Sunday, Feb 1st: Do Justice - Love Kindness - Walk Humbly
Scriptures: Micah 6: 1-5, 7-8 | Matthew 5:12-22
Rev. Sandra Nixon
Nine years ago, I began a sermon by talking about the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the US, and the widespread protests that erupted that day (Jan 20th, 2017) - in the US but also here in Vancouver & throughout the rest of Canada.
That Sunday (two days after the inauguration), I spoke about Canada’s “anticipatory angst” about the Trump presidency and how the inauguration marked the transition for us to the era of “actual angst” as that person - and that administration- took the reigns in one of the most powerful and influential nations in the world - a nation that also happened to be our closest neighbour… and ally.
Even at that time, we were worrying about how the influences that had made it possible for Trump to come to power could also be starting to take root here in Canada.
Here we are, fully nine years later - almost a decade.
Hours after that inauguration, all references to the LGBT2SIA+ community and their rights were removed from the White House website. People were outraged.
It was the first drop in the torrential downpour that would be the first term for that President, and now in his second term the US and much of the world including CA are now in what feels like a Category 5 storm. Words we didn’t hear nine years ago - words like fascism and militarism and authoritarianism - these are now commonly accepted descriptors of what is happening in the US and which is impacting the world.
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Last Thursday, Dallas Brodie and Frances Widdowson, two residential school deniers, were speaking outside the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at UBC.They’ve been making their way around the province. I first heard their names from my sister in Powell River. She’d told me they were not only calling the unmarked graves a hoax, but were invited to speak to the Powell River city council about why they should not support a proposed name change for the city, to an indigenous name.
In 2018, while I was a trustee on the Richmond School Board, grifters spouting far-right hate towards the GLBTQSIA+ community drove in from other municipalities to rile up Richmond parents to oppose the district’s proposed Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) policy. Nine years later, homophobic and transphobic parents living in Richmond have now taken control of the Richmond District Parents Association and are trying to undermine the district’s equity and inclusion initiatives.
The government of Alberta - our other closest neighbour - is actively chipping away at human rights (particularly trans rights) in that province, and there are politicians and groups there who are actively and overtly pushing a separatist agenda, influenced and funded by US government-allied groups in the US.
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Jesus didn’t speak in vague generalities about issues of his day. He was specific about the people and policies and systems and hypocrisy that were oppressing the people and causing suffering and fear.
I don’t think it’s healthy for us to be constantly talking about the politics of the day, especially when each of us is so over-exposed to so much of it on a daily basis already, and certainly Jesus didn’t talk about Herod and Caesar and temple politics constantly - sometimes he just told stories about mustard seeds and yeast and taught people how to pray.
Still, we can take a page from when Jesus did openly critique the powerful of his day, and know that political engagement that leads to active organizing and peaceful resistance for change is one of the calls of our faith.
And so, somewhat reluctantly, I feel compelled to be specific, and to name names today.
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For the last two weeks, we’ve heard the story of Jesus calling the first disciples. His call? “Come and see.” “Follow me.”
So as seeker-disciples too, we’re invited to Come and See. We see Jesus in the suffering and we pay attention. We see - and name - what’s going on.
We notice the rise of residential school denialism; the increased presence of far-right people on parent associations; the coming together of various far-right groups who are increasingly well funded and organized.
We notice how the social media algorithms that sneakily try to feed us disinformation and warp our seeing and believing.
We see. And then, we follow. We follow Jesus, led by his teachings and his spirit.
We follow him to UBC to rally in support of the indigenous community
We followed him to Burnaby City Council chambers this past Tuesday (Shadia will tell us more at the Connecting Time I hope).
We follow him to school board meetings to oppose calls for books to be banned and reject accusations that schools are injecting kids with hormones;
We see, then we follow.
Faith communities in Minnesota have been seeing, they’ve been seeing their neighbourhoods terrorized and their neighbours being kidnapped and killed.
And they’ve followed.
In the news, we’ve seen how places of worship in Minneapolis are offering accompaniment, protection, mutual aid, and sanctuary. Faith communities are choosing the higher law of loving their neighbours, even as federal authorities abandon truth and accountability. (Jim Wallis, “God’s Politics” blog)
The UCC’s Broadview magazine recently interviewed Rev. Hierald Osorto, the pastor at Saint Paul Lutheran Church/Iglesia Lutheran San Pablo in Minneapolis. Over the past few weeks, his church has organized food distribution and medical consultations for those who don’t feel safe travelling around the community at this time.
“My resistance”, says Pastor Osorto, “is showing up on Sunday morning and continuing to insist that it is a space that is sacred, that it is a space that is a sanctuary,” he says. “Whether or not the government chooses to honour that role, we will continue to insist on making sure that it exists for our people.”
Those are just a few of the examples that came to mind this week. Examples of following the call of Jesus to follow him into the political arena.
Because while we may speak about our individual faith journey, Christianity isn’t primarily about individual faith.
Isaiah’s Mission Statement
God has told you, O mortal, what is good,
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God?
Justice is communal. Love is relational.
Walking with humility is living with the awareness and acceptance that belong to each other and are part of a body - the body of God which is the world.
When one member of the body suffers we all suffer. When one is lifted up, we are all lifted up.
Do justice, love kindness
and walk humbly with God
You could call this “God’s people’s Mission Statement” - Isaiah style.
If you’ve ever worked in an organization - you know that most (whether private or non profit) have guiding Mission Statements. And, if they are well structured orgs, they will also have a strategic plan.
Developing a Strategic Plan involves identifying key goals and then, drilling down to specific tasks or “actionables”. Those actionables are supposed to be very specific - who, what, where, when.
But it all flows from the Vision & Mission statements. So you have: Vision -> Mission -> (values) -> Goals -> Tasks (Actionables)
Matthew’s Beatitudes
If justice-kindness-humility are Isaiah’s interpretation of the people of God’s mission statement, Matthew’s might be the Beatitudes. That’s the second reading we had today (Beatitudes being a fancy way of saying “Blessings”).
It’s part of what’s commonly know as “The Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew, which spans a couple of chapters and includes several sets of teachings by Jesus.
A similar version is also found in Luke’s gospel, although the setting in his gospel is a plain (hence it's title, The Sermon on the Plain). Luke’s version has fewer beatitudes/blessings, is more materially explicit, (instead of Blessed are the poor in spirit, it’s “Blessed are you who are poor”, and instead of Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, it’s “Blessed are you who are hungry now”.
In Matthew, the Beatitudes lean toward inner dispositions (“poor in spirit,” “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”). Sometimes Matthew has been criticized for what some see as his spiritualizing of the real conditions to which Jesus would have been speaking.
However, look at the virtues which come from his text:
Being “poor in spirit” - can be understood as empathy with the poor.
Hungering and thirsting for righteouseness.
These virtues aren’t passive. Rather than representing a spiritualized individualism, they are in fact key to the formation of communal resistance. To hunger for righteousness (or justice—the Greek dikaiosynē holds both meanings) is to long for a world set right. Meekness here is not weakness, but disciplined non-violence in the face of empire. Mercy, peacemaking, and purity of heart are practices that disrupt cycles of domination and exclusion.
And so, the Beatitudes are not spiritual platitudes or promises of escape from suffering; they are a radical re-imagining of where God is already at work - among the poor in spirit, the grieving, the meek, the merciful, the persecuted. These blessings overturn systems that equate worth with power, certainty, productivity, or success.
This is Matthew's message for for a community navigating life within oppressive imperial structures. Living with the reality of authoritarianism and militarism.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are you who do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.
And blessed are you who make those things actionable.
So that’s the question, our conversation-starter for today:
How will you make justice - kindness - and a humble walk with God actionable this week?
How will we as a faith community make justice, kindness, and a humble walk with God actionable in our life and ministry together?
I’ve got one that came into my inbox yesterday: Write or phone the federal Minister of Public Safety to call for a parliamentary investigation into foreign interference and money flowing into our country from the United States.
As we move into Lent in a couple of weeks, we will be focusing on something very actionable - How we can support the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement in support of just peace for Palestine.
In our commitment to Reconciliation, we’ll be invited later this month to attend a gathering at ST. Andrews-Wesley church downtown to pray for the waters of Burrard inlet, which First Nations are saying are under threat from a proposal to dredge near the Second Narrows Bridge. (It would disturb the sea floor and sea life to move even more oil through this channel.)
We’d love to gather more ideas and suggestions for actionables we can pursue as a congregation that flow from our Mission Statement (yes we have one, check it out here). So please let’s continue this conversation and share your ideas with each other and also with the staff team or a Board member.
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our strength and our redeemer.
Amen.