Key quotation: What is demanded is that we share a lot more of the wealth and the power that we have with the rest of the world community. And that's scary. That's very uncomfortable. But I don't see any other way to do it. And it is, after all, the way of the coming of the kingdom. If you really listen to that New Testament reading of the Magnificat, honestly, when I hear that thing every time I just want to flee the church - because what it says is that what is God's way, and with God's Kingdom has to do with putting down the mighty from our seats; exalting the humble, and those of low degree, talks about filling the hungry and sending the well-fed away -- who is that?! That's all of us. Talks about scattering the proud, in the imagination of our hearts. Talks about that's the coming of the kingdom, and that's the way it's going to be if there is to really to be peace, and a family in the world. That's the way it works in God's rule. God's rule, the breaking-in of God's rule in our history which happens over and over again always involves the turning on end of our values. The setting upside down of the way we think the world ought to be. It is a way of hope for the powerless, and for the meek, and for the least of these. And it talks about how the last shall be first. Now that's hard for us. It's just as hard for me as it is for you; in a way, I don't want to say it, but it's in the book. You know? It's not my idea, that's what comes through in the Scripture. Over and over again, we cannot escape it. And so I have to share that with you today. We in this country, on this campus, on any campus are the mighty, we are the powerful. We are the well fed, in face of the world we are the proud. And that has got to change, we have got to be willing for it to change, if we are to be in accord with God's justice and God's love, we have to give up a lot more than we now have in mind to share. If equality is to come about, and peace. And that, after all, is our ultimate call.
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