Mark 1:9-15

 I heard a story on NPR the other day about King Cake, and how important it is in New Orleans during the days before Fat Tuesday.  The radio journalists used the French term, Mardi Gras, as well as the English translation, Fat Tuesday.  They mentioned parades and floats, and described King Cake in detail, sharing the results of a poll deciding which was the most popular King Cake in New Orleans.  What wasn’t mentioned, not once, was the word, “Lent,” or the phrase, “Ash Wednesday.”  Nothing was said that would hint that the whole point of Fat Tuesday, of Mardi Gras, is to party hearty before the Lenten fast begins.

 I suppose this could be due to ignorance.  Lent isn’t a commercial success, after all.  Or it may be due to Lent’s reputation as a time for penitence, for remembering that we’re miserable sinners in the eyes of our harshly judging God.  For centuries, Lent focused primarily on self-deprivation and generally feeling unworthy.  Lent kept people focused on their fear of what was going to happen to them after they die, which meant they focused less on the injustices of this earthly existence.  As a result, few people rocked the boat in the name of Jesus, which, by the way, was convenient for those in power.

   But this doesn’t fit with the God we meet in Jesus, whose very first message in the gospels, usually translated “repent,” is the Greek word metanoia, which literally means to change your mind or your heart.  Change, because the kingdom of God is at hand.  Other translations say, “Ultimate reality is at hand!” or “God’s benevolent society is already among us.”  The thing is, changing in order to live in this ultimate reality or in God’s benevolent society wouldn’t be convenient for those in power at all, because living as though God is the ruler of our hearts and lives means living as though the leaders of this world are not.  Jesus’ first words must be read in the context of what was happening at the time: the kingdom of Caesar and the empire of Rome.

   Jesus came to announce a new kingdom, a new way of life, a new way of peace that carried good news to all people.  It wasn’t information about how individual souls could avoid hell and go to heaven after death.  It was about God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.  It was about God’s faithful solidarity with all humanity in suffering, in oppression, and in the face of evil.  It was a summons to rethink everything and enter a life of retraining as citizens of this new kingdom.

   That is why Eugene Peterson writes that living a holy life is the Christian equivalent of revolution.  What Lent is really about is remembering that we are part of that revolution, a revolution defined by resurrection.  A revolution that says no to what deals in death and yes to what gives life for us and for all people.  Lent is when we notice the ways we’ve slipped into living in the other “kingdoms” or systems around us, the systems that do not celebrate healing and our common humanity, that do not see the world and life as a gift, that do not put love of God and neighbor as the central shaping principle for everything we do. 

   So during Lent, we’re invited to practice saying no to what does not give life and love, and saying yes to what does.  You’ve probably known people who give up chocolate for Lent; maybe you’ve done it yourself.  I honestly don’t understand how depriving yourself of one of life’s most innocent God-given pleasures brings us closer to God.  But there’s a good reason to give up chocolate, actually, or at least most chocolate.  Human trafficking, child slavery, and abusive labor practices are common in the cacao industry.  Hundreds of thousands of children are being purchased from their destitute parents or outright stolen and then shipped to West Africa, where they are enslaved on cocoa farms.  These children, 11-to-16-years-old but some as young as 5, are forced to do hard manual labor 80 to 100 hours a week.  They’re paid nothing, receive no education, are under fed, and often are viciously beaten if they try to escape.  Most will never see their families again.

   Candy companies, including but not limited to Mars, Nestlé, Hershey, and Cadbury, have admitted accountability and promised to remedy this situation.  Sadly, 20 years has passed since they made this promise, and the numbers of exploited children has only increased.  Luckily for chocolate lovers, there are a number of ethical chocolate companies that certify they are child labor free; here is one list: https://www.slavefreechocolate.org/ethical-chocolate-companies. 

   Welcome to the Lenten revolution.

© Joanne Whitt 2024 all rights reserved.

Resources:

Richard Rohr, The Naked Now (New York: Crossroad, 2009).

Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christianity (New York: HarperOne, 2010).

Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005).

Amanda Gregory, “Chocolate and Child Slavery: Say No to Human Trafficking this Holiday Season,” October 31, 2013, Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-gregory/chocolate-and-child-slave_b_4181089.html.  

Martha Mendoza, “U.S. Sued Over Imports of Cocoa Harvested by Child Labor,” August 15, 2023, The Los Angeles Times, https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-08-15/cocoa-harvested-by-children-child-labor.

Slave Free Chocolate, https://www.slavefreechocolate.org/