This morning at Advent Lutheran Church (ELCA). we continued our Meeting Jesus Again series.
Sermon
My message, “Living Wet” is based on the narrative lectionary passage:: Luke 4:1-14-30
You can watch the message below or read the manuscript.
Excerpt
When I think about modern day good news for the poor, especially on Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, I think of the Poor People’s Campaign.
Nearly everyone knows that Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights pioneer who used non-violent means to advocate for equal rights for Black Americans. Many people know he was The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. an ordained Baptist minister who understood this work as ministry.
When he announced The Poor People’s Campaign in 1967 King envisioned thousands of poor people descending on Washington, D.C. to demand better treatment and more equal opportunity.
Sadly, King would be silenced before he could bring this to pass. His own death, however, was not the end. Remarkably the movement continued.
On Mother’s Day in 1968 thousands of women gathered on the Mall in Washington, DC. For the next six weeks the protestors lived in what they called Resurrection City, an encampment of temporary structures. Day after day they journeyed to a number of federal agencies in order to demand economic justice.[1]
More recently another pastor has taken up this work. The Rev. Dr. William Barber II set in motion a modern-day Poor People’s Campaign starting during the 2016 Presidential campaign. Today, the campaign continues to speak up for the economically poor – a growing group that now numbers 140 million people in the United States.[2]
Jesus came to bring good news to the economically poor. Jesus continues to be good news for poor and low-income people today. And, in a time when the wealth of the world’s richest man is often headline news, we need to be reminded that good news for the poorest of the poor will be bad news for the richest of the rich.
Importantly while the passage begins with those who are economically poor, it doesn’t end there. Jesus continued his message so that we would understand that he is always on the side of the marginalized.
Jesus names two specific groups for whom he is good news: those in prison and those living with physical disabilities. Then he concludes by mentioning the oppressed – the broadest category possible of those who live marginalized lives. This includes those oppressed by other people and by empire itself.
Siblings in Christ, right now there is talk about collapsing the already small American safety net, removing legal protections for LGBTQ people, and deporting large groups of immigrants. Put differently, there are those who are working to bring bad news to the very ones Jesus names as recipients of good news.
I had originally titled today’s sermon “Preaching Good News” because that summarizes what Jesus did on the occasion of his first sermon and it suggests the ongoing work we are to participate in. This remains true, but it is not quite bold enough.
I invite you to be mindful of the writings of Isaiah, encouraged by visionary leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and William Barber II, and committed to living the way of Jesus.
2025 is God’s year to act.
God is already bringing good news. Let us join in, starting today. Amen.
[1] The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. “Poor People’s Campaign.” Available from https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/poor-peoples-campaign
[2] Poor People’s Campaign. “Our Demands.” Available from https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/about/our-demands/