Epiphany 3
1 Corinthians 12.12-31
Luke 4.14-21
Sunday 26 January 2025
©Suzanne Grimmett
It would be so easy, in a week where a powerful but gentle sermon by the Bishop of Washington has captured the world’s attention, to look across the Pacific and reflect on today’s readings which are so foundational to Christianity through a US lens. It is often easier, isn’t it, to look beyond ourselves than close to home. But it is Australia Day and I think we need to engage a conversation with Luke’s Gospel that speaks to our own lived experience. We have a Gospel text where Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah and proclaims;
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 let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
When we hear these words we might do worse than to ask ourselves in this country, “Who are the poor, the captives who need release, the blind who need to see and who are the oppressed longing for freedom?”
We might also ask, what do we think would be good news for the poor? What might freedom from oppression look like in this country? What would the ability to see again mean?
Jesus is proclaiming in this text that the time has come- forgiveness is now, freedom is now, God is revealed right here in our midst, now. He is saying his coming is like the Jewish year of jubilee where debts were forgiven, people returned home and all those enslaved were set free. He is saying this is the heart of his mission, for now and always. There are many words spoken of what Christianity is about, but here Jesus is stating his central concern, and it is a measure whereby we should test how far we have strayed from the central concern of our expression of faith. It is like the sniff test for Christianity- does the practice of our faith look like good news for the poor? Does it set about working for the release of all that holds humanity imprisoned, and offer freedom to the downtrodden and dignity to the oppressed?
Where our religion has maintained and furthered the interests of the wealthy and the powerful at the expense of the poor and oppressed, I would say our faith does not pass the sniff test. To paraphrase Brazilian Archbishop Dom Helder Camara, if we become people who are allowed to give food to the poor, but not allowed to ask why they are poor, then I would suggest that we would struggle to be living into Jesus’ kingdom values. Jesus’ choice of the Isaiah text points to him being very much the child of Mary who sang with joy of the God who fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty. A focus on individual personal salvation has at times made the church blind to the systems and powers that cause harm and into which the prophetic life of Mary’s boy would and does speak.
However, neither does the Christ of God allow this kingdom to be inserted into anyone’s political agenda, because political partisanship necessitates division. Christianity has always and ever has been about joining, and about diversity in unity, with our identity in Christ overcoming all that would divide us. The truly radical statement of Christianity is that Jesus calls us to not only practise justice and compassion but to love even our enemies. This is Australia Day, and I have said I would like today to focus more on our own context. However, Washington Bishop Budde offered a beautiful framework for what gospel living can look like through three key values; dignity, honesty, humility. It is these three that I would like to bring to our own context and to this day on our national calendar.
To recognise the inherent dignity of every human being is to recognise that all are made in the image of God. This brings a necessity of welcoming diversity and acknowledging the unique mystery that is every human soul. When you combine this with the shaping power of culture and lived experience, there is even more need to stop, listen and attend with curiosity to one another. Bishop Budde said that ‘honouring each other’s dignity means refusing to mock, discount, or demonize those with whom we differ’. It also means not pressuring others to be just like us- assimilation is something that Aboriginal peoples have known all too well as the opposite of dignity in the way it strips humanity of culture and selfhood. The reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians which we heard today of ‘one body with many members’ draws from a trope that was well known at the time and reinforced the powers of social hierarchy. It had been used to describe society as a body with some important and powerful members and other parts lowly or unimportant which should simply follow the direction of their superiors. Paul takes this and completely revolutionises it by describing oneness in the body of Christ where there is diversity, interdependence and no member is greater than the others. No part can say to any other, “I have no need of you” and the uniqueness of each member is its strength as we see the diversities of giftings used to build up the body of Christ, empowering the work of the kingdom. None of this can happen where we do not honour the dignity of all.
I do not believe dignity, however, can be present without honesty. To respect another is to respect them enough to tell them the truth. To tell the truth is paramount if there is to be healing as no new beginning is possible on a false foundation. We experience the grace of God when we give up on our games and let God and others see us for who we really are. In the same way, healing is not possible in communities and societies until there is a commitment to truth telling, even though it may require us to remain in some discomfort until it is worked through. I am sure many of us have had that experience in our personal lives where we avoided being honest with someone, and problems became worse before we work out that telling the truth would have been so very much easier. We cannot have unity in our nation, our societies, our church communities our families or even within ourselves without a commitment to honesty. In this country, it means telling the truth about our past and seeing and reflecting upon both the parts we are proud of along with the parts which tell of terrible harm and injustice. The truth is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first sovereign nations of the Australian continent and its islands, possessing it under their own laws and customs for, according to science, more than 60,000 years. Colonisation led to great harm for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, with loss of life, culture and social and generational trauma that extends to this present day, evidenced in things like reduced life expectancy and high incarceration rates. Wiradjuri man, the Rev’d Canon Glenn Loughrey, speaking of telling the truth of history in a recent podcast, says “I think we have to take time to breathe, and going back allows that time…to connect to things left behind. You connect with what has happened in the past, and you find it is not just the past, it is now…and then you have a conversation that takes you forward.”[1] He also comments that when we begin seeking to tell the truth and to listen with respect to others, we often discover it is not such a fearful thing as we anticipated.
Jesus’ claiming of the words from the prophet Isaiah reminds us that where anyone is excluded or oppressed or demeaned, God will always side with the powerless.[2] What we are invited to do as we live our own story with honesty and humility is to learn that pain and violence is something we, too, are capable of causing. Humility reminds us that the line between good and evil runs not through peoples or parties but through every human heart. Jesus shows us the way by eating with outcasts, challenging self-righteous religious folk and telling stories of strangers coming to the aid of their enemies. He makes it clear that the mark of true righteousness is mercy.
Dignity. Honesty. Humility. Three words to bring to this national day, but three words also to hold before us as we seek to be the body of Christ in this ancient land with its diverse peoples.
I would like to close with a prayer written by another Aboriginal theologian, trawloolway man and Anglican priest, The Rev’d Dr Garry Deverell.
Let us pray;
Blessed God, Ancient Spirit of Gondwana,
You are the one in whom we live and move and have our being,
You are the one who nurtures and feeds us
With the pure nectar of our ancient faith.
Come now, Blessed One, gather us together in a spirit of hospitality,
That we may welcome your own wisdom in each other’s wisdom,
And hear your own voice in each other’s voices.
Help us to patiently wait for the word of liberation,
That our hurts may indeed be healed
And our work for others hallowed.
Help us to do so after the example of Jesus our Lord,
He who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy spirit,
One God for ever and ever.
Amen.[3]
[1] https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/soul-search/faith-communities-history-treaty-truth-telling/104494172
[2] Rowan Williams, Resurrection: Interpreting the Easter Gospel, 10.
[3] Garry Worete Deverell, “A Christian Eucharist for Gondwana”, Gondwana Theology: A Trawloolway man reflects on Christian Faith, (Morning Star Publishing: 2018), 76-77