Have you all been as preoccupied with the events south of the border as I have been this week? From the inauguration of the 47th president to the quiet bravery of Bishop Marrian Edgar Budde, to the sweeping executive orders to the shutting down of all kinds of institutions designed to protect and serve the people. It’s all been a bit overwhelming.
We had a lively discussion in Bible Study this week, including the place of politics in a sermon and one person’s comment that some people just want to come to church to be happy and not worry about the world. My response, perhaps a rather abrupt one, was that if people expected to come to church and just be happy, and not be bothered by any of what is going on in the world, they hadn’t been listening all that closely to words of scripture. I was taught to write my sermons and reflections with a Bible in one had and a newspaper in the other, or now, it’s my tablet or computer, because they are both on the same device. I was also taught that one of the tasks of the preacher is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. I think Bishop Budde, who is now wearing a bullet proof vest, managed to do both.
Our scripture is full of examples of calling political leaders to account.
From Moses speaking to Pharaoh, to Ester saving her people, to Nathan calling out King David, to Jesus who called the Pharisees a brood of vipers and telling Pontius Pilate that he had no power over him, our scriptures are full of people who engaged with the world and sought to create the world that God imagined for us.
In our scripture reading today, according to the gospel of Luke, Jesus is at the beginning of his public ministry. He has been baptized by John and then immediately sent out into the wilderness where he grapples with the one who tempts him with wealth and power and prestige. Jesus came out from the struggle, ready to be public in his mission. Last week we explored the water into wine story from the gospel of John and how it’s a metaphor for abundance. Since then, word has been getting out and he has been preaching in various synagogues. Now he goes to his hometown synagogue and is asked to read from the holy scriptures. This is a scroll that he likely read from as he grew from childhood to adult. He knows it well. He unrolls the scroll and reveals to us a succinct outline of his purpose and the Spirit-anointed plans. In the abundance and economy of Jesus, there is Good News for those who need it most. Let’s listen to this challenging story in Luke 4: 4-11
14 Then Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding region. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
When I first read this passage on Monday, I was struck by the similarity between it and A New Creed:
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.
And as I pondered this and all that has been going on this past week, things that make me afraid, things that I almost can’t believe I am seeing, these words came to me.
Our purpose remains the same.
No matter what goes on in the world, our purpose remains the same.
Those words that Jesus read from the book of Isaiah,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
We have taken those words and summed them up in these words:
United in Faith,
Strengthened by Friendship
Building a Community of Love and Justice
Our purpose remains the same.
We watch helplessly with horror what is happening south of the border:
- Human rights being trampled over
- Civil rights being ignored
- Programs that are designed to help the most vulnerable and marginalized being swept aside.
- International aid stopped.
But we cannot be complacent that what is happening there cannot happen here. We have those same elements in Canadian society and they will be emboldened by the what is happening in the USA.
Our purpose remains the same.
United in Faith,
Strengthened by Friendship
Building a Community of Love and Justice
Some of you, perhaps most of you, are feeling overwhelmed and don’t know what to do. Sharon Salzberg, a meditation practitioner, teacher and writer, says that when she asks people what they value the most, people usually say things like fairness, honesty, generosity, honor, and compassion. They say them almost wistfully, as if they exist in their imagination or in some world to come. Yet the world we can most try to affect is the one immediately around us. She wrote, in an On Being essay entitled Your Three Feet of Influence, “Few people are powerful enough, persuasive, persistent, consistent, and charismatic enough to change the world all at once, but everyone has the ability to affect the three feet around them by behaving more ethically, honestly, and compassionately toward those they meet. https://onbeing.org/blog/sharon-salzberg-your-three-feet-of-influence/
Our purpose remains the same.
United in Faith,
Strengthened by Friendship
Building a Community of Love and Justice
No matter the circumstances. Most of us grew up with the idea of a private faith, that you didn’t talk about it outside of church. And while our faith may have informed our decisions and convictions, we wouldn’t really talk about it. Many of us grew up in times of great stability for middle class white people. Although some of you are old enough to remember WW 2. And I’m going to take heart from the fact that our country and world had lived through horrific times before now and survived. We survived because of ordinary people like you and me who did countless small acts that together made large scale acts possible.
You may have heard a version of this poem before;
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
It’s the poetic form of a 1946 post-war confessional prose by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984). It is about the silent complicity of German intellectuals and clergy following the Nazis’ rise to power and subsequent incremental purging of their chosen targets. Many variations and adaptations in the spirit of the original have been published in the English language. It deals with themes of persecution, guilt, repentance, solidarity, and personal responsibility. (Wikipaedia)
One of the first executive orders that Trump signed was about Trans people. We are an Affirming Church; up on the screen is our affirming statement. Let’s say those words together:
We MUST speak out against any dehumanizing and attempts to marginalize people who are not like us.
Perhaps you’re feeling helpless and hopeless.
Gabriel Valdez wrote this:
Part of the feeling of helplessness right now is this idea that you don’t know some big thing you can do. But why would you expect that from yourself? Do something every day. That can be something small – a call to an elected official, getting a friend to call an elected official for the first time. It can be getting in touch with a local charity or volunteer organization. It can be reaching out to someone you know is already doing work and seeing what they might need, in that work or as an ear to listen so that they can go back to that work refreshed. I want to stress this: These are all things you know how to do. These are all easy things. Remarkably easy things. Do one every day. Your job right now is not to do the big shit that changes things. A stone is not a mountain on its own. Your job is to do something small but measurable every day that ensures you are not the one being moved off your norms, that ensures you are connecting to community around you. Hope is not produced by thinking about producing hope. Hope is the result of action, small, large, doesn’t matter. Just matters that you do it. Kindness is not the result of feeling kind, it is the result of what you do that is kind. Do something kind. Do something hopeful. And then you will be kind and hopeful. That’s how it works; it’s the only way it works.
Our purpose remains the same.
United in Faith,
Strengthened by Friendship
Building a Community of Love and Justice
Are we bold enough to say that God’s spirit is upon us?
If we are, repeat after me!
God’s Spirit is upon us.
We are to bring good news to the poor…
God’s Spirit is upon us.
We are sent to proclaim liberty to the captives…
God’s Spirit is upon us.
We are sent to proclaim the recovery of sight to the blind…
God’s Spirit is upon us.
We are sent to free the oppressed.
God’s Spirit is upon us!
Thanks be to God, amen!
My Window on God's World 