The Third Sunday after the Epiphany - Rev. Aimee Baxter

Our family has the cutest little Charlie Brown Christmas wooden puzzle. We got it several years ago and it has been played with well.

Last year toward the end of the season, I was unable to find one piece to it so I packed it up with the Christmas decor hoping it would make its appearance next year.

Well, next year became this past year and the piece never showed up. As I unpacked the decorations, I left it in the container. I just couldn’t take the image of that incomplete puzzle taunting me the whole Christmas season.

If you’ve ever put together a puzzle, you know the feeling of getting to the end only to discover one piece is missing. That missing piece sticks out like a sore thumb and usually it’s all you can see – the incomplete vision of what is supposed to be.

So, it is with the Body of Christ, as we are reminded in our Corinthians passage today. The Body of Christ is made up of all of us. When one piece is missing, one member disregarded – well, we see an incomplete vision of what is supposed to be.

Paul says, “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”

In other words, when you are hurting, I am hurting. When I am unwell, you are unwell. When you are joyful, I rejoice. When I am glad, you are happy. Because we belong to each other.

In a world that continually tries to one up or out do the other, Paul reminds us that are lives are inextricably woven together. Everything is connected. Everyone has a place in the body of Christ.

I came upon a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. on a trip to Washington, DC several years ago. It’s part of the memorial dedicated to him where various parts of his speeches are etched into granite. It read, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

It was my first time reading these words and their impact stays with me to this day. King’s words remind us of how we are bound to one another, AND the dangers in us forgetting it.

Our call to each other is empathy and compassion, as well as, a willingness to take risks for one another and right wrongs that attempt to disenfranchise our neighbors. Because if one member suffers, we all suffer.  

We see this call coming from Jesus in our Gospel reading. He engages in this risky work simply by reading these particular words in the synagogue and omitting some parts of the original Isaiah reading. In Luke’s gospel, these words are the first recorded words in Jesus’ ministry and as such they can be seen as a mission statement for what his ministry will look like and focus on.

The people know these words well and have found hope in them. Jesus putting his own spin on them and then declaring that he is the fulfillment of this scripture is a pretty bold move. Scandalous some might even say.

Jesus lets everyone know what he is all about in this moment – drawing in those who’ve been cast to the side.

Bringing good news to the poor.

Proclaiming release to the captives.

Giving recovery of sight to the blind.

Letting the oppressed go free.

 

Jesus’ intent is clear – he will bring justice and peace to all. As Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.” 

I’ve been pondering those words for a while and I think I get it. When we talk about belonging to one another, we aren’t just asking folks to play nice and get along. What we need is the common good for all at the forefront and the willingness to do what it takes to get there.

As the new year rolled in, I saw this prayer on several clergy pages on Facebook called, The Reverse St. Francis Prayer. When I read the title I thought to myself, “Oh no they didn’t touch one of the greatest prayers ever!”

Then, I read it and it challenged me to think about what peace without a call to justice really means. I want to share it with you.

Lord, make me a channel of disturbance.

Where there is apathy, let me provoke;

Where there is compliance, let me bring questioning;

Where there is silence, may I be a voice.

Where there is too much comfort and too little action, grant disruption;

Where there are doors closed and hearts locked, Grant the willingness to listen.

When laws dictate and pain is overlooked…

When tradition speaks louder than need…

Grant that I may seek rather to DO justice than to talk about it;

Disturb us, O Lord.

To be with, as well as for, the alienated;

To love the unlovable as well as the lovely;

Lord, make me a channel of disturbance.

It should be made clear that a Prayer of Disturbance is not in opposition to A Prayer of Peace. Rather they are as interconnected as we are. Disruption for the sake of disruption isn’t what it’s about.

If you offer critique without any investment, that’s just cynicism. Disruption calls us to put some skin in the game, lean into each other’s lives and be willing to risk ourselves for the sake of others.

Jesus lives this out when he takes the scroll and declares himself the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words. He is the incarnation of love that shakes things up.

The place where disruption meets investment, and justice leads to peace.

Lord, make us a channel of disruption and an instrument of Your peace.