If Only...

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
October 7, 2007
World Communion Sunday

If Only…
1 Samuel 2:1-10
Luke 17:5-6

You saw the kiosk in the hallway over the past few months,
the kiosk where we were selling coffee and chocolate.
It wasn’t ordinary coffee or chocolate, though.
Do you remember what we called those products?
Fair Trade:
Fair Trade Coffee;
Fair Trade chocolate.

The term “Fair Trade” did not refer to the brand,
like Maxwell House, Folgers, or Starbucks.
It referred to how the products were made.
Farmers who grow coffee beans
have to adhere to strict guidelines
to earn the “Fair Trade” label -
guidelines that limit the kinds and amounts of pesticides
they are allowed to use;
guidelines that encourage recycling of waste;
guidelines that even encourage that their children go to school,
not an insignificant matter in many of the
third-world countries where coffee is grown.

In return, the farmer is assured a fair price for his product.
He is assured a living wage for his work.

The Fair Trade concept has grown significantly
over the past decade
and it now involves many products beyond coffee.
Fair Trade is based on sustainable farming,
and fairness to those who do the hard work
laboring in the fields.

You and I as consumers have it easy:
we have only to go to the grocery store
and buy a pound of Folgers
or stop by Caribou Coffee or Starbucks for a latte.
We may have it too easy,
because in the process we may not think about
where the products we buy came from -
the coffee beans, the chocolate,
the orange juice, the cotton in our clothing,
the sneakers we all wear,
even the diamonds on our fingers.

The awful truth is that too many of the products
we take for granted
are produced under conditions that keep too many
living in poverty.
And substandard wages are not the only problem;
dangerous working conditions,
and forced labor – slavery – still exists in too many places,
and you and I as consumers are often
unwitting participants in creating these conditions.

Fair Trade has helped to lift
more than a million farmers out of poverty;
Fair Trade has also helped assure safer working conditions,
and it has helped to eliminate the abuse
of child labor and forced labor.

Fair Trade is not a government program;
it is a cooperative venture,
a cooperative venture that relies on you and me
as consumers to be aware of what we are buying,
to become “educated consumers”
as one retailer encourages us.

It is hard work.
Learning about the origins of the things we buy
requires some detective work on our part.
Back in the 1990s, Nike was roundly criticized when it was learned
that a very popular line of its sneakers were being produced
under appalling conditions in third-world countries:
where workers routinely were forced to work
60, 70, 80 hour weeks,
in foul, cramped facilities
laden with toxic chemicals and fumes.
The affluent purchasers of these $100 dollar sneakers
may well have been you and me
and we didn’t have a clue at first;
we just wanted our Air Jordans.

Buying Fair Trade goods may cost us a little more money,
but as Christians, as faithful children of God,
aren’t we called to look after the poor,
to reach out and help those who are on the margins of society
in our country and throughout the world?

Aren’t both the Old and New Testaments filled with verses
that remind us of our responsibility to look after the poor?
There in the midst of Hannah’s joyous song of praise to God
after she learned that she was going to have a baby
are words we wouldn’t expect to find:
“The Lord raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap.”
1 Sam. 2:8
More than a thousand years later,
when Mary learned she was going to give birth
to the Son of God, she echoed Hannah’s words
as she sang out in praise,
and she also echoed Hannah’s concern for the poor:
The Lord "lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things.”
(Luke 1:52),
Proverbs tells us
“Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker”
(Proverbs 14:31)

“What does the Lord require of [us]
but to do justice..” (Micah 6:8):
social justice, political justice,
and economic justice.
We are called to seek justice,
work for justice,
do justice.

Seeking economic justice does not require us to be anti-business;
It requires us to do business in a faithful way,
remembering that even before we are business people,
we are disciples of Christ.
We are called to follow Christ in how we make things,
how we sell things, and
how we buy things.
We are called to follow Christ even as we go
up and down the aisle of the grocery store
filling our carts.

We are part of a global economy.
We have been part of a global economy since the days of Solomon:
when he bought cyprus wood from Lebanon,
gold from the region we now call Ethiopia,
and spices from the east.
As disciples of Jesus Christ
if we are going to buy cyprus from Lebanon,
gold from Ethiopia, and spices from the east,
then we have a responsibility to those
who fell the trees, mine the gold,
and produce the spices.
Doesn’t our Lord teach us,
“just as you do to the least of my family, you do to me”?
Matthew 25:40
Doesn’t our Lord teach us
“from everyone to whom much has been given,
much will be required”
Luke 12:48

It was only recently that we learned
that some diamonds sold at stores at shopping Malls
may have been “conflict diamonds”:
diamonds mined by forced labor
and then sold by countries principally in Africa,
to buy guns, grenades, missiles and other weapons
for protracted civil wars.
You may have seen the book,
“A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah –
Starbucks was featuring it earlier this year -
It told the story of a boy orphaned by the violence
in Sierra Leone and then caught up in it as child soldier,
a trained killing machine at age 12,
the murder and mayhem funded by diamonds bought unwittingly
as celebrations of love and commitment.
The powerful movie “Blood Diamond” told a similar story.

A new book entitled “Nobodies” by John Bowe,
tells the chilling tale of how widespread
forced labor is throughout the world,
including here in our own country.
Forced labor: yes, that means slavery:
Men, women, and children working
in the orange groves of Florida,
factories in Tulsa,
and sweat shops in Manhattan.

On this World Communion Sunday,
we come to the Lord’s Table with our brothers
and sisters in Christ from every nation, every community.
We come to this table with men, women and children
who are just like us,
but we also come to this Table
with brothers and sisters who live in poverty,
who live in fear,
who work in dangerous conditions,
who are enslaved.
If only we would open our eyes
to the plight of these brothers and sisters
what a difference we could make.
If only we sought economic justice
in how we buy and sell things,
what a difference we could make.
It was the writer George Orwell
who reminded us that “economic injustices will stop
the moment we want it to stop.”
(As quoted in Bowe, 276)
And then our faith would grow,
the mustard seed blooming and blossoming!

We are going to switch to Fair Trade coffee
for our Coffee Hour beginning next month.,
once we use up our current supply of coffee.
We are going to do justice even as we enjoy fellowship.
Our Mission Ministry Team will have the Fair Trade kiosk
back at Christmas time;
in the meantime, if you want Fair Trade coffee,
just ask Jo Ann Staebler.
But look for Fair Trade products in stores:
Starbucks, Caribou, Sam’s Club, and WalMart
are just some of the places you can find FaIr Trade Coffee.
Helpful websites include “EqualExchange.com”
and “Greatergift.org”
Each site carries an array of Fair Trade products.

Come to this Lord’s Table with eyes open,
hearts open, aware of those throughout the world
who want only what each of us wants:
fairness, equity, justice,
hope, peace, and love.
Come to this Lord’s Table and remember that
to do charity is to provide relief from suffering;
But to do justice is to work for change,
to eliminate the cause of the suffering.
(Wm Sloan Coffin)
If only we’d heed the word of the Lord,
and do justice.

On this World Communion Sunday,
come and be fed
and then go out into the world
seeking justice,
doing justice,
making justice to roll down like the waters,
(Amos 5:24)
justice, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
AMEN