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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

Standing with the poor

Remembering Jesus' mission to the poor and oppressed, thinking how we align with it (Luke 4.14-21).

Context

• It may be that by Sunday, Boris Johnson will have given in to calls for him to resign following the stories about parties at Downing Street during the period of lockdown.

• Similarly exposing differences in thinking, this time on vaccines and on immigration, world number one tennis player, Novak Djokovic lost his appeal against deportation from Australia and will not be defending his title this week.

• One response to the pressure on the Prime Minister was the announcement that the royal navy would be supporting efforts to intercept refugees crossing the English Channel in small boats.

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

• The ongoing row over the past weeks about whether or not parties were held in Downing Street while the rest of the country was in lockdown is continuing fiercely and threatens the Prime Minister’s hold on his job. At its heart, this is a story about solidarity – or a lack thereof. That, while some were making sacrifices – whether in terms of not seeing loved ones, missing out on family events or attending funerals – others were meeting and drinking together, is seen as a sign of contempt that has rightly drawn national anger. At the same time, we are called to continue Jesus’ mission of bringing ‘good news to the poor’ and it is appropriate to check our own behaviour whenever we are tempted to join in judgement on others. Is our own behaviour ever a barrier to other peoples’ journey towards God? Gandhi famously said to a missionary in India, ‘Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It is just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ’. Does our behaviour reflect Jesus’ call to the poor and the disabled? Are those outside the church put off by a disconnect between what we say and what we do?

• The issue of immigration and asylum is a hot political topic throughout the Western world. Governments seek to win popular support by being ‘tough’ on those who seek entry to their countries, avoiding any discussion about what might prompt someone to take such risks with themselves and with their families. Political solutions will be nuanced and multi-faceted, but we must bear in mind that each person in any given news story is an individual created in God’s image and dearly loved. Ali-Afzal came from Afghanistan to the UK as a teenager. He walked into our church on an impulse, asked for prayer, and came to faith in Jesus. He told us his story over the next year – his family attacked by the Taliban, his father killed in front of him, his uncles paying a broker to get him out of the country, journeys on foot through Pakistan, in the back of a truck to Turkey, in one of two small boats to Greece (watching the other capsize with the death of all on board), by plane to France and by truck to the UK. The journey took five years and involved many compromises and humiliations. His healing is still ongoing. He told us once that several times he had wanted to kill himself and had come to our home to say goodbye and somehow found himself leaving with hope for another day without us ever knowing – but he is healing. He has found good news and freedom which he is growing into day by day, as the church welcomes him and stands beside him.

 

Questions for discussion

• ‘Good news to the poor, release to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed’. Which of these do you most engage with? Which do you find harder and why?
• What do your non-Christian friends think about Christians generally? What is their opinion based on? How might we change it?
• How are ‘the poor’ discussed by politicians and the media? Is there solidarity or division into ‘us’ and ‘them’? What impact does this have on our communities?

Steve Taylor is joint-vicar of St James, Alperton (CofE) near Wembley in London. He shares the job with his wife, Ali, and shares his house with their two daughters, two cats and a few fish.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

Whatever your political persuasion, there can be no denying that Boris’s leadership has left something to be desired. The issue isn’t that he has had to impose unpopular rules over the past two years… the anger comes from people’s assumption that he thinks he’s somehow above them. Unlike Jesus in this week’s passage, the argument is that Boris has not stood with the people he serves.

We don’t know why Boris made the decisions he did – perhaps he felt pressured, either by others or by his own desire to be popular; maybe he was too busy or distracted to think things through properly; or maybe the pull of the good things in life was just too great. Whatever the reason, it is impossible to serve well when other priorities take the place of the people you are called to serve.

Jesus understood this when he made his claim, in Luke 4:21, that he was the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy. His leadership wasn’t about what he could get out of it, but about what he could give. He came to serve, to get alongside people, and to live out what he preached.

So, this week, learn from Jesus – and from Boris – what good and bad qualities of serving look like. Are you living by the principles you promote to others? And in what ways can you stand alongside someone who needs your support this week?

Lucy Carman is a freelance writer and editor based near Manchester.

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