Because: a sermon on Bishop Budde, faith, and the work of mercy

The sermon today centers on one word in the text: Because.

Jesus climbs up to the scripture stand to read. He’s returned from the wilderness. There the devil has offered him alternatives: Wealth, power, titles. Jesus refused them all. He is back in Nazareth, his hometown. He stands up to read the scroll of Isaiah, and Luke tells us, Jesus picks the verse.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me BECAUSE.” The Spirit is upon him for a REASON, there is a purpose, there is a BECAUSE.

“Because The Spirit has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. The Spirit has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jesus does not say “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me AND the Spirit has anointed me. That would just be a sequence of events. Jesus says, BECAUSE. The relationship between the Spirit’s anointing and good news for the poor is not casual but causal. The reason, the purpose of the Spirit is named. This is the Mission Statement of the Spirit’s anointing. Remember, it was the Spirit who drove Jesus into the wilderness, the Spirit who swooped down on him at his baptism in the Jordan. Jesus is filled with the spirit as he returns to the Galilee. The Spirit has been the driving force for the past chapter of Luke.

So now Jesus explains why the Spirit of the Lord has come, why the Spirit won’t leave him alone. “Because, Jesus says, Because the Spirit has anointed me:

To bring good news to the poor. To proclaim release to the captives to let the oppressed go free…

This moment in Nazareth, I imagine, felt a bit like a moment many of us witnessed this week. I saw that sense of purpose this week, from another preacher. I know several of you read what I wrote on Facebook.

Bishop Budde was the first bishop I served with as a priest. She was consecrated bishop of Washington almost exactly one month after I was ordained in the same diocese.

I’ve heard some dismiss Bishop Budde’s words on Tuesday as “politics in the pulpit.” Have you ever noticed people only complain about “politics in the pulpit” when they disagree with the particular politics? Frankly, if asking for mercy is political, the problem isn’t the pulpit.

Still, I can tell you that Bishop Mariann Budde, the so-called, and indeed she is SO called, bishop of Washington is not preaching a party platform. Mercy is one of the most Biblical words I know. The preacher I saw, gently pleading with the president of the United States to practice mercy toward the LGBTQ+ community, asking us to hear the cries of trans kids across this country who are scared, is the same bishop who, when I was scared to tell the church formally that I was planning to marry my husband, wrapped me in a huge hug and blessed me.

The preacher I heard standing up for undocumented people Tuesday, I watched for three years minister with undocumented people in my own congregation. I saw what it meant to them that their bishop would speak with them in Spanish, that she took time to know their names, their stories. I have watched Bishop Budde stand up time and time again for justice, for basic human decency, and I’ve had the privilege, on occasion, to stand with her. Tuesday I was suddenly sharing a mentor with the whole wide world. I was proud, and yet again challenged by Bishop Budde to deepen my own commitments, my own faith, my own because.

I’ve been chewing on all the responses to her sermon this week. This is where I have landed. Christians don’t work for justice because it is politically correct. We don’t stand up for undocumented folks because it makes us feel woke. In this church we don’t stand up for LGBTQ+ rights because we are trying to be relevant. Our stance is because of our faith, we believe it is because of the work of the Spirit, because of the promises we make out our baptism to seek and serve Christ in ALL people, to love our neighbor as ourself, to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. Because we are followers of Jesus, because of our faith, there are times we have to take a stand.

The Salvadoran Liberation theologian Jon Sobrino has said that the command from Jesus to love God and to love your neighbor is really just one command. The practical way we love God is through loving our neighbor.

If hearing Bishop Budde’s words this week gave you a new sense that faith might be a viable option for you, if hearing her name so clearly that it was because of her faith that she needed to plea with this president for mercy, you are not alone.

My sermon today also serves as my “state of the church” report as your rector. Let me make just a couple of notes about where we are as a congregation. I hope in these notes, you hear a sense of our “because.”

2024 was another year of seismic change. Maybe we thought we were done with transition when a new rector arrived, but alas, no. You blessed both Mandy and JP as they took on their next calls in the church. They left knowing how well-loved they are by this congregation, and how well prepared. But it wasn’t easy. 2024 also saw other significant staff transitions. There were moments I felt like my whole job as rector was HR. I also need to stay thank you to the staff who stayed. Cheri, Monica, Bill, thank you, I owe you!

I’ll say more in my remarks, but I am excited about the team we are building. Steve, Codey, Liz our assistant director at the school, Lou, soon Simone, and hopefully one more staff member for youth and outreach, are bringing new energy and life to the team. As we step into 2025, it feels like we are on the cusp of something exciting at St. Michael’s.

For your vestry, a great deal of this year was spent listening. Thanks are due especially to your wardens Barbara and Patrick and to Jennifer Hanson and Riley Huston who lead the process of identifying our values. Through listening to you, we named Welcome, Spiritual Grounding, and Action as the values we share across the life of this diverse congregation.

We are church that seeks to welcome all, and we mean all, into a life of spiritual exploration with God, and into loving community. As we listened to your stories we heard person after person talk about how coming into this church they were nervous. Church hadn’t always seemed a comfortable place, but that this place felt like home. In the year ahead, we want to talk about ways we can widen that welcome.

We are a church committed to spiritual grounding. We put prayer and spiritual practice at the heart of what we do. We take time for stillness. We offer opportunities to study and learn together, to grow our vocabulary for the journey of faith. We offer opportunities to grow in community, to become one body, as St. Paul talks about. In the year ahead, we want to expand these opportunities for people of all ages. We want to see a consistent schedule of retreats, explorations with contemplative worship, and the building up of teams to support our work of spiritual grounding.

We are a church of action. We ask how we can make our prayers come alive in our day. This year saw a significant expansion of our food pantry with more volunteers allowing us to serve more households. We continued to support immigrants through bringing supplies to shelters in El Paso, and our work with immigrants in Albuquerque entered a stage of discernment. In March, our advocacy paid off the City opened a large shelter that replaced much of our work at the Landing with asylum seekers. The reality for immigrants is shifting rapidly at the moment. We are moving with some caution. I anticipate trainings in the weeks to come to help us all be ready for what is next. And we will stand up in the State Capitol this session with a coalition of advocates. Action is a core value, and we will not be silenced.

Our values name our “because,” and I hope you hear some resonance with Jesus’ “because” this morning. Standing in that synagogue Jesus was riffing on Isaiah. Jesus knew his Haftarah. In the theology of Jesus’ words today, the theology of the prophet Isaiah’s words, there is a BECAUSE for blessing, there is a reason for the Spirit’s presence, there is a purpose to faith:

To bring good news to the poor. To proclaim release to the captives, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

You know, modest goals.

That’s just it, there is nothing modest about this “because.” There is nothing small about Jesus’ sense of the life of the Spirit. Jesus wants to see the world work differently. After quoting Isaiah, Jesus sat back down and then said, “today this passage has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus isn’t being subtle.

Jesus is telling them: Because the poor need good news, I am amongst you. Because captives need to be released, I’m asking you to follow me. Because the oppressed need to go free, you need to have faith. Because we need to declare jubilee, we need to learn to open our eyes, our inner seeing, to God’s action and God’s love all around us. The Spirit is upon me BECAUSE. There is nothing modest about Jesus’ sense of the Spirit, nothing small about the faith of Jesus.

If you have been feeling down, if it feels like the world is off its track, if you are wondering where God is? I think Jesus might have a word for you this morning.

Yes, even today, like Bishop Budde we can proclaim, we can live a message of mercy. We can work to let the oppressed go free. Because we have a God who walks with us. Because we are a community that believes the Spirit is upon us. Today Jesus names our “because” and doing so invites us into a relationship with God that is deeper, more loving, capable of changing our world. Because. Amen.