Epiphany 3 – 26 January 2025
26 January 2025
Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope
In the past week the media focus was on the swearing ceremony of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the US. During the national prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde called Donald Trump directly to his face during the sermon urging him to find compassion and mercy. She spoke truth to the power.
She noted, “I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared. There are gay, lesbian, transgender children, Democratic, Republican, 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 meatpacking 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,” she added.
Bishop Budd proclaimed the good news to the vulnerable people in America while the political power forces people into captivity. In the aftermath, Trump demands an apology from Bishop Budd for the sermon.
Our readings today tell us that Ezra the priest, Paul the Apostle and Jesus the Christ fed the people with a word from God. The word refreshed and challenged the people. All three of them believed that the word had power to enliven the people.
In our collect today we prayed: God of all mercy, your Son brought good news to the despairing, freedom to the oppressed and joy to the sad. Fill us with your spirit that the people of our day may see in us his likeness and glorify your name.
The collect reminds Christ’s mission to us. Jesus repeated prophet Isaiah’s words: “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 let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
When we hear these words, the Spirit of God in us disturb us and many other Christians. We must be aware that the words Jesus read from Isaiah refers to the economically poor. They are the ones rallied around Jesus as they needed release from their captivity.
These words resonate with the Magnificat. Mary responded to the angelic message saying, God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. The Magnificat, the journey to Bethlehem and shelter in cattle shed indicate the economic state of Mary and Joseph. More often, the context of the scripture is ignored or forgotten.
We hear the passage from Luke every three years as our Gospel. So, it is around the world with the churches that use the common lectionary. How does it make sense to us now? How does the words enliven us?
The New York Times columnist David French wrote: “Serving the poor is one of the purest forms of religious service that exists. It is mandated or endorsed in more than 2000 passages in scripture. It is also one of the most ancient manifestations of Christian service and identity.”
French places the Christian responsibility to the people clearly. He correctly says that it is the most ancient manifestations of Christian service and identity. The practice began with Judaism continues in Christianity. Muslims and Sikh communities also follow the practice.
Let’s look at our own context. 220 plus years of the gospel being preached in Aotearoa has not liberated the captives. In fact, more people are made captive. Why do I say it? Those who are 70 years or older can compare the economic state of this country in the 1960s to 1980 with what is happening today. In the 1970s an average wage earner was able to work 40 hours a week, and support a family and own a home. Is that possible in the last 25 years? I know people doing two fulltime jobs to make their ends meet. Many are captive to financial debt with mortgages and outstanding bills.
The consequence is, more people turn up at Church’s mission. City Missions and other missions are not solving the problem. The reality is the missions are struggling to find the resources to meet the demands.
Jesus’ mission of ‘good news to the poor and release to the captives’ has not fully happened, or rather more people go into captivity.
If we have food, clothes, and a roof over our heads where we can rest, we are not poor. Jesus’ words of ‘good news to the poor’ may not appeal to us. But as followers of Jesus Christ, we are challenged to be enlivened, to be engaged with Christ to make Christ’s mission possible.
It is an enormous task. We cannot solve all the problems of the world or of Aotearoa. We must not despair. Reaching the top of the mountain begins with one step at a time. In his speech “I Have a Dream,” Martin Luther King Jr. said, “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”
“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” Our engagement with Christ’s mission is what we must continue to do, to work for all people to be free from captivity.
In Bonhoeffer’s words,
Our yes to God, requires our no to all injustice, to all evil, to all lies, to all oppression and violation of the weak and the poor.