Dobbs and Social Justice
This short sermon was delivered for Morning Prayer on Saturday, June 25, 2022, as we prayed for social justice in response to the issuance of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The scripture readings are:
– Psalm 72:1-4, 12-14
– Isaiah 42:1-7
– Matthew 10:32-42
Yesterday, the US Supreme Court issued its decision overturning Roe v. Wade, and so today we are praying for social justice. The gospel that we just heard puts a sharp edge to the message of Jesus Christ. Many people are tempted to make Jesus out to be a sandal-wearing hippie preaching love, love, love; to hear Jesus say “I have not come to bring peace but a sword” can be quite jarring. It is true that Jesus preached love, and it is also true that he prayed for unity; but in today’s gospel, he is speaking a simple but unpopular truth: when you stand up and do the right thing, you must be prepared for division. The reason Jesus makes this declaration is because we must always take sides when issues of oppression arise. When a person is oppressed, you can choose to either rise to their aid, or not. There is no way to be neutral: if you do not side with the oppressed, you are aiding and participating in oppression. The psalm teaches us that God takes the side of the lowly and poor; God redeems their lives from oppression and violence and their blood is precious in God’s sight. What is precious to God must also be precious to us, if we are trying to follow Jesus.
This gospel is the reason why your clergy cannot keep quiet, and it is why they resist calls to keep politics out of the church. An essential element of being Christian — at least in a democratic republic like ours — is engagement with politics. We each have a responsibility to do our part to see that the government that operates in our name acts in a just and righteous manner. And, right now, they are not. The radical religious right in this nation are currently using their political power to control and oppress women. And they will not stop at Roe; they will continue their fight to weaken individual liberties and bodily autonomy so as to remake this nation in their own warped image, using the power of the state to enforce their flawed understanding of God’s will. Their stated desire is to bring the government into the most intimate areas of our lives: to dictate our choices on love, marriage, sex, and reproduction. They had a huge win yesterday; the question is whether we are content to remain silent as they lead us on the path to theocracy.
The Prophet Isaiah recorded the prophecy we heard today about the Suffering Servant. Many interpret the Suffering Servant to be Jesus, but I think that perhaps it refers to the whole body of God’s faithful people, each of us. If that is right, then we are called to be “a light to the nations”; we are called “to bring prisoners from the dungeon”; we are called to “bring forth justice to the nations.” And God also promises, through the prophet, that the Servant of God “will not grow faint or be crushed until justice is established on earth.” At times like this, we are reminded that the work of establishing justice is an ongoing process, one that requires patient and consistent attention in every sphere of our lives. We must carry on this struggle in congress and in our statehouses, at the ballot box, in our churches and our pulpits, among our family and friends, with our voices and with our bodies and with our wallets
The author Robert Fulghum once wrote that “justice, mercy, love, and freedom are … the work of those who willingly risk seeing the world with open eyes, who do not turn away, but address what they see.” My prayer for all of us is that we take that risk, to look at the world with open eyes, and to act rather than to look away. And when this work makes us tired, or angry, or overwhelmed, or even hopeless — let us remember that when we do the Lord’s work, we can also find rest and comfort in his almighty arms.
