The week began on Monday with some snow left over from
the day before. As I looked outside at
my road and watched the Western North Carolina Road Warriors news feed fill up
with reports of bad road conditions I was perplexed at why School had not been
canceled for the day. Then, it dawned on
me. School was out for the day because
we were celebrating and remembering the life and legacy of Martin Luther King
Junior. Martin Luther King Junior is
probably most well known for his “I Have a Dream Speech” in which he laid out a
dream for an America who truly lived out the values laid forth in its founding
documents to be a country where “all (emphasis mine) persons
(changed to be gender inclusive) would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. “Typically, on MLK day my Facebook
feed is filled with quotes and memes celebrating his ministry, but this day news
of the inauguration of our 47th president filled the news
feeds.
The following morning the world got to know Bishop
Mariann Edgar Budde as she presided over the inaugural prayer service at the
National Cathedral where President Trump and Vice President Vance had a front
row seat. Most of us probably did not
know that name prior to Tuesday morning.
Now, the whole world knows her name.
More importantly the whole world knows the mission of the universal kingdom
of God: The mission of justice and
mercy.
We also had a week full of executive orders that have
created anxiety and fear for many. The
reversal of protections for the LGBTQ community, the plan for mass deportations
of undocumented immigrants, the withdrawal of our country from the World Health
Organization and from the Paris Treaty for Climate control, the reversal of a
bill that was designed to reduce the cost of prescription drug medicines for
Medicare and Medicaid patients, and the lists goes on. An order to end Diversity,
Equity, and Inclusion initiatives in our Federal Government, which was followed
by major corporations following suit by rolling back their DEI
initiatives. Companies began rolling
these back after the election in November.
Companies like Amazon, Meta, Wal-Mart, John Deere, Harley Davidson,
McDonalds, Ford, Toyota and most recently, this week, Target. What all these things have in common is they
do harm to our most vulnerable siblings.
So, we come into this space this morning carrying the
weight of all that has happened this week.
We come into this space concerned for our family members. We come into this space worried about our
friends. We come into this space feeling
overwhelmed by the weight of it all, not knowing where to start, how to act,
what to even say.
So, before I jump into the gospel text this morning, I
want to pause to shine a light on our psalm for today. Tuesday morning, I was spending my quiet
time, reading a reflection of this Psalm that was written by Rev. Andi I.
Emmanuel, the senior pastor of the United Methodist Church Aniakiya Mayodassa
Jalingo. She is an elder of the Southern
Nigeria Annual Conference and was the author of this week’s devotional pieces
in the Upper Room’s publication The Disciplines. As she reflects on Psalm 19, she begins by
recognizing that “governments around the world fail to support and protect the
very persons they are intended to serve.”[1] She then poses the question of where we are
to go to find peace and to thrive.? She
then proposes that Psalm 19 “offers a greater hope in finding a place of joy, happiness,
and peace amidst the world’s brokenness.
I want to lead you to such a place this morning and so I offer to you
again a reading of Psalm 19. I invite
you to close your eyes and imagine the scenery that is painted for you through
the words of this psalm. I am reading
from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the Psalm in The Message:
1-2 God’s
glory is on tour in the skies,
God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
Professor Night lectures each evening.
3-4 Their
words aren’t heard,
their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth:
unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
4-5 God
makes a huge dome
for the sun—a superdome!
The morning sun’s a new husband
leaping from his honeymoon bed,
The daybreaking sun an athlete
racing to the tape.
6 That’s
how God’s Word vaults across the skies
from sunrise to sunset,
Melting ice, scorching deserts,
warming hearts to faith.
7-9 The
revelation of God is whole
and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear
and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right,
showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain
and easy on the eyes.
God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold,
with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate
down to the nth degree.
10 God’s
Word is better than a diamond,
better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring,
better than red, ripe strawberries.
There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger
and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way?
Or know when we play the fool?
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
Keep me from stupid sins,
from thinking I can take over your work;
Then I can start this day sun-washed,
scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.
These are the words in my mouth;
these are what I chew on and pray.
Accept them when I place them
on the morning altar,
O God, my Altar-Rock,
God, Priest-of-My-Altar.[2]
In this Psalm Pastor Emmanuel hears the psalmist extol
all of creation as the place where we can hear the powerful voice of God
revealed. I have recently discovered a
podcaster that you may have heard of, Mel Robbins. Mel Robbins is an award-winning author and motivational
speaker about change.[3] One of the podcasts I listened to this week
outlined 6 morning routine systems that are good for change. One of those items was to get outside first
thing and expose yourself to the sunlight.
She recognizes through research that the sun is very essential to our
wellbeing. I know for me that when I go
out into nature, that is one place that I am certain of the existence of a
divine creator. It is the same
everywhere in the world. When I walk out
under the night sky and look at the stars, I know that my friends across the
country and the world are walking underneath that same big tent that contains
all of humanity. I find great comfort,
peace and joy watching the sunrise or the sunset, watching the mountains rise
on the horizon, walking under a canopy of trees, or standing at the edge of the
ocean watching the waves come in together.
It calms me. It gives me a quiet
place to pause, rest, be renewed in God’s presence. So, friends I commend this psalm to you today
and the practice of getting outside and finding the peace of God in the midst
of creation. In doing so you become
refreshed, renewed, and refueled and you are going to need that to live into
the mission Jesus proclaims to you today.
Today, we continue our post epiphany sermon
series: Jesus revealed, as we
journey through the stories of Jesus’ ministry as told by the Gospel of
Luke. The passage of scripture you heard
this morning begins with the statement “Jesus returned in the power of the
Spirit to Galilee and news about him spread throughout the whole
countryside. He taught in their
synagogues and was praised by everyone. “This one little verse poses
questions? What is meant by returning in
the power of the spirit and where is he returning from. If we travel back in our memories to Jesus’ baptism,
we recall that the spirit descended on him like a dove. The spirit is that divine spirit and the
spirit plays a vital role in the Old Testament scriptures where it is present
in the creation and is present with Kings and prophets throughout the narrative
of Israel. That spirit has power and
that power is used in many ways. It was
that spirit that drove Jesus in the wilderness.
The lectionary has skipped that story for now, waiting to yield the
stage to it during Lent, but it is important for us to know that is from where
Jesus is returning. He has spent 40 days
in the wilderness, being prepared by that spirit for his mission and it is in
the passage of scripture today that Jesus reveals that mission to us in the
context of reading scripture in the synagogue, “as was his custom.”
This morning as we prepared for worship, we remembered
the ways in which we are accustomed to enter a time of gathering and
worship. This narrative tells us that
it was Jesus’ custom to worship in the synagogue. This sets an example for us, who want to
follow Jesus. We need each other. We need to hear scripture read and
proclaimed. We need to build each other
up. We need to stand collectively in the
presence of the divine. Much like being
in creation refreshes and refuels us, being together to worship should (emphasis
mine) refresh and refuel us and give us companions for the journey. Now, rest assured, I understand that many in
our world have experienced the opposite in worship spaces. They have experienced shame and guilt; they
have experienced abuse and exclusion.
They have been told they are not enough.
I lament that the institution of church has become so distorted from
what it was intended to be.
For those of
you here in person today, it is my hope that your presence here means you have
found a place of worship where a clear message has been given, that you are
beloved and that you are enough. It is
my prayer that your presence here today means that you have found a place of
worship where you have found companions for the spiritual journey who lift you
up and who see you.
For those of you watching from home: Some of you are home wishing you could be
here but your health or work or other obligations prevent that. For you it is my prayer that you still feel
connected to this body and know that you have companions for the journey. Some of you are home because being in a
church building triggers trauma you have experienced at the hands of
church. For you I pray that this virtual
space brings you comfort and helps you along your journey of faith. Know that we see you and we understand that
dilemma. Know that we desire to partner
with you and provide companionship in your journey. I would invite you to reach out to us through
our website or Facebook page and let’s have a conversation about the kind of
setting you would be comfortable in. We
want to care for you. You are not
alone.
So, worship refreshes and refuels us to be prepared to
act out the mission of Jesus in this world.
Just what is that mission? Jesus
reveals it to us in the verses that follow.
Jesus is handed the scroll containing the words of Isaiah the prophet
and he reads parts of two different sections from that scroll. It reads like this:
18 The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, (there is that spirit again)
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to liberate the oppressed,
19 and to proclaim the year
of the Lord’s favor.[a]
20 He
rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the synagogue assistant, and sat down.
Every eye in the synagogue was fixed on him. 21 He
began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just
as you heard it.”[4]
Again, we have the anointing and action of the spirit
upon Jesus. The mission Jesus has been
prepared for is to turn the status quo upside down shining a light upon the
poor to give the poor, the left out, the marginalized, the forgotten, the
abused, the misunderstood good news. The
final thing he says is to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor which is an
allusion to Leviticus 25 where the year of Jubilee is announced. It is during the year of Jubilee, which was
to happen every 50 years, that debts were forgiven, land was returned to its
original owner and slaves were set free.
In other words, the chains of oppression in the forms of the other
things Jesus mentioned, poverty, unjust imprisonment, blindness to the truth
were broken and Jesus is saying my mission is not to make this an every 50-year
occurrence but to make this the norm.
Let’s talk about the recovery of sight to the
blind. Perhaps, like me, when you have
read this, you have always thought of physical blindness. However, as I read all of this together, I
now believe Jesus was speaking to the blindness of the truth. I believe Jesus recognized how skewed
humanity’s vision had become. He came
to speak truth into this world and to recover our skewed sight. One only has to peruse Facebook’s various
posts and comments to know a lot of us are walking around with skewed vision,
having believed the rhetoric of our society.
Many people look at the most vulnerable among us as a threat, as the
other, as invaluable, as pervsions, as burdens on society….the list could go
on. Humanity looks at one another and
sees these things rather than seeing the truth that each person walking the
face of this earth was created by God in God’s very image just as they
are. Jesus comes to recover their
sight. This is Jesus’ mission revealed
first to those people in the Synagogue in Nazareth that day, then to all those
who would choose to follow him. If we
are to be followers of Jesus Christ, we must also follow the mission of
Jesus Christ and today this is as important as it has ever been.
To proclaim is to speak up on behalf of those whose
voices are not heard. It is to use the privilege
we have in this world to make a difference on behalf of the oppressed. The Greek word that is translated Proclaim
here is euangelizō . It is the
word that leads to our word evangelize.
It literally means to announce.
The English dictionary defines proclaim to declare publicly, typically
insistently, proudly, or defiantly. Many
people translate this verb as preaching but I think it goes far beyond preaching. Jesus comes to declare insistently, proudly,
publicly, good news to the poor and what does this good news mean for
them. It means breaking the chains of
oppression. It means freedom and
liberation.
The lectionary readings this week include a reading
from the 12th chapter of Corinthians. Paul is writing the Corinthians to address
concerns about division in their faith community. As part of that letter, he reminds them that they
are one body and they are a diverse body, each having varying gifts they bring
to the table. He also exhorts they are
to care for one another. The CEB puts it
this way: “God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the part with
less honor so that there won’t be division in the body and so the parts might
have mutual concern for each other. If
one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part gets the glory, all
the parts celebrate with it. “We saw Jesus celebrate at the wedding banquet,
turning water in the wine. Now we see
his example of caring for those who suffer or as another translation puts it as
they struggle.
Friends people are struggling today. Perhaps some of you are struggling. IF we are to follow the mission of Jesus
Christ that has been revealed to us, we are to use our voices to announce God’s
mission loudly and maybe sometimes defiantly, that the chains of oppression
have got to be broken! I pray for the
day that those who have been blinded by fear, misinformation, hatred, and
misuse of scripture, will have their sight restored. Only when that happens, will the oppressed be
set free. We must be educators. We must be educated. We must be safe harbors. We must live fully into our mission here at
Mars Hill United Methodist Church, to be fully inclusive in this place where
all does mean ALL.
Martin Luther
King Junior had a dream that one day his “four little children would live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the
content of their character.”[5] I share in this
dream. I also have a dream that one day
my 4 adult children and my 2 little grandchildren will live in a nation where
they are not judged by their sexuality, their gender expression, or their
disabilities. That they will be seen for the beautiful wonderful human beings
God created them to be. I have a dream that they will live in a nation
that cares about their health and that healthcare and needed medications are
available to them. I have a dream that
they will live in a nation who cares deeply about it’s neighbors and builds
extensions to their tables and bridges across the border lines rather than walls.
I have a dream that they will live in a nation that cares about the environment
and preserves this beautiful creation that God has gifted humanity. I have
a dream that the mission of Jesus Christ will be picked up and carried and that
the chains of oppression all over not just this nation but this world are
broken.
This week a phenomenal thing happened. The message of God’s mission of Justice and
Mercy was spread worldwide when Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde addressed the
inaugural prayer service at the national Cathedral. She gently and humbly with great courage
asked our President to use his leadership 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 labor
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 neighbors. 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 honor 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 in this nation and the world.” [6]
While her
message may have fallen on some deaf ears and outraged others, it spread world
wide and I have seen people who haven’t stepped foot in a church for ages,
embrace and share her message. She proclaimed
the word of Jesus Christ that day with courage and with dignity. May we show that same courage today and as we
go into our own time of prayer together today may we join in her pleas, in her
prayer. May it be so.
[1] Emmanuel,
Rev. Ande I. “Joy Amidst Grief.” Essay. In The Upper Room Disciplines 2025,
38–38. Nashville, TN: Upper Room Books, 2024.
[2] Peterson,
Eugene, The Message Paraphrase of the Bible, (Navpress, 2009) Psalm 19
[3] https://www.melrobbins.com/ last
accessed 1-25-2025 at 10:00 PM
[4] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%204%3A18-21&version=CEB
last accessed 1/25/2025
[5] King,
Martin Luther Jr. “I have a Dream Speech” accessed at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/16/i-have-a-dream-speech-text-martin-luther-king-jr_n_1207734.html
last accessed 1-25-2025
