"Solidaridad" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
August 18, 2024
Scripture:  Luke 4:14-21

Note:  Every summer, we gather weekly for Church Family Movie Nights; and this year we are linking our Sunday morning worship to the movie we watched the previous Tuesday. This week’s reflection is tied to the movie Pride. You can read a summary of this movie by clicking here, or watch the trailer by clicking here. If you want to learn more about the story behind the movie, there is an excellent but longer (40 minutes) historical analysis you can watch by clicking here.



The first short-term mission trip that I went on with my home church in Thunder Bay was to El Salvador in 2002. The country had been hit by a massive earthquake the year before, and as the church we fundraised to re-build three houses through Habitat for Humanity in partnership with one of the United Church of Canada’s ecumenical partners in El Salvador.

But in addition to fundraising for the houses, we also learned about the social-political situation in El Salvador. We learned about how the church in El Salvador had participated in the oppression of people who were poor and marginalized. We learned about how foreign intervention had led to the civil war there.  We learned some of the more recent history too – about how neoliberalism and corporate globalization, combined with pressure from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund had led to near-slave-like working conditions (and near-slave-like salaries) for too many people.  We even learned some basic Spanish so that we would be able to speak with people in El Salvador, even if only a little.

 

Finally, in March of 2002, after a year of preparation, we traveled down to El Salvador for two weeks.  When we got to the village where the houses were to be built, we worked alongside actual builders who knew what they were doing, while we did what we were asked to do – mixing cement by hand, or moving the bricks from a pile over here to a pile over there.  We got to know the people in the village, despite the language barrier.  We shared meals together; we stayed with a family in the village, sleeping on the floor of their house; we laughed and sang together as we worked, and again in the evenings.

 

One word that we learned in our Spanish language training, along with greetings and how to ask “where is the toilet?” was “solidaridad.” (And I still have my “Solidaridad” apron that was one of our fundraisers!)

 

 

We also talked about solidarity as a concept in our preparation to go.  Our trip was about so much more than building three houses – our trip was about showing that we cared for the people who would live in those houses, about coming alongside them and offering support with no agenda or expectations or strings attached.  And that is what we heard again and again from the people of Los Talpatates, the village where we were staying. They couldn’t believe that a group of Canadians would love them enough to make the long journey to meet them and stay with them and learn their stories.  Our trip was about more than houses – it was about standing in solidarity with people who felt forgotten.

 

Now, I’ve just broken one of the cardinal rules for preaching – never make yourself the hero of the stories you tell – so I’m going to twist this story just a little bit at the end.

 

When we went to El Salvador, we definitely saw ourselves as the heroes in the story – as the people who were giving to those in need.  But in our time there, that narrative shifted a little bit.  Yes, we were going down in a spirit of assistance and solidarity, but when we were there, we were the recipients of such incredible grace and generosity.  We were welcomed into a village who had never met us before.  A family moved out of their house so that we could sleep on their floors.  Even the builders were gracious in their acceptance of “helpers” who had absolutely no idea what we were doing!  We thought that we would be giving and the Salvadorans would be receiving; but in the end, it was a much more mutual relationship, and in fact, I might even say that we received even more than we gave on that trip. And that is the way that it goes with solidarity – it is about building relationships and mutual sharing.

 

In our bible story today, we are at the very beginning of Jesus’s public ministry.  After his baptism, and after spending 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth where he goes into the synagogue on the Sabbath, reads from the scroll of Isaiah, and then proclaims that he is the fulfillment of what Isaiah had prophesied.

 

If you look back to the book of Isaiah, there is a bit of a discrepancy, as the words that Luke places in Jesus’s mouth are actually a mishmash of both chapter 58 and chapter 61 of Isaiah.  But if you look at the literary structure of Luke, this scene is setting the stage for all of Jesus’s public ministry.  This is his first public appearance, and it is almost as if Jesus is presenting his mission statement to the world – this is what my ministry is going to be all about.

 

Bring good news to the poor.

Proclaim release to the captives.

Offer healing.

Free the oppressed from whatever binds them.

Proclaim God’s blessing to the world.

 

Jesus’s initial listeners – devout Jewish people in the synagogue – they would have been familiar with the source of what Jesus was reading, and their ears would have filled in other parts of these chapters of Isaiah that Luke leaves out.

 

Bind up the broken-hearted.

Provide for those who mourn.

Share bread with the hungry.

Loose the bonds of injustice.

Shelter the homeless poor.

 

All of these things – both the parts of Isaiah that Luke includes, and the parts that are left out – all of this is the work of Jesus that will unfold from this moment right up until the end of his life.

 

And after the end of Jesus’s life – after he dies and is resurrected and ascends into heaven – in these after-times, it is the church who is the Body of Christ.  It is the church who is responsible for continuing the work that Jesus started.  We are the ones responsible for loosing the bonds of injustice and bringing an end to oppression.  We are the ones responsible for proclaiming good news and freedom and blessing.  We are the ones responsible for feeding anyone who is hungry and comforting anyone who mourns and binding up the broken-hearted.

 

Which is how this reading ties into my initial story – to be in solidarity, to wholeheartedly support another without any agenda or strings attached, is part of the work of Jesus.

 

I began with one story of solidarity, and I’m going to end with another, and this is our movie tie-in for the week.  The 2014 movie Pride is based on a real-life story of the Gay and Lesbian community in London, England, offering their support to striking coal miners in 1984.  They raised money to support families in a village in Wales who were trying to get by on strike wages, and not only that, but they visited the village a number of times to offer moral support, and built friendships – genuine relationships – with the people there.  There was no expectation of reciprocity – they didn’t have an agenda, they didn’t have any expectation of receiving anything in return.  They were doing this because they knew what it was like to be mistreated by the press, the police, and the government.

 

But at the end of the movie, the solidarity went both ways, and the Mineworker’s Union showed up in London in 1985 to march in the Pride Parade with them; and then used their political ties to have the Labour Party add protections and rights for Gay and Lesbian people into their party platform.

 

In their acts of solidarity and relationship building, I truly believe that this movie shows the love of God and the work of Christ in action.  In binding up the broken-hearted, in provided food for the hungry, in working to overturn oppression and injustice, we see the work of the Body of Christ.  Whenever we see the true colours of another person, and create space for them to shine, we are doing the work of Christ.

 

And so my prayer for the church – not just for our churches of Two Rivers, not just for the United Church of Canada, but for the universal church of all times and all places – my prayer is that we might continue to be the hands and feet of Christ as we continue the work that Jesus began.  That we might continue to loosen bonds of injustice and let the oppressed go free.  That we might continue to proclaim good news of unconditional love to anyone who needs to hear it, and bring healing to the broken-hearted. That we might be spaces where everyone’s true colours can shine through.

 

And whether this work looks like marching in a Pride Parade, or using our voices to advocate politically, or sharing our resources where they are needed – may the Holy Spirit be always working in the church, in all of our hearts, transforming us more and more into the Body of Christ.  Amen.