[Today has been a very special day: it is the 8th anniversary of my meeting my "esposa fabulosa" Jill at the Palm Sunday Peace Parade. I also had the joy of hearing her preach this morning at the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles, where I spoke nine years ago about contemplative silence and social justice activism ("Gandhi, St. Francis and Listening from the Heart"). Jill and I worked together on this sermon, which reflects a theology of land and housing from a biblical perspective as opposed to that of the Roman empire. Today we see the Roman perspective embodied in Trumpism, the "me-vs-the world" mentality. There is a better way, what Dr. Martin Luther King called "the beloved community." This sermon gives some ideas about how we can move towards that ideal, yet very real community.]
When you hear the word “domination,” do you think of
the word “home”? Ironically, the word “home” and domination are related because
they derive from the same Latin root. In Roman law, the home or “domus” was the
place where a man was master over everything he possessed: land, building,
wife, children, slaves. He had sovereignty because he was the dominus, the
master of the house, his domicile.
This view is reflected in the old saying, “A man’s
home is his castle.” You have likely
heard it said, “All day I work under a boss, but when I go home, I’m the
master.”
The Bible has a different view. God is Lord and master
of everything. Ultimately, God is the owner of all land and it is to be used
not only for ourselves but also for others, to steward and care for according
to God’s purposes. You church is beautiful example of shared ownership in your
partnership with Mercy Housing to produce 85-units of supportive housing and a childcare
facility. You have shown great hospitality to homeless individuals and families
and those dealing with severe mental illness.
Deeply motivated by my faith, I have now had 20-years of
successful affordable housing advocacy experience that has
produced 1,000s of units of affordable housing in Pasadena, where I live. I am
moved to become involved in affordable housing advocacy for three many reasons:
1.
I started an after-school program in the 90s and
found too many students were dropping out when the got to high school because
they needed to work, or baby sit to help pay rent.
2.
I bought house in a low-income neighborhood, and as
I fixed it up, and my property values rose, some of my African American
neighbor went into foreclosure. Unknowingly I became part of the problem.
3.
And because the only thing that fights
gentrification is affordable housing, but no law requires it. It only gets
build if someone advocates for it.
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| Jill with Duane who helped the UU Church develop Carolyn Severance Manor |
After
our successful efforts as advocates, I felt the spirit move me to help train
others on how to do be effective advocates. So, in 2018 my husband and I
started a new nonprofit called Making Housing and Common Happen, of which I am
executive director. We also began a One-Year Housing Justice Institute. In January students from Texas and Colorado came for a one-week retreat to kick off the
One-Year Cohort. We toured many
affordable housing sites, including the Carolyn Severance Manor to learn from
you. We sought to understand your vision and how it happened that you came to
open you hearts and share your land with the most vulnerable of society and
partner with Mercy Housing.
Affordable housing is all about vision, belief and relationships.
Our relationship with each other, ourselves with elected officials, with
stakeholder, with partners and with the land. In our work we seek to foster the
beloved community as an antidote to the domination system.
Land
is often equated with power. In the US initially only white mail land owners
had the right to vote, who comprised only 6% of the
population. This created a divided society with male land owners playing a dominant role. Carolyn Severance, who founded
your church, fought along with Quakers such as Lucretia Mott and Susan B.
Anthony for the right of women to vote. In 1911 Carolyn Severance was the first
woman to register to vote in California. I was thrilled to learn of your
history because I am proud that my husband is a Quaker who is passionate
about social justice and shares this beautiful history.
Thankfully, today those without property can vote and be heard in
public meetings. The beloved community is created when we all participate. This
is what overcomes the domination system. I want to share two stories to
illustrate this:
Joshua Levine Grater, who
was the Rabbi at the Pasadena Temple, spoke in a public meeting saying that his
Temple had a problem. “No one in my congregation needs affordable housing. No one in in our congregation attends public
schools. No one is homeless or in financial need. Our problem is that we are isolated
from those in need.”
The second story is this:
Elizabeth House in Pasadena is a place where pregnant women who are victims of
domestic violence can find a home with protection, healing from trauma, love
and a chance to carry their children to full term. At a housing conference all
the speaker pointed to how essential it was to be an advocate or we would have
no affordable housing. I leaned over to tell the director of the Elizabeth
House sitting in front of me, “You are sitting on a gold mine!” “The power of the women’s stories must be told!”
So she found five women willing to tell
their stories. I had the joy of helping them write their amazing stories and
brought them to the Planning Commission. The Commissioner were rapt with attention
and their hearts were opened. They listened and granted our requests. These
soon-to-be mothers were amazed that their stories made such a difference.
The Jewish congregation with power recognized how
their power was preventing them from identifying with their neighbors in need, those
pregnant women seemingly without power recognized an untapped power they didn’t
know they had. MLK called this the beloved community. Together the Rabbi and
these women were breaking down the domination system.
Christianity turned the domination system upside down.
The word “dominus” has been translated “Lord” and was used to describe the
Emperor. That’s why it was considered subversive for Christians to refer to
Jesus as “dominus” or “Lord.” Jesus was not a land owner; he was a landless peasant and
his mission was to "preach good news to the poor," to cancel debts,
and the end of the domination system.
At the center of every parable, Jesus lifts the poor and most
vulnerable. In fact, the central message of every Old Testament prophet was caring
for the widow and poor. And prophets always spoke to kings and the dominant
class. As advocates we always speak to decision
makers.
Jesus often spoke of the last being first and the
first last. The apostle Paul, in 2 Cor 8 spoke of the purpose of money quoting
from the time of when the Hebrews wandered in the desert, when manna rained
from heaven. Everyone was to take only what they needed; if they took too much
the manna would rot. If they didn’t take enough, others would share. And on the
day before the Sabbath twice the amount of manna appeared so they could rest on
the Sabbath. Paul applied this passage to money, whereby if we share what we
have, everyone has enough. The stated goal was to share from our abundance to
create equality. There is enough for each other’s need, but not for our greed.
The sharing economy, book sharing, ride sharing, home
sharing, land sharing as you have done here on your land is also what my
husband Anthony have done by building tiny home in our back yard for a formerly
homeless friend. This is consistent with the Hebrew idea of sharing. God’s way
is to open our hearts and ask how to use what we have. We have a little library
where neighbors share books, and a front yard organic garden where neighbors
can enjoy the harvest. If all that we have is God’s, our cars,
our homes, our land, our hands, hearts and minds, then we have a responsibly to
share what we have in a way that lifts not just ourselves, but everyone, and
especially those most in need.
Individuals are sovereign under Roman law but in God’s
economy, everyone is accountable to God and his neighbor. If we share, we are
never alone; if we share, we always have friends; if we share, our joy and our cup
run over.
Duet 15:7 says, “If anyone is
poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your
God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward
them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.
Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and you will
receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to
make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give
will determine the amount you get back.”
Sharing what we have joyfully relates to the Hebrew understanding
of stewardship, using land and
resources in a way that cares for the environment and future generations. I am
so proud of the how affordable housing is built today. In order to obtain tax
credits, the most common funding for affordable housing, there are about 400
points that need high scores, many of which are environmental. Therefore, some
of the most environmentally sustainable housing built today is affordable
housing. In fact, there are some affordable housing projects today that are
net-zero, which means that the building itself generates as much energy as it
uses. This way of constructing housing
is asks what is best for the lower income and what is best the planet? It’s no longer a “me vs. them” mentality but a “we”.
All land in the US is based on a combination of Hebrew and Roman law—with the idea that
we own it and can do with it pretty much what we want--but we also have a
responsibility to society, so we pay property taxes to support schools and we
have to abide by various building and zoning codes that provide safely which benefit
the community. These policies are the result of hard won political and moral
struggles. Nevertheless, within these parameters we can choose to use our land
in an even more responsible and sustainable way, and also challenge the system
to be more just, as our nonprofit is doing.
When I lived in Mexico, I worked with the campesinos
who were living in “ejidos” whereby they could legally take land and have
collective ownership—community-controlled land. This idea is akin the way that
land was acquired by a community land trust to create the Carolyn Severance
Manor. With a community land trust, ownership of land is separated from ownership
of a home. You can own you home, but the land stays permanently affordable. It
cannot be part of the speculative market.
When I married Anthony seven years ago, I told him
that we will never receive the full equity from our home, that one day our home
would be placed into a community land trust. I bought my home in 1994 for
$143,000. Today is worth over $800,000. But I am happy to forgo this equity in
order to make it permanently affordable. This give me great joy. I am free to
wholehearted share what I have because I can trust God as my provider. We lack
for nothing because when we share, God rewards us for our generosity. All we have
is a gift to be shared.
There are numerous ways that land can be shared and
taken off the speculative
As a Christian, I believe that God is the ultimate
owner of everything. In a sense, we
“lease” land from God, with ethical
restrictions. Israel was organized
around the Sabbath, not just the idea of resting every seven days, but every
seven years the land was to rest, and debts forgiven and then very seven times
seven years was the Jubilee, where all land would go back to the original
owner. For example, if you were a real wheeler and dealer and knew how to
acquire a lot of land and bought it at year 45 before the year of Jubilee, it
would cost you more because you had the right to use if for 45 years. But if
you purchased land at year five before the Jubilee, it would cost you less
because you would own it for only five years. At the year of Jubilee, the value
of land would go to zero, resetting society to again provide access to land for
everyone.
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| Jill connects with Hispanic congregants |
When Jesus came on the scene in Luke 4, he proclaimed
Jubilee, the “favorable year of the Lord.” We don’t have to wait unit the 49th
year. We can practice Jubilee every day by taking land off the speculative
market and making it affordable. These healthy limits on land use was God’s way
of breaking the domination system.
I can’t think of a better way to practice Jubilee than
to create affordable housing as
you have done on your land. This breaks the
domination system. You need to shout from the root tops this Good News: invite
other churches on tours and learn from your good example. Have some of the
folks who live on this land share their stories of how this housing has transformed
their lives. Show up at public meetings
where folks here in K-Town have fought against permanent supportive housing for
homeless folks. Partner with our nonprofit to host a One-Day Housing Justice
institute and invite the churches in our area, as eight other community have
done across the US. Build upon the relationships you have to address the severe
housing crisis we are in. Stand strong for what is right with the power of your
good example. Declare that all deserve a decent home they can afford. Affordable
housing improves a community, infuses investment and beauty. Shout this good
News! Break the domination system!
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| Jill with Jack! |
More often than not, neighborhood councils and
associations have as their goal to protect the right of individual homeowners
to maximize their profits and self-interest, with low density and no duplexes, triplexes
or multifamily housing in site—exclusionary practices. You can break the domination system by calling
for a community that benefits everyone, including the “least of these.”
What would you say if someone asked you, “What does it
mean to own your home?” Would you say that you have the right to do with it
what you want? Or would you say that haven’t done much to deserve the equity
you now have and that you have a moral obligation to use what you have it to
help your neighbor?
We have learned much from Mark, our formerly homeless
friend who now lives in our back house. God has used Mark to help us slow down,
help us see and shed many of our dominating ways that prevented us from having
an equal relationship. It has not always been easy, but we would not trade this
experience. We are much better people because of Mark.
As a Christian it is my belief that Jesus died for the
forgiveness of our sins, to restore us into a right relationship with
ourselves, with others, with the land and with the One who made the land and
seas. As a Christian, I also believe that Jesus died because he challenged the
domination system, constantly confronting the authorities to become a system of
love, mercy and justice. That’s why Jesus entered the city of
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and overturned the tables of money changes, symbols of
a corrupt system. Today is Palm Sunday. I met my husband seven years ago,
during a Palm Sunday Peace Parade, celebrating the Prince of Peace. So today is
a very special day for us. It is an honor to be here with you today as we
celebrate seven years since we met. It
was a few years later that we joined the team to help organize this Parade with
a focus on housing justice.
Today All Saints Church in Pasadena carrying on this tradition and
hosting a Palm Sunday Peace Parade, celebrating the day Jesus entered Jerusalem
on a donkey to humbly challenge the domination system.
By God grace may we all find the creatively, the strength and joy
to stand firm and free ourselves from the domination
system, today and always.
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| Congregation of LA UU Church listening to Jill |
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