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Notice how her sermon models prophetic self-critique and invites conversation.\u00a0 You can also watch a video of her sermon here<\/a>. Take note of her delivery style \u2013 engaging and disarming;\u00a0diplomatic yet firm; courageous yet humble. She preached this sermon on August 18, 2019, at\u00a0Good Soil Lutheran Ministries in Rocky River, Ohio.<\/em><\/p>\n by Marilyn Matevia<\/strong><\/p>\n Some of you know that I work for the synod office \u2013 the regional outpost of the national ELCA. And maybe you also know that we recently concluded the annual synod assembly, our yearly gathering of voting members representing many of the congregations of our synod.\u00a0 One of my post-assembly chores is to summarize the feedback survey results and share them with the synod staff. Without fail<\/em>, we get a handful of complaints from people when we have workshops or speakers who talk about\u00a0justice.<\/em> \u00a0Of course, this being the church<\/em>, and our guiding document being the Bible<\/em>, most of our workshops and speakers will <\/em>eventually mention justice in some form.<\/em><\/p>\n We probably each have a different interpretation of what \u201cjustice\u201d means (it\u2019s kind of an inkblot indicator of our own beliefs). But our assembly speakers and workshop leaders get specific. They might talk about our Christian duty to treat refugees with dignity.\u00a0 Or maybe they\u2019ll talk about the millions of people in the United States (and the billions around the world) who are not getting enough to eat.\u00a0 Perhaps they talk about how sources of air and water pollution tend to concentrate near our lower-income communities.<\/p>\n All of these topics have something in common, which is\u2026 in<\/strong>justice.<\/p>\n They share in common a systemic failure to treat all human beings fairly, and with compassion and dignity. (Sometimes speakers get extra-radical and talk about how we treat other animals and the environment, too, but let\u2019s just concentrate on the human element for now.)<\/p>\n What do you think our survey respondents say when they complain about these topics? Maybe some of you are thinking it right now, your very selves.<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to go out on a limb here and ask a question.\u00a0 Should Christians not <\/em>have a \u201cbias\u201d about hunger? Is it possible to be neutral about starvation? \u00a0For that matter, is it possible to be neutral about \u2013 say \u2013 lead pollution in public housing, or race- or sex-based wage differences, or indefinite detentions in overcrowded cages?<\/p>\n Staking a \u201cneutral\u201d stance on these issues ironically reveals a different kind<\/em> of bias.\u00a0 One that is uncomfortable to admit.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bias that assumes some people are more valuable than others, and some are more deserving of misfortune and mistreatment than others.<\/p>\n One in particular came to mind: my image of Jesus as kind of a peacenik.\u00a0 I have a tendency to picture Jesus as a peace-loving, soft-spoken teacher with a sheen of hallowed light around him bathing everyone in his gentle, loving presence.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what we see in this passage.<\/p>\n For a little background on this text, it\u2019s good to call to mind the state of the world when Jesus was walking it. The vast majority of the Palestinian population \u2013 his people \u2013 were poor or working class. 70 percent, according to one study.[1]<\/a> 1 in 10 people were in constant <\/em>danger of starvation. \u00a0Slavery was rampant.\u00a0 Some slaves were prisoners of war, others were prisoners of debt, who sold themselves to work off what they owed.<\/p>\n This was the world in which Jesus launched his ministry \u2013 bringing good news to the poor, freedom to captives, sight to the blind, and proclaiming the year of the Lord\u2019s favor.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n Those aren\u2019t my words, of course \u2013 those are Luke\u2019s, from earlier in the book \u2013 chapter 4. \u00a0And importantly the phrase \u201cyear of the Lord\u2019s favor\u201d typically refers to the jubilee<\/em> \u2013 when (every 50 years) debts are forgiven, prisoners are freed, farm fields and animals are allowed to rest, and the fruits of labor are shared.<\/p>\n But that new world won\u2019t come easily. \u00a0As Jesus says in Luke\u2019s account: \u201cI have come to bring fire on the earth\u2026 Do you think I came to bring peace\u2026? No, I tell you, but division.\u201d \u00a0That kind of dramatic change will take a refining, purifying<\/em> fire.\u00a0 Luke said so earlier in his gospel, putting the words in the mouth of John the Baptist.<\/p>\n Jesus brings a refining, purifying fire that burns away the social orders and habits and practices that create permanent injustice, permanent unfairness.<\/p>\n And it will cause divisions: pitting a new vision against an old, fossilized one. Dividing those who cling to and benefit from the old power structures from those who want to usher in the new order, the kingdom of God. \u00a0Pitting \u2013 as Jesus says \u2013 father against son, mother against daughter\u2026<\/p>\n Heavens to mergatroid<\/em>, as my grandmother would say. Why would Jesus say something so contentious?\u00a0 So divisive?<\/em><\/p>\n This text challenges my bias about Jesus, and about what it means to \u201cgo and do likewise!\u201d[3]<\/a> \u2013 as Luke says elsewhere in this gospel.<\/p>\n Well, if we sat together and studied the gospel of Luke, start to finish, we would be reminded that Luke sees Jesus as the agent of God\u2019s justice.[4]<\/a>\u00a0And that Luke understands justice in tangibles, like how society treats the vulnerable and handles money.\u00a0 And how society awards status and access. No murky inkblot prints here; he\u2019s very specific.<\/p>\n We would also see that Luke believes certain things get in the way of following Jesus: wealth, status, fear. And, I would add, an unwillingness to wrestle with these difficult issues.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 So he very clearly links following Jesus with doing justice.<\/p>\n The Benedictine sister Joan Chittister has a new book out, called The Time is Now<\/em><\/a>. In it she writes powerful words.<\/p>\n Yes, the Christian ideal is personal goodness, of course, but personal goodness requires that we be more than pious, more than faithful to the system, more than mere card-carrying members of the Christian community. \u00a0(Our faith demands), as well, that we each be so much a prophetic presence \/ that our corner of the world becomes a better place because we have been there.[6]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Well, that\u2019s kind of intimidating. \u00a0She\u2019s asking for prophets and there\u2019s nobody here but us chickens. (Pun intended.)<\/p>\n But Jesus brought the hammer down in those last few verses of our text. I\u2019m paraphrasing, but he basically says, \u201cYou know how to read the clouds to predict weather.\u00a0 You do it all the time. You\u2019re smart and observant. Yet you act like you don\u2019t know what is just and what is unjust, or how to DO justice. Do what you know is right.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n There is only one sense in which a topic like this is \u201cpolitical.\u201d The word comes from the Greek term, polis<\/em>, which is basically a gathering of people.\u00a0 It\u2019s a community \u2013 a city and its citizens. As the Catholic priest Father Michael Marsh wrote in a sermon several years ago, the \u201cmost basic concern (of politics) is \u2026the ordering of relationships. It\u2019s about the way we live together and how we get along. It\u2019s about people. (And) Those concerns are central to the practice of Christianity.\u201d \u00a0He says, \u201cWe believe that God has something to say about how we live and the way we relate to one another. \u2026<\/p>\n What might it look like for us to wrestle with these questions?\u00a0 To release our bias? To let go of our quiet, gentle Jesus and follow the Jesus of justice?<\/p>\n In churchwide workshops they often teach a group exercise called \u201casset mapping.\u201d This involves figuring out what resources and talents or skill sets an organization has and how they might address some congregational or community need. Our church can do this together. We can read the signs of the times, read the clouds, read and watch the news.\u00a0 We can talk to neighbors to figure out what\u2019s needed, and what we can bring to fill the need. \u00a0Maybe you already have your own suggestions for how we might address these needs. We could talk about them today, over coffee, after the service.<\/p>\n So we should ask ourselves: what makes us uncomfortable? \u00a0What are we UNWILLING to do or be? And why <\/em>are we unwilling?\u00a0 We need to really needle ourselves about the \u201cwhy.\u201d Are the reasons practical? \u00a0Logistical? \u00a0Financial? \u00a0Emotional? \u00a0I\u2019m talking to myself right now.<\/p>\n A friend of mine from grad school was arrested a few weeks ago.\u00a0 She was NOT being neutral!\u00a0 She was one of 70 Catholic peace activists arrested in the Senate building<\/a> in Washington DC for \u201cunlawfully demonstrating\u201d against the mistreatment of migrants and asylum-seekers in immigration detention centers. I\u2019m asking myself: would I be willing to go that far? And if not, WHY not? What could be more important than insisting on compassion and dignity for my fellow human beings?<\/p>\n The gospel of Luke makes this point clear, through his account of Jesus\u2019s ministry:<\/p>\n No one is outside the scope of God\u2019s justice.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n But it will take work \u2013 sometimes difficult and disruptive work \u2013 to get everybody in. Jesus empowers his followers \u2013 then and now \u2013 to envision a different reality.\u00a0 This new reality is what we call the kingdom of God.\u00a0 And when we envision it, when we can see it, then we can build it, right here in our corner of the world.<\/p>\n So be<\/u> it. Amen<\/em>.<\/p>\n Leah D. Schade is the Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship at\u00a0<\/em>Lexington Theological Seminary<\/i><\/a>\u00a0in Kentucky.\u00a0 She is the author of\u00a0<\/em>Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide<\/a>\u00a0(Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and\u00a0<\/em>Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit<\/a>\u00a0(Chalice Press, 2015).<\/em><\/p>\n Twitter:\u00a0<\/em>@LeahSchade<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n Facebook:\u00a0<\/em>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LeahDSchade\/<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n A Fiery, Divisive Jesus? Luke 12:49-56 Through a Dialogical Lens<\/a><\/p>\n Using a Dialogical Lens for Scripture and Preaching<\/a><\/p>\n [1]<\/a> \u201cIntroducing Luke,\u201d by Babu Immanuel Vankataraman, God\u2019s Justice: the Flourishing of Creation and the Destruction of Evil (NIV Study Bible, Zondervan, 2016), <\/em>1441.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Luke 4:18-21<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Luke 10:37, NRSV<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Vankataraman, 1442.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Shoot\u2026 I think this insight comes from Matt Skinner\u2019s column on the text; I will try to relocate.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Joan Chittister, The Time is Now: A Call to Uncommon Courage<\/em> (Convergent, 2019), 27. She used the phrase \u201cChristianity requires.\u201d I Lutheranized it.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> https:\/\/interruptingthesilence.com\/2016\/01\/25\/the-politics-of-jesus-a-sermon-on-luke-414-21\/<\/a>; parenthetical additions mine.<\/p>\nSometimes Following Jesus Means NOT Being Neutral<\/strong><\/h1>\n
They complain that the speakers, or topics, are \u2026 \u201ctoo political.\u201d<\/em> Or that they are showing a \u201cpolitical<\/em> bias.\u201d<\/h3>\n
I thought about my own biases when I read our Gospel lesson this week.<\/h2>\n
Here comes Jesus, promising RELIEF from all these forms of oppression \u2013 once in a lifetime relief, once for ALL time relief.<\/h3>\n
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Where is my patient, gentle, peacenik Jesus?<\/h2>\n
And sometimes \u2013 maybe most<\/em> of the time \u2013 following Jesus means not being neutral.<\/h2>\n
This means that I have to let go of my bias.\u00a0 I have to NOT be neutral.<\/h2>\n
\u201cIn that regard, the incarnation (itself), the embodiment of God in humanity, is a deeply profound political<\/em> statement.\u201d<\/h3>\n
But if you\u2019re like me, you may also squirm a little when you think about our little church addressing these needs.<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nRead also:<\/h4>\n
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