Jesus Stands with Those at the Margins
A sermon in response to multiple stories of local immigrants being detained while attending their court appointments and the statement of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
A sermon for Proper 28 C 11/16/25 at St. Matthias Church
“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.”
In the section of the Gospel from Luke today, we get some of Jesus’ apocalyptic speech. There have always been those in every generation that believed the end of the world was coming soon. In fact, all indications are that Paul thought that. But whenever we hear apocalyptic language in the Bible, we have to remember the community it is written to.
This stuff about the end of the world in the Prophets, Gospels and the Book of Revelation are not written in order to scare people. And they’re not written to predict what’s going to happen thousands of years in the future. They are always written to a community that is under oppression to offer hope. You may more easily discern that in the reading from Isaiah this morning.
In the case of the prophets, to the nation of Israel under subjugation by a succession of invading powers. In the case of the New Testament, to a church under intermittent but often brutal persecution under the Roman empire. Apocalyptic literature offers hope to oppressed people that as Martin Luther King JR. famously said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
This idea of justice is at the very core of the Gospel. When Mary becomes pregnant with Jesus, she goes to her cousin Elizabeth, and that meeting causes Mary to utter the most ancient hymn of the church:
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; *
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed: *
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him *
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm, *
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, *
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel, *
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
The promise he made to our fathers, *
to Abraham and his children for ever. (Luke 1:46-55)
The baby the Mary is to bring into the world is not coming to uphold the status quo, or to make people feel secure. Jesus is coming into the world to lift up the lowly, to fill the hungry with good things, and to scatter the proud, and when that happens, literally all hell breaks loose.
In the readings for All Saints two weeks ago, we head the center of Jesus’ teaching in the beatitudes, in which Mary’s song is affirmed.
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. (Luke 6:20-31)
As liturgical scholar and blogger Derek Olsen points out, “this is not a call to meekness or acceptance. This is a call to join a revolutionary movement. The revolutionary leader is God.” The point of the revolutionary movement is reconciliation to God and justice for our fellow humans.
When it comes to human affairs, Justice, not government is the overriding concern of God. Many people at the time did not join with Jesus or fell away during his ministry because he did not seem to take a clear position on the Roman occupation. It’s clear he opposed Roman brutality, but he also didn’t side with the violence of the rebels. This wasn’t because he approved of those rulers, it was because the arc was longer. He was providing teaching not just for what to do during Roman occupation, but for the long term salvation of humanity.
I have often made the claim that God is agnostic about how we govern ourselves and who we choose to govern us. If we choose to order ourselves democratically, as a monarchy, or as a commune, there is no clear evidence from scripture that God favors one or the other. But what God cares about clearly from the scripture is how that government enables or prevents justice from being executed.
Justice in the Biblical sense does not always mean enforcement of civil law. In fact, civil law can often be used to circumvent justice. One can remember that slavery and Jim Crowe were both legal. Gods Justice is what Mary sings about in the Magnificat and Jesus teaches in the beatitudes. The poor are fed, the oppressed are set free, and the wounds of the hurting are bound.
Human societies are not judged by God for their management of foreign policy or military affairs or fiscal success. They are measured by the more basic question of, “How does this society treat people? In what ways does this society help or hinder the justice of what God intends for the entire creation?”
In a time of political tension like this, our role as Christians is to emulate Jesus. Think about how Jesus operated on a day to day basis. The Disciples were always trying to move Jesus to what they considered the most important things, the things that mattered politicall - to meet the right people, to be on time to say the right things in order to gain support for the cause, to move on to the next press conference, the next campaign stop.
But Jesus was remarkably resistant to his handlers. He stopped for people who were invisible to society. The woman with the hemmorage that made her ritually unclean. Zaccheus the traitor to his own people, sitting up in the top of the tree. The Samaritan woman, member of a group on the fringes of the people of Israel. Lepers, separated and literally standing at a distance. Jesus listened and said much to those on the edges of society, but when dragged in front of the ones people considered the most important, King Herod and Pontius Pilate, he remained silent.
Jesus was always looking to the edges, and we are called to do the same. People on the edges are terrified right now. I have heard three accounts this week from parishioners of people known personally to them who have been taken into custody when making their scheduled appearance at an immigration hearing. People who have jobs, who follow the procedure set by the government, showing up when told to do so, only to be put into a system where their whereabouts are unknown to their families for days or weeks.
I personally know a latino man, a US Citizen, who now carries his passport with him everywhere because of the multiple documented cases of latino citizens being detained for days or weeks without due process based solely on the color of their skin. What does it say about us if minorities ihave to carry papers 24/7 to avoid random detention? Historically, this puts us back in the times of the internment of Japanese-Americans, or during the Fugitive Slave Act.
In an extraordinary message delivered last week, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops delivered in a special message, the first one in 12 years. It read in part
“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status. We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.”
Let’s ask the popular question, what would Jesus do? First, Jesus would be looking for those on the fringes. Who in your circle is hurting? Are there friends or colleagues or co-workers or family who are really and truly afraid for their future right now? They are all around us. Second, Jesus would acknowledge them. Reach out to them personally and let them know that you love and support them and will stand by them. Third, Jesus would show compassion. Platitudes sound exactly like the language that is heard before every persecution and pogrom in history. Every time people who are afraid are told that they don’t need to worry, it affirms their worst fears - that they will again be forgotten and their voices drowned out.
And Fourth, Jesus would act. This is a humanitarian crisis of our own making. We know from polling that the majority of people in this nation do not approve of how the government is handling detentions. I have heard stories of people being released after days or weeks, but only because of determined individual support by their neighbors who will not let them disappear without a fight. If you have an opportunity to speak up or to act, please do so. And all of us who follow Jesus should be willing to demand that our elected officials of every party and creed speak out as well. This can be risky, as we heard in the Gospel, “they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to imprisonment, and you will be brought before kings and governors.” I have several clergy colleagues in Chicago who are currently facing prosecution for holding religious services on a public street outside a detention facility.
Beloved, This is not about partisan politics. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops represents a wide swath of political opinion in the US. It’s about following some pretty clear teachings from Jesus. Jesus is the Lord of the margins, the Lord of the oppressed and the hated and the persecuted. He has come to cast down the mighty from their thrones, and to lift up the lowly. Jesus does not stand with the powerful. Jesus stands with those at the margins. And it is up to us his followers, at this juncture of history, to decide if we are willing to stand with Jesus. Amen.