Service Title: Birth of a Movement: Good News to the Poor
Speakers: Katrina Ross Zezza, Religious and Cultural Organizing Coordinator at the Kairos Center and
Keith Bullard, Raise Up / Fight for $15
Scripture: Luke 4:14-21
Katrina Ross Zezza, Religious and Cultural Organizing Coordinator at the Kairos Center
Religion plays a critical role in our organizing work—in social movements and in the work of dismantling oppressive systems—because theology is powerful. We know this because it has been used by empire to uphold oppressive systems throughout human history. So, to understand the mental terrain in the U.S., we have to know about theology and religion, specifically Christianity.
If we want to dismantle oppression in the U.S., we have to learn and talk about Christianity in the U.S.—because Christian ideas are woven into our politics, and biblical mis-interpretation has been used by the powerful to justify slavery, colonialism, genocide, labor exploitation, among other things. To dismantle these things we have to strike at the mind, which in the U.S. means understanding Christian theology.
For me personally, it’s also important because I believe in a God who does not want poverty to exist. I believe God is good and loving, and sees what we need. And the biblical interpretation that we’re doing in this space- in the campaign and through the Kairos Center counteracts the harmful false moral narrative, that blames the poor for their poverty and pits poor and dispossessed people against each other.
There’s a movie from 2006—maybe you’ve heard of it—called Pan’s Labyrinth. I watched it last night, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot—reading some interviews with the artist who created it—the Mexican writer and director Guillermo del Toro. It’s kind of a scary movie—half fantasy, half historical fiction—set during the rise to power of Francisco Franco in Spain. And it’s basically about a little kid coping with the terrible things happening around her. It’s also a critique of empire, and the monsters in it represent institutional powers that enable the evils of oppressive governments. There’s a part that most people consider the scariest part, when the main character—a child—walks into a room with a terrifying sleeping creature in a chair. The creature is sitting at a table with a gigantic uneaten feast, and the child has been told not to eat anything. In the corner, there’s a pile of shoes that conjure the horrors of the holocaust, and maybe every form of institutionalized violence—giving the audience a picture of all the souls that this creature has eaten. Del Toro said in an interview that this monster represents “all institutional evil feeding on the helpless”, and it’s not accidental that the monster is white and male. He says this monster is thriving now. This kind of visual metaphor is also in many parts of the Bible to help us grasp the monstrous and mean things we see happening in our world. It’s not really a matter of individuals being corrupt, it is more like a virus—the corporate greed which devours people even when it has a perversely abundant banquet right in front of it.
Because empire has always tried to co-opt religion for its own purposes- to exploit and enslave, the Church has to work against this- it has to be centered in liberation. As Dr. King said, it has to be a headlight, not a tail-light, in the struggle for justice. And when Dr. King talked about the Freedom Church of the Poor, he said that the dispossessed of this nation must organize a revolution against injustice, not against our fellow citizens, but against the structures that uphold an unjust society. The Church has to be centered in the struggle of the poor and dispossessed because when it’s centered in empire it is used to justify empire. That’s unfortunately what we see in a lot of religious spaces today—and it was true in Jesus’ time as well. Religious institutions often uphold the religion of empire—and scripture is used to reinforce the way things are. But I think this movement and this community is trying to be the Church as Dr. King meant it—a fusion coalition of impacted people uniting across lines of division, looking to the wisdom of every spiritual tradition to combat the evil forces threatening our lives.
In my own life, I was disillusioned with institutional religion for many years, always seeking ways to be spiritual, and connected to God, but not feeling that churches were a place to find that. I saw and still see how people have been hurt by toxic Christianity, where God is used as a weapon and a tool for abuse.
In the U.S., during the time that enslavement was legal, enslaved black workers only had access to a Bible- produced by their captors- which excluded the most liberative passages- such as the Exodus story. This was done to discourage any thoughts of organizing against their oppressors. One of the other passages excluded was this one—Jesus’s inaugural sermon about preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives. But what these blasphemous captors, who omitted these passages, didn’t know is that the whole Bible is good news for the poor, the enslaved and the dispossessed. You can’t take the liberation out of the Bible, because that’s who God is.
In our reading today from the gospel of Luke, we hear about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry- the defining of his ministry as being of and for the poor. So much of what Jesus taught came from the ancient Hebrew teachings, which had been around for centuries before his time. He would retell these stories, like other Jewish teachers did, to learn from the wisdom of their ancestors and their history. When Jesus reads from the book of the prophet Isaiah, he is showing solidarity with all the liberation-seeking generations that have passed. Sitting together in that synagogue, they were hearing the same word, the same charge. And we, just like our ancestors, are hearing it today. This is our charge: to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and to let the oppressed go free. It’s up to us to figure out what that means in our time.
Religious leaders are not always on the side of what’s right, but the good news is that even when institutions aren’t on the side of what’s right, God is. The powers that be can do their worst but they can’t actually take away the power of what is right. I’ve been thinking a lot about how it’s a weakness of theirs that they distort the truth, because the truth has a power of its own, and human rights have a power of their own, not just because they’re part of a creed or a constitution, but because they are inalienable. And the power that they have works through us when we live it and speak it.
As humans, we don’t always have access to knowledge of what is truly good or right, but I think when we hear it we recognize it. When we hear good leaders speak with clarity, our despair melts away a little bit. It makes us think there might actually be hope. May it be so. Amen
Keith Bullard, Raise Up / Fight for $15
Hello everyone my name is Keith Bullard and I’m coordinator for Raise Up / Fight For $15, and I’m blessed to be here with my Freedom Church Family and also to be on here With Bishop Walter L. Starghill Jr of Face to Face International Outreach Ministries. I was excited to speak on Luke 4:14-21. This is an exciting and bold text where Jesus lays out what he’s here for. The first thing that jumped out at me really was Jesus went back, he went back to his hometown, to where he’d been brought up in, back to a place where further in the scripture a question was asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Jesus went back to that place. I believe there is some direction he’s giving us in that text. Direction, because I believe there are times that I’m sure we all ask the question what to do and where to do it. We say God I just want to help but where and what to do. As I was studying this I was reminded of Dr King words in his “I Have a Dream” speech. Right before Dr. King went into his dream, he also gave us directions. I believe these are the directions that Jesus was giving us also in scripture. Dr. King said:
“Go back to Mississippi. Go back to Alabama. Go back to South Carolina. Go back to Georgia. Go back to Louisiana. Go back to the slums and ghettos of our Northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair”.
I believe that this is telling us to do the work of God right where we are, in the spaces we are in, I believe this is to say right where you are to begin doing the work of God. Right in your city, your community, even in your home. Because the answer is: Yes, something good can come from right where you are at. Now when we get to that point some of us will ask, “Now that we know where, what do we do?”
Jesus then helps us out by giving clear instructions when he delivers his mission statement. Jesus says:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He 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.”
People of God, this is also our mission statement.
Jesus said we have been anointed to bring good news to the poor. I think about the work we do at Raise Up and how all throughout the South were out there bringing the good news to the poor. The good news that they deserve a living wage, the good news that they don’t have to work in unsafe working conditions, the good news that when we fight we win. This is the good news for the poor
Jesus said has sent me to proclaim release to the captives. I think of the National Black Mama’s Day Bail Out project where on an average of 700,000 people are condemned to local jails and separated from their families. A majority of them are there simply because they cannot afford to pay bail, which disproportionately hurts Black and Brown people and their families. The week before Mother’s Day, organizations in dozens of cities across the country will bail out as many mothers as possible who otherwise would spend Mother’s Day in a cell simply because they cannot afford bail.
I also think of the communities that stand up to ICE and government policies that separate families, those who stand up against deporting immigrants from a stolen nation of immigrants this is proclaim release to the captives
Jesus said to recover sight to the blind. I think of Put people first and the Nonviolent Medicaid Army. Put People First! PA gives voice to everyday people who are struggling to meet our basic needs. People struggling to access healthcare. They stand on the principle that HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT. They challenge a system that can have a life saving medicine like insulin cost less that $10 for the insured but $600 for the uninsured. By challenge these and creating communities of support we are recovering sight to the blind
Jesus then said to let the oppressed go free. One thing I love about the PPC is that it doesn’t name one form of oppression, it calls them all out. Systemic Racism, Systemic Poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and the distorted moral narrative. By uniting oppressed people from every background, and fighting all forms of these is how the oppressed are freed
And by doing this we are also proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Lastly, People of God I believe this is our mission because Jesus first said the spirit of the Lord is upon me and if you go to the book of Acts 2:17-18 it reads:
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy
Freedom Church, The Spirit of the Lord is upon us as well. Let us continue our mission in Christ.