On Graduation

Bob Dylan once sung, "When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose."

It may not be the first song lyric to come to mind while families cheer their beloved graduates. No, it may not come to mind as warm-hearted children bring breakfast in bed to their moms on Mother's Day. But still, it seems appropriate for the mood Kristen Holm may be in as she marks her final day in prison.

She has served two months for committing civil disobedience at Ft. Benning, GA last November 23. On day 59, could she be comparing her friends graduation at the Lutheran School of Theology with the graduation of so many from the School of Assassins?

She has placed herself amidst the bent-over, broken down of America's Prison system. In the cracks, in the interstices of reality, the view of the chosen people comes clear. Afterall, it is the prisoner who Jesus has blessed, the meek, the discomfited, they shall be made free. How? By God taking the form of a slave.

Some logic. Not exactly extracurricular entertainment. Not exactly a spring break to Cancun. No, serving time with the oppressed takes a mind with a different song lyric, that is, quite definitely the discovery: "When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose." No jail time can take away Kristen's divine obedience, nor any government stifle such love.

The cry of the poor cannot be quelled by a passafire, but a danger remains. For the engines of capitalism have their own alluring sirens. A great competition for our ears ensues. We who attend the banquets of our masters should never pretend that we have more capacity than the millions before. Those who went mad with lust for honors and greed, first became enchanted at the good that they could do. So I implore us, please, let us stop our ears with bees wax. Or if we trust our communities, then let us be bound by stiff ropes to the center mast so that we can still hear the beauty of the siren, yet not be moved to its machination and death. We must sail on.

We have a purpose, a mission, a destination--it is to graduate from small mindedness and proclaim the Gospel of Jubilee. Like Kristen, we can do no better than attend to the cry of the poor.