Called to Care (Isaiah 1:10-17, Ruth 1:6-19)

 I’m going to read two scriptures today. The first, from Isaiah, is from the lectionary; the second, from Ruth, is suggested by our stewardship materials…

Isaiah 1:10-17

Hear the word of the Lord,

    you rulers of Sodom!

Listen to the teaching of our God,

    you people of Gomorrah!

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?

    says the Lord;

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams

    and the fat of fed beasts;

I do not delight in the blood of bulls

    or of lambs or of goats.

When you come to appear before me,

    who asked this from your hand?

    Trample my courts no more!

Bringing offerings is futile;

    incense is an abomination to me.

New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation—

    I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.

Your new moons and your appointed festivals

    my soul hates;

they have become a burden to me;

    I am weary of bearing them.

When you stretch out your hands,

    I will hide my eyes from you;

even though you make many prayers,

    I will not listen;

    your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

    remove your evil deeds

    from before my eyes;

cease to do evil;

    learn to do good;

seek justice;

    rescue the oppressed;

defend the orphan;

    plead for the widow.

Obi Wan Kenobi could have been talking about Sodom and Gomorrah when he said: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

(I’ll get to the second reading shortly; first let me talk about Isaiah, and what Isaiah said about Sodom and Gomorrah…)

In biblical literature, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are synonymous with sin and evil.

Unfortunately…

The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah isn’t what many people think. Many people have been told that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality. But that’s a lie told by those who twist what the Bible actually says in order to justify their own prejudice and hate.

No; Isaiah says quite plainly that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is failure to seek justice; failure to rescue the oppressed; failure to defend the orphan; and failure to plead for the widow.

In other words, failure to protect and care for those who are vulnerable.

The prophet Ezekiel says much the same thing. In Ezekiel, chapter 16, verse 49, it says (and I quote): “this was the guilt of Sodom: [they had] pride, excess food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.”

The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was having excess resources, and not aiding the poor and needy.

But let’s look at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah itself, which is found in Genesis 19. 

In Genesis 19, we read about two travelers from another land—two men who were, one could say, “not from around here.” Two men who probably dressed a little differently, and who spoke with an accent.

First, they visited Abraham, who did care for them, offer them protection—doing everything one was supposed to do to show hospitality to travelers, foreigners, and immigrants. 

When Abraham saw them arriving, he ran to greet them. He gave them water to drink and to wash with, and some bread to eat. He also prepared some meat for them, and served it to them.

That’s how one is supposed to treat those arriving from another land.

The day was young, so those travelers then continued with their journey. They arrived in Sodom in the evening. When the man named Lot saw them, he showed them the same care and hospitality Abraham did. He fed them, and–because it was now late–invited them to spend the night, offering them protection in accordance with ancient laws about showing hospitality to strangers.

Showing hospitality like this was an important practice, because travelers from a foreign land were particularly vulnerable. Lot and Abraham were following God’s ways, by offering hospitality and protection to these vulnerable men, so far from their homeland.

But…

When the village of Sodom finds out about these visitors from another land, they demand that Lot hand over these two travelers, so that they might abuse them and take advantage of them. 

Lot says no. Lot had assured the travelers of his protection. He will not go back on his word. So Lot offers his own daughters instead. His own daughters!

Now, that sounds terrible. But I think this story engages in a bit of hyperbole here to show how important it is to protect and care for those who are vulnerable, including and especially those who are far from their homeland.

The moral of the story is that nothing should ever prevent us from caring for and protecting those who are vulnerable. 

The town of Sodom failed to honor and protect the two travelers, so scripture condemns them. The people of Sodom failed to act justly, so God says that no amount of offering or sacrifice could ever make up for their abusive behavior. Isaiah says that God refuses to acknowledge their prayers or accept their praise… because of how they have mistreated these men from another land.

Isaiah’s condemnation on those who fail to protect the vulnerable or uphold justice is echoed by Amos. In Amos chapter 5, God says basically the same thing: “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you present to me offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them… Not until you let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.”

So far, we’ve seen, already, how the importance of protecting and caring for those who are vulnerable is highlighted and emphasized in Genesis; in Isaiah; in Ezekiel; and in Amos. Now, let’s turn to the book of Ruth, and see what it has to say…

Ruth 1:6-19

Then she [Naomi] started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had considered his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. They said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.” Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

So she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said,

“Do not press me to leave you,

    to turn back from following you!

Where you go, I will go;

    where you lodge, I will lodge;

your people shall be my people

    and your God my God.

Where you die, I will die,

    and there will I be buried.

May the Lord do thus to me,

    and more as well,

if even death parts me from you!”

When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?”

In this story, we have Naomi, who had been living in Moab as a foreigner. An immigrant. 

After the deaths of her husband and her sons, she decides to return to her homeland. 

She knows how hard it is to be a foreigner, an immigrant, so she urges her two daughters-in-law to stay in Moab, since that is their homeland. One daughter-in-law agrees, but Ruth is determined to go with her.

Naomi tries to convince her otherwise. Despite the Biblical commands to show hospitality to foreigners, Naomi’s people do not look fondly upon Moabites like Ruth. Old animosities that refused to die have led to prejudice and discrimination against Moabites. Naomi knows that there will be many challenges for Ruth if Ruth comes with her. Yet Ruth still insists on going with Naomi. 

Wherever you go, I will go. Your people will be my people.

So Naomi returns to her homeland where she is no longer an immigrant; but Ruth, who has come with her, is now a foreigner living in a land that is not hers. 

Many of us love this story. We admire Ruth’s dedication, and her commitment to her mother-in-law. 

Many immigrants today also move to a new land out of loyalty to their families, to reunite with them, or to provide for them a better life… just like Naomi and Ruth.

And just as Naomi and Ruth experienced, being a foreigner in a land that is not your own or that is not the home of your ancestors makes you vulnerable. You are vulnerable to prejudice, xenophobia, fear, misconceptions, misplaced anger and hate.

As we’ve already seen, the Bible instructs God’s people to care for and protect those who are vulnerable. In addition to the forms of hospitality that Abraham and Lot offered, the Bible also commands landowners and fieldworkers to leave behind some of their crops, so that the poor could gather up what the workers left behind. 

That is an important part of this story, because Ruth goes out to glean in the field–to gather up some of the crops that were left behind–so that she and Naomi might have something to eat. It happened to be a field owned by a relative of Naomi’s, and Naomi hoped that this would provide some protection for Ruth—which, in fact, turned out to be the case.

Boaz was a good man, who showed mercy and compassion… even to a Moabite like Ruth.

So the story of Ruth is the story of an immigrant—a vulnerable person—who needed, and found, protection. She needed and found the same protection that Abraham and Lot offered; the same protection that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah failed to provide.

The Biblical call to protect the vulnerable is something Jesus also teaches. Jesus declared that his mission was to proclaim good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed. Jesus commands us to serve him by serving the least of these: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and those in prison.

When we in the church lift up and exalt the powerful and the wealthy, instead of the poor and vulnerable, we are committing the sin of Sodom. 

But when we are faithful, and when we dream God’s dream, we bear witness to God’s vision of a world where the poor and vulnerable are cared for, protected, and lifted up.

Here at First Christian Church, we work to resist the temptation of wealth and power. 

We repent of the sin of Sodom, the sin of turning our backs on those who are vulnerable. 

And we take seriously our call to do what Isaiah said: to seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow. We do our best to provide care for those in need.

As our congregation’s mission statement says, we are called to serve our community with passion. We are called to care.

And your support unites you in this mission.

This, friends, is the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. It is the hope that our world so desperately needs today. It is the antidote to all the poisonous hatred in the world today. It is life in a world filled with death and destruction.

Next week, we are inviting everyone to make a pledge to support our ministry in 2026. Never has a ministry of a church like ours been more needed. 

And yet, never has it been more difficult to sustain a ministry like this and to carry out our mission. 

Which is why this year’s stewardship campaign is so important.

The gospel that has been entrusted to us needs to be heard. The ministry we have—a ministry of care and compassion and mercy and love—must be sustained. 

Our neighbors—especially our vulnerable neighbors—are depending on us, just as we ourselves depend on this ministry, to help us dream God’s dream, follow Jesus, and be the people God calls us to be.

So I invite you to consider carefully how you can support our ministry in 2026. May God continue to guide us as we seek to be a church that cares for ALL God’s people, and especially for those who are vulnerable and in need of mercy.

Stronger Than Death (Ruth)

 I have the latest copy of the Bloomington-Normal Area Official Visitor Guide. Right here at the front, there’s a “BN Bucket List.” How many of these bucket list items have you done?

Before I moved to Illinois, I received a copy of last year’s Visitor Guide, which the search committee sent to me. It was fun to look through that magazine as I counted down the days until we moved here.

I have some other visitor guides here… And this past summer, before I went with Ginger and Ethan to West Virginia for a short vacation, I read through one published by the West Virginia Department of Tourism; on the front cover it had the words, “almost heaven.”

In addition to visitor guide magazines, one can also get a preview of a place by looking online. 

I didn’t get a magazine when I went to Washington, D.C. two months ago, and I’ve never had one for Chicago, but I did find it helpful to follow several social media accounts that highlighted things to do in those cities. I still follow the Chicago ones, since Chicago’s just up the road…

Unfortunately, there is no visitor guide or social media account for a place that I will be traveling to one day, a place that we all will be traveling to one day…

I’m talking about heaven.

It would be nice if there was a visitor guide for heaven, though, wouldn’t it? Or a social media account you could follow? Something that shows you what the accommodations are like, what there is to see, who you’ll get to see? (Oh, there’s some people I want to see in heaven!) Something that lets you know that the sunsets are incredible, and that angelic choirs perform free concerts every Saturday at 7?

Wouldn’t that be nice? 

Now, some would say that heaven does have a version of a visitor guide, and that is the Bible. Well, OK. Metaphorically speaking, one could say that.

But the Bible really says very little about life after we die. It’s all very vague.

And many of the scriptures that we interpret as applying to life after death really are about things in this world. 

But there are glimpses. Hints. 

It’s not a high-quality magazine filled with beautiful color photographs. But it is just enough, I suppose, to give me faith, and hope, and confidence in that future that awaits us all.

The glimpse of heaven that I find most helpful is in the 8th chapter of Romans. In my imaginary visitor’s bureau magazine, Romans 8 gets a full, two-page spread. 

Because there, it says that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

That is the assurance to me—to us—that God’s love is stronger than anything—stronger even than death—and that we will dwell in God’s love forever, even after we die.

I wish I had a more detailed picture of what exactly that will look like, but it is enough for me to know that we will dwell in God’s love forever.

I see that same assurance in the story of Naomi and Ruth.

The love that Naomi and Ruth have for each other is deep and strong and incredible. It is the love that inspired Ruth to say to Naomi, “Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” 

These beautiful words have been used by a number of couples as part of their wedding vows, even though the context in the book of Ruth is that of a daughter-in-law expressing her loyalty and devotion to her mother-in-law.

But for me, the fact that this is an expression of love between a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law is what makes this scene so powerful, and such a significant glimpse into the love that remains steadfast even after death.

Hear me out.

Naomi and Ruth’s love for one another came about because of a man who is now dead: Mahlon, the son of Naomi, and the husband of Ruth. Their love for each other was because of him. Their love for each other came about through him. He was what connected them to each other. He was what made them part of the same family.

They probably wouldn’t have even known each other without him. They only knew each other because he—the son of Naomi—married Ruth. He was the one who brought them together.

So, when he died…

When he and his brother died, Naomi set aside whatever emotions she was feeling, and told her two daughters-in-law—Ruth and Orpah—that they were no longer bound to her, that they were free to return to their own homes. Mahlon and Chilion, the ones who brought them all together, the ones through whom they were related, were now dead. So why should Ruth and Orpah stay with her?

Yet, even though Mahlon and Chilion were dead, the love Ruth and Orpah had for Naomi remained, and they refused to leave her.

After some more persuading, Orpah did finally agree to leave, but Ruth would not. Could not. “Don’t make me,” she said. 

Her love for Naomi and her loyalty to her would not allow her to leave. It stayed just as strong, and steadfast.

Probably some of you—maybe many of you—have experienced a love like that. You became a part of a family because of a marriage connection that you or someone else made. Then, through death, or perhaps divorce or some other circumstance, that connection was severed… the one through whom that connection was made was no longer in the picture; and yet, the love lingered, persisted, remained steadfast.

What a beautiful and holy thing! What a testament to the power of love, that it survived even the death of the one who provided the original connection on which that love was based! 

And the older I get, the more I realize how important it is to have love like that. That love takes many forms, but today I’m mostly talking about the love that we receive from those generations before us: our parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, dear friends and mentors who have guided us along the way. 

The saints who we celebrate today.

And maybe their love wasn’t perfect, but no human love is. But, if we’re blessed, their love was good. 

And sometimes, “good” is even better than “perfect.” 

Again, it might have been your parents, but it might also have been someone else for you, whose love guided you, nurtured you, and was a reflection of God’s own love for you, that made the difference. 

And it is my hope that there are folks in this room today who continue to provide that same love for you, the love that was passed down to them, which they now share with you.

And our job, of course, is to pass that love that we have received on to others, sharing it, especially with those who are a part of the generations that come after us.

Living is hard, and in some ways, it seems to be getting even harder. But love will get us through. 

Especially a love like this: a love that transcends generations, a love that goes back not just one or two generations, but all the way back through all of human history, back to when God first created humanity, first breathed that breath that gave life to dust and bones. 

It was love that did that.

And all of scripture is a testimony to God’s love for humanity.

Perhaps when we die, we get to experience that love in an even greater way than is possible for us to experience in this life. It’s like, now, the love we have, the love we receive, the love we share, it is in a state of growing, developing, becoming; but when we die, it will finally be complete; whole; fully realized.

I don’t know how you could convey that in a glossy visitor magazine. Maybe that’s why there is no such magazine for heaven. 

But thank God we get to experience that love just as Ruth and Naomi and so many others have experienced it. Thank God that it is a love that does not come to an end when a person dies, but continues growing, expanding and embracing, with each generation that comes. 

In fact, the genealogies that begin the Advent stories in Matthew and Luke: aren’t they a testament to God’s love that continues from one generation to the next? The story of Christ, starting with his birth, is the story of a God who loved humanity so much, that God became one of us, dwelt among us, in human form. But the genealogies remind us that the story of God’s love really began much, much earlier than that.

And it will continue. God’s love will continue. It’s the most important message that the church has for the world: God’s love is real, and God’s love is for you, and nothing—not even death—will separate you from that love. 

Knowing that is a great comfort to me when I think back to those I have loved and who have loved me, who are no longer with me today. 

And knowing that is a great comfort to me when I become anxious about my own death.

It’s even a comfort to me when I become anxious about the election. No matter what happens, God’s love is strong, and God’s love is steadfast. No matter what happens in the darkest part of night, God’s love is renewed every morning. 

And as the story of Ruth and Naomi shows, it is a love that continues even after death. It was their love for Mahlon that brought them together, but even after Mahlon died, the love that grew out of that relationship through marriage remained steadfast. 

Nothing beats that. Because nothing is more powerful than love.

Ruth

1. Right of Redemption

Two weeks ago, when I preached about Tamar, I described what it was like for childless widows. I need to go over that again to help us understand the story of Ruth.

Ancient laws and customs dictated that family names and inheritances were to be passed down through the first-born son. But what if a married couple had no children? And what if the husband died, leaving no son to carry on the family name?

If that happened, the dead husband’s brother or next-of-kin was expected to exercise the right of redemption. In this case, it means that he would marry the dead man’s widow, so that they might have children who would then carry on the dead man’s name. Legally, those children would have all the inheritance rights and responsibilities as if they had been born to the now-deceased man himself.

An added benefit for the widow is that she would remain attached to a family, and provided for, rather than being cast to the street.

All this is important to the story of Ruth, because in this story, tragically, there are quite a few dead husbands and sons. But it will take us a few minutes to get to that point…

2. The House of Elimelech

Once upon a time there was a man named Elimelech. Elimelech had a wife named Naomi. And Elimelech and Naomi had two sons, Mahlon and Chilion.

They lived in Bethlehem, but when a famine came, they became refugees, and went to live in the country of Moab.

Now, if you were an ancient Jew hearing this story for the first time, you would already sense the drama in this story. Poor Elimelech and Naomi. Poor Mahlon and Chilion. Forced to move to Moab, that awful place, that terrible, no-good land, filled with terrible, no-good people.

If you were an ancient Jew, you would have heard your political leaders describe Moabites as criminals and drug addicts. You would have heard your religious leaders describe Moabites as animals and monsters. Your leaders would have told you that associating with Moabites was forbidden, and that any Moabites living in Israel should be deported.

So to hear a story in which a family of good Israelites was forced to go and live in Moab… Your heart went out to them.

But the story gets worse.

While Elimelech and Naomi and their sons were living in Moab (that dreadful place), Elimelech died… and then the two sons married Moabite women. They married detestable Moabite women!

And then the two sons died, which meant that Naomi was left without a husband and without her sons.  Just two Moabite daughters-in-law, and no one to carry on her husband Elimelech’s name, and no one to provide for her or her Moabite daughters-in-law.

Some years later, when the famine back in Israel had ended, Naomi got ready to go back to her homeland. Her life was beyond hope, but at least she could live out her days back home. 

Her Moabite daughters-in-law started to come with her, but Naomi said to her daughters-in-law: Go back to your relatives in Moab. 

Her two daughters-in-law said no, but Naomi said: “Why would you go with me? I’m old, I’m not going to have any more sons who can become your husbands and redeem you, and I’m too old to to have a new husband myself. And even if I could find a husband and have sons, would you wait for them to be old enough to marry and redeem you? No. my life is over. Go back to Moab, perhaps you may still yet have a life there.”

One of her daughters did as Naomi said, and returned back to Moab. But the other daughter-in-law - whose name was Ruth - said to Naomi: 

“Do not force me to leave you or turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die; there I will be buried.”

So the two of them - Naomi, and her Moabite daughter-in-law named Ruth - made their way back to Bethlehem. 

3. The Good Moabite

And I should point out that, even though they returned to Bethlehem, the book of Ruth never stops referring to Ruth as the Moabite. It never stops using that detestable name, that slur, to describe her. 

Near Bethlehem, Ruth the Moabite gleaned in the field of a man named Boaz. That means she followed Boaz’s own workers, and picked up whatever grain was left behind after they went through and harvested. Ancient law dictated that harvesters not go back and get what they missed the first time through, so that those who are poor and destitute may do exactly what Ruth was doing.

One day Boaz came out to the field and saw Ruth, and Boaz asked his workers: “To whom does this woman belong?”

And his workers replied, “No one. She belongs to no man. She’s the Moabite who came back with Naomi from Moab.”

So Boaz went to Ruth and said: “Don’t go to another field to glean, or leave this one. The fact that you are a young woman and a Moabite makes you especially vulnerable. Stay here. Stay close to the other young women. And I’ll order my men not to bother you.”

Ruth replied, “Why have I found favor in your sight, when I am a foreigner, a Moabite?”

And Boaz said, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been told to me, and how you left your own father and mother and your own country to come to a land and a people you did not know… May the Lord bless you for your loyalty to your mother-in-law.”

So Boaz saw the good in Ruth… even though she was a Moabite.

The question is: would the Israelites who, centuries later, heard this story told to them also see that good can come from a Moabite? Their prejudice was strong, and their anti-Moabite bigotry was rampant. And yet in this story, the Moabite is...a good person, whose love and loyalty outshines anyone else’s.

That’s a lot to take in...

But wait. There’s more.

It turns out that Boaz is actually related somehow to Naomi, and therefore has the right to redeem Ruth. In other words, he can bring her into his family, and through her have children that would carry on the name of Elimelech. 

The question is: would he? He wasn’t a close relative, so he could have easily passed on this. And perhaps he would want to, given that she is a Moabite.

But the first right of redemption doesn’t belong to Boaz. There is another, slightly closer relative who has that right. So Boaz goes to that other relative, but that other relative refuses to redeem Ruth, because if he does it will mess up his own inheritance that he plans to pass down to his own sons. (And also, probably, because she is a Moabite.)

So then Boaz claims the right to redeem, and he and Ruth marry (even though she is a Moabite).

4. A Blessing

Boaz says to the city elders gathered around: “Today you are witnesses that I have acquired from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Elimelech’s sons, including Ruth the Moabite, to be my wife, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance, in order that the name of the dead may not be cut off from his kindred and from the gate of his native place..”

And all the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.”

--And this! This is startling. The elders of the city pronounce a magnificent blessing upon Ruth the Moabite, and ask God to lift her up to a place of blessing and honor as great as Rachel and Leah, these exemplary Jewish women. Do you realize what they are saying? How radical that is?

...And the elders say to Ruth: “May you produce children and, through the children, may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

--Wait… the elders invoke the name of Tamar, that bold and audacious woman we heard about two weeks ago? Do you see what’s going on here?

And then, at the end of the book of Ruth, we have a mini geneaology, which starts with Perez, the child born to Tamar, continues through Boaz and the son born Boaz and Ruth, whose name was Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David, who became king of Israel.

And the implied message in this story to the people of Israel is: “What do you make of your anti-immigrant, anti-foreigner, anti-Moabite prejudice now? Your great king - King David - had a Moabite great-grandmother on his family tree, a woman whose loyalty and goodness exceeded that of even the most loyal and good Israelite. She is to be compared to Rachel and Leah, so great is her goodness.” 

Ruth is the third woman on Jesus’ family tree, and she is the third woman who found herself in a desperate, vulnerable situation, a situation which provided no hope for the future, yet once again we have a woman who hoped against hope and never gave up, a woman who persevered against the odds, who even acted boldly at times when boldness was not a quality attributable to good, respected women.

5. A name, a home, a family

And thus far in Advent we have learned that the son of God would come into this world through a family that included women like these. The son of God comes into the world through prostitutes and foreigners and refugees. The son of God comes into the world through people who have been discarded by society.

And I don’t know about you, but by now I’m really starting to wonder if we’ve been looking for Jesus in all the wrong places. And I’m starting to wonder if we’ve been ignoring Jesus when we do see him.

Because it is clear from the stories of scripture that Jesus is the immigrant, the refugee, forced to flee from home. 

Jesus is the one who we like to slander and bear false witness against, proclaiming how terrible he is, a monster, an animal, a violent criminal and drug dealer.

Jesus is the homeless person we see on the street… the person with no family, no name, no future. 

Jesus is the woman told to go home, you don’t belong in the public arena. 

Jesus is the accused black person, unfairly sentenced to years in prison for the same offense that a white person gets only days. 

Jesus is the gay or lesbian or transgender person who still must listen to the daily arguments concerning whether or not they are entitled to the same rights and protections as everyone else; the gay or lesbian or transgender person who has had even their own family turn against them and deny them their name.

Jesus’ family tree shows us that the son of God comes to us through all those who have been oppressed because of their gender, because of their homeland, because of their family status or lack of family status. 

But for every person who has been slandered, unfairly treated, who has had hope stolen from them, who has been cut off from society… Jesus comes. Jesus is present. And Jesus has the right to redeem. 

Which means that, through Jesus, those who have no name will be given a name.

Those who have no family will be called children of God.

Those who have had lies told about them will shine in the beauty of God’s truth.

Those who have been denied justice will reclaim their rights.

Those who feel as though their lives have been cursed will find blessing.

And those whose lives have been nothing but sorrow will find joy.

Because Jesus’s power of redemption knows no bounds, and his love extends to all.

As the prophet Isaiah said: “even those who thought that love and blessings had dried up, that they were living in a desert wilderness in a time of drought, they will find that the desert will rejoice and blossom

“For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”