Loading...Sermon October 30, 2016
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost Year C Track 2 Proper 26
Learn to do good
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17
Please be seated.
Yesterday I was privileged to be on a panel for the National Association of Social Workers Pioneer’s annual program and luncheon in Washington DC. I was one of five spiritual leaders from various religions to talk about “Spirituality, Racism and Poverty: The Conversation starts with me and us.”
According to the NASW website,
NASW Pioneers are social workers who have explored new territories and built outposts for human services on many frontiers. … each has made an important contribution to the social work profession and to social policies through service, teaching, writing, research, program development, administration, or legislation. //www.naswfoundation.org/pioneers/
I was invited to do this more than a year ago by my friend, Dr. Bernice Catherine Harper. Dr. Harper worked for the federal government agency that oversees Medicare. She was responsible for many policies that affect so many of us either directly or through our family members. One area that she was especially influential in is that of hospice care and hospice services both in the United States and in sub-saharan Africa.
That’s true of so many of the pioneers. Having worked at the national office of NASW, I met and worked with many of these pioneers. Many of them mentored me, first as a social worker and then as I went to seminary. A number of them came to my ordinations and Dr. Harper and I continue to keep in touch.
I loved being around them yesterday, seeing people I’ve known a long time and meeting new people. They’re all very interesting and they come to mind because they embody this verse of Isaiah 1:17:
Learn to do good
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17
In today’s reading from Isaiah, the prophet speaks accusations against the Israelites. In the first part of the reading, we hear that the people observed all of the rules of the Temple worship at the time. They performed the right sacrifices and gave the proper offerings. However, all of this was meaningless, because the end result of these practices were empty. The worship did not then lead to actions of justice, rescuing the oppressed, defending the orphan or pleading for those whose voices were not typically heard – the orphans and widows in that time.
The prophet delivers the message in verse 17 that we are to “learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”
I know in my life, I learned to do good, to seek justice, to rescue the oppressed, to defend the orphan and to plead for the widow in the context of the Christian faith.
First of all, my parents were very faithful people. I saw them praying and giving so much to the church. I saw them working alongside parents in a low income housing project to ensure that children had breakfast before going to school. My mother thought the Jim Crow laws of the south were wrong and she integrated the YWCA Y-Teen Christmas float in the 1955 Ft. Smith Christmas parade. My father insisted I read the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education landmark school desegregation case. Justice and truth were strong values of my parents and were passed down to me.
This was reinforced in my church, which explored many of the controversial issues of the times. The prophetic voice calling nations into account was emphasized and valued. We were encouraged to model that voice. Ministry to people who were homeless or were refugees was undertaken. All people were welcomed.
And the church was a place where we didn’t always agree about how to address these issues or what justice looked like. That’s one of the biggest lessons I learned. We could see things differently and have different ideas, yet we found ways to work together. We were able to hear each other and in the end love each other. Maybe we didn’t agree on politics or had different views about what justice meant and we were there for each other in the everyday circumstances of our lives.
I’m sure these observations and teachings from my church influenced me to become a social worker. One of the core values of the social work profession as set forth in the NASW Code of Ethics is social justice and social workers are expected to work for social justice. I learned how to do good, how to seek justice, how to rescue the oppressed, how to defend the orphan and how to plead for the widow from the people and relationships in my church. I learned that worship was edifying, strengthening and challenging and that I was expected to go out from the service and be involved in working for justice…be involved in rescuing the oppressed…to do good.
And I believe we strive to do the same here at The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen. Hopefully you find the worship and the gathering with each other strengthening, comforting and even challenging.
I know you feel moved to join with each other to address justice issues by giving our garden produce, food and money to the food banks in Perry and Juniata Counties. Your giving and the wise use of our resources allows us to give $20,000 each year to many important and worthy efforts in our region. We buy shoes for children and provide clothing and toys for 40 children as part of the Join Hands Christmas effort. Today many of you will pick up orders you made through Equal Exchange, supporting small farmers and fair labor practices around the world. There’s also an announcement about needs for bedding for people fleeing their homes and being resettled in our area.
Let us talk with each other about what the good we do so we can learn from each other. Let us talk about what it means to rescue the oppressed. Let us talk about what it means to defend the orphan and plead for those who have little voice like the widows of Jesus’ time. Let us continue to work with each other and like the Social Work Pioneers I was with yesterday, embody this Isaiah passage.
Amen.
