UCC Church of Charlotte

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14Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."[e]
20Then he rolled up the scroll gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4: 14-21 New International Version).

When Jesus was first starting his ministry he was prepared by being baptized and then tempted in the desert for forty days. Then Luke says that Jesus returns to Galilee “in the power of the “Holy Spirit” and he starts to teach in the synagogue. Then in Nazareth, his home town, he reads from the prophet, Isaiah, this passage of what Jesus was sent to do. He says he has been anointed to preach good news to the poor, give freedom to the prisoners, sight for the blind and release for the oppressed. Then he says the prophecy is fulfilled in him.
What I want to talk to you about today is what I've experienced concerning some good news. It’s been awhile but I wanted to share a special experience that I got to have last May. With a small group of social work students and faculty I spent two weeks in the Central American country of El Salvador. You may remember that I asked this congregation for supplies to take with me and I received a whole suitcase full of medical supplies, toys and school supplies. I would like to say thank you to all those you donated those supplies. As a group we divided all the donations and personally gave them to a variety of social service agencies that we visited. They were very appreciative of the resources you shared with them and I can say that they made a great impact in serving those in need in El Salvador. The volunteer site that I visited was an isolated and under-served community on the San Salvador Volcano called San Juan Los Planes. We worked with a community organizer who took us to see the challenges the community faces, especially in providing basic education for their children. From our pool of donations we were able to give the school we visited a whole box of school supplies and toys. For an elementary of three hundred children, the amount we gave didn’t seem like it would go very far but it did make an impact on that community. It meant something to the principal of the school who was running the school on very little in funding from the government, as in 4,000 dollars for 386 students for fifteen months, instead of 7,000 to 11,000 per student per year that is provided for students in the United States. For students, who take their lunch from school to feed their families instead of themselves, for forty percent of schools that don't have electricity and most have no running water, for students who can only get a ninth grade education, it meant something to them for us to be there. What was more important than the supplies that we brought them was the opportunity we had to sit and talk together with the principal and with their community organizer about how their community was struggling. I was also inspired by their intense dedication to the struggles of the people and their creative and selfless methods of making something out of nothing to improve the lives around them. We talked about poverty, corruption, tragedy but also about their hopes and dreams of the future and what I could do about it and what they are doing about it. They invested their time in us so that we would be in solidarity with them and we would act on our knowledge.
The Good News is not just that we could send some supplies to a school in El Salvador or that our church sponsors many other important causes that help the poor. The giving of our resources is just one part of it; it’s a physical act of something deeper we should be saying to the person we are sharing with. I think the Good News that Jesus is now fulfilling through us, His body and Church, is more about the recognition that we care that others are struggling and we respond in a godly way through caring for their needs. We create community when we share resources with each other and when we let ourselves learn that we need each other. With God’s help we can provide for each other’s needs and redeem injustice, oppression and poverty. In Acts chapter two, the early church is together and they build their community by sharing their resources with each other. They aren't separated from the people who are in need; instead they worshiped all together and sacrificed for the needs of their community.
“The Fellowship of the Believers
42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47
In the Book of James and in many other places in the New and Old Testament, we read that God chooses the poor, the marginalized and the sinful. Therefore, the Church must also choose the poor and discover the ways we can practically do that. Another way of putting it is that we are taking on Jesus’ commission to give good news to the poor. We are the tools that God has to do his work right now. He wants us to take on his legacy too, his mission for our lives, this world. We can choose the poor all around us like Jesus did in his earthly life and with us too.
5Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong” (James 2: 5-7)?
An important part of our lives as Christians is to engage in relationships with those who are poor as we see is Christ's mission and the way the early church grew and lived. I think this means that we look around us and seek out the poor that are near us and invite them into community. This has been an intentional focus of my spiritual life in the last year. I joined a community of Christians who live in an impoverished area of Grand Rapids to seek out relationships with our neighbors and create community with them. This is just one way one might invite the poor into a relationship; there are many ways and I hope that you think more about this commission that Jesus asks us to join in. My international trip was an amazing experience for me to learn about global poverty too. This is another point that I would like to make. While we are better able to join in relationship with the poor among us, learning about global poverty is also important. Especially as American's, we have the political means to make a big difference on our leaders. Our country can do a lot of great things for global poverty and it can also do great damage on the economic structures of other countries contributing to global poverty. Both of these have occurred in El Salvador. In one case the United States was a major economic supporter of their Civil War, which many suggest prolonged the war itself. The US has also created international policies that exploit the resources of El Salvador and discourages healthy development. Likewise, groups and citizens of the United States have advocated for peace, human rights and economic development in the area, bringing international awareness and support to their needs. The extreme conditions of poverty in the world require the attention of Christians who are called to care for the poor and to be stewards of the earth.
This semester I am doing an independent study on the life of Archbishop Monsignor Romero who I learned a lot about on my trip to El Salvador. He was in the highest position in the Catholic Church in El Salvador from 1977 to 1980. In a country where the majority of people are Catholic, the archbishop has the potential for a great amount of influence. Before the civil war in El Salvador, there was a military regime that ruled the country. The indigenous population had been severely persecuted to a point that they no longer practiced their culture to avoid persecution and death at the hands of the government. Their main industry was agriculture but only fourteen families in the country owned all the land. The rest of the people who worked on the farms were barely surviving the wages and conditions they were subjected to. Political change was thwarted by the corruption of the government and military enforced- death squads that killed those who wanted to change things.
In the context of all the fear and death surrounding the government, the Church was a main voice calling for change. Monsignor Romero observed the sufferings of his people and was greatly affected by the experiences of other clergy that were killed and terrorized for helping the poor in their parishes. To be in solidarity with the poor and oppressed people in his congregation and country, Monsignor Romero preached about the actual events of disappearances, massacres, kidnappings and many other crimes. He called the soldiers of the army to stop the violence against the people and called the government to investigate the crimes committed. He called for nonviolence and gave the people who feared for their lives a public voice. The Church and its leaders were also persecuted because of their involvement with the poor working class. Monsignor Romero commented that this was how it was meant to be when he said, “Those committed to the poor must share the same fate as the poor” (Dennis, Golden & Wright, 2000, 44). He also stated, “A church that suffers no persecution but enjoys the privileges and support of the things of the earth - beware! - is not the true church of Jesus Christ. A preaching that does not point out sin is not the preaching of the gospel. A preaching that makes sinners feel good, so that they are secured in their sinful state, betrays the gospel's call” (Hayes & Tombs, 2001, 54).
On March 24, 1980 he was assassinated for the challenges he was making to government and the way he was creating national and international awareness and support for the citizens of El Salvador. His impact on the El Salvadoran people and the world lives on as he said it would in his last homily spoken just minutes before his death, Archbishop Romero reminded his congregation of the parable of the wheat. "Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ will live like the grains of wheat that dies. It only apparently dies. If it were not to die, it would remain a solitary grain. The harvest comes because of the grain that dies We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us" ( Ball, Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Markham, & Pelton, 2004).
The key word we used on the trip I took to El Salvador was solidarity. We were on a solidarity trip, not a mission trip or an educational trip. We met with people who ran organizations that helped different marginalized populations in El Salvador, we heard the stories of the 12 year civil war that happened there and what has happened since, we looked at those people: those poor-in-the-worlds-eyes, struggling, war-torn and worn-down, hopeful, compassionate, strong,….amazing people and listen to their stories. Why did they tell us the stories of tragedy and war, of death, destructions and rebuilding, of political and religious strife and hope? Why tell us, a handful of students from the United States about their lives? Well, we came there to ask them for their stories and they told us with the understanding that we would really listen and not be the same. That we would care and take some action to respond to what we had heard. We would take their stories with us and we would do something! We would join with them in some way and they would add to the people that cared what happened to the small country of 5 million people in Central America. Part of the way I am responding, is by talking with you about what I learned. Another way is by remembering what I learned and continuing to live out the lessons I learned in my own community. Yet another is by still keeping up on what is going on in El Salvador and writing to my politicians about ways the United States can make a difference there.
One of lessons that I learned about service is that it makes more of an impact on the giver than the receiver, unless there is a mutual relationship and solidarity involved. This goes back to what I was saying before about giving of our resources like the donations to the students in El Salvador. We wouldn’t have let the El Salvadoran’s change us or teach us, if we had just dropped off some donations to them or written them a check. We would have given them something physical but taken away something more important: we would have taken some of their dignity and lost the opportunity to learn from them. The sharing we did mutually benefited both parties and created an experience of community. And as we saw in the first Christian church, when you have community there is no need; it’s a lot harder to ignore suffering when you recognize that it is part of your human family. I can’t say that solidarity or community is easy, it’s not easier to really look closely at people and pay attention to their sufferings. It’s hard to ask that extra, personal question to see if that person is OK and it’s uncomfortable to watch the news and learn of global tragedy and poverty. We see the pain of the world and we hear God’s message to love them as ourselves and those messages seem too big to take. It’s messy to get involved in the suffering of other people. It’s hard to pay close attention to the world that God loves so much he would die for. Even so, the Bible gives us this example of the Widow giving her offering to the Lord. We might see in her what is really asked of us who feel as if we have nothing to give to those who are suffering in our world.
“The Widow's Offering
41Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins,[j]worth only a fraction of a penny.[k]
43Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on." (Mark 12: 41-43).
She had to have had a lot of trust in God to provide for her and she was being obedient to God by giving her resources to God’s use. They may have looked small in comparison but her sacrifice to God and obedience to him was what really mattered; she gave what she had. She sacrificed for the sake of her God and her community. And that is something I saw in spades in El Salvador. In the people we met who were working to improve their country and meet the needs of people in their community, they had to sacrifice a lot to make a difference. Many were like the clergy, who worked to improve the lives of the poor and whose lives and families’ lives were threatened, tortured or killed. Even after the war ended in 1992 until now people in El Salvador have been working for democratic reform, human rights and improvements for the poor, have done so under the same threats to their safety. Even in areas where immediate threat is not an issue, there is little government assistance to help with the social needs of the people. On my trip we saw over and over the great personal sacrifices made by those social service agencies that were trying to improve the lives of Salvadorans. On our very first full day in El Salvador, we visited a childcare center for low-income families. It was originally an orphanage established during the Civil War and then became a place where women could have their children be safe during the day while they worked in micro-businesses to make a small amount of money. There was also a free health care clinic attached to the childcare center. In addition to providing care for the children and their families, they were also reaching out the population of people infected with HIV. All of this was possible without public funding and with very little support from the families who survived on their services. To support their services they created their own micro-businesses, creating crafts, art, jewelry, clothes and natural hygiene products to sell. They also cultivated their own garden that provided the food for the childcare center and to be sold. They worked and sacrificed so much for the benefit of the suffering people that they were in solidarity with.
And in all the agencies we visited there was creative and supportive ways to respond to the needs of the populations they served. They made their work possible with the sacrifice of the Widow’s offering, with the self-sacrificing commitment to the poor and oppressed and the greatest hope. Their hope for greater things in the context of such historical loss was amazing. Their faith could not be contained and they lived it so that I had to come and tell you about this Good News they are spreading. Thank you for this opportunity.