Embodying Justice: Jesus' Call to Compassion and Advocacy

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Gracious God, anoint us anew with your Holy Spirit of love. By it, form our hearts, minds, and hearts. And lives into channels of your good news. Grant us a renewed passion for your vision of a world where none are poor and where every weight is lifted. Cultivate your courageous compassion in us to move toward any who have been marginalized or run over by the world. Yes, bless and strengthen us to bless and strengthen others. [00:01:47]

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 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor 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 then he began to say to them today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing may we hear and understand what the scriptures are saying teaching us [00:12:47] (44 seconds)


A preacher gets up, quotes scripture, reminds the gathered congregation that God loves the outcasts, those in fear for their lives, the poor, the prisoners, the disabled, and the oppressed. And in response, an outraged mob tries to kill the preacher. And that's kind of what happened with Jesus' story there. It made me wonder if the story was from the New Testament or the Washington Post. [00:16:05] (34 seconds)


We need to be reminded today that Jesus's first sermon was one about prophetic justice. It was about dignity and mercy towards those whom society overlooks and abuses. But I had another question. While I was reading the Gospel message, my attention wandered a little bit. And I wondered, what about the onlookers? [00:18:54] (27 seconds)


But when he pushed forward the implications of caring for the poor and the marginalized, those words challenged the congregation. And they turned on him. The Greek word is pas. It means totality or universality. And it's translated as all or every or whole or entire in English. The word that was translated is all. It doesn't refer to every single person. It's hyperbolic and it refers to the congregation as a whole. It refers to the majority of the group. [00:20:03] (42 seconds)


I think of the group in the synagogue, all surprised at how much authority he has when he's teaching, and the quality and the truth in what he was saying. But then when he speaks directly to the congregation, saying that God loves widows and those stricken with leprosy, implying that the neighbors had not treated widows and lepers justly, he got them angry. They praised words about justice, but they were not enacting. They weren't acting on God's command to enact mercy towards outcasts. [00:22:47] (36 seconds)


And my overview of that is that only a community... even one that goes unnoticed in the Puget crowd, the band that refuses to join the rabble, can keep us from going completely over the edge. So even though it may seem that the whole country has gone mad, we have the power of our community. And within that, we have the powers of all of each of our gifts. It's our mission to do what we can do. It's our mission to do what we can do. What any one person might be able to do might seem small. [00:23:50] (40 seconds)


But as we help one another, even one at a time, and share our skills, and share our gifts, we can bring many blessings. We have teachers. We have writers. We have healers. We have attorneys. We have speakers. We have people... language fields we have counselors and more all of these can be used to navigate the near and far future what i was impressed with with bishop buddy's sermon [00:24:30] (41 seconds)


She reminded everyone to welcome the outcasts. She was realistic and gospel centric. She was confident in her authority. But here's the big thing that I really loved, I just appreciated it. She gave clear, actionable ways to live out the message. The second half of her sermon explained three pillars for the foundations of unity. [00:26:18] (29 seconds)


One of them is honor the dignity of every human being. Noting that all faiths represented in the chancel affirm the inherent dignity of every human being, Bishop Buddy explained what this looks like in real terms. It means refusing to mock or discount or demonize those with whom we differ. Choosing instead to respectfully seek common ground. When agreement is not possible, however, we must hold onto our conviction without contempt for those who hold differing views. That's not easy, but it was well said. [00:26:58] (45 seconds)


Humility is necessary because it is a tool in the use of which he wanted. They need to know the power and the value of the narrative. because it keeps us from demonizing those who disagree with us. Those who we label bad won't we think ourselves to be good. Bishop Betty modeled this humility in her sermon by refusing to label anyone good or bad even when pointing out where we stray from the standards and foundations for unity. [00:29:09] (24 seconds)


In the name of our loving God, she asked him to be merciful to gay, lesbian, and transgender children who fear for their lives, to people without proper citizenship documentation who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, to people who are fleeing war zones and persecutions in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. In other words, she stood in that sacred, public, sacred place. [00:30:05] (36 seconds)


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