Last week we read what could be considered to be ‘Jesus’ maiden speech’. He outlined his manifesto for change when he read from the Isaiah scroll and, having quoted from chapter 61, proclaimed that in him this prophecy was fulfilled. The lectionary division of Luke 4 left us on tenterhooks, but this week we find out that the people were not pleased with what they had heard. 

This week's news

Lance Armstrong’s interview with Oprah Winfrey has ensured that drug-taking in sport in general, and Armstrong’s case in particular. is still in the news. The interview  on Ms Winfrey’s talk show was broadcast in two parts    and was hotly anticipated as it was trailed that this would be the first time that Armstrong would admit to having cheated in order to win seven Tour de France titles. Armstrong’s confession did not appease many people, including Sir Bradley Wiggins, who would have stood on the podium in third place in 2009 had he not finished behind Armstrong.

Someone who had as much if not more reason to feel aggrieved at Armstrong is David Walsh, a sports journalist who writes for The Sunday Times. Walsh began investigating doping in professional cycling in 1998 and was only vindicated in the last few months. However, in the mean time, Walsh experienced abuse from Armstrong and the embarrassment of the cyclist successfully suing his newspaper for libel over an article that he had written.  Walsh was either mad, bad or … telling the truth. 

Truth or Lies? Fact or Fiction? These are questions that were asked of Lance Armstrong and an Australian library has responded in a humorous fashion.

Armstrong himself has used damage-limitation techniques, just as did the Pharisees after Jesus’ crucifixion (Matthew 27.62-66). Some may say that Lance Armstrong’s interview with Oprah is a case of ‘the last deception being worse than the first’.

Reflection

David Walsh’s involvement in the Lance Armstrong case is an example of the rejection of a prophetic voice: a voice, we might say, crying out in the wilderness. The prophetic voices in the Old Testament – voices which Jesus often echoed – tended to speak out alone and therefore suffered the consequences. The 1920s song, ‘Fifty Million Frenchmen can’t be wrong’ suggests that numbers matter, and Armstrong had all the numbers on his side. It takes a particular sort of courage for David Walsh to speak out in the face of the numbers weighted against him.

David Walsh was not a prophet without honour in his own town, he was without honour anywhere. However whistleblowers – those people who speak out from within a situation – often suffer resentment from their peers as well as their superiors. Rocking the boat – behaving in an out-of-the-ordinary fashion can cause a person problems. There is a scene in Les Miserables  in which Fantine’s fellow factory workers abuse her because she is an unwed mother and sends money away to support her daughter. For this she is sacked by her boss and humiliated by her ‘sisters’.

Ryszard Kuklinski was a colonel in the Polish army. Following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, he became disaffected with the aggressive nature of Soviet military strategy. This led him to become an undercover US agent  and he handed over 35,000 pages of documents outlining Soviet military plans. In 1984, having escaped to the West, he was sentenced to death in absentia. When the Soviet era ended, the sentence was commuted to 25 years imprisonment, but in 1995, a Polish military court recognised that he was acting under circumstances that meant he was obedient to a higher need.

Prayer

Our God, 

we thank you for the courage 

that Jesus showed in proclaiming the Gospel. 

We might wonder why a proclamation of good news 

should lead to criticism and persecution 

but we know only too well that people who speak the truth 

are often persecuted.

We pray today for people who stand alongside the accused:

for lawyers representing innocent defendants;

for those representing people who are guilty.

We pray for people who are overlooked:

those whose achievements go unrecognised in their own countries; 

and those whose work is only recognised by a later generation.

We pray for those who stand up for what is right:

for people who espouse unpopular causes;

for those whose prophetic voice brings them hardship.

We pray for ourselves, 

that we might be ready to speak and act with courage 

in order to bring good news to our world.

Amen.

Questions

Jesus had lived among the people of Nazareth for around 30 years before this incident in the synagogue. Was it not reasonable for his neighbours and parents’ friends to question how and why his words had suddenly been expressed?

Familiarity can ‘breed contempt’ and it is not unknown for visiting preachers to be feted for saying the same thing that the incumbent has been saying for weeks on end. Does this strike a chord?

‘My country, right or wrong’, is an expression that began life as a toast. 

 How far does loyalty to one’s nation extend and when does working for the greater good become spying for the enemy? How different is Ryszard Kuklinski from Guy Burgess  or William Joyce? 

Does it require self-belief bordering on arrogance to persist in claiming ‘black is black’ when everyone else is claiming that ‘black is white’? Are David Walsh and Lance Armstrong simply two sides of the same coin?

Action

Listen to Aung San Suu Kyi’s interview with Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs  and hear how this remarkable woman has spent much of her life, and at great personal cost, speaking out against those who suppress freedom.

Young People

David Hasselhoff, of Baywatch fame, is a singing star in Germany;  Norman Wisdom was a huge star in Albania  and a host of pop bands have been ‘big in Japan’. What sort of pop music and fashion-style do you think might be popular in different countries?

Jesus was rejected by people who knew him in his hometown, but accepted by people from other towns and villages. Why do you think that was?

Simon Carver is a Baptist Minister in St Albans and takes a particular interest in film.

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