By now you have probably
heard about the death of boxing legend Muhammad Ali. Being the age that I am I didn’t really know
Ali as the boxer— his last match was when I was seven or eight and from what I understand at that point Ali was
simply a shadow of his former self.
My only firsthand
memories of Muhammad Ali are him riddled with Parkinson’s disease --quiet and
unable to speak—a seemingly very different person than the one from his boxing
days.
Yet, I have come to
appreciate his greatness by watching documentaries and re-runs of his fights
those famous fights like the Thrilla in Manila—I didn’t really like the Ali I
saw on newsreels—brash and cocky—proclaiming things like “I am the greatest.” or I float like a
butterfly and sting like a bee. My brand
of sports has always been quiet and unassuming- you let your play on the field
speak for you. His way of doing business clashed with my
sense of how you played sports. But that was him and part of who was.
What I’ve really come to
respect as I have observed Muhammad Ali’s
life is not so much his greatness inside the ring as a boxer, but that this was
a man who stood against things like war, racism, hatred, and injustice. That’s the Ali I respect. You may not know this about Ali but after he
won his Olympic Gold Medal in 1960 he tossed it in the Ohio River in protest
because he didn’t like what how he saw black people being treated when he
returned home to Kentucky.
Again and again across
his life Ali stood up for the things he saw going on in our country that were
unjust and that he believed were not right.
We as Christians know
about another man who stood against powers and principalities to work for
righting the wrongs of his time and working toward ushering a kingdom of
justice, mercy and love.
Of course that man was Jesus.
Today we see a little bit
of that Jesus at work. On the surface
the story we heard looks an awful lot like an ordinary healing story of a mother has lost her only son. Jesus
brings him back and the crowd oohs and aahs.
But in the midst of the story Luke tells us something important about
the mother- do you remember? --she was also a widow.
And in Jesus time widows
were vulnerable—they didn’t have any rights and were often left without
provision. When their husbands died sometime a male relative of the husband would
marry the widow and care for her.
This woman was not only
losing her son, but also any sort of property, wealth that her husband had
accumulated because with the son’s death her husband would no longer have an
heir, the property/wealth would revert back to her husband’s family. She would be left to a life of begging or
prostituting on the fringe of society. But
Luke say Jesus has compassion he looks upon her situation and wants to do
something about it.
So Jesus act of bringing
the widow’s son back-- Jesus not only restored him to life but —it also lifted the widow her out of a
life of destitution and poverty that she was destined for .
Throughout the bible—the
message is clear that widows and orphans and that those on the fringes of
society are to be cared and that the work of the followers of God are to be
about the business of striving for justice for all people—like widows.
In many ways we are to
look with compassion on those on the fringes, the orphans ,the widows and say
what can we do.
Last Thursday there was a
campaign in our country to wear orange as a way to protest Gun violence in and
honor its many victims. It was started
a few years back after a young woman named Hadiya Pendelton was gunned down –just one
week after this bright beautiful, young woman she performed in President Obama’ s
inauguration. Her friends wanted to find
a way to honor her so that started a movement to wear orange—orange because
that is the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves from accidently
being shot.
Last Thursday hundreds of Thousands of people
went orange to speak out against gun violence.
This Sunday all over the Episcopal Church deacons and priests and lay
people are vesting in orange and
speaking out against gun violence.
Let me be clear, this is not a movement about being against the right to bear arms or against the second
amendment, but it’s a movement against epidemic of gun violence that is taking
our country by storm.
Did you know that
everyday in this country 49 children are shot by guns—seven of them die—everyday?
wonder how Jesus would
have responded to Hadiya Pendleton’s mother had her funeral procession been passing him by on the street. How would he show compassion? How do we as a
church, the hands and feet of Jesus respond and say no longer— how do we say we
don’t want another promising life snuffed out?
This is our work—to say no more.
If we truly believe in
that premise of loving our neighbor, then shouldn’t we be about the business of
working the good of our neighbors and our neighborhoods? if we truly want to fulfill the promises we
make in the baptismal covenant to do things like strive for justice peace—shouldn’t
we be about the work of speaking out and
saying no more against things like gun
violence or signing petitions for tougher gun laws or enhanced background
checks.
The Prophet Isaiah
speaking to the people of Judah and Jerusalem in his day urged the people to ,
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of
the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
That as easily could be a
call to us.
It may not be gun
violence that we take up—but how do we seek justice in other arenas there are
so many—opiod addiction, domestic violence, homelessness, food insecurity the
environment— as Christians our call isn’t
simply to be nice good people, but to be asking question like how do we work
for changes in our world to help leave a cleaner more sustainable planet to our
children and grandchildren or how do we work for quality education to raise up
all our children and give them opportunity? How do we right the ship there? How
do we defend the oppressed, take up of the cause of the fatherless, or plead
the case of the widow?
This is God’s business, in some way this was Muhammad Ali’s business--- this was Jesus business and my
friends this is our business.
So I leave you again with
Isaiah words—“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up
the cause of the fatherless; [and] plead the case of the widow.”
What cause will you
defend? Where will you strive for
justice in our world? Where will you roll up your sleeves and say no more?
Amen
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