In the first reading this Sunday, Ezra is reading to the people from “the book of the law of God.” He is speaking out in support of their ruler, Nehemiah. He is instructing the people to support Nehemiah. Nehemiah is a nationalist who is dividing the people from neighbors. He is rebuilding a wall around Jerusalem asserting the people need its security. In the Gospel Jesus is also speaking out, to the religious rulers. But Jesus is not supporting them. Rather, Jesus is speaking out to take down the walls rulers use to separate the people. For example walls of nationalism and status. We don’t need security. We need each other. We need community.
In Empowered to Repair, Brenda Salter McNeil, uses the book of Nehemiah but to show us how we can join in Jesus’ work of rebuilding community. When Jesus speaks out about building the Community of God he says, I am “anointed to bring glad tidings to the poor… to proclaim liberty to captives… recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” Unlike Ezra, Jesus is not promoting nationalism nor the status of a Chosen people. He is ending them. He is asserting the universality of all people who are diminished as poor, enslaved, blind, oppressed. He is appealing to nationalists concerned over status to end the divisions that cause people being poor, enslaved, blind, oppressed. Diminished people surround us still. The United States and its rulers are of course nationalists. So too they value status. They too they are dividing people by building walls asserting the people need security. Institutional christianity has been coopted by status and by nationalism, certainly in the U.S. It therefore has few people speaking out as Jesus speaks out. Too few people within its walls are speaking out to the rulers about the divisions they cause. Too few are appealing to them to give attention to people they diminish, people who are poor, enslaved, blind, oppressed. One person who is speaking up is Episcopal priest Mariann Edgar Budde. Bravo! She stood up in front of the religious rulers and read from Jesus’ Way. The rulers claim to be Christian yet bristled at Jesus’ words because they are diminishing people who are poor, enslaved, blind, oppressed, Muslim, gay, immigrants,… The rulers are destroying Jesus’ Community of God in favor of nationalism. Can we who are wanting to follow Jesus’ Way do as Mariann Edgar Budde did? Can we build the more important endeavor Brenda Salter McNeil in her book asserts all people genuinely need, community? McNeil suggests we ask ourselves if we really identify with the many people who are being targeted by rulers for diminishment and death. If we do not identify with people who are poor, enslaved, blind, oppressed, Jewish, transgendered, women,… is it because we are part of the ruling class? Are we perhaps supporters of the ruling class in oppressing people?
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.” (Martin Niemöller)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, help me speak out for the most vulnerable.
Question: What can we do in our neighborhoods and work places to build community among all people, especially the most vulnerable?
January 26, 2025 Gospel Luke 4:14-21 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time