August 31, 2025
Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost
There times when in conversation it seems that we’ve entered a liminal time in which a question or theme arises simultaneously and mutually among different people and places in a seemly inexplicable synchronicity. These are times when it appears clearly that the Spirit is delivering a prophetic message. Such occurred to me last week when I chose to give time and energy to the workday at Wellspring. Collectively about a dozen people contributed their time and energy to attending to the margins of the facility that had been too long neglected. The fruits of our labors were a cleaner, more well organized campus as well as deep fellowship during meaningful conversations.
One particular conversation felt like a portal into something prophetic. During our break in work I sidled up to Kate Lasso and Margaret Shoap. When I overheard their conversation my ears perked up. Now here’s the liminal part – in recent weeks I had been pondering our current political and social context with a great deal of angst and sighs too deep for words. I began to wonder where we could be looking for sources of inspiration as struggling followers of Jesus, particularly from Christians who have faced a similar rise of authoritarianism. My thoughts turned to Dietrich Bonheoffer and his writing of The Cost of Discipleship, along with the Confessing Church and its Barman Declaration that arose to oppose the Nazi regime. My attention was caught because Kate and Margaret were talking about Dietrich Bonheoffer! I don’t have time in this sermon to dive into the particulars of Bonheoffer’s writing and social witness. I’m going somewhere with this – that the conversation turned toward how can we in the member churches of the Church of the Savior arrive at our prophetic witness with loving our neighbors on and the margins for these chaotic times?
As I prepare for the class on the Hebrew prophets (taught by David Lloyd), it’s clearly apparent how relevant their messages and context are to our current political and social climate. Amos is the first prophet we’ll be listening to. He’s the one who said “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
We’ll be reading other prophets besides Amos because he is not alone in the notable habit that prophets of often have – of speaking from “the margins” or with the marginalized. And it’s usually scathing critique of the structures and practices, the principalities and powers that are sorely oppressing both the people and the land.
And today’s passage from Jeremiah is no exception to that kind of railing against the ways that people have gotten derailed from what their faith taught. Lest we miss the import of his introduction in verse 3 (just prior today’s reading from the lectionary, here’s what Jeremiah is called by the Spirit of God to impart to the people: “Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest. All who ate of it were held guilty; disaster came upon them, says the Holy One.”
And he continues with some pretty harsh words that follow: “What wrong did your ancestors find in me who went far from me and went after worthless things and became worthless themselves?” It’s worth hearing Jeremiah’s prophetic message asking ourselves, “Are we far away too?” And given our ecological crisis, his admonishment could have been spoken today about the history of colonizing the land and waters with extractive industries that pollute and desecrate Earth, God’s creation: “I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.”
“…my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked; be utterly desolate, says the Holy One, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water (the fountain of living water being a stand-in for the Spirit of God that Jesus later refers to when he encounters the woman at the well).
Today’s message from Jesus in the gospel of Luke echoes the warnings we hear in from the prophets with whom he was surely rooted It’s an ongoing prophetic message about the cost of discipleship! — a message of an all inclusive love, especially with any people or places that the culture of empire has denigrated to the margins of dominant consciousness or society. And let’s remember that Luke is often referred to as the “economic gospel.” I turn to Ched Meyers, theologian and author of Sabbath Economics, who characterizes today’s text from Luke 14 as “Hungry for Justice.” He offers a very insightful (as usual) examination and exegesis of today’s text from Luke 14. Though our reading today is Luke 14, verse 1 and then 7-14, Myers points out that the whole sequence of 14:1-24 is “carefully crafted (and uniquely Lukan).” It’s prelude is found in the closing verses of Chapter 13 (34a) which talks about, wait for it, the cost of Jesus discipleship! As in “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills its prophets and stones those who are sent to it!”
However Luke’s significant message of this chapter is diminished by the lectionary’s omission of many parts: the introduction (healing of the man with edema vs. 1-7) challenges the Pharisees’ narrow view of whether curing people on the Sabbath is OK or not. That’s followed by vs. 7-11 we read today in which Meyers observes that “Jesus critiques the seating chart” of the host of the dinner. But then lectionary omits the entire second half of this sequence, the “The parable of the Great Dinner” (vs.14-24). Meyers chides, “…whether intentional or not, such attenuation compromises the depth and breadth of this episode’s poignant (if agonizing) “catechism for the rich at table,” which is all too convenient for our middle-class church readership. We are too much like the host in this story, for whom it is a “party from hell”!” Meyers doesn’t mince words! And then with Myers forte in literary criticism, he observes that the phrase “of those invited” whom Jesus notices in the beginning of today’s story in vers 8 is echoed again at the end of today’s passage with Jesus condemning judgment at vs. 24: I tell you all, none of those invited will taste my banquet.” The punch line conclusion, also left out of the RCL (Revised Common Lectionary) is 14:25-33 in which Jesus cost of discipleship is echoed again in vs. 27: Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple… enumerates several conditions of what following looks like closing with the admonition: vs. 33 So therefore , none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
So it begins and ends, bookmarked with the cost of discipleship. Well, there you have it – a tough message for the comfortably well-off, including myself. Indeed Jesus is saying prophetic action is called for.
As Erica Lloyd so aptly discerned in her Inward/Outward reflection yesterday, “
… maybe Jesus was just speaking from the knowledge that sometimes change doesn’t come from within. Sometimes our actions have to lead the way for our stubborn hearts. This reminds me of the adage in 12 step programs “fake it, ‘til you make it” or “act as if”—something that John Lewis advocated and it alsoharkens to the psalmist words for today in Psalm 8 verses 12-13, “I gave them over to their stubborn hearts. O that my people would walk in my ways!” Sometimes we just have to put one foot in front of the other, doing the “next right thing” while we are committed to the path or way of love and solidarity with the margins, even when we know not where it will lead us or what the future holds.
Margins or edge-places can be the most fruitful creative spaces, true in ecological margins where forest meets field often contain the most diversity of life. This is also true in the margins of our society’s wealth. The trouble is, not only are so many on the margins, but the margins are growing with the increasingly obscene levels of wealth accumulation, concentrated in the power / purse strings of relatively few.
And margins can also have spiritual expression – Many years ago I was struck by reading Howard Yoder, Mennonite theologian, who proclaimed that the true prophetic and vital church living out the gospel teachings, would be found acting on the margins – engaging in such actions that may be downright countercultural! Which brings me to another aspect this kind of prophetic spiritual commitment: As the leader of the Apache Stronghold defending their sacred land of worship, ceremony and ancestry, Dr. Wendsler Nosie, a voice from margin of dominant society, has said: We are engaged in a spiritual battle. He speaks of how the evils that the current extractive industries are harming our Mother Earth, our source of sustenance and sacred to the Creator.
As I meditated upon this “battle” in light of Jesus teaching for today – upending (as usual) the social constructs of his day and still applicable today where people are shoved economically, socially and racially to the margins of our collective table, I recalled the “the three evils” prophetically named by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. And when I looked up the source, I found his speech, “The Three Evils of Society,” a speech given on Aug. 31, 1967, 48 years ago today. The timing of this revelation to me may be another spiritual synchronicity of the Spirit, so I feel called to share some quotes from that speech. So forgive me for segueing for bit to an iterative sermon content. His speech was addressed to a national gathering of religious and community organizers at the National Conference on New Politics, in Chicago, Illinois. Bear in mind that this was during his last year of life and he had come to new prophetic realizations that, like Jesus’ proclamations, posed a critical threat to the status quo. To those gathered he said:
“…we have come here because we share a common concern for the moral health of our nation. We have come because our eyes have seen the superficial glory and glitter of our society and observed the coming of judgment. Like the prophet of old, we have read the handwriting on the wall. We have come because we see this as a dark hour in the affairs of humanity.” He goes on: “The poor, black and white, are still perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. What happens to a dream deferred?”
His conclusion could have been written today about the systemic evils that impact those on the margins: “… the collision course is set. The people cry for freedom and the congress attempts to legislate repression. Millions, yes billions appropriated for mass murder (wars); but the most meager pittance for foreign and international development is crushed…” … “It seems that our legislative assemblies have adopted Nero as their patron saint and are bent on fiddling while our cities burn.” (and now planet Earth)
But then he turns to the three evils, and I will send a link to the full speech for you to read further. He sums them up with a sobering but refreshingly truth telling assessment: “I suspect that we now experiencing the coming to the surface of a triple-prong sickness that has been lurking within our body politic from its very beginning. That is the sickness of racism, excessive materialism, and militarism. Not only is this our nation’s dilemma, it is the plague of western civilization.” He unpacks each of these systemic evils with scintillating and scathing realities and concludes with this admonition, which I invite you to hear as King speaking to us, here and now: “We are here because we believe, we hope we pray that something new might emerge in the political life of this nation which will produce a new [hu]man, new structures and institutions and a new life for [hu]mankind. I am convinced that this new life will not emerge until our nation undergoes a radical revolution of values. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people (and I would add Earth), the triplets of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A civilization can flounder as readily in the face of moral bankruptcy as it can through financial bankruptcy.”
TAKE A DEEP BREATH. This is where we find ourselves, our democracy crumbling, human rights violations abound, and Earth on fire with the climate crisis. Let us return to Psalm 81 verses 12-13, “I gave them over to their stubborn hearts. O that my people would walk in my ways!” Let us recall that the early followers of Jesus were called “people of the Way.”
What ways are we walking our talk”? In what ways are we prophesying today with loving action on the margins and with the margins?
- Weekly vigil bearing witness to peace with racial and ethnic justice
- Accompanying immigrants to their court hearings
- Becoming Allies with the Piscataway Indian Nation and the Apache to protect their sacred land of Oak Flat
- Classes from the School for Christian Growth that promote the Inward/ Outward Journey for spiritual and social witness (like Paul Holme’s class to be offered, based upon the book, Christ in the Rubble, by a Palestinian Theologian
- Writing letters to and advocating for people who are incarcerated
- Today’s invitation to make clean energy choices for climate justice (more info the announcements)
- The many organizations we fund through Domestic and International giving
- And today’s invitation to make choices for clean energy solutions that you’ll hear about in the announcements
- Just to name a few!
And I offer a glimpse of vision of walking in “the way” expressed by Randy Woodley, Cherokee and Christian theologian who writes about Eholeh (ay-luh-HAY), which means in Cherokee “well-being” and much more. He found that Native Americans and most Indigenous peoples around the world have a common foundational set of values for a Harmony Way of well-being as a lifeway.These values are:
Harmony, Respect, History, Humor, Authenticity, Equality, Community, Balance and Generosity. Woodley’s book is Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-being. More about this in the future!
This Harmony Way sounds like the Kindom of God! And they sound like a “radical (or rooted) revolution of values” requiring prophetic action, which is risky business. We take a stand opposing the principalities and powers that uphold a status quo of cruelty and greed while rooting ourselves in loving action, the kind of generous, and dare I say risky, hospitality to strangers, those imprisoned and tortured, as expressed in Hebrews 13: “That we do not neglect to do good and share what we have,” and …“So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”
Joanna Macy, eco-spiritual philosopher and activist, a mentor of mine for many decades who passed from this earthly life a few weeks ago always spoke of loving action for the transformation of the world: The main thing is that you’re showing up, that you’re here, and that you’re finding ever more capacity to love this world because it will not be healed without that.
I want to close with a benediction for our future as a faith community as we prepare for our Day of Prayer and Conversation. May our time together be blessed as a liminal space and time. May the Spirit of Life bring forth our prophetic imagination and capacity for loving action. May we retrospectively harvest our gifts of prophetic loving action in the past as well present, and prospectively discern, envision and prophesy a future of loving action with the margins, for some of us from the margins of our aging lives, with the growing marginalized of the world, people and our dear Mother Earth, God’s creation. Amen.