Today I heard God speak on TV.
A television reporter was standing at the
Occupy Toronto encampment in St. James Park and wanted to find someone to answer the anchor desk's question about how these campers could afford to stay in the park for days on end.
The reporter pulled in the nearest protestor.
Here's the short interview with young “Elijah”.
Reporter: “How can you afford to do this?”
Elijah: “I quit my well-paying job as the
operations manager of a woodmilling shop.
I moved out of my apartment . We’re going to stay here until world peace
is achieved.” He looked into the camera, raised his hand in the peace sign and
said, “Welcome to freedom.”
Again, I admit, the naivete is breathtaking, but...
Elijah is the name of a Jewish prophet who
lived many centuries ago. He is honoured by Jews, Christians and Muslims. He is
famous for conducting an outrageous experiment to show his contemporaries that
there is only one God worth recognizing, the God who created us and wants
justice and mercy for all of humanity. He tells the people to to stop giving honour, time and money to
false idols.
The folks who are occupying world cities are speaking out against
the false idols of wealth and power. They are calling us all to love justice and
mercy, to share power and to lift up the poor.
Jesus said to the rich man who wanted
spiritual salvation, “Sell everything you have and give it to the poor”. Like
all the other preachers who explain this bible story, I’m sure Jesus didn’t really
mean what he said (!), but a few people take his words seriously.
Some of them are camping out in our cities
and marching through our streets. Instead of scoffing, we should cheer them on and help them find their way.
We oldsters who watched in amazement as the
Berlin Wall was torn down, we know that the unimaginable is possible.
