having lost the major symbols of that status, namely their capital city, their temple and, of course, their self-governance. The prophetic tradition within which Isaiah falls did not view this development as a mere occurrence of fate, but a failure of leadership and the abandonment of their covenant relationship with God.
Now, one of the things we need to bear in mind from the outset is that when an invading nation enters another to make of its citizens exiles, the first set of citizens to be taken into exile are the intelligentsia and the wealthy. And I venture to suggest that this could probably say something to us about those who are targets for recruit by external interests which may want to undermine our national wellbeing and development. Eventually, the ones who are left behind are those deemed not to have much to offer the invading forces, or may even prove to be a liability.
So, when Isaiah speaks in the words of the text, he was speaking to the exiled community of Israel, consisting primarily of the descendants of those of the intelligentsia and the wealthy and who may have prospered during this state of captivity in limited ways, having put their intelligence, creative abilities and entrepreneurial skills to work. It is to these persons that Isaiah comes with a message from Yahweh that they must now focus on returning to their homeland to see to its re-construction. Clearly, the task of nation building must place a special responsibility on those who are blessed with the material and non-material endowments to be invested in the communal project.
This must have been an unsettling message for them. It would have stirred some latent or manifest feelings of nationalism, while at the same time throwing them in a bit of a quandary as to what to do with the life and the routine into which they had settled and around which they had organized their life with apparent success.
Let’s try and understand their situation. So, we need to bear in mind the fact that there were no shipping lines or removal agencies that would facilitate the packing and removal that could be involved in this relocation exercise. The thought of loading all their acquired goods on ox-drawn carts and making the trek to their homeland of which they have only their parents’ memories and tales may be lacking in appeal. The notion of making sacrifices or giving up symbols of success for the common good does not go over well with those who believe that they have achieved by their bootstraps and are deserving of all that they possess. Indeed, there is a whole economic and political ideology which you may have heard about, which assumes that the more these persons are able to accumulate, the better will be the rest of the society as some of their accumulation will somehow trickle down. This sense of entitlement and rejection of any notion of sacrifice is one of the challenges involved in trying to get an acceptance of the notion of reparation by those who, although inheritors of the wealth and privileges of an unjust institution and system, do not see how they should sacrifice and be involved in anything of this nature. That, my brothers and sisters, is one of the major hurdles which the people of the Caribbean and other nations which were subject to chattel slavery must confront in advancing our legitimate call for reparation.
Perhaps, with due consideration to the unsettling impact of his message, the prophet Isaiah is, nonetheless, declaring to them a word of invitation and challenge from God – an invitation and challenge to return to Judah to a process of rebuilding their nation from the ground up and which will offer the prospect of abundant life, albeit lacking the symbols of prosperity of Babylon.
The way of life and symbols of prosperity and the good life in Babylon were attractive to those who had found prosperity in Babylon, even though they were living in a servile state. You see, my sisters and brothers, it is interesting how easily we can make the value system and the way of life of foreign cultures the dominant and driving force of our life, even when it is just a play with symbols without the accompanying identity and validation. This must have recalled for them something of their deliverance from Egypt when daunted by the challenges involved in pursuing the path to liberation, their thought was not the future nation that they would build, but the food that existed aplenty back in Egypt under slavery.
Isaiah comes with a challenge as to how to allow a moment of national crisis to be a moment of nation building, something of which we Jamaicans cannot lose sight at this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. But he does more than that. He challenges his fellow citizens to make the undertaking an inclusive exercise. And so he addresses himself first of all to the poor of the community, lest they become a forgotten item on the agenda for nation building:
Ho, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Although recognizing that there is a matter of national import facing the people of the dispersed nation, the prophet recognizes that there are those who are most vulnerable and who must be a primary focus of attention in the endeavour of nation building. And this is one of the things which the coronavirus pandemic has done for us as a nation, reminding us of those who are most vulnerable in the normal flow of things and especially in a time of crisis, and the way in which our ability to survive this pandemic is tied up with their well-being and inclusion. It is interesting how as we moved toward a lockdown and the practice of social distancing, we were made vividly aware of the fact that even public health strategies of this nature were based on certain social assumptions, because some did not have the living space in which to practice social distancing; and some could not stay away from work for one day and have the basic things to survive.
In the same way, we see various indices of development and growth being used by international and local agencies which give positive readings of the state of our economy pre-COVID-19, and yet we are made deeply aware of the social and economic inequalities which prevail in our society and across the globe between developed and developing nations. Our nation’s index of prosperity cannot be based on the performance of small, privileged sectors and their consumption patterns and lifestyle, but on how inclusive is the nation in making the poor and vulnerable stakeholders and participants in the prosperity of this nation.
Isaiah moves beyond his call for inclusiveness to a word of challenge to those who are not necessarily lacking in material things, with a shift from a focus on the material and the quantitative measures of life to a qualitative focus. The prophetic message is a challenge to the economic system calling for reflection. Why spend money on that which is not bread? And here, “bread” is not just a reference to that product from wheat, but a symbolic reference to that which is of value, not to the stomach, but to the human spirit and soul.
Isaiah’s invitation to these Israelite exiles is not just to a world of comfort but to a time of critical reflection on what has led them to this point as he assumes that there has been some cause and effect relationship between their exilic condition and the choices they have made in the past. And this demands a re-evaluation of life and a putting away of those things which cause them to focus away from God and the abundant life to which he invites them.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
There is a direct challenge regarding the things on which one expends one’s material resources and which lack the ability to satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart and soul.
Independence for me is not just about reflection on our nation status but about the quality and the nature of the society we are seeking to build, as nation building is an ongoing process and must be undergirded by values that make for a stable and strong foundation for our nation. And while some are satisfied with looking at financial indicators, even in this time of the pandemic, I venture to suggest that of equal importance must be the values that drive life in our society. And today in our celebrations, we cannot escape the fact that corruption is one of the biggest problems facing us as a nation as persons opt to do what is wrong and against the interest and well-being of the wider society; and we play with definitions of corruption.
Corruption comes in many guises: bribery, extortion, fraud, trafficking, embezzlement, and yes, nepotism and cronyism, and the abuse of legitimate authority. And we have been splitting hairs in our determination to protect the status quo and not bring about changes to the level of corruption in our society. And so, we have established principles by which to define corruption in a way that excludes nepotism and cronyism, and then engage in splitting hairs between that which is criminal and that which is moral. Think about it…can you imagine a Christian country that has no problem with those things that are morally reprehensible but only those that are designated criminal?
We are not the only society in which nepotism and cronyism exist, but others have given legal definition to these, thereby making them criminal acts. At base, every expression of corruption provides unfair enrichment of individuals; provides opportunities for persons who are usually not qualified for positions they are offered; while at the same time establishing an iniquitous system by which those who are qualified are discriminated against as they are denied equal opportunity to compete for employment or social benefits. And I ask you to consider, is this what our forebears were seeking to create for themselves and for their descendants?
Corruption is not just about politicians and public servants. Corruption is something which involves members of the society at every level. So, whose task is it to create a corruption-free society? It is the responsibility of every citizen of Jamaica, young and old alike, and we need to educate our people as to the nature of corruption. And I suggest further, we cannot continue this craziness of treating our Auditor General as a deluded and deranged woman each time she produces a report which reveals serious levels of corruption, while allowing those cited and who reject her report to go free without any form of sanction. We cannot continue this nonsense.
If we are to progress as a people, a people who loudly announce our Christian identity, then we must recognize that there is an imperative toward the moral high ground which is not satisfied with labeling some manifestations of corruption as criminal, while others are deemed moral, and, therefore, not subject to legal sanction.
The central image present in the first two verses of this text is that of a banquet. God’s invitation delivered by Isaiah to come and share in this feasting which he is providing is an inclusive one, recalling images of the banquet used generations later by Jesus. And this inclusive banquet may have an uncomfortable, if not offensive dimension to it for Isaiah’s audience, because it makes no distinction between who is invited. Those who are coming without money, as one commentator points out, “may sometimes smell, talk, and behave differently”. But there can be no strong nation building which is not founded on inclusiveness, which can attribute dignity and fun to Carnival at Easter-time and vulgarity to dancehall activities at other times. You know there was a time when you would read about the two Jamaicas, but now there is a diversity of cultures which not only impact our ability to be cohesive but the extent to which we can become an ungovernable people.
Verse 3 underscores the fact that inclusiveness is not a sufficient foundation for the life of the nation. It must rest on the acknowledgement of God the Creator who in God’s providence calls nations into being, guides the course of their history, and to whom leaders and people alike are accountable, and it is an invitation to the people to come and participate in a covenant relationship with God which will lead to their renewal and restoration. One of the things the coronavirus has done for our nation and our world is to awaken in many a deep awareness of the religio-spiritual dimension of life, which is not just about a feeling, but an awareness that as the impact of the pandemic has spread the science and the politics of governance do not answer some of the basic questions of the human heart and spirit, and so the invitation which is present in Isaiah’s message must be part of what we have to offer as disciples of Jesus Christ in today’s world – a challenge for the Church, I dare say. Can the Church be a part of imparting these transformative ways to the life of our people which is grounded in God?
This points to this moment of recovery of nationhood on the part of the exiled community as part of God’s ongoing agenda for the people, recounting God’s dealing with David who was faithful. There is need to deal with the culture of dependence because Isaiah is recounting the relationship between God and David and the people as a cooperative experience – a cooperative endeavour.
We need to deal with the culture of dependence which our political culture fosters, such as the special seasonal work programmes, the allocations to Constituency Funds which keep people tied to their MPs and political functionaries, without making them independent and self-sustaining individuals, and which finds its fulfillment in garrison communities. The Church is not exempt because even our charitable outreach as church can create dependency among persons rather than liberate them.
The final verse of the text points to the fact that the project undertaken with God will become a reality and will be a light shining among surrounding nations. We are told that nations shall come, nations that you don’t know, shall run to you. Why? Because you have built your foundation on a relationship with God and that which is Godly.
You know, it’s interesting although we’re a little dot in this global arena, we already know what it is for nations to take notice of us – not just because of our reggae and our sports or what have you, but because of some things related to governance. The Electoral Commission which this country enjoys is one which has earned the admiration of many other nations, the envy of them. But, it is interesting also that right now in this pandemic, there are Jamaicans in Florida who are running to Jamaica because they want to escape the reality of life in the most developed nation of the world. Perhaps, this is why some of our tourists are coming. Our democratic process and our smooth transition of government cannot go unnoticed in a world in which such transitions are not a given. Shall we postpone the November elections?
It is to our shame that at this time when we celebrate the liberating activity of God in our history which brought about Emancipation and Independence we should be shrouding and betraying the legacy by our increasing descent into the mire of corruption without the communal will to shed its iniquitous hold on the public and private spheres of our life.
So my brothers and sisters, there is a lot to hear at this time, but it is my prayer that we will hear as a nation these words of the prophet Isaiah summoning a nation in crisis and laying the foundation for the renewing of their task of nation building to let that nation be built on the pursuit of godliness and integrity:
Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 See, you shall call nations that do not know you,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
AMEN.