Complicity & Solidarity
and a baptism. . .
How complicit am I in the climate crisis? Kathleen Dean Moore’s book Great Tide Rising poses the question. (1)
How responsible am I personally for this mess? The oil companies have gone to considerable lengths to encourage me to take personal responsibility, while they have backed off from any corporate ownership of the crisis. Not even bothering to greenwash anymore. “There is no crisis. . . and if there is, it isn’t ours to own.” Apparently, they will keep on keeping on as long as there is profit in it.
But, what about us? Should we accept their notion that we are responsible? We drive cars, most of us, many of us even fly on airplanes. We’ve been the ones buying and using the plastics that are filling our oceans. I could go on and on.. . Yet, I’m reluctant to acknowledge responsibility, it’s too painful.
And the truth is that to acknowledge my complicity can be dangerous. I can move very quickly from “I’m complicit and responsible” to the conclusion that, really, there is nothing I can do about it that would make any difference. Recycling is what they used to tell us would be good--but we’re now informed that it too is in many ways a scam. And now our government is not only denying climate change but defunding and closing down programs already in place to make a positive difference. It’s too big. What’s an individual to do? It’s depressing, and it may be better to just go on pretending it’s not happening. . .
That’s getting harder and harder to do though as so called “natural” disasters pile up. So, if I can screw up my courage and be honest, I confess to being complicit. I’m a part of the culture and society that exploits and endangers the natural systems of the earth, and its life. But, whew! Clearly I am only one tiny piece of the picture. As Richard Rohr often reminds us “I am not the center of the story. It’s not about me.”(2) There is that to remember.
It’s complicated. And, it gets worse. The question of complicity hit me from a different angle this week as I was walking home from a street fair in downtown Anchorage celebrating the Solstice (which at this latitude is impressive I might say (just about 19 hours of sunshine per day). Vendors, music, families, friends, bikes, trikes, jumpy houses, hoops in the street (hula and basketball) . . . It was celebratory--made more so by the weather which was sunny and warm. Then, my watch buzzed me and I glanced down to see the headline that we had bombed Iran.
The irony of the street fair and the bombing was hard to hold. I had tears in my eyes as I made my way home. Over the span of my life our country’s involvement in wars has been a major theme-- Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and countless “interventions” in Latin America, and the horrors of Gaza--no US troops, but countless bombs and equipment, and now starvation and children dying of thirst. . .
Me? . . . I’m walking home from a street fair.
How complicit am I in this history of war? I pay taxes and have done so all of my adult life. Oh, yes, I have joined in the protests throughout the years--mostly to no avail it seemed. . . I call and write to my elected officials. . . Perhaps you have these thoughts as well: I am complicit, and I am only one person. I am a part of the society and culture that spawn and support these wars. My beloved father and brother served in the military. I am also part of the human race, related to my fellow humans all over the planet. I was fortunate to serve in the Peace Corps.
My complicities are many. Many.
Which leads me to Jesus’ baptism. . . “In those days, Jesus came up from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” (MK 1.9-11)
John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. That’s clear. Most Christians share the opinion of Letter to the Hebrews which clearly states that Jesus although tempted, was without sin. (4:15) Paul echoes this conviction in 2 Corinthians (5:21), and in John’s gospel Jesus himself challenges his accusers to prove that he is guilty of sin (8:46). They do not take him up on it. So, why is Jesus walking from Nazareth to John for a baptism of repentance? Repentance is all about confessing sin, turning from it, and amending one’s life, repairing relationships restoring community.
In my church tradition usually every Sunday during worship there is a confession. It’s a corporate confession, “we confess” that ‘we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.”(Book of Common Prayer)
This offering of confession is one of the very few times in our culture that people come together and confess to their complicity in the sins of the community, the sins of the society of which we are a part. It’s a pretty radical act when you think about it. Especially in a society where generally no one acknowledges any corporate sins or failures—in fact now all efforts are to erase them from memory. It’s counter-cultural.
When you think about it, we are all touched by these sins--so many things done and left undone--now it seems, more than ever, this is so. And, whatever our personal responsibility is as one individual, we are touched, affected, complicit in these societal sins that separate us from each other, from the earth and from the divine energies at work among us.
As to the why of Jesus’ baptism, Amy Jill Levine suggests in her little Gospel of Mark guide, “in accepting John’s baptism Jesus accepted his role as a part of the human community.”(3) Even if we aren’t personally responsible, we atone as a community. Baptized Jesus proclaims his membership in the human community.(3)
Have you ever thought of Jesus with you in your confession? With you in your repentance? In your turning away, and turning toward? Jesus’ baptism is really a confirmation—a confirmation of his solidarity with us. His being a part of the human family. All of us impacted by our actions.
Oh yes, there is no doubt that Jesus stood up to the powers. We have many examples of that. We also have his baptism. His standing with us in our complicity and in our need for repentance. He was not a person who had no understanding of how we impact one another. Of how deeply affected we are by the actions, choices, things done and left undone by our culture and society--by our neighbors, our families, our ancestors. In our turning we’re invited to turn toward a different kind of realm--one grounded in love.
One of the marks of mystical experience is that of oneness. The deep knowing that we are One. This is so in creativity, and beauty, in grief and loss, and in repentance as well. Christ is among us, the divine energy for life is at work in the midst of this often painful real world of ours.
When Jesus came up out of the water of baptism, he heard that voice telling him he was a beloved child of God—as are we all. That identity and his accompaniment flow from Love and call us to act from that flow.
I’m thinking about that when I think about confession and repentance. Why bother? Can’t I just be complicit without acknowledging it? Can’t I just keep going on as I always have? What’s the gift of confession, of repentance? Jesus’ first words when he started his ministry were something like, “Repent for God’s realm is here in our midst.” In my experience confession is a telling the truth—not all the truth of course—but truth that I usually don’t want to speak out loud. But in the speaking of it I find myself freed to live in the now—the truth of this world, this place, this community, this time, this me. (Me in relationship of course—there is no separate me). When I repent, I turn. . . I turn to the energy for life we call God, to the invitation for new life, for spaciousness, for forgiveness, for love, for repair and new beginnings. No confession, no repentance, no room for new life. The truth shall set you free. I’ve found it to be so. No matter how hard.
So, Yes, I am complicit. Confession and repentance are vital and best done in community. Yes, I need to make changes. Some may be hard, again it helps to make changes with others. Yes, I need to act not because it might be successful, but because I’m called to act from my truest self. And, Yes, it is not about me. I am caught in systems and ways of being that are hard to extricate from or to change. It’s not all up to me. But I am not alone. The solidarity of Jesus is real. It makes such a difference. That solidarity calls and enables me to remember who I am and the Love that claims us all. The realm of God with its invitation to new life is in our midst. Let us dare to say yes.
(1) Kathleen Dean Moore, Great Tide Rising, Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2016.The chapter “we have met the enemy and is he us?” in particular, she says, “It may be one of the biggest triumphs of Big Oil, to make consumers blame themselves for climate change, even while the corporations are spending billions to transform us into mindless consumers of self-destructive (but cheap) consumer goods and fossil fuels—to make us blame ourselves even as they leverage their bribes in Congress to be sure that we have no alternative ways to heat our homes or power our tools or travel to work.” She goes on to call us to act in ways that heal and renew not for their “success,” but because they are the moral thing to do; such actions express our love for what is being destroyed. . . “You don’t do the right thing because it will have good results. You do the right thing because you believe it's the right thing.” Thinking about actions, she offers a reflection on how in a river, one stone at a time, one disruption, one diversion causes the river to change its flow. .
(2) I don’t have a source for this quote from Richard Rohr. He has said it many times and in many places, written words and spoken words. The decentering.
(3) Amy Jill Levine, The Gospel of Mark: A Beginner’s Guide to the Good News, Abington, 2023, p. 9. When I ponder the possibility of Jesus’ having committed a sin, what comes to mind is his interchange with the Syrophoenecian woman, (Mk 7:23-30) where he denigrates her with his comment about food for the dogs. This might be an example of his own acculturation--we humans are all impacted by our societal norms and prejudices. In that exchange he learns something from her, moves beyond societal boundaries and responds to her with healing grace.
thank you
A deep sigh and yes to all