BAM
BAAM
BAS
in来 dweli
all indirekli in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen.
Do you consider yourself a just person? On the 10th of April 1963 an Alabama state
judge grant an injunction which banned all anti segregation protest activity in the city of
Birmingham Alabama. This was the result of a concerted effort by the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights against the segregationist
policies which discriminated against black members of the community. Mass meetings were held
members of the movement's stage sit-ins at segregationist cafes and restaurants. The community
marched in protest on City Hall and there was a general boycott of segregationist merchants.
But on the 12th of April 1963 Dr Martin Luther King and the Reverend Ralph Abernathy led a march
in defiance of this injunction and both were arrested and jailed and from behind bars Dr King wrote
those lines that we've just heard in his famous letter from Birmingham jail. There are a few sat
here today I would imagine who would question the righteousness of Dr King and Reverend Abernathy's
choices the choice to march on City Hall despite the injunction not to yet we know that Dr King
and his fellows were criticised and attacked for their calls for an equal world open to all
regardless of the person of the colour of a person's skin indeed we know that not only Dr King
but many others throughout history have paid the ultimate price for their commitment to God's justice
and were martyred as they fought for a better world in the name of Jesus Christ.
It would be easy to turn such stories into accounts of the unerringly righteous Christians
fighting against an unrighteous world across different times and places. It would be a narrative
that we're familiar with hearing after all we're used to hearing about the early church as an underdog
boldly proclaiming Jesus Christ and serving others against the might of the Roman Empire
which persecuted them. It would be an easy narrative but it would be false because many of those
who have criticised and attacked social justice movements in America many who still attack
social justice movements today across the world claim and have claimed the title Christian.
Are such people denuded? Well surely so God's justice allows no bias there is no grace and
goodness open to some which is not open to all but whilst it's potentially comforting to dismiss
those who disagree with our understanding of justice past and present as deliberately unkind
and unfair we need to remember that it is a very rare person indeed who actually believes themselves
to be unjust. As human beings we are masters of persuading ourselves that we are in the right
even and perhaps especially when we're in the wrong. We turn ourselves into the heroes of our own
stories and this makes it easy for us to justify our position on any number of matters.
When we believe that we're the center of the world how could it be otherwise?
If all the world around us and the people in it are just bit players in our story then everything
naturally fits into a framework which serves our carefully constructed reality. So for example
if a person in 1960s Alabama were to believe that the color of their skin really did make them
the pinnacle of their society their lived reality might very well reflect that from their perspective.
If they automatically got the nice seats in the restaurants had access to the best schools
more easily got promotions got better pays are doing exactly the same work got to live in the
nicer areas of the city in bigger houses filled with nicer things then it would be easy to suppose
themselves superior. It wouldn't be until they stopped and asked why they had these things and
others didn't that the injustice of their situation would become apparent. Why should their group
of people get benefits that others didn't? Why would society automatically place obstacles in
front of others but not in front of them? Why should they be able to expect certain rights
and treatment but others couldn't? Then they would realize that they didn't have better jobs
or bigger houses because they earned those things or indeed had any right to those things at all.
It would be because they got an easy ride to the top. They ran a hurdle race but someone
forgot to add their hurdles. These are very hard questions to ask of oneself in the 1960s
or today because if one finds oneself advantaged where others aren't it's probably because society
favors you and in turn makes life harder for others in ways which aren't just. But as long as
there remains any injustice in our world it is our christian moral duty to ask ourselves these
most difficult questions. We must answer the question of our privilege. An in this letter
from Birmingham jail Dr King explained why injustice anywhere is a problem for justice everywhere.
If we live in an unjust society then we are affected by that injustice because as heirs of
God and co-heirs with Christ we are interrelated with our brothers and sisters not only in our
community but across our world and we have a duty to them especially if they struggle under systems
which unfairly benefit us. In our gospel reading Mary sang her prophetic hymn of praise the
Magnificat and she sang he has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the
thoughts of their hearts he has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the
lolly he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. What caused Mary to
have these hopes they certainly weren't her reality she was a peasant living in Nazareth a tiny town
with very few families who scratched out a living either by subsistence farming or by the very hard
labour and the income that they could get from it. They were taxed extremely heavily first by the
occupying Roman forces who forced them to pay for their own occupation and then by pirate who forced
them to pay immense amounts of tax to construct the temple and his palates so that he could prove
himself a greater architect than Solomon. Mary's life would have been brutal as a woman
she had basically no access to education she was most certainly given in betrayal at the age of 12
and her duty would have been to serve her much older husband with no regard for her own wants
or needs she was powerless voiceless out of no account to the world around her. When we remember
the account of Gabriel appearing to Mary to ask if she would become the mother of God he told her
that she had found favour with God he said greetings you who are fuk highly favoured. Now a lot of us
would answer that kind of greeting with a sense of pride or at very least a kind of demure humility
but Mary didn't she met it with genuine confusion we're told that she was greatly troubled at
Gabriel's greeting and wondered what he had come to say because Mary wasn't a person who was noticed
by anyone and so it must have been the ultimate shock to understand that she'd been recognised by God
yet within the harsh reality of her world and her future Mary focused on the goodness of God
and devoted herself to him in worship what gave Mary the hope that is described in the Magnificat
certainly not what she saw around her no rather the God that she worshiped and her trust in his
goodness the Magnificat is full of scriptural illusions it heavily reflects Hannah's song
in one Samuel as Hannah prays God for giving her the child she's so dearly prayed for who would
go on to be one of Israel's greatest prophets and its final judge but Mary also referred to
promises found in Genesis Psalms Joe Leviticus Deuteronomy Micah though Mary had no formal
education she obviously knew the scriptures she obviously dwelt on them in her heart
this was the only way that she could have constructed a song which so thoroughly weaves
together Old Testament teaching and promises in a way that so demonstrably understands God's goodness
in attending to the scriptures in her worship and prayer Mary clearly came to know and trust
her Lord and in this trust despite her circumstances she perceived that the world that she experienced
was not the world as it ought to be she saw that God's justice had not taken effect in the world
around her but she trusted that through the fulfillment of God's promise of the coming messiah
things would change as we know Mary risks a huge amount when she agreed to become the mother
of God Jesus Christ as a betrothed woman who wasn't yet married her pregnancy would have broken
her vows to Joseph it would have suggested that she'd slept with someone outside of marriage
and the punishment for that was death by stoning even if she wasn't executed in this most brutal way
Mary almost certainly courted ruin which would have turned her very difficult life into a basically
impossible one had they chosen once they found out about her pregnancy Mary's family
might very well have abandoned her and turned her out onto the streets and as a woman of no
repeat without a husband she would have been unable to work except perhaps as a prostitute
and so her choice may very easily have come between selling herself or allowing herself
and her child to starve that was what Mary was risking when she said yes and yet
Mary said yes to Gabriel without a second thought for her own health or happiness
she trusted in God that not only he would bring his justice to the world through her son but
that he would make a way for her and her son to live safely Mary gave of herself gave of her hopes
for the future gave of her need for family gave of her personal safety and committed herself to the
goodness and justice of God because she was a woman of no repeat without a second thought
the goodness and justice of God because he knew who he is
we don't live in a Roman occupied province nor are we facing exactly the same sorts of battles
that Dr King did but our world is still not anywhere near the vision of justice
which Mary described in the Magnificat the poor are still voiceless and forgotten
we need only look at the existence of food banks the mountains of debt which crush people
the number of people who try to live in our world in our country
despite the failure of provision for even basic securities and provisions
the powerful still sit on thrones of privilege we need only look at those people who make
mountains of salary bringing in more money than a person could hope to spend in a lifetime
and yet using their riches to influence policy which keeps the poor poor we still live in a world
in which the weak and vulnerable are neglected and abused in our own town in our own country in our
own community we need look no further than our brothers and sisters who lie on the streets at night
our brothers and sisters who flee from war and violence with their children only to be packed tightly into one hotel room
and then get berated by local communities who want nothing to do with them
we need only look at our brothers and sisters who are told that because of who they love
they are not welcome in certain churches
our then is to ask whether we are willing to take the same risks as Mary and to follow in the footsteps of Dr King
are we willing to address our privilege and realize that the world isn't a fair place
just because it makes us comfortable and are we willing to speak about that
and use what privilege we have been given to try and make the world a fairer place
can we take the risk that people will confront us and disagree with us when we stand up for the
principles of the magnificat in short are we willing to live by the maxim injustice anywhere
is a threat to justice everywhere amen