This is Who We Are
preaching against fascism like it's my job
Luke 6:17-26
He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you[a] on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 “Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.
Believe it or not, we are still in the season of Epiphany, of Jesus being revealed as Divine in our midst. We know he’s divine in this passage because people are reaching for him, touching him, and being healed. As with the hemorrhaging woman who reached through the crowds to touch just the hem of his cloak, we see that it is with only a touch—and the faith in the gesture—that brings healing. Jesus does not decide who is healed, they just are, by virtue of believing they can be, and reaching out to claim their healing.
We then hear Jesus’ sermon and honestly, we could just stop right there. What more is there to say? For those who ask who Jesus is and what he cares about—this is it.
This is not: Jesus loves us and wants us to be comfortable.
This is not: Jesus loves us and wants America to be Great
This is not: Jesus loves us and wants us to be happy even at the expense of others
And sure, Jesus says blessed are (or happy are)
But those words aren’t exactly how we think of them.
It doesn’t mean emotionally happy, peppy or upbeat.
It doesn’t mean #BLESSED
But a recognition of deep goodness
Of who belongs to God’s realm
Of the type of people that God favors, champions, looks out for.
And it just isn’t the rich and powerful
It’s not the billionaires.
It’s not the tech bros.
It’s not the tv show host turned leader of the free world.
Jesus criticizes a world in which the ultra-wealthy become even wealthier while the hungry, struggle to find food.
Jesus wasn’t busting people for having money, he was busting them for acquiring it through exploitation. He knew that it is harder for those who have everything to understand that they need God.
This is the heart of Christianity, The very essence of the message of Jesus—
The salvation that Jesus offers
The mercy—
The justice—
Is in making things right.
It is counter to all that is horribly not right in our world
God of is not cheering on the strong and rooting for the powerful and cozying up to the rich.
The Almighty God of the universe cares for the tiniest sparrow, and the most helpless and lost child of God
I have marveled at how the lectionary has seemed to speak to us in these past few weeks. How the message of Scripture offer us a word of hope and an alternate vision to what we see in executive orders and press conferences.
But it’s not remarkable. It’s not that just a few scriptures happen to have such timely words, it’s that these messages are throughout all of scripture, these messages cut to the very heart of God, the very meaning and purpose of Jesus.
We don’t have to cherry pick, or tip toe around, or hunt really hard for passages on unity, inclusion, welcome, care for our neighbors, care for our world. WE find gentle words of expansive mercy as well has harsh judgment for those who stand against God’s mercy, justice, and concern.
We hear them in Mary’s song when she finds out that she’s expecting Jesus. The message about lifting up the lowly and casting down the mighty.
Jesus’ words echo her refrain.
These are the words literally meant to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.
And they are disturbing!
Those who are comfortable, who have nice homes, and plenty of food, and economic security start to worry—is this bad news for me?
And those who are struggling, not just economically, but in all areas of feeling side lined and left out, might hear the good news, but then also not believe it—because exactly how are these promises going to be delivered in this life?
A leveling field .
Jesus adds a list of woe to—
Woes to counteract the blessings
Words of woe to those who have placed their trust elsewhere
Woes that are not curses, but warnings—that the things we have come to trust, may certainly betray us
We hear them in his words, in his actions, the way he heals those who were deemed unclean or unworthy, ate with the unclean, rescued sinners from stoning,
What he did not do was align the kingdom of God with the empire of Rome
And all of that sounds, what, political?
Over on The Cottage last week, Diana Butler Bass’s echoed words many of us had heard about mixing politics and church, namely that we can’t be “too political” or that “politics don’t belong in church.” I know because I have both heard AND said those words. I have walked the tightrope of trying to keep people engaged—not happy, but also not walking away. It hasn’t always worked.
Here Is what Diana Butler Bass wrote,
“Dearest friends, guess what? YOU HAVE BEEN POLITICIZED.
You are now a target. For your good works of service. For your denominational stances on things like human rights. For welcoming those who have been marginalized. For caring about the poor.
Feeding hungry people? Political.
Preaching about mercy? Political.
Hosting a Spanish-speaking church service? Political.
Hiring a pastor of color? Political.
Having a woman preacher? Political.
Displaying a sign or a flag welcoming everyone? Political.
Believing that empathy and compassion are central to Christian faith? Political. Loving your neighbor as yourself? Political.
YOU HAVE BEEN POLITICIZED.”1
What we are seeing out there across the river is no longer subtle. It turns out that who we are as a faith community, what we value for social justice, and the very teachings of Jesus have become politicized.
This may be how it is, not how it will be. Not how it has to be and certainly not how God wants it to be.
Today for Black History Month we are highlighting John M. Langston.2
Black History is American History.
Black History isn’t only about way-back history, it’s not only about the period of enslavement, and doesn’t end with the Civil Rights Movement. Because too often, that’s the arc of the story of Black History in America—it begins in 1619 with the first arrival of enslaved Africans in Jamestown, and it ends with the Civil Rights Movement when everything was made equal, done and dusted.
Black history is continuing to be made. It encompasses 2020, when George Floyd was lynched for the whole world to see, which caused a ripple of awakened consciousness throughout our nation, churches, and neighborhoods.
With some of that awakening, we saw a call to change and rename things that held names of enslavers and Confederate soldiers. Rt 29 which runs through Arlington used to be Lee Hwy, honoring the Confederate General.
In 2021, Arlington County made the decision to rename Lee Highway as Langston Boulevard, after John M. Langston after the abolitionist, attorney, educator, activist, diplomat, and politician who was the first dean of Howard University Law School. He was a champion for education and free and fair elections.
His name is important in Arlington County history, as the name of the school that was built 100 years ago for the community of High View Park—Halls Hill. This school was an important example of the black community and the school board working together to ensure education for all students.
It’s important to note too, and remember, that this school was built just before the wall. In the 1930s, when the Woodlawn Village subdivision (our neighborhood, where many of our Mount Olivet members would have lived) was created, that’s when the wall was built to segregate and block off the black neighborhood from the white. Being walled off created all sorts of challenges limitations as well opportunities for resilience and community. The beauty of the High View-Halls Hill history does not excuse the building of the wall.
The importance of the Langston name continues with John Langston’s great nephew, Langston Hughes who was the first black American to make a living through his art.
Langston Hughes said “We are the people who have long known in actual practice the meaning of the word Fascism—for the American attitude towards us has always been one of economic and social discrimination.”
“I come from a land whose democracy from the very beginning has been tainted with race prejudice born of slavery, and whose richness has been poured through the narrow channels of greed into the hands of the few.”3
It is the hoarding of wealth, resources, food, power in the hands of the few, that Jesus speaks to as he preaches on the plain.
Jesus is calling for a leveling out, an equalizing, a redistribution, which as we see, is greatly feared by those who have the most to lose.
God is making something new, creating a realm where no one goes hungry and others eat too much and food spoils, where no one is morning while others are laughing, where no one is poor while others are brimming in wealth, where no one is dehumanized while others are respected and adored.
The good news found in Jesus is the revelation of a God who cares so deeply for humanity, mourns with us in our suffering, champions human flourishing. A God who sides, always, with the least and lost, the dispossessed and disinherited,
There is hope—more than a microdose of hope—in knowing that our empathy is not sinful, that when our hearts break at the injustices of the world, that God holds the oppressed and the brokenhearted close, and that the work of caring for the least and the lost is the work God calls us to do.
https://www.mountolivetumc.com/racial-equity-team#Resources
Langston Hughes, Good Morning, Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings