AND THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN

Gordon E. Ellis
October 17, 2004

AND THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN

It’s strange: when we’re little, we learn the story about the tumbling DOWN of the walls of Jericho, and THEN, we almost NEVER hear that story AGAIN. And you probably wouldn’t be hearing about it today EITHER, IF it weren’t for an experience that Diane and I had in ECUADOR, sort of a MODERN-DAY version of the story.

Well, before I tell you what happened, I need to give you some BACKGROUND. 25 years ago, GUASMO, the section of Guayaquil where we lived and worked with the POOR, was a large, abandoned HACIENDA (or RANCH). And the POOR began SETTLING on this hacienda as SQUATTERS. They didn’t OWN the land, but they made their homes there, hoping that no one would chase them OFF. And SO, for 25 years now, the poor have lived in this place with very FEW of the BASIC services that WE take for GRANTED. Most of them DO have city WATER now, a FEW of their streets are paved, and there IS bus service connecting them with the REST of the city. They DON’T, however, have any kind of SEWER system. And SO, running in front of EVERYONE’S house, up and down the streets, are these STREAMS of water, contaminated with RAW sewage. They are GREEN and GROSS and filled with LITTER. And they STINK. The kids BALLS invariably go IN them, and the kids take the balls out and PLAY with them. And during the RAINY season, between January and April, these streams often overflow their banks and FLOOD the STREETS, and VERY often the HOMES and businesses. CONSEQUENTLY, not only are the clean-up and replacement costs OUTRAGEOUS for these extremely POOR people -- who have never HEARD of insurance and couldn’t AFFORD it if they HAD -- but the level of DISEASE is ALARMING, especially among children. 94% of the 400,000 people living in Guasmo suffer from SOME degree of malnutrition. 16% have PARASITES. 10% are exposed to DENGUE fever. 10% suffer from Cholera. 7% contract TYPHOID. And 2% have tuberculosis.

Well recently, all the utilities in Ecuador were PRIVATIZED. The Ecuadorian government SOLD them to private firms. And a company called INTERAGUA bought the rights to maintain and develop the water and sewer systems in the city of Guayaquil. And just before we GOT there in August, Interagua and city of Guayaquil released a 10-year PLAN for expanding city’s sewer system. SADLY, however, 70% of the city’s population, ALL of the city’s POOR -- INCLUDING Guasmo -- were LEFT OUT of this plan. It’s as IF they are INVISIBLE people, as I talked about a few weeks ago. Well, as you can imagine, this didn’t SETTLE very well with the families that we LIVE and WORK with in Guasmo. SO, they decided that, GIVEN the amount of PRESS that they receive when the North Americans come in August, they would ask US to JOIN them in a CIVIL DEMONSTRATION, INSISTING that the city and Interagua include GUASMO in their 10-year PLAN. Well, I was NERVOUS, because that’s something you just DON’T DO in Mexico (join a MARCH or a demonstration), but it’s apparently it’s OK to do in Ecuador. And as SOON as we agreed to JOIN them, the press went WILD. And THAT’S WHY, as I told you a few weeks ago, THEIR version of the TODAY SHOW -- or Good Morning, Ecuador – came to OUR worksite in Guasmo and broadcast their ENTIRE morning show from THERE. And WHAT great FUN!

They came with big TRUCKS, LOTS of police in riot gear, TV CAMERAS, and what turned out to be a NUMBER of Ecuadorian celebrities. There were balloons, famous singers and dancers, and LOTS of interviews, both of Ecuadorians -- rich and poor -- AND of people from the United States, from OUR group. And the families WE stayed with SURE were EXCITED to be part of it, and to SEE, face-to-face, all these celebrities whom they’d only seen on TV. MOST of our families actually took the day from work, which meant losing a day’s pay (which is $4 or $5) for this BROADCAST, AND for the civil DEMONSTRATION which followed.

Well, they weren’t even done BROADCASTING when it came time for us to board city buses and head to downtown Guayaquil for the demonstration. We were to start at a PARK and walk for 3 miles down a busy street and into the courtyard of City Hall. Well, I was AMAZED! About 1000 people participated in this march. A couple of them were on STILTS. SOME were school children. MANY in the crowd, including US, wore sandwich signs with very moving pictures of Guasmo NEXT to SIMILAR scenes, like children playing, from some of the RICHER neighborhoods in the city. There were people banging DRUMS. EVERYBODY was shouting, ALCANTARILLADO, their word for sewers. And at the very FRONT of the march were 3 DONKEY carts, ALL of them FILLED with children wearing CROWNS with CROSSES on top and carrying quotations from the Bible. And in the LEAD donkey cart was a little boy, named Gabriel, BLOWING a trumpet from the beginning of the march to the end. THAT’S right: it was just like the HEBREWS as they encircled the city of JERICHO blowing their trumpets. And that was NOT by accident. You see: MANY of these POOR people in ECUADOR are like the POOR people we meet in MEXICO. They are VERY faithful Christians. And they SEE themselves as trying to BREAK DOWN walls, which are not UNLIKE the walls of JERICHO. And SO, they put little GABRIEL and his trumpet at the very BEGINNING of the march, with a THOUSAND people following after. And we stopped TRAFFIC! We had thousands upon thousands of people WATCHING us from the sidewalks and from windows overhead. And we CERTAINLY got the attention of City Hall.

In fact, it didn’t take very LONG before MANY of us were LED into the chambers of the MAYOR. HE and representatives from Interagua sat at a table facing us, and the Ecuadorian POOR were allowed to state their case. Now, I don’t speak SPANISH, but I can TELL an eloquent and moving speech when I HEAR one, EVEN if it’s in a different language. And these POOR Ecuadorians, MANY of whom can’t even READ or write, were EXTREMELY eloquent. They had their FACTS together. They had PICTURES and GRAPHS to show. And they had COPIES of their arguments to leave for EVERYONE. And WHEN they were finished, the Mayor leaned over for a few moments and talked with the executives from Interagua. And THEN, he announced that it WOULD be done, JUST as people WISHED. They would begin building a SEWER system in Guasmo THIS very October, and be FINISHED by the END of 2006. Well friends: you SHOULD have HEARD all the CHEERING! And you should have SEEN all the HUGGING! And YOU should have WITNESSED all the TEARS of JOY in that room, AND amongst those OUTSIDE when THEY heard the news! Yes, those poor folk from Guasmo were just BLOWN away, AS I SUSPECT the Hebrews were when the WALLS of Jericho began TUMBLING down before them, JUST as God had promised!

After all: would YOU have believed it if GOD had said to YOU: just MARCH around Jericho 7 times and BLOW your trumpets, and on the 7^th day the WALLS will all FALL down before you? Of COURSE not! And neither would I! But, THAT’S exactly what happened! And friends, it happened AGAIN in Guayaquil, Ecuador on August 11^th, 2004, the day Diane and I celebrated our 31^st wedding anniversary. And it’s an anniversary that we will NEVER forget. JUST to SEE the JOY and the AWE on the faces of those desperately POOR people with whom we had LIVED and worked, and whom we had GROWN to LOVE. Well, let’s just say: it was an anniversary GIFT like NO other we’ve EVER received! Actually, there WAS one MORE, that VERY same day, but I’ll have to tell you about THAT one in ANOTHER sermon.

But, it was GREAT! Their civil demonstration WORKED! And for ME, and THEM too, it was a LESSON in community organizing. It was an EXAMPLE of the STRENGTH of people UNITED in a common cause, following a BIBLICAL mandate to bring JUSTICE to the poor. And friends: it was a MIRACLE if I EVER saw one!

BUT, there is ONE thing MORE. AS we were leaving City Hall that morning, one of the Ecuadorian leaders said to a FEW of us from the United States: We could NOT have done it WITHOUT you. And SAD to say: he was RIGHT. In fact, the very NEXT day on the news there was ANOTHER story about ANOTHER group from ANOTHER barrio having ANOTHER civil demonstration for sewers in THEIR neighborhood, just like WE had done. Only THIS time, the POLICE came in violently, and it turned VERY ugly very quickly. So, it WAS TRUE that LIKE the adultress in our Scripture Lesson, who WOULD have been STONED to DEATH had it NOT been for JESUS, those Ecuadorian poor NEEDED someone to stand in solidarity WITH them, someone who would be taken SERIOUSLY, someone NOT invisible. And friends, there’s a LESSON in that. We, as Christians, NEED to make it our MISSION to STAND in solidarity with the VULNERABLE, with the POWERLESS, with the INVISIBLE, and with the OPPRESSED, WHEREVER they are. Maybe it’s a KID at school getting BULLIED or ostracized. Maybe it’s a homeless person right here in Southington (and believe me, there ARE some. They found some living in an abandoned building right downtown here recently). Maybe it’s poor children statewide who lack EQUAL access to educational opportunities. Maybe it’s the growing number of people in this country who can no longer afford health insurance. Their number now equals the populations of Oregon, Washington and California. Maybe it’s INDIGENOUS, 3^rd world people in Latin America or elsewhere, who just keep getting poorer and poorer, losing their home, their land, and their livelihood because of GLOBALIZATION and the GREED, GLUTTONY and SELF-CENTEREDNESS of people in the United States and OTHER first-world countries. Yes, LIKE Jesus, WE need to STAND in solidarity with the powerless and the vulnerable, the invisible and the oppressed.

And WHEN we do, God WILL work THROUGH us, and miracles WILL happen, both right HERE, AND around the globe. You watch and see! Very HIGH, thick, and MIGHTY walls WILL come TUMBLING down before US, JUST as they did in Jericho, AND in Ecuador. Thanks be to God. Amen.