James 2:1-17
“Freedom from Want”
August 19, 2018
Norman Rockwell admitted that this painting was one of his easiest to complete and it has been the one that has been most imitated over the past 75 years with everything from album covers for the likes of Tony Bennett to the cover of Mad Magazine, each offering their own take on this dinner scene which has the power to transport us, even amid the heat and humidity that this summer has brought us, to one of two places in our minds.
One vision takes us to a Thanksgiving table we have sat at that was filled with all of the expected foods like turkey, gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce and where we were surrounded by a mishmash of family members and/or friends and we filled up on so much food that we had to put off the pumpkin pie until you could walk off the meal a bit or at least move somewhere less obvious so as to undo the top button on our pants.
The other vision is to look at this painting with yearning for the seeming abundance and enjoyment of this meal. To have so much delicious food to eat and to be surrounded by people who seem to like each other is a dream for many. It, like so many of Rockwell’s paintings, embodies an idealized version of the world. As Norman Rockwell himself said when questioned on this topic, “I paint life as I would like it to be.” This scene looks so tempting with Rockwell’s own cook Mrs. Wheaton serving as the grandmother model bearing a massive, perfectly roasted turkey and yet some were not able to embrace the hope offered as one of the Four Freedoms.
Back then in 1943, many deeply resented the image, especially those in Europe where there were massive food shortages due to the war and there some claimed that it wasn’t freedom from want that was depicted but rather demonstrating an overabundance. It was showing not just having enough but having more than enough and when you are barely getting by it is hard to look at another’s blessing of riches while you are hungry or worried about survival.
The divide between the haves and have-nots continues to be one of our most pressing concerns even here in this nation of abundance where right now in the U.S. the top 1/10th of 1% of citizens possess 90% of the nation’s wealth. This is similar to the wealth gap that we experienced in this country in the five years before the start of the Second World War. Freedom from Want is still a very real aspiration these 75 years later.
James, here in this letter to Christians, is reminding folks within the church that making distinctions between people based on their wealth or poverty is in direct violation of the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. He was drawing a clear separation between the values of the Roman Empire and God’s law. We are not supposed to pander to the powerful rich. We are not to put greater value on the lives of the well-off than we do on the poor. Over and over again in scripture we witness God’s pattern of a preferential option for the poor and still we continue to overtly reward financial success. Our aspirational culture rarely promotes the message of each of us having enough to meet our needs but rather to have more and better and shinier. Think of how much we lift up and offer praise for those who’ve achieved financial success and how much disdain as a culture we have for those living in poverty.
A powerful reminder of the divide that exists here in Bennington County came this past week when I joined a few dozen others at the GBICS building on Depot Street in Bennington which is now home to the Free Clinic and the Kitchen Cupboard. The building itself also abuts a bridge under which a number of homeless folks live much of the year. This gathering provided an opportunity to discuss and offer varied perspectives on many of the issues surrounding poverty locally – be it housing, jobs, health care or education. Themes that speak of the divide between the poor and the middle and upper middle classes which made up the vast majority of those in attendance included how little respect was afforded those without financial resources. There is very real disdain for those whose thoughts of the future often venture no farther than balancing which bill gets paid today so that they won’t lose their apartment or their vehicle tomorrow.
Much of our conversation turned to the fate of the children that grow up with little hope and even less access to those people, places and opportunities which might offer future possibilities in education, work and quality of life. Generational poverty, meaning that poverty which is passed down from one generation to the next is in contrast to situational poverty in which anyone may find themselves in with something as devastatingly common as a job loss or divorce or unforeseen medical expense. In the end, though, poverty is the great equalizer in that it lowers the respect paid to the individual and their family. Survival mode is a way of life that eats at a person and is tough to sustain without becoming desperate in mind and body and now there are even more avenues through which folks on both sides of the wealth gap can witness, often with distrust, how the other half lives.
Franklin Roosevelt, then Norman Rockwell and then the Universal Declaration of Human Rights all lifted up the phrase Freedom from Want to signify living with basic needs being met, using the word want in a way that we rarely see used anymore. I encourage us to hear those words Freedom from Want with our modern ears. If we do, it might release us from accepting as normal the high numbers of those living in poverty. Bottom-line is that if – and that’s a big if – if we have the will to eliminate poverty we must realize that it will not be a bottom-up process. The poor will not solve poverty by themselves. The solutions may necessitate some sacrifice on the part of the comfortable.
What we sometimes do is to distance ourselves from each other when the opposite is needed. Walling ourselves off from each other comes with costs. When we label the other, we tend to stop seeing each other as distinct human beings and our fear of these others grows. A consensus from our group in Bennington the other night and the research backs up, is that when we find ways to get to know each other, those ones who we may feel sorry for or dismiss, then barriers are broken down but this is not easy work and it does not have an end point. It is an on-going process. One thing we gleaned in our discussion of poverty is that we must include the folks we are talking about in the discussion. They must be at the table and not viewed as something to be fixed and we must recognize that some of the solutions may involve sacrifice on our part. Are we willing to engage with those folks who are struggling and often coming up short? This could be a first step in finding a way to bridge the divide that James speaks of between the fancy clothes and gold ring wearers and the poor person in worn out clothes.
The table of abundance and the good life that Rockwell tried to capture is a freedom great enough to share. Will we make room at the table? We are to share without judgment this life with every other child of God, regardless of their station in life or ours. As Martin Luther King offered, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” May we live into this reality, following the way that Jesus taught us. Amen.