Gifts from Afar

A Sermon by
Mallory LaSonde

Delivered Sunday, January 7, 2001

At The First Parish in Bedford

Three kings, three wise men, three magi — Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar — it is from the Gospel of Matthew that we hear their story (although not their names). Matthew says King Herod stopped them on their travels and after questioning them, allowed them to continue their journey to the newborn king of the Jews in order to give the baby their gifts of gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Herod asked only that they return to him and tell him where they had found the child as Herod, too, wanted to pay homage to the new king, so he said. Yet they, wise men, indeed if the story is to be believed, having been warned in a dream that Herod’s intentions were not so good, after visiting the child and giving the gifts they brought, left for their own country by another road. And so the story goes. We see them, those three, on their camels journeying across mountain and desert, following the star, bringing their gifts to a child so important that they traveled many days and nights to reach his side. We see them swaying gently from side to side in time with the camels’ gait riding now across Christmas cards.

And who are they, these Magi? They are the first givers of truly expensive Christmas presents. They were a little late to the party, the shepherds and angels having already come and gone by the time they arrived, but FedEx in Persia would not insure the gifts and the 2nd week caravan rate was exorbitant, and so they bridled up the camels and went themselves.

Gifts are such a part of Christmas that we sometimes forget that there’s anything more to the festival than buying and making and wrapping things and then ripping the ribbon and paper off as fast as we can. Watching people unwrap the gifts we have given and seeing the surprise and joy as they learn what it is. And then searching for one with our name on the tag and shaking and squeezing and examining it before ripping it open to find the surprise inside. Crackerjack has nothing on this.

This is wonderful, but Christmas is about much more. That elusive thing we call the ‘spirit of Christmas’ involves more than the joy of gift giving. Wonder, good news, new life, peace, goodwill, promise for the future, forgiveness. It’s hard to wrap these things—even if we could, what kind of odd-shaped package would they make and what a wonder indeed if goodwill was sitting under our tree.

We are products of our society and our place in history. We have raised the individual to a status unparalleled in human history. Our country was founded with individual principles in mind. Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness seem designed for the betterment of the individual. But the world is changing, assumptions are being reevaluated, and the argument is being made, although sometimes barely more than a murmur, that the emphasis on me and mine has some far-reaching.

We hear globalization almost always in a financial context. Global markets, the WTO, the World Bank, multi-national corporations, the E-U, GATT, NAFTA, and many other phrases that move across our consciousness—this is financial globalization. And although international trade has long been a part of the world’s reality, the speed and sheer size of the transactions is something new. And among experts there is agreement that with the increase of global financial activity and interdependence, the borders of traditional nation states are less important than they once were. Some multi-national corporations are now larger and more powerful as nation states, so the influence of a single country over a multi-national corporation is limited and, as the world is a patchwork of laws and treaties, these corporations can literally set up shop wherever it is most advantageous. And what a gift it is to shareholders that such a corporation looks for the cheapest labor in a country without environmental protection laws and produce widgets and gadgets with the greatest possible profit margin and, hence, the largest return on investment. And to make matters even better there are more, cheaper widgets and gadgets for us to buy. And as consummate consumers this is our entire reason for being. Advertisements make it clear that more is better and we are successful when we consume. But two things are true—there’s more to this globalization thing and consumption has consequences.

First to globalization. In his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas Friedman presents two symbols. The Lexus is the symbol of the human drive for sustenance, improvement, prosperity, and modernization and thus represents all the current trends in financial globalization. The olive tree represents our roots, our community, our identity and location in the world. He gives a number of interesting examples of the olive tree and the Lexus in competition, sometimes with the olive tree winning, as when Norway decided in a referendum not to join the European Union in 1994 because of the feeling that the Norwegian way of life would be undermined by being members of the single European community. And sometimes with the Lexus winning, as when India resumed nuclear weapons testing in 1998 and Moody’s and Standard and Poors downgraded India’s economy from safe to speculative—thereby forcing the government to reconsider. Finally he gives the example of balance between Lexus and olive tree in a small remote Kayapo village in the Amazon Basin where the village elders check world gold prices daily on a single television hooked up to a satellite dish to make sure that they are charging the correct international rate to miners on their land and then use the profit to maintain their way of life as well as to protect a significant piece of the Amazon.

Friedman identifies six dimensions of globalization: finance, politics, culture, national security, technology, and the environment and is willing to add more as they become apparent. He recognizes as many now do that the forces of globalization are greater in scope then simply financial and that they impact our lives in every way imaginable. Friedman is shamelessly positive about globalization and sees its wonder all around him. But not everyone is so optimistic.

The Human Development Report for 1999 published by the United Nations is the tenth such report and there is much positive news in it. But also some sobering statistics. Between 1990 and 1997, the share of the world’s population with access to safe water went from 40% to 72% and yet 2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation. During that same time adult literacy rose from 64% to 76%, yet 850 million adults are illiterate, 100 million of them in industrial nations. Food production and world wide daily consumption of calories and protein are up and 840 million people are malnourished, 160 million of them children. Between 1/4 and 1/2 of all women have suffered abuse at the hands of their partner. The proportion of heavily polluting fuels used to produce energy dropped by 2/5 and 3 million people die each year from air pollution and 5 million from water contamination. And finally 1.3 billion people live on less than a dollar a day and another billion cannot meet their basic needs. And these are simply statistics, this report also includes information about human issues, both the familiar like poverty, women’s rights, and child labor and the new like intellectual property, the rise of transnational organized crime, and specific countries or regions where individuals and groups are still living under life-threatening oppression for their gender, religion, ethnic origin, or political convictions as in Central Africa, Afghanistan, the Middle East, and South East Asia.

In this country, in this community, we don’t have to look very far for our gifts. We woke up in a home, a familiar place full of known and loved things. We came here dressed warmly, with shoes on, having eaten a full breakfast if we wanted it. If we needed medicine we took it, if we wanted to listen to or read the news we did, if we needed gas for the car we bought it, if we needed cash we stopped at the ATM. We have heat, electricity, and plumbing. Our children are safe in the rooms behind this wall, being taught important ideas by committed people. When we leave here we will stop for coffee and open conversation and go home for lunch and maybe watch a little television. Some of us will use the telephone. Some will watch a movie. Some will work on the computer, some will access the Internet. And in the background for most of us, our benefits are there, our investments are accruing, and another paycheck is due in a week or two. Life is good. And we deserve these things. We work hard for them. Why shouldn’t we enjoy them? These are our gifts. We even may think our lives difficult because of stress, demands on our time, and challenges we face. Our gifts come with a price. As many of us can attest, it’s hard work to have a lot. It’s a lot to take care of. When we have more, we have more to protect.

But gifts are about giving. We can all agree that we get much from the world, but do we give as much? And with all that the world owes us, what do we owe in return? We are proud that this country has been a beacon to people in poverty, people seeking freedom of expression, people fleeing oppression. While we haven’t always been as generous as we might wish with our welcome, we recognize ‘America’ is a symbol to people throughout the world. But we are not always a symbol of right and good. We can also be both a symbol and a source of oppression to others. Olive trees around the world dig their roots in just a little deeper when they see Coca-Cola or McDonald’s coming. Our model of living, of capitalism and consumption run amuck, is a threat to other cultures. Our international policies have too often been tied to profit rather than responsible governance and democratic principles. While we have every right to take pride in our achievements, we must face the consequences of our decisions in places like Panama, the Philipines, and Iran and see them in the cold light of day.

The Big Bang makes us all descendents of that first tiny bit of matter. We are dependent on the cosmos for our existence and we are responsible to it for its continued health. Each year we better understand the damage we are doing to the environment and the reality of the limited resources on the planet. If we export our current lifestyle to the world and teach others the lessons of our rampant consumption of energy and natural resources we will have done incalculable harm. The earth literally cannot sustain the demands if the world’s population begins to live as we do. We have the opportunity to relearn how to live in better harmony with the earth and provide a different, saner model of behavior. Indeed we are in a unique position to do this because of the wealth and the resources currently at our disposal. And it is both environmentally and socially irresponsible for us to continue to present our lifestyle as one the world should emulate. By doing so we may destroy the very thing that gave us life.

We live according to some peculiar rules. One is ‘it costs less to buy a new one.’ And another is ‘if it has to do with profit don’t ask any questions.’ Is this really our message to the world? And are Ford Explorers and Tommy Hilfiger jackets really the gifts we have to give? Right or wrong our values help define values elsewhere, whether in sympathy or in emphatic opposition. And yet we continue to make strange choices. We know the dangers of cigarettes, so why having just achieved landmark settlements against this industry are we helping these companies to keep their profits high by selling abroad what they used to sell here? We know that our future must not depend on fossil fuels and that alternative energy sources are necessary, so why are we building, selling, and buying bigger, less fuel efficient vehicles every year and, thus supporting the increased dependence on this limited resource and undermining research which might provide other options? We know that pharmaceutical companies are making significant profits, yet AIDs drugs are prohibitively expensive in Africa where that virus is at epidemic levels, and even in this country we continue to pay exorbitant costs for drugs whose R&D expenses have long since been recovered many times over.

As countries, corporations, and non-governmental organizations adjust to new priorities set by globalization, there is a unique role for religion. Most religious entities are not large enough to be global actors in their own right, but collectively they have the opportunity to offer solutions to the inevitable human costs of global decisions. They are in a unique place to use technology to form alliances and share information. And they have access to individuals and communities to draw world attention to issues of social justice and responsible use of resources (including human resources).

Last year someone in this congregation posed a question to John about luxury religion. The implication was that while other religions might be, this one is not a luxury. But I wonder if this is so for each of us. I heard a short report of the Canvass Committee a few weeks ago where the concern was that we not set our canvass expectations too high. So how many of us budget our pledges first, as one of our main priorities? And how many of us give some of what’s left over after every other expense is accounted for? And do we think this church should do more outreach and yet do we volunteer for this work? And do we have opinions about justice, freedom, and responsibility that we hold dear, but rarely express? And if we express those feelings, do we put them into action? We have the chance to make this more than a luxury religion. Because of our history and our commitment to democracy and justice we can be a religious entity framing questions, developing answers, and implementing solutions.

This is our gift to the world next Christmas—that we get involved, every one of us, in something new that affects the lives of others. That we protest injustice in public, not just in our heart. That we help someone learn to read. That we raise money, not just donate, for something we believe in. That we make thoughtful choices about how we use energy and resources in our lives. That instead of throwing up our hands and saying ‘the lobbyists are too strong, so there’s nothing I can do’ we write to officials and make our voices heard. That we review our investments and reallocate them to socially and environmentally responsible funds and companies. That we think outside the box and draw outside the lines. That we look at some of the rules and say ‘no.’ This is the year. It really doesn’t matter where in the process you get involved. There are issues of global scope, but these may not be the ones which speak to you. If this congregation is where you want to participate, then do it here. If not, look outside. What and where don’t matter as much as being involved. So if Big Mac and Brittney Spears are not the things you want representing you to the world, show it something else. One intriguing thing about globalization is while huge organizations are heard, individuals are heard, too. We have access to the tools we need, let’s use them.

The world needs our gifts—our intelligence, commitment, passion, ideas, and participation. Just as the Magi crossed the mountain and desert to give gifts to a child, so do we reach out across time and space to offer gifts to the world. Let them be gifts of action and knowledge, of food and water, of better choices and the commitment to a fuller future where all may live in sufficiency rather than few living in luxury.

Benediction

In the words of the Dalai Lama: