Break Every Yoke
5 February 2017
Fifth Sunday After Epiphany Year A
Homily preached at 9:00 a.m. Sung Eucharist
Trinity Episcopal Church, Ashland Oregon
The Rev. Fr. Tony Hutchinson, SCP. Ph.D.
Isaiah 58:1-9a, (9b-12); Psalm
112:1-9, (10); 1 Corinthians 2:1-12, (13-16); Matthew 5:13-20
In today’s Gospel, Jesus
teaches us to be light and salt. The
Isaiah passage tells us one of the ways, perhaps the most central way, we can
do so. It tells us how to become repairers of the breach, how to make our country "great again."
Social justice is a major theme of the Bible. If you
are talking just in terms of number of verses mentioning things, the Bible is
much more concerned with how we establish fairness and decency in our laws and
in our economy, and how we treat the oppressed, the excluded, and the poor, than
it is about most other things.
In the Hebrew Scripture, God’s
people are defined by their past experience of oppression. Deuteronomy
preserves this early liturgical fragment:
My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. Then we cried out to Yahweh … [who] brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey (Deut. 26:5-9).
Again and again, the prophets call
the people to turn back from their own oppression of others, reminding them,
“You too were slaves in Egypt.”
Again and again, they say we must
take particular care of the wretched of the earth, the poor, orphans, widows.
Providing a fair playing field and then ignoring those who do not succeed is
not enough. We must see the poor, note their needs, and take care of
them.
An underlying idea is that we must
treat others as we would want to be treated. Yahweh, the God of the
Israelites, is God of rich and poor alike, and is particularly concerned
with the poor because the poor need him most. There are right and wrong
ways of behaving, standards of common decency. We must not exploit or
take advantage of the weak, ignore them or turn a hard heart to their pleas,
nor degrade or violate their human dignity. The holiness of Yahweh
requires his demands on his people in this regard:
Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless ... If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate. (Exodus 22:21-27)
Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt. (Exodus 23:9)For three sins of Israel,
even for four, I will not relent.
They sell the innocent for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals.
They trample on the heads of the poor
as on the dust of the ground
and deny justice to the oppressed.
(Amos 2:6-7)Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt … When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains…. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains…. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt (Deut. 24:17-22; cf. Lev. 19:19-20).
Yahweh is different from the gods of
the other nations because he cares for the poor. The Philistine god Baal
cares for winners, the rich and the powerful. Yahweh cares for losers,
the dispossessed, and aliens. The Philistine goddess Astarte cares for
the sexually desirable and fertile. Yahweh makes the infertile woman a mother
of children. The Assyrian god Ashur rewards the militarily powerful and
cruel. Yahweh defends the defenseless.
In contrast to gods who personify
wealth, power, and fertility, Yahweh is God of all, of rich and poor alike:
I know that Yahweh will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor. (Ps. 140:12).[God] defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you… (Deut. 10:18; see also Isa. 25:4; Psalm 10:14; Isa. 41:17).
Because God is compassionate he
demands that we be compassionate too:
If there is a poor man among you, … you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. (Deut. 15:7)When you have finished paying the complete tithe … you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and the widow, that they may eat … and be satisfied. (Deut. 26:12)Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place. (Jer. 22:3)
Jesus and John the Baptist teach
this; so do St. Paul and St. James. It is found on nearly every page of
the Bible. The message is simple, but
insistent: help those in need. Give them material support and take
up their cause. It's not at all hard to understand; it’s just hard to
do. We must do it as individuals. Government has a role as well:
[You kings,] open your mouth for those unable to speak, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy”. (Prov. 31:8-10)
All these texts are
unequivocal. There are no excuses or exceptions. None tell us to
help the poor only if they are hard working, moral, or have documented
residence status. None say help the poor “when you feel you can” or “once
of twice a year.”
In the unfortunate politics of
identity of our age, people often are urged to vote their values. “How
would Jesus vote?” usually means vote for people who agree with you. But if you wanted to be a Biblical one-issue
voter, you’d do well to make that one issue serving the poor.
I am not saying here that one party
has a monopoly on justice and programs that respond to this Biblical
call. None of these passages is clear in terms of saying what way of
helping the poor is the most effective, the most appropriate, with the broadest
good. There is the risk of hurting
the poor with our help, of making them dependent, of what has been called
“toxic charity.” But even the most basic
Biblical requirements demand that we work for the good of the poor, listen to
them, and certainly never dehumanize or bully them or be harsh with them.
It is not enough just to give help a
little. We are also called to “plead the
cause” of the poor, i.e., defend their interests and advocate their cause.
Do you speak up for the poor or marginalized in your work place, your school,
your church, your community, and your political party?
The poor are real people. The
oppressed are real people. It is sometimes too easy to filter them out of
our vision. If they are a different color from us, speak a different
language, have different culture or morals, we can perhaps say they are not
deserving of our attention or our help. But would you like to go before
the Almighty and explain how you did not help someone in need because they were
different from you? Isn’t that the very point of God’s love of the
poor? He wants us to help them because they are different from
us. He wants us to help them because they are undeserving.
God gives the blessings of rain and sunshine on both the righteous and the
unrighteous, says Jesus, and we should be as perfect in that as he is (Matt.
5:43-48).
Are you unwilling to help someone because
that person is an “illegal alien?” Can you imagine having to
explain such thinking and feeling to God? The very phrase suggests
that an entire class of human beings is “illegal” and thus not worthy
of compassion.
To such thinking, the Bible tells us, “Care for the foreigner in your midst, because you too were once foreigners.” Helping others in need merely because they are in need is a central demand of our faith. It is just that simple. It is just that simple.
To such thinking, the Bible tells us, “Care for the foreigner in your midst, because you too were once foreigners.” Helping others in need merely because they are in need is a central demand of our faith. It is just that simple. It is just that simple.
The prophet Ezekiel says that the
sin that brought God’s condemnation on Sodom and Gomorrah was ignoring the
needs of the poor in the midst of abundance:
Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it. (Ezek. 16:49-51)
Social Justice is a biblical
doctrine, and anyone who claims to follow the Bible must be willing to work for
social justice. Anyone who truly wants their faith and actions to be grounded
in the Bible will make it a major part of their efforts.
You are the light of the world, the salt of the earth. Loose the bonds of injustice, undo the thongs of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, break every yoke. Remove the pointing finger, the bad-mouthing. Share your bread with the hungry, share your house with the homeless. Welcome the refugee, the alien. When you see someone with inadequate clothing, cover them. Help the poor and oppressed, and take up their cause.
You are the light of the world, the salt of the earth. Loose the bonds of injustice, undo the thongs of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, break every yoke. Remove the pointing finger, the bad-mouthing. Share your bread with the hungry, share your house with the homeless. Welcome the refugee, the alien. When you see someone with inadequate clothing, cover them. Help the poor and oppressed, and take up their cause.
In the name of Christ, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment