Grant Desme and the Spirit of the Lord

Reflections on
Neh. 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10, Psalm 19, 1 Cor. 12:12-31A,
Luke 4:14-21
Holy Trinity/La Santisima Trinidad
1/24/2010

Jesus’ great mission statement to the befuddled crowd at Nazareth sets the tone for his ministry for the rest of his life.

18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."[a
The scripture quoted in the synagogue is barely changed from Isaiah 6:1. But, significantly, given the loving and non-violent message of Jesus, Isaiah’s last phrase, “and the day of vengeance of our God.” Is omitted.

Very soon after this startling proclamation- AND the even more startling affirmation that the centuries of waiting for God’s fulfillment has ended- Jesus digs even deeper into this revolutionary message of inclusively and radical justice. He points out that his tribe does not have exclusive rights to God’s blessings. Jesus refers to two scriptural stories they would have been familiar with, in which God gave help to foreigners, those not of their own tribe. The pagan widow who fed Elijah had a son who was raised from the dead, and Naaman’s leprosy was cleansed, even as many Jewish Lepers and others suffering from the famine did not receive help. This apparently so enraged the people in our Gospel of that they attempt to drive Jesus off a cliff.

Jesus has come for the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed. And he proclaims the jubilee year, when all slaves are freed, and all land that had to be sold goes back to the original owners.

At the beginning of the week, we celebrated a slain prophet, who surely tired to fulfill the mission statement of Jesus, unto his own death, and surely brought good news to the poor and the oppressed.

Martin Luther King Jr. had his own way of bringing good news to the poor, of bringing release to the oppressed. He had a vision of the Kingdom of God right here on Earth, and he called it the Beloved Community. His mentor in seminary, the philosopher-theologian Josiah Royce, coined the phrase, but, Dr. King, developed it into something that has changed the world.
The Beloved Community was not a lofty utopian goal to be confused with the pastoral image of the Peaceable Kingdom, in which wolves lie down with lambs. After all, as Woody Allen has said, the wolf may lie down with the lamb, but the lamb is not going to get a very good night’s sleep. Rather, the Beloved Community would be a real world goal that could be accomplished in real time, if enough people would embrace and believe in Dr. King’s creed of love, mutual tolerance and non-violence. As part of this vision, the most affluent would work along side of the impoverished. This is indeed good news for the poor.
As Dr. King said in a speech at a victory rally following the Supreme Court Decision desegregating the Montgomery’s busses, “the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved Community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men.”

Martin Luther King was deeply influenced by the non-violent teachings of Jesus, urged us all to lay down our arms. And beyond that, he urged us to lay down our privilege of tribe and culture, to literally and figuratively share the wealth. But Like Jesus’ tribal brothers and sister in Nazareth, we might not want to lay down our tribal privilege, and share the wealth of God’s apparent blessings. Those of us who are white may not want to share the wealth. Those of us who are straight might not want to share the wealth. Those of us who are male might not want to share the wealth. And let’s face it, by global standards, we are all in this room wealthy, with food to eat, a place to sleep, even a church community.

The theologian Sally Mcfague asks us to consider a “liberation theology” for North American Christians. This theology might focus, not on personal salvation in this world or the next, but rather on lifestyle limitation, on developing a philosophy of “enoughness” and realizing that the cruciform way of Christ means making sacrifices so that others may live.”

This is what the Beloved community is made of, this is what the Kingdom of God is made of. As Jesus suggests, we are not to expect God’s exclusive favor. And in fact, we are not to expect that Jesus carry out his mission statement all by himself.

There is not a specific calling of the fishermen story in the Gospel of Luke, as there is in Matthew and Mark. As I looked for the story in Luke, I suddenly thought- I have found the fishers and they are us! We are called to do this work with Jesus, especially now, since as the 16th century mystic Theresa of Avila has said,

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world…
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

I am happy to say that in this week of bad news for the poor, I found one story that was one of the most revolutionary countercultural good news stories I have ever heard.

Grand Desme, young, white, with every privilege and apparently spectacular athletic gifts, has laid down his privilege and picked up the scroll to preach the good news. With a likely potential of making millions, he instead is leaving his position as outfielder for the Oakland A’s and entering seminary. He is quoted as saying that the decision brought him a great amount of peace. The peace that comes from exchanging a guaranteed lifetime of wealth for a life of work for the poor, could be described as a peace that passes all understanding.

Grant Desme gives me hope. Jesus’ call to bring good news to the poor, justice to the oppressed, and to free all captives is alive and well. This is a calling that may in various ways, risk a dive off a cliff, risk discomfort, risk sharing the discomfort of the world. But it is a calling that will bring us good news, open our eyes, free us from bondage, and bring us peace.

Amen.