"The Message of Love"
Sermon Presented December 18, 2005
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Fourth Sunday of Advent
In January of 1961 I moved to Platte City, Missouri, began teaching school - my first real job, and got married! This community had only a few African-Americans, all of whom held jobs no one else would take. Alex McDaniel had a trash collection business and did yard work and his wife Darlene cleaned the bank, some offices and the homes of the more affluent residents. I had no more than a speaking relationship with either until a Billy Graham Crusade came to Kansas City.
My friend Joy was in charge of organizing prayer support in Platte City for the Crusade, and when a community prayer meeting was announced, Darlene came. When the Crusade ended, our prayer group continued to meet on a weekly basis. Over the years, Darlene shared stories of her battles to move her two daughters, Kaye and Jan, out of the small one-room school by the cemetery reserved for black children, and into the Platte City Elementary School where they could receive a good education. (Mind you, this was after Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education.) Darlene fought fiercely for her children and the battle scars were evident. I felt honored to speak at the funerals of both Darlene and Alex.
Last week I heard that Kaye's 29-year-old daughter Tunisha died unexpectedly. I called Kaye to express my sympathy and learned that emergency room personnel at Cushing Memorial Hospital in Leavenworth, KS where Tunisha had been taken with excruciating abdominal pain and a dangerously high blood pressure, gave her a shot of Demerol and sent her home. The next day her dad took her to Kansas City to St. Luke's Hospital where she was admitted to ICU - but it was too late. She died shortly thereafter. Kaye is convinced that her daughter's death could have been avoided and was a result of injustice.
As I meditated on our text for today, I couldn't get this family out of my mind. The name of Sojourner Truth, a slave from Africa's Gold Coast who fought for equal rights for Blacks and women kept popping up too. How do love and justice intersect - if indeed they do? What is our responsibility toward the oppressed and the grieving? Let's look at our text and see what it says to us. (This was a lectionary text for last Sunday, but since I like it better than any for today, I decided to use it this morning.)
As I read the text, I invite you to see the word pictures that are painted by this poet - prophet. Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 (Read text.)
The prophet writes that God anointed him - the spirit of the Lord came on him - and gave him a message to proclaim. It was a message of a reversal of fortunes for the oppressed - a message of hope for the captives - a message of comfort for the grieving.
This passage refers to the release of the people of Israel from captivity and the restoration of the Hebrew community in Jerusalem. This act would be a visible sign to all nations that God honored the covenant relationship agreed to many centuries before.
Then, six centuries later, Jesus opened the scroll of Isaiah in the temple and began reading this same passage: "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 favor." Then Jesus said that this scripture is being fulfilled in their presence. The prophecy was past and present - in Isaiah's time and Jesus' time, and I believe it is also spoken to us - in this time.
When Jesus proclaimed this vision of hope for the disadvantaged, it wasn't well received by those who wanted to keep things as they were. What is good news for the oppressed, the prisoner and the landless is NOT necessarily good news for the oppressor, the captor and the wealthy landowner. The message was so radical that some of Jesus' listeners became hostile and attempted to kill him.
Now you may begin to see my mental connection between this message spoken by Isaiah and Jesus and Darlene, Kaye, Tunisha and Sojourner Truth. Let's add others to that list - people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and Abraham Lincoln. People today are still persecuted when they speak that radical message of freedom from oppression.
There is power in this word! However, unless the message is verbalized, it doesn't provide hope to the oppressed. It takes human conduits to speak out and then bring the message to reality. It takes human conduits to risk life and/or reputation to bring about change. Those who take God's message seriously and act on it may assume great risk.
Doing what is right can bring injury or heartache. People are sometimes killed, defeated politically, or ruined financially when they stand up for what they believe is right. When I heard on the news last week that a group of peace-loving Quakers who oppose the war in Iraq were placed on a lengthy Pentagon list of subversives, I was appalled! I imagine my minister friend here in Wisconsin who went to D. C. to protest the war is also on that list. It costs to stand up for what you believe is right!
God called Isaiah to speak God's love and deliverance for an oppressed people. Isaiah was called because God cared about righteousness, justice and healing. The 11th verse states: "For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations." These "new shoots" of justice and good works will come forth only when they are planted.
What do we plant? Why are we here? Do we want to bring light to darkness, justice to those without justice, healing to the sick, and love to those without love? What does God expect of us?
Many years ago, when my friend Carl Myers was president of the Kansas City Medical Association, he convinced the doctors to donate time monthly to the Kansas City Free Health Clinic - a clinic for the disadvantaged where Carl had been donating his services for years. This act greatly expanded health care for the poor as hundreds of doctors began volunteering. My friends Bob and Jean Ayres - both retired physicians - donate time there each Friday. While the efforts of one person seem minimal, the combined time and financial support given by many make a major impact on an area in Kansas City wracked with poverty and AIDS.
The efforts toward justice by students at the University of Chicago Law School brought freedom to many on death row who weren't guilty. Volunteers at the Milwaukee Christian Center, the Sojourner Truth House, St. Ben's meal program and the Interfaith Alliance in our community help to bring justice and righteousness here at home. Those who help the elderly through the Shoreline Interfaith or prepare income taxes through Vita make a huge difference. Those who give sacrificially of their finances to agencies that help the poor, bring life to the words spoken by Isaiah and Jesus. Caring people extend Isaiah's vision into the 21st Century.
The Spirit of the Lord propelled the prophet to spread words of hope, comfort, joy and justice. We are also God's instruments and as such, we are to bring good news to the oppressed, bind up the brokenhearted, and work to right the wrongs of society. When we follow God's directive we become instruments of righteousness. We become beacons of light - a lush garden. The Spirit of the Lord is on each of us!
One of my favorite contemporary choruses is "Let There Be Peace on Earth". It begins: "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me." We can create new verses to this chorus such as "Let there be love on earth and let it begin with me." Or we might use "justice", "equality", "comfort" or "hope". But no matter what word we use, the idea is that the act must begin with us - with you - with me!
What is the Spirit of the Lord saying to you? Why don't you listen and find out!
