Preaching God's Transforming Justice

A Lectionary Commentary, Year C

Dale P. Andrews, Ronald J. Allen, Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm, Dale P. Andrews, Ronald J. Allen, Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781611642643, 9780664234546
• eBook ISBN: 9781611642643
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

This is the second of three volumes in a unique commentary series that helps the preacher identify and reflect on the social implications of the biblical readings in the Revised Common Lectionary. The essays concentrate on the themes of social justice in the weekly texts and how those themes can be teachable moments for preaching social justice in the church.

In addition to the lectionary days, there are essays for twenty-two "Holy Days for Justice, " including Martin Luther King Day, Earth Day, World AIDS Day, and Children's Sabbath. These days are intended to enlarge the church's awareness of God's call for justice and of the many ways that call comes to the church and world today.

World AIDS Day (December 1)

Chris Glaser

ECCLESIASTES 4:1–12
PSALM 131
PHILIPPIANS 2:1–11
JOHN 13:1–20

World Aids Day began in 1988 to heighten awareness of the ways the HIV/AIDS pandemic ravages the human family and to take steps to deal with this disease.¹ This day opens the door for the preacher to learn how many people are affected by this disease and to provide reliable information about it in order to reduce the mystery and fear that still surround it in some corners. The preacher can help the congregation claim what they can do to end HIV/AIDS and to ease the suffering of those directly afflicted by HIV/AIDS and their families and friends.

I have always believed that the HIV/AIDS epidemic would end someday, but I never thought I would be around to witness it. Now I believe it’s possible that I will live to see the end of AIDS. After all we have the tools to end the AIDS epidemic today. The question is, do we have the political and moral will to use those tools effectively and compassionately?

Phill Wilson²

Dr. Cecile de Sweemer, a Belgian medical missionary in Africa, observed the many challenges in addressing AIDS on the continent while keynoting an AIDS consultation in Toronto sponsored by the World Council of Churches. There are so many concerns in Africa—poverty, hunger, other diseases—that AIDS must take its place as one more vital issue to be addressed. AIDS has spread widely within developing nations, including those on the African continent.

She described an incident that suggests the church is sometimes part of the problem. During a health crisis, she needed to visit a tribe known to be fearful of outsiders and hostile to whites. She asked to be left in a clearing near the village, and she stood in its center until she heard singing. Noticing the women from the village peeping at her from the trees and shrubs on the edge of the clearing, she began swaying to their song’s rhythm and clapping to its beat. Hesitantly the women came forward and, one by one, joined her in the dance as they continued to sing. A woman handed her baby to her to hold as she danced, a sign of building trust. Finally the eldest woman of the village danced with her until they collapsed into one another’s arms. Now the doctor was able to begin her work, sharing the medical information and materials the women needed to avert and address the crisis.

This is a model for reaching the world about AIDS. We must learn how to build trust, the best ways to enter others’ worlds, in order to communicate and be of assistance. The interesting postscript to the story is that, when the doctor returned to the missionary with whom she was staying and proudly told how she had opened a line of communication with the villagers, the man’s visage grew dark and angry, until he finally complained, “We teach them not to dance!” Indeed, sticks were used on the posteriors of any women who swayed too much as they brought their offering up the aisle to this new god. This serves as a metaphor of the way Christian influence has prevented honest talk about sexuality in Africa as well as worldwide.

Ecclesiastes 4:1–12

Look, the tears of the oppressed—with no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power—with no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead, who have already died, more fortunate than the living, who are still alive; but better than both is the one who has not yet been, and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. (vv. 1b–3)

Unless you have sat with someone who suffers chronic pain and discomfort, continual prejudice and discrimination, and terminal despair and hopelessness, these opening verses of chapter 4 of Ecclesiastes seem over the top. But they can become the reality for those who suffer the opportunistic infections related to AIDS, who endure those who blame the victim, and who witness the ignorance and avoidance of those who will not even raise funds in an AIDS walk, let alone bring meals or comfort them simply by sitting beside them. Nowadays in the United States, at least, it is as if AIDS work has fallen out of fashion, bringing us back to the old days before it became the au courant cause. Perhaps it is “AIDS burnout,” as some have asserted, which only underscores Ecclesiastes’ repeated declaration that all is vanity, a chasing after wind and dissipating vapors. But when power is coupled to inaction, oppression is born—as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. maintained, those who are not part of the solution are part of the problem.

Yet “two are better than one, … for if they fall, one will lift up the other” (vv. 9–10), and “if two lie together, they keep warm” (v. 11), while “a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (v. 12). Though Ecclesiastes asserts work and idleness alike are vanities (v. 4), solidarity means something, even to this cynic. And wisdom: “Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king…. One can indeed come out of prison to reign, even though born poor in the kingdom” (vv. 13–14). The United States and the nations of Africa and the rest of the world have had more than our share of foolish kings, some of whom ignored AIDS or proclaimed lies about AIDS. But one wise king did come out of prison in South Africa: Nelson Mandela, “born poor in the kingdom” of apartheid, who championed nondiscrimination in the country’s constitution and had an enlightened AIDS policy.

Psalm 131

We often neglect contemplation in our spiritual tradition, but saying this psalm over and over may provide a powerful meditation. Theologia once meant an active communing with God, but it has become a systematic way of distinguishing ourselves and our beliefs—a practice of division among ourselves rather than communion with God. We spend too much time discussing theological “issues,” giving rise to diabolos, an adversarial spirit that gives the devil its name. I believe it is more vital to be a church of common prayer than one of common belief, as writer Barbara Brown Taylor has suggested.

Anyone who wants to know where the ecumenical and interfaith movements have gone only need look at the ways traditions and denominations have come together around AIDS. AIDS is a humbling experience, not just for individuals with the syndrome, but for all of us. “O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high” (v. 1a) may characterize us as we witness the agony of the AIDS crisis. Though there were those who contemplated its theological dimensions, mindful of the theodicy of Job, for instance, most of us cleaning up the vomit or the excrement or the sores of people with AIDS in distress did not occupy ourselves with things “too great and too marvelous” (v. 1b).

No, if we were blessed, we “calmed and quieted” our souls, and thought of being held fast by our mothers in all innocence as the chaos of AIDS enwrapped the world—from the challenges of the disease itself to the obstacles posed by those who refuse to recognize the need those challenges pose. And, if we truly lived Teresa of Avila’s prayer that God has no body but our own, no hands, no feet, no face but our own, we were God the Mother to those who suffered AIDS, holding the ones having the disease or the ones who loved them, as they died or as they cried. Or we were Francis, hugging the leper of our time and finding Christ himself.

John 13:1–20

Washing one another’s feet at Pendle Hill, a Quaker retreat center near Philadelphia, a man and I bonded as friends and fellow ministers. I had never experienced such tenderness and humility and sensuality in a spiritual act. Decades later, I found a way to incorporate footwashing on occasion in retreats I led. A couple married thirty years told me it was the most intimate encounter of their life together. During another retreat, a pair of strangers became lovers as a result of the exercise. At a Christian men’s retreat in which we reenacted a number of sacramental acts, the evaluations revealed that footwashing was the one participants found most meaningful.

But I cannot read this story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet without thinking of a man with AIDS who refused to remove his shoes and socks for a similar exercise during a retreat in Chicago. His feet were infected with an unsightly fungus. Years later I took a friend with AIDS to the doctor and saw such infected feet for myself. His feet hurt too much to drive, and when I saw them in the doctor’s office I was horrified, wondering how he could possibly recover from the swelling, discoloration, and flaking skin. It was as close to leprosy as I could imagine. At the same time, his vulnerability endeared him to me.

This prompts me to see something different in this story. Not only was Jesus demonstrating the humility we as Christians should practice, but also the disciples’ vulnerability as their removing of their sandals further endeared them to him. It was a practice in intimacy as much as in humility. “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me,” Jesus tells Simon Peter (v. 8). Unless Jesus is allowed to touch us where we are most vulnerable, we miss the intimacy Jesus offers.

A friend with HIV said that if he were to get sick, he would go away from his family and friends to die, not wanting to burden them. “You don’t understand,” I said, rather bluntly. “Allowing us to care for you would be a very great gift.” Anyone who has cared for a sick child, an ailing parent, a beloved pet, a dear friend, or a dying partner knows this. While not wanting to romanticize the experience—for there are times you hate it and just want to get away—when true love is present, God is there in the giving and receiving of tender loving care. Ubi caritas et amor, deus ibi est.

Philippians 2:1–11

In my view, these verses are a perfect benediction on “all who, while unable to be saints but refusing to bow down to pestilences, strive their utmost to be healers.”³ Blending sound Christian theology, uplifting liturgy, and compassionate charity, these verses are truly an “encouragement in Christ,” a “consolation from love,” a “sharing in the Spirit,” and the “compassion and sympathy” that would make the joy of any Christian teacher like Paul “complete” (vv. 1–2). Though written from prison, its boundless self-sacrificing theme comes from a poetic liturgical formula celebrating Christ Jesus’ own kenotic—self-emptying—love, not regarding “equality with God as something to be exploited” (v. 6) but “taking the form of a slave” (v. 7), causing God to exalt him (vv. 9–11). It was this unifying (v. 2b) and unselfish (vv. 3–4) love practiced by early Christians that attracted new converts.

Christians and churches too often concerned with what’s in it for them, from self-preservation to church growth, should listen to Paul’s “encouragement in Christ” to lose their life to gain it: “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others” (v. 4). Ministry in the AIDS crisis means responding to the immediate needs of the nearest neighbor, tending to the fallen traveler by the roadside, rather than passing by to accomplish some ritual obligation. It was our failure to practice such urgency as well as our religious fastidiousness, ignorance, and self-preoccupation that facilitated the AIDS pandemic worldwide. May God forgive us! And may God give us the grace to do everything in our power to obliterate this modern plague as well as to stand beside those who still suffer.

“On the side of their oppressors there was power—with no one to comfort” the oppressed, Ecclesiastes 4:1 reminds us. The psalmist recommends a contemplative and humble quieting and calming of our souls, like a child in its mother’s arms. In John, Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, demonstrating both humility and intimacy. And Paul writes to the church at Philippi that they should follow Christ’s lead and treat others as more important than themselves. In the AIDS crisis, the oppressed have been faulted, as we have so often blamed the victim. The church has been more concerned with theological divisions than the hospitality of resting in God, the gift of contemplative spirituality. Intimacy and humility are lacking. And we have thought our church institutions and ourselves more important than the world’s needs. Let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus, who did not regard his association with God as something to be exploited, but as an opportunity to serve (vv. 5–6).

Notes

  1. Visit http://www.worldaidsday.org for the theme of World AIDS Day for the current year.

  2. Phill Wilson, “The Way Forward,” in Not in My Family: AIDS in the African American Community, ed. Gil L. Robertson IV (Chicago: Agate Press, 2006), 71.

  3. Albert Camus, The Plague (New York: Vintage Books, 1972), 287.

Second Sunday of Advent

Marvin A. McMickle

MALACHI 3:1–4
LUKE 1:68–79
PHILIPPIANS 1:3–11
LUKE 3:1–6

The four texts designated for the Second Sunday of Advent remind the church that God is a God of justice. How God eventually will judge people depends in large measure on the ways in which they work for justice, especially justice for the least influential and the lowest in society in terms of economic or political power. Malachi warns us that a day of judgment will surely come. Luke 1 offers God’s grace for those who repent of their sins. Philippians reminds us that what God desires is a level of righteousness that is revealed in those actions that Aristotle would refer to as being virtuous. Finally, in Luke 3 we learn that where people of great power and wealth are present in abundance, God works among the poor and powerless. God has enough power already; what God needs are people willing to serve God’s purposes.

Malachi 3:1–4

An old adage says, “Be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it.” It seemed clear to Israel that God’s judgment would and should fall on the other nations of the earth who were acting cruelly or unjustly. It never occurred to the Israelites that the judgment of God might fall on them.

The depth and severity of God’s judgment is caught by the analogies of a refiner’s fire and a fuller’s soap. Fullers bleached and washed garments, often with lye. The garments were scrubbed and even stomped on to remove all stains. Bleaching by stretching out the garment under the sun was the final step in the work of the fuller. The thorough cleansing done to cloth by the fuller is matched by the thorough cleansing done to metal objects by the refiner’s fire. The item placed in the fire was melted into liquid in a blast furnace in an attempt to remove all impurities. In both instances, the objective was to purge the object of all dirt, stain, or impurity.

What God has in mind is not the purging or purifying of cloth or metal, but the thorough purging and purifying of the very people who had been complaining about injustice, both the people of Israel in general and the descendants of Levi or the priests in particular. God was most concerned about the injustice wrought by the priests, and so the very judgment these priests wanted God to visit on others was about to become their own horrific encounter with divine judgment. Something similar was predicted in Amos 5:18—9:10.

These passages offer a clear warning to the American church in all of its forms: God’s harshest judgment will be reserved not for the sinners out there in the world but for the sinners right here inside the church. We are the ones whom God will treat with a fuller’s soap and a refiner’s fire. We are the ones who have been exposed for engaging in one sexual scandal after another. We are the ones who engage in praise and worship inside our churches while remaining silent ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• First Sunday of Advent
• World AIDS Day (December 1)
• Second Sunday of Advent
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10)
• Third Sunday of Advent
• Fourth Sunday of Advent
• Christmas Day
• First Sunday after Christmas
• Holy Name of Jesus
• Second Sunday after Christmas
• Epiphany of Jesus
• First Sunday after the Epiphany (Baptism of Jesus) [1]
• Second Sunday after the Epiphany [2]
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 15)
• Third Sunday after the Epiphany [3]
• Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany [4]
• Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany [5]
• Asian American Heritage Day (February 19)
• Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany [6]
• Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany [7]
• Eighth Sunday after the Epiphany [8]
• Ninth Sunday after the Epiphany [9]
• Transfiguration Sunday (Last Sunday after the Epiphany)
• Ash Wednesday
• First Sunday in Lent
• Second Sunday in Lent
• International Women’s Day (March 8)
• Third Sunday in Lent
• Salt March Day: Marching with the Poor (March 12)
• Fourth Sunday in Lent
• Oscar Romero of the Americas Day (March 24)
• Fifth Sunday in Lent
• César Chávez Day (March 31)
• Sixth Sunday in Lent (Liturgy of the Palms)
• Sixth Sunday in Lent (Liturgy of the Passion)
• Maundy Thursday
• Good Friday
• Easter Day (Resurrection of Jesus)
• Second Sunday of Easter
• Third Sunday of Easter
• Earth Day (April 22)
• Fourth Sunday of Easter
• Holocaust Remembrance Day: Yom haShoah (Early April to Early May)
• Fifth Sunday of Easter
• Sixth Sunday of Easter
• Peace in the Home: Shalom Bayit (Second Sunday in May)
• Ascension of Jesus
• Seventh Sunday of Easter
• Day of Pentecost
• First Sunday after Pentecost (Trinity Sunday)
• Proper 3 [8]
• Proper 4 [9]
• Proper 5 [10]
• Proper 6 [11]
• Juneteenth: Let Freedom Ring (June 19)
• Proper 7 [12]
• Gifts of Sexuality and Gender (June 29)
• Proper 8 [13]
• Fourth of July: Seeking Liberty and Justice for All
• Proper 9 [14]
• Proper 10 [15]
• Proper 11 [16]
• Proper 12 [17]
• Proper 13 [18]
• Proper 14 [19]
• Sojourner Truth Day (August 18)
• Proper 15 [20]
• Proper 16 [21]
• Proper 17 [22]
• Proper 18 [23]
• Simchat Torah: Joy of the Torah (Mid-Septemberto Early October)
• Proper 19 [24]
• International Day of Prayer and Witness for Peace(September 21)
• Proper 20 [25]
• Proper 21 [26]
• Peoples Native to the Americas Day (Fourth Friday in September)
• Proper 22 [27]
• World Communion Sunday (First Sunday in October)
• Proper 23 [28]
• Night of Power (27th Night of Ramadan)
• Proper 24 [29]
• World Food Day (October 16)
• Proper 25 [30]
• Children’s Sabbaths (Third Weekend in October)
• All Saints’ Day
• Proper 26 [31]
• Proper 27 [32]
• Proper 28 [33]
• Proper 29 [34] (Reign of Christ)
• Thanksgiving Day
• Contributors
• Scripture Index