Epiphany 3 – 2022
Luke 4:14-21
Marian Free
In the name of God who asks that we do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. Amen.
I grew up within sight of the University of Queensland, not far from the main road that ran between the University and the city. My father was an academic, so I was very aware of the student activism of the 1960’s and 1970’s – especially around the issues of conscription and apartheid. The protest marches passed by the end of our street. My father signed a petition objecting to the suggestion that the then Premier allow the military on to the University grounds. Students who were members of our Parish shared their experiences with us (and worried about whether their landlady would terminate their lease if she saw their images on the evening news. It was a time of activism and of engagement with political issues both at home and abroad and though I was not old enough to be involved, I was very aware of what was going on in the world around me.
In the conservative State of Queensland, public opinion was divided. The protesters were labelled as firebrands, troublemakers and radicals and legislation was introduced that forbade marches and public gatherings. Indeed, the then Premier declared a month-long state of emergency in reaction to the unrest.
A popular refrain at the time was that sport and politics had no relationship to each other. Those who supported the 1971 Springbok tour could not understand that by welcoming an all-white football team to this nation we were in fact condoning (indeed supporting) the policies of a government that excluded the majority of its citizens from playing rugby at a national level and whose policy of apartheid was oppressive and unjust.
When the church makes its voice heard on social issues such as climate change or the current policies on refugees we are told that the church should keep out of politics and that religion and politics should not mix. Churches/Christians that take this position to heart risk finding themselves in the company of the majority of churches in Germany who by choosing to remain silent allowed Hitter to send six million Jews to their deaths believing that the church had no place in politics or public affairs.
Such an attitude or way of thinking that is not supported by our scriptures as our gospel today reminds us.
From the time of Leviticus, through to the arrival in the promised land, to the urging of the prophets, the themes of caring for the widows, the orphans and the aliens in the land have been pronounced loudly and clearly in the Hebrew Scriptures. In the gospels, Jesus’ harshest words were addressed to the priests and Pharisees who neglected their responsibilities to the poor and disenfranchised and to those who put a narrow interpretation of the law above compassion and generosity. Jesus told the comfortable, the do-gooders and the self-satisfied that prostitutes, tax-collectors and sinners would enter heaven before them.
Of all the gospel writers it is Luke who is most concerned with the theme of social justice. Mary’s song (based on the song of Hannah) blatantly claims that in choosing her to bear God’s son, God has ‘has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.’ God’s programme, as announced by Mary, is quite clearly one that will address the inequities and injustices of the world. According to her, God is not just concerned with piety and goodness, but with radically addressing the structures that favour some people over others.
As we have heard today, Jesus’ first and only recorded sermon does not speak of morality or obedience or even of faith. Jesus doesn’t call the people to repentance or even to prayer or spirituality (even those these are evident in his life). His mission as he understands it is one of setting the world to rights. Quoting Isaiah Jesus reads: ‘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.” Then, controversially, he proclaims that these words have come to fruition in his life and ministry.
If our faith is a matter of pious sentimentality or if we are under the illusion that access to the kingdom has to do with keeping the Ten Commandments and doing good works, we will be unsettled, if not outright offended by Jesus’ words. For most of us, a radical realignment of society through the redistribution of power, status, and wealth would impact negatively on our comfortable lifestyles and a rearrangement of the way in which the world is ordered would necessitate a fundamental change in our attitudes and values. (Imagine, for example, if the prisoners really were set free.)
Christians are not called to uphold the status quo, to behave in ways that do not rock the boat, to accept the decisions of their governments without demur or to observe the thoughtlessness, unkindness or cruelty that enshrine such things without challenging the people and institutions that encourage such behaviour and who enshrine it in law. Jesus calls us to challenge and to confront the structures and systems that hold people captive, and which diminish or destroy their capacity to live lives that are rich and meaningful.
We are not truly free until everyone is free. So long as some live in poverty, the lives of us all are impoverished. If we do not critique the nature of the society in which we live, we are guilty of condoning and supporting its inequities.
What does it truly mean to follow Christ, and what changes do we need to make in our own lives in order to be part of a process that builds and more just and equitable world?
Swallowsrest 