My favorite candy in the entire world is a Snickers bar – not the almond variety but the original, with peanuts, caramel, and chocolate. But I will no longer be eating my beloved Snickers or M&M’s or any other Mars product for a while.
A CBS investigation revealed that child labor is at the heart of the harvesting of cocoa, the vital ingredient for chocolate (watch here). Children as young as six are effectively forced on plantations to use machetes half their height to cut the cocoa needed for our chocolate delights. They earn very little and are not permitted to go to school by Mars that owns the plantations; the poverty-stricken families of the children are desperate and therefore powerless to do anything about a practice many thought was a thing of the past but, sadly, is not.
When we think of Advent, we think of a child – a Christ child – lying beloved in a manger with an eager and joyful audience of parents and assorted animals and angels. That is one image.
Another image promised throughout the Hebrew scriptures is a Messiah of reversal. Isaiah 9:4 speaks of a child who would come to break the yoke of unjust burdens. This is what Jesus came – and comes to do: break the yoke of unjust burdens, especially with children, and to turn our expectations upside down for how things should be. It’s why we call it “surprising hope” as we light the first Advent candle this Sunday. Jesus comes as Messiah and advocate for those we may not otherwise see – like victims of child labor on cocoa plantations. I look forward to this season of Jesus’ promised coming, even if it means leaving Snickers out of my stocking.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
