Risky Business

Rev. Dr. DeWayne L. Davis

This Week at Plymouth, August 16, 2024

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
God has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

—Luke 4:18–19

One of my favorite scripture texts comes from the Gospel of Luke when Jesus visits his local synagogue and stands up to read the scroll from Isaiah. In Jesus’ interpretation of the text, he declares solidarity with the poor, the sick, the captive, and the oppressed. He will bring news of love, acceptance, and inclusion to everyone, especially those on the margins. Luke tells us that the crowd was enraged, rising and chasing Jesus out of the synagogue to throw him over a cliff. A universal message of love and liberation resulted in attempted murder. And while Jesus passed through the crowd unharmed, we should not be surprised that his message would provoke this reaction. Bearing witness to a God of radical love and inclusion is risky because it may mean challenging the status quo. Recently, we have seen a political backlash against efforts to increase diversity, welcome immigrants, and protect and expand voting rights and the threats of violence against advocates, activists, and politicians who do the work. It is risky business to proclaim a message of universal love, justice, and liberation.

In Luke, Jesus’ mission statement remains an inspiring call to minister to those on the margins. But the example of modern heroes of the faith who embodied their call amid the inevitable risks reminds me we can do great work against all odds. Fannie Lou Hamer, a prominent civil rights activist, was a poor sharecropper who barely made enough money to put food on the table. Despite her limited means and minimal education, she began advocating for the right to vote, non-discrimination, and equal justice under the law for Black people. She faced violence from white men, lost her job, and was threatened financially, but she persisted. Following the call of God and the anointing of the Holy Spirit was indeed a risky endeavor.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a theologian who bravely opposed the racist war machine of Adolf Hitler. He couldn’t stand by without challenging the persecution of Jewish, Roma, and gay communities. Bonhoeffer refused to allow the gospel of Jesus Christ to be used to justify an ideology of hatred, racism, and persecution. Instead, he joined a group of resisters to the regime, preaching a message of love, grace, and mercy. He was eventually discovered, imprisoned in a concentration camp, and, near the war’s end, executed by a firing squad. God’s Spirit is both a gift and a task. Bringing good news to the oppressed and persecuted is risky, but the Spirit urges us to love our neighbors and strive for justice. We can do it. Amen.