Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12:32-40
Year C Proper 14
St. Thomas the Apostle
August 11, 2019
The Rev’d Virginia Holleman
In the Name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Can you imagine what my reception would be this morning if I walked in and started haranguing you the way Isaiah has in today’s Old Testament reading?!! Even if you deserved it! Basically God is telling the people of Judah – thru Isaiah – that he’s sick of them – he’s sick of their futile sacrifices of burnt offerings, he’s sick of the solemn assemblies, he’s sick of their festivals: I am weary of bearing them, God tells the people, and by implication, I am weary of bearing you too! By recalling Sodom and Gomorrah, God reminds them of his propensity for judgment and the threat of destruction when their sinfulness is as over the top as the Judeans is. So God will hide his eyes and ears even though the people pray great prayers and make all the required sacrifices, and he resoundingly rejects their shallow religious practices. God is not rejecting their worshipping him per se, but he is telling them that what they do needs to match with what they pray. It’s almost like God is telling them put your money where your mouth is, or walk the walk don’t just talk the talk. Their empty meaningless worship doesn’t cut it! But then God pleads with his people, telling them what he expects:
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; [and just in case the Judeans are standing around scratching their heads and wondering what it is exactly that God expects, he tells them]: seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend and plead for the orphan and the widow, in other words those who have no father or husband, no man to protect and provide for them. To seek justice is to care for the powerless, the defenseless members of society. Widowed women with or without children didn’t have many options for providing for themselves and their kids. In ancient times a man – be it husband, father, brother or adult son – a man in our lives was a necessity. Widowed women and their children were the most defenseless members of that society.
Some of the rules of society have changed a bit in the last 2500 years – obviously when I was widowed with two young sons I didn’t have to sit on the street corner and beg or consider prostitution as my only options. Fortunately I did have family and friends and was able to get a decent job with basically the same schedule as my sons had. But some of the rules of society haven’t changed at all in that time, namely to seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the powerless, those who have no voice but ours. Isaiah’s words may have been written at a particular time and place and for a particular people with their own particular set of circumstances but at no time in my recent memory are his words more needed than now.
I may be stepping out on a limb here but I can’t not do so in the wake of last weekend’s senseless mass shootings – less than 13 hours apart – and the continuing, seemingly endless suffering of people at our southern border. Where was the justice for the people who were killed or injured? Where is the justice for their friends and families? Where is rescue to come from for the people seeking asylum in the land of the free and the brave? Who is to welcome them, feed them, and give them something to drink, clothe them and welcome them as if they are Christ himself?
It may seem that I’m combining two separate issues here but I’m not. Listen again to our Collect for today: “Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right . . .” (Proper 14). The heart of the Gospel Message – from Amos to Isaiah to Micah to Jesus himself – is “to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8) – in other words, to do always those things that are right. Time and time again the Hebrew people are instructed to care for the widow and orphan and not abuse them, to not wrong the stranger in the land “for you were once strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:21). Jesus tells us that the two most important things we do are love God and love neighbor – and there are no limits as to who that neighbor is – the widow, the orphan, the oppressed and the destitute, the hungry and thirsty, the lonely and the frightened, those who have no voice but yours and mine. Unfortunately the rhetoric of the past months – identifying desperate families, particularly mothers and their children – identifying them as an “invasion at our southern border” has seemingly turned the least of God’s children into the enemy. And as the enemy they obviously need to be destroyed. That was the message the shooter in El Paso delivered loud and clear.
But they are not our enemy, they are not invaders, they are our brothers and sisters. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, compassion and kindness. Just to be clear, I am not advocating for open borders or unregulated immigration, nor am I advocating that we repeal the second amendment. But I am advocating that we stop just offering “thoughts and prayers” on behalf of the victims of gun violence and those detained at our border. I truly believe that it’s time we do something and if this is an inappropriate use of this pulpit, I sincerely apologize. But I think as Christians it is our duty, our obligation, and the right thing to do –what Jesus would do – in the face of what our nation as a people are facing. We cannot allow the detention centers to become invisible nor can we allow people who see our neighbors to the south as the enemy invading our country and who then decide to take the law into their own hands and go on a shooting rampage – we cannot allow them to continue to do so. This is not a political statement but a moral and ethical one.
I would like to close with a statement from the Episcopal Peace Fellowship:
“Gun violence is not an isolated island of sociopaths; it intersects with racism, misogyny and authoritarianism. All of these must be destroyed if we are to put an end to these killings. This is not merely, or mainly, a legislative task. It is a spiritual undertaking that requires the teaching of love by the Jesus Movement. Not a passive, silent love that remains in a church pew, but a fierce love that stands in solidarity with those targeted for oppression and marginalization. Not a wish to see “good people on both sides,” but a movement committed to peace through justice.”
So what should we do? Take the issues to your congressional representatives – write letters, attend town hall meetings, go down to the border to help if you can or collect needed items or give money to those organizations that are going down if you can’t. And I can help you with that. And vote. I believe it’s the single most important thing we do as citizens of this country. And as people of faith, the most important thing? Pray, but then take action. Choose tolerance over hate, kindness over cruelty, goodness over bullying and hope over cynicism (paraphrase from Glass Houses, Louise Penny, pg. 391).
We need to seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow. We need to do always those things that are right. Amen.
