I do not normally use all of the lectionary readings set for any given Sunday, but I have had to make an exception this week.
With global events, President Trump signing executive orders
to begin fulfilling his manifesto promises, proclaiming good news for the rich
who will pay less tax, proclaiming freedom to the January 6th
insurrectionists, recovery of medical insurance companies so people will not
see affordable healthcare, to oppress the free and proclaim 4 years of the
same. Elon Musk, one of the world’s wealthiest people who could help end
poverty and starvation, giving a salute to the crowds which needed to be
blurred out when the footage was shown in Germany, Austria and Australia.
Bishop Marrian Budde who delivered a gentle but challenging
message to President Trump only to receive death threats from Christians in the
US.
Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day where we remember not
only the holocaust but also each of the baby steps of bigotry, hatred and
prejudice which people ignored and accepted which lead to it happening, not
just to Jews but other ethnic groups and disabled people all to make a country
great again, these readings shine out so brightly that, to me at least, the
message seems clear.
Diversity and inclusion are not optional in God’s kingdom.
We hear Jesus’ manifesto.
After teaching in every synagogue in the area and Jesus arrived
home a bit of a celebrity.
In that Nazareth synagogue, He is given the scroll of Isaiah
written to God’s chosen people, telling them that even though they will be
exiled, the exile will come to an end, and they will have salvation! He reads
out the words which we have heard and sits down. Simple enough, but then he
starts preaching and things get…. interesting. But I am getting ahead of
myself. He reads, then sits and says, “This scripture is fulfilled in your
hearing.”
“God’s spirit is with me, I have been chosen to tell the
poor good news, proclaim freedom to prisoners, help the blind to see and free
the oppressed. This is God’s year!” says Isaiah and Jesus says, all of that is
now!
Jesus is, in that time and place, making the scripture real
in the presence of the people. Fulfilling a promise made by God centuries
before to the Hebrew people exiled in Babylon. The passage coming at the end of
a long section where the prophet laid out how God was going to save his people
and bless them.
Jesus was bringing the people back around to one of God’s
ancient promises of salvation, a promise of salvation which was far bigger than
simple freedom.
Fulfilled in their hearing because he is God’s Chosen
one.
Everyone is happy, at first, but they’ve heard of the
amazing stuff that Jesus has been up to elsewhere. This reading continues in
next week’s lectionary, however, considering current events, I feel it is
important to consider what came next.
The crowds are thinking “He’s done great things, but now
he’s back in his hometown, he must have something REALLY special for us. He’s
one of us, so he knows we are better than the rest of them!”
“You know, I always liked that young man!”
“His mother brought him up very well, you know, considering he was almost born
before the wedding if you know what I mean” “He was always so well behaved in
class, knew his Bible better than any of the other boys his age he did” “I
bought one of his tables almost 10 years ago now and it still looks like new,
those are the hands of a true craftsman” “How lovely of him to say that day of
the Lord’s favour is here for us!”
With a sigh Jesus points them to the true meaning of the
words he said, and they are so annoyed they try and kill him.
He say’s “You want me to do here what I did in Capernaum? No
one wants to hear a prophet’s message in their hometown. Israel had widows a
plenty but God sent Elijah to Sidon, there were loads of people with leprosy in
Israel, but God had Elisha heal Naaman the Syrian commander.”
The love of God, the year of God’s favour was for everyone
not just them, and I think he was saying, YOU care for the widows here,
YOU care for the sick here, YOU welcome the outcast here, YOU show mercy on the
oppressed here. YOU do the kindness, justice and mercy which God has commanded
you to do here, you are God’s people, and YOU are God’s favour.
Jesus was saying that they were expected to share the
blessings that where coming? With actual poor people? With prisoners? With
disabled people? With the oppressed? With…with…. foreigners? With people of
different faiths?
But that’s just it, though, God’s blessing, Jesus,
is available to all, and those who are blessed are to be a blessing, when you
can help, do so.
Now, Nehemiah, I think is another mirror held up to the
world of today.
God’s people have recently returned to the city of Jerusalem
having left Exile in Babylon.
The politician (Nehemiah) and the Priest (Ezra) had led the
people home to rebuild Jerusalem’s city and walls and to make Jerusalem great
again! Repairing the damage done by foreigners who had sacked the city and
taken the people.
Nehemiah gathered the people, and the priest Ezra read to
them from the book of the law and interpreted it for them. God’s people were
home! Not only the families of the Hebrews who had gone off to Babylon some 50
or 60 years earlier but also foreigners who had come to follow God and Eunuchs
as well who had come with them from Babylon.
God was rebuilding his people who would serve as a blessing
and an example to others.
This all seems great, the people of God, back in the
promised land, with, at its centre, The BOOK OF THE LAW being the first 5 books
of the Hebrew Bible, detailing how God had loved the slaves in Egypt and saved
them making them his people, how they were commanded to love and care for each
other, giving special concern to the foreigners among them as they themselves
had been foreigners in Egypt, how they were to give hospitality to those in
need. You know the stuff, don’t lie, cheat or steal, don’t accuse people and
don’t murder. Basically, love God with every fibre of your being and love your
neighbours as you love yourself.
Before Ezra had even started reading this, the divisions
began, Nehemiah had looked through the list of families and those whose names
were not among those of the original exiles, were barred from taking part in
worship. Later, lists were made, people began to say to those with no family
links to the original families of Hebrews exiled “You cannot take part. You are
not of the people.” People married to foreigners were told their marriage was a
sin, no Jew was able to marry a non-Jew.
God blessed the people, not to make them better than
everyone else, he blessed them so that they would be a blessing to others. It
was a message given and forgotten time and again.
God through Isaiah told people to widen their tents, to make
space to welcome more people whom God was calling.
Isaiah records Gods promise to returning Jews and to the
foreigners and eunuchs who were leaving Babylon for Jerusalem with them.
Isaiah 54:1-2
Sing, O barren one who did not bear;
burst into song and shout,
you who have not been in labour!
For the children of the desolate woman will be more
than the children of her that is
married, says the Lord.
2
Enlarge the site of your tent,
and let the curtains of your
habitations be stretched out;
do not hold back; lengthen your cords
and strengthen your stakes.
Isaiah 56:3-5
For you will spread out to the right and to the left,
and your descendants will possess
the nations
and will settle the desolate towns.
Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me
from his people”;
and do not let the eunuch say,
“I am just a dry tree.”
4
For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
5
I will give, in my house and within my walls,
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.
Not long after all these people returned to Jerusalem,
Nehemiah and Ezra and the rest of the Jewish people began to push these people
back to the margins, their names were not in the lists of the families of the
Hebrews and so they could not take part in the inheritance.
Then we have Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, to a new
church community of between 40 and 150 people.
This was no MEGA church, but a small community, made of rich
and poor, slave and free, Jews and Gentiles. But this was a community of
baptized Christians, so surely, they were joined together in love and unity and
each was concerned with lifting each other up in much the same way as the
members of the trinity lift each other? Well, no. The rich thought they were
more important because they were blessed, the Jews thought they were more
important because they were first, the free thought they were more important
because of their freedom, and so on and so on.
So Paul’s letter is banging their heads together and telling
them to pack it in!
You are all body parts! He cries. You don’t see a foot
hopping around on its own and you don’t see an eye rolling around with no head
to sit in! Likewise, ears don’t see, eyes don’t sniff, hands don’t walk when
the feet are there to do it. You ALL need each other and you should all help
each other.
If you are rich, great give some to the poor among you, if
you are a Jew, tell the non-Jews the wonderful stories of God you have known
from childhood, if you have shelter then provide sanctuary. These blessings are
God’s own and are to be shared. If your neighbour is hungry then so are you
make a meal and share it with them. It’s not rocket surgery; it is mercy and it
is that simple.
I think this is one of the many reasons why I’m not a Bishop.
How Bishop Budde kept their composure while delivering that heartfelt plea, I
have no idea. When I hear of how people are treating each other and I am filled
with rage. I hear of how people are vilifying, ostracizing, othering, pushing
people to the margins, excluding people, excusing bigotry, oppression,
prejudice and racism, normalizing extremist and far right views, inching,
walking and even running down the well-trod path which happened in the 1940s
and I want to scream! I think of the holocaust exhibit I visited earlier this
month and see events from it mirrored in the present and it makes my blood boil.
Bishop Budde was able to contain her rage, and delivered a
grace filled, gentle and compassionate sermon to the most powerful man in the
world, imploring him to have mercy and share the blessings God has given. It
was a message for him, but also, for each one of us.
“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have
put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the
providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have
mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian
and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families,
some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops and clean our
office buildings; who labour in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash
the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals.
They…may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast
majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbours.
They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras
and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our
communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that
you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to
find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful
to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us
the strength and courage to honour the dignity of every human being, to speak
the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God
for the good of all people. Good of all people in this nation and the world.
Amen”
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