If we had the will...

If we had the will, we could end poverty.
   The minimum wage would be a LIVING WAGE and people would have universal healthcare so that they would not lose their jobs over being sick.  People could have paid sick days on every job so that they could take care of themselves, and maternity leaves.  Affordable housing could be maintained and childcare to make sure that single parents and working parents could make a living.  Utilities could be regulated to be affordable, especially with renewable energy options.  The planet would not be polluted as much, its resources would not be depleted as much and its destruction would not be as much of a threat to the generations in the future because we would do what is right to keep our air, water and land clean and not waste or destroy our resources. 
  Every child could have an equal education to every other child, because the funding of all schools could be based on equality, rather than what the property values are in the areas in which they live.  The first two years of college could be tuition free.  Training for trades could be also, and people would go into fields that they love, rather than what pays more for their families.
  Healthy and affordable food would be available to everyone.  Reliable and affordable transportation would also.  Medicines would be less expensive, along with medical procedures that save lives. 
Economic well-being could be pervasive here, if we had the will.
         But we do not.  We have designed and perfected our "laissez-faire" economy so
         that the few benefit at the expense of the many.  Inequities are its foundation, and
         it divides people based on what they have (regardless of how they get it), rather
         than uniting people in an equality of our quality of life.  The few want more, always
         more, and they write laws and institute economic norms that are unscrupulous and
         corrupt, ruthless, soulless and lacking in any compassion to keep getting more off
         the backs of the rest - and they laud this system as "the best in the world", while
         blaming the victims they have trodden down for their poverty.  It is called GREED.
         It is the god at whose altar the wealthy worship, though some of them give lip
         service to another God.  It is a sickness that eats out their souls for destroying the
         well being of sisters and brothers for their own, personal gain.  Some have not
         missed having a healthy soul, but the soul of the nation still cries out to God.

If we had the will, we could end conflict and unrest, even war.
   By making sure that people across the world know that we have no intentions of exploiting them, occupying their lands, taking their resources, disrespecting their faiths, discriminating against their citizens or building our economic well-being off their backs, we could build trust and partnerships, rather than hatred and anger.  If we nurtured the partnerships with the belief that other cultures and peoples, other nations have perspectives, skills, cultural expressions and beliefs that could enhance our lives when shared, and lifted up those cultures among our citizens, then we would see a desire for peace and expansive community grow.
Peace could be pervasive in the world, at least in our own nation, if we had the will.
        But we do not.  We pit people against each other for the sake of a few having
        control over the rest.  We judge others out of our xenophobia, ethnocentrism,
        racism, classism, homophobia, "religiophobia" and other bigotries, because we
        want not to feel connected with and equal to, but "superior" and over others, out
        of our insane need for entitlement over someone, anyone else.  It is called LUST
        FOR POWER AND STATUS, twin gods that people bow down to in order to
        serve their real god - themselves.  This insidious disease devours their souls, using
        GREED as a tool for feeding their never satisfied voids of self.  It demands the
        sacrifice of the well-being of others around them and destroys their own well-
        being by making truly loving connections, healthy communities, unity and harmony
        impossible.  Some have not seen the signs of their rotting souls, because they
        have been so frantically seeking power and status at the expense of others, even
        believing that this is a necessary and "right" way to be.  The soul of the nation and
        the world cries out to God.

What will make us have the will to give up Greed, Lust for Power and Status as our gods?  What will ultimately make us see the wisdom of living Agape Love toward neighbor (stranger, enemy, the most vulnerable) and see all people as sisters and brothers?   What will make us understand that our well-being is tied to theirs and give us a will to enhance their well being by committing our words and actions to well-being on their behalf? 
These are dark days.  A lot of soul dying is going on in our nation and through our nation to the world.  These are not new things.  These false gods have driven empires and people since the beginning.  People have sacrificed themselves and others to these gods of destruction for far too long.  The climate now is just one in which the norm of serving these gods at the cost of others has been firmly established in our nation. 
The prophets of old spoke truth to power.  Jesus taught, commanded and modeled a better way, God's Way in the face of them.  The reformers did the same.  Civil rights leaders have done the same.  Religious and political leaders who live in collusion with empire have complied, because ultimately they bow at the altar of the false gods, too.  But there are voices... examples... sisters and brothers who refuse to participate in their sacrifices and the gains that come from them, and who speak out, write, demonstrate and vote according to a different way in the hope that Shalom may be restored for all people, equally. 

They have the will.
When will we all?

Pastor Jamie