Though Kalle Lasn didn’t occupy Wall Street, he did conquer the emotional turf that drove the movement. Last July, Lasn, editor of the radical magazine "Adbusters," launched the Twitter hashtag #OCCUPYWALLSTREET and welded it to the image of a ballerina dancing on the back of the stock market’s famous bull sculpture. It was the initial air strike in what Lasn calls a “meme war.” Whatever you think of the movement, remember that it began with an image.
Isaiah’s image of the coming Messiah does not drift in a vapor six feet above history but dances on the broad back of actual oppression. He speaks to the situation of the post-exilic Jewish community – predatory interest rates, exorbitant taxation and the wage slavery of low-paying jobs – then reaches back to Leviticus 25 and the Year of Jubilee when all possessions revert to their original owners, and offers an image of a coming Savior, an Anointed One, who will put things right. It remains for Nehemiah to respond to the #OCCUPYJERUSALEM mob (Neh 5), but the prophetic hashtag cracks open a closed reality to make change possible.
Jesus takes Isaiah’s text for his inaugural sermon in Luke 4 and preaches a message that forever links the idea of “gospel” with actual hope in the present world. At the end of his earthly ministry, He will lead his own #OCCUPYJERUSALEM mob right into the temple. Both sermons produce the same result: attempted assassination on the one hand, and successful assassination on the other. It seems we prefer our Messiahs a trifle more spiritual and a good deal less practical.
As we move into Advent, we do well to remember that the Lord for whose coming we yearn promises a community where a crucified God dances on the bronze shoulders of the world system, and that whether His coming is “the favorable year of the Lord” or “the day of vengeance of our God” largely depends on which image you embrace. God grant that when the Son of Man comes, He will find His church at #OCCUPYCALVARY.
Occupado,
Doug
Collect
Father, You promise that at His coming Your Son will judge privilege and end poverty. Grant that that we may prepare for Our Lord’s return by choosing to live now in the world He offers, that those around us may see the Kingdom and embrace the Christ in whose name we pray to You, Our Father, through the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Benediction
May Christ who comes empower you,
To bring forth, bind up, and break free.
May Christ who comes transform you,
With garlands and gladness and good.
May Christ who comes make you mighty,
To rescue, restore, and repair.
In the Name of the Father,
And of the Son,
And of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
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