Giving Up Dehumanization

 

Lent 2023 Sermon Series 

Giving Up Dehumanization - Esther

When we hear and see the word "Lent", it is often associated with self deprecation, self limitation, penitence, long winded prayers of confession and giving up candy or meat. We hear the echoes of John the Baptist whaling on the Temple Leaders and others who came out into the desert to be baptized by him:

Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near --Matthew 3:2

Repent means to turn back, turn away and for the most part, it is generally understood that John was referring to sin; to repent from sinful ways. Sin in Hebrew literally means "missing the mark" like an arrow not hitting the bullseye. So seeking to repent of one's sins means to turn away from missing the mark. 

Have you ever wondered, what does it mean to hit the mark? To turn away from sin, sin being that which is not our purpose, must mean that we are turning towards our purpose, towards the mark we are meant to hit. In many ways, repentance is turning away from what we are not and turning toward what we always have been, or at least what we were made to be. We were made to be humans, made to be reflections of God, made to be loved, to be valued, to be worthy. 

And yet there is much about our everyday lives that seeks to dehumanize us. Jobs that can reduce us to being just cogs in a machine. Politics that boil down our complicated relationships with one another and our complicated feelings about one another into for or against. 

Jurgen Moltmann, a German theologian, believes that our communities and societies tend towards some being on top and others on the bottom, those who dominate and others who are subjugated, that these are systems for making some into gods and others into less than human. Each of us have felt our power taken away at moments in our lives. Each of us have felt the thrill of an overwhelming amount of power at times. Whether we have experienced the feeling of being more than human or being less than, Moltmann believes that both of these experiences are dehumanizing. 

Being more than human, there can be feelings of godliness, divine power. And yet, no matter how much power or domination we may be able to accumulate, from being able to deny someone food or water, to being able to designate who is worthy or unworthy, this power is always unfulfilling. And that is because true power belongs to God, and try as we might, we will always fall short of matching or supplanting God. It is missing the mark of who we are. 

At the same time, being less than human, being treated as such or believing oneself to being less than, this too denies who we are created to be. Manifest Destiny understood the United States' purpose was not only to conquer from "sea to shining sea", but also to subjugate native peoples who were "squandering" resources and whose only true purpose was to be managed by Europeans. Today our societies are just beginning to understand that this "squandering" was actually better management of our natural resources than we do today. 

Dehumanization is a sin of denial of who we really are: Children of God. All of us made in the image of God, all of us carefully and wonderfully made, all of us both broken and at the same worthy of God's love. 

During Lent this year, we will be looking at the some of the characters from Esther - a story about dehumanization, and a story about how we have dehumanized as we have told and retold this story. And yet, it is also a story about people who resist dehumanization. A story of repenting from the sin of dehumanization. 

You are invited to participate in this series as we read together, think together and seek ways in which Esther's story can lead us to humanization today. Each Sunday morning Pastor Tim will be preaching on a character from the story. Each Sunday afternoon Pastor Tim will lead a time of discussion. Each Wednesday there will be another devotion. Come, and let us repent together.