My sermon this past week was an example of that, so I thought I'd share it in case someone found it helpful. I preach from notes, so this isn't a word for word transcription of what I said, but it's pretty close. These were the Scripture readings for the day (I'm Lutheran, but the Episcopalians made a very convenient website!). I leaned into all of them except the Psalm. I should mention my children's sermon was on Jesus being tempted (I base them off what the Sunday School lesson that day is) and I made an offhand comment referencing that at one point. Also, I end 95% of my sermons with something we give thanks to God for, and I don't with this one, so that's meant to be noticed.
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Thousands of years ago, the Babylonians conquered Israel, & everyone who lived through the war & had received any kind of education, they brought back to Babylon with them. All of the leaders & priests & their families, anyone who could read, anyone people looked to for leadership, were taken away. A few generations later, Babylon was conquered in turn by Persia, & Persia sent the exiled Israelites home. This wasn't out of kindness but in the hopes of getting more tax money out of them, by the way. So the grandchildren of those who were originally taken from their homes, returned to a land that had been ravaged by war decades earlier, Jerusalem had been razed, the Temple was utterly gone.
And those returning home found their cousins still there, still working the land, still making a living as well as they could, & they told their cousins they had never met, "We tried to remember, our grandparents taught our parents, who taught us. We tried to remember who we are, but they took everything from us. We had no books, no Scriptures, we had only what was in our grandparents' memories. But now that we're home, we want to rebuild what we can!"
And their cousins told them, "We have a copy, or a few, of the scriptures, but no one to read them, because those Babylon had left behind weren’t literate. Did they let you learn how to read? Will you share the scriptures with us?"
So the governor Nehemiah & the priest Ezra, freshly returned from Babylon, gathered the people together. Everyone, men and women, those who had been taken away and those who had stayed, anyone who could understand. Together they listened to the ancient stories of Abraham, and Joseph, and Moses, for the 1st time complete and whole, not just tattered memories. Many of them wept, because finally their stories were theirs again, finally they could remember who they truly were: God’s own children. And Ezra and Nehemiah and other leaders reminded them, "This isn’t a day for weeping, this is a day to celebrate! We had lost so much for so long, but we have our scriptures back again, we can rebuild from this."
Many, many generations after that, after they rebuilt the Temple and Jerusalem, Israel was conquered again, this time by the Roman empire. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, & went to Nazareth as a child, & was raised there as the son of a carpenter. He was a 2nd class citizen in his own home, in a land under the thumb of the Roman army, who could & did abuse the native population for their own profit, or just to avoid boredom. It was in this time that Jesus, back home in Nazareth again, opened the scroll of Isaiah & said, "Free those who are ground down by those in power, release those whose are made helpless & hopeless by those who have everything, & bring good news to those who have nothing: no wealth, no sight, and no hope." And then Jesus closed the scroll & said, "That’s it, that’s me, I'm the Messiah, it’s time, this is the year of the Lord’s favor, let's go!"
And to be honest, after that his neighbors all looked at each other & said, "Who does this kid think he is?!" And then they tried to push him off a cliff, (don't worry, it didn't work). Because it turns out that proclaiming that God cares more about the poor and the sick and the helpless, than God cares about people who, you know, we would actually like to have things in common with, like the rich, and powerful, and admired? Well, that’s never going to be popular. I’m guessing Jesus knew that because it hadn’t gone especially well for Isaiah either in his time, and Jesus knew that.
But we’re not talking about that part today, we’re talking about how Jesus was right, he was the Messiah, it was time, it did matter! The scripture was being fulfilled, and it was time, not for anger and shoving people off of cliffs, but for celebration! Because God was present & scripture was being fulfilled.
A very short handful of years after that, Paul was writing a letter to some of the very 1st Christians in in the town of Corinth, reminding them that every single last one of them was necessary to the work of the church. They could not throw anyone among them away, they each had different & necessary gifts, and they needed every last gift they had access to. They could not afford to look down on one another or cast each other aside for any reason because God had made every single one of them on purpose, and had brought them together by the Holy Spirit to do the work of the church. Honestly, Paul sounds annoyed enough here that I’m impressed he didn’t go the next step, and remind them that saying no to God's inviting you to be kind and merciful to others, often works out badly for you! After all remember that Jonah, when he said he didn’t want to go offer a town of people God’s mercy, he was swallowed and then spit out by giant fish! Corinth was a port town, they’d pay attention to that warning! Now that's how you avoid temptation, Paul.
Over & over again, Scripture invites us to gather everyone, those who were taken & those who stayed, those who were educated & those who weren’t, those who could remember & those who couldn’t, gather all of them together and share the word of God. And what is the word of God? Lift up those who are oppressed & ground down, give hope & help to those with no money or power or resources. And when should we do this? Today is the day God has made, this is the year of the Lord’s favor. NOW is the time, now is when it matters, now is when we choose to welcome, when we choose to lift up, choose to liberate, choose to offer mercy, choose to extend grace and help. Not 1000s of years ago, or tomorrow, or in a few years, but right NOW is the time that matters, always.
There are so many gifts given so generously by God among the people of this world, but God is not limited by the rules we create for ourselves & does not only work by the limits we apply to others. When we search for gifts that our ministry work needs, we can’t only search among those who we already know & like. We can’t limit ourselves to working only with those who we admire and find appealing to work with. We can’t box ourselves in to only working or worshiping with those who are like us, those we already understand, those who agree with us in ways that make us comfortable. Because if we do, we will cut ourselves off from so many of God’s beloved children & so many of their God-given gifts, that we will hamstring our ministry from the start. This isn’t a selfless act on our part, we’re acting in our own best interests when we welcome!
God has watched us war against each other, and has wept. God has watched us separate families and send some into exile, and God fought to reunite them even though it took generations. God has watched us take power over each other and abuse each other and do our best to grind one another into the dust, in hopes of proving that we’re better than those other people over there, and God sent us his only son to offer another way. And God watched as we killed his only son, and God raised him in resurrection for our sake.
NOW is the time, not a few months ago, or next week, or once it finally warms up a bit. Now is the time to cherish each other, all of each other, as beloved children of God, created by God, on purpose, with different gifts and ways and blessings to share. We dare not throw anyone away, for God’s own sake, Amen.
