“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly”
(Luke 1:52).
Questions for congregational study and consideration:
- In what ways do your/can your ministries materially uplift the lowly in your community?
- What grassroots or activist groups can your congregation partner with to say, “Grant us Justice!” to the powers, principalities, or unjust judges in your mission field?
- In what ways are any of the biblical examples above meaningful for discipleship in these times and in your evangelical (spreading the good news) context?
The closing remarks of the sermon delivered by Bishop of Washington Mariann Edgar Budde in which she asked the president “in the name of our God, have mercy…” have generated lively responses from social media that reverberate through the Church and our society. Many people celebrate the audacity of Bishop Budde to speak truth to the president and the powers on behalf of people who are afraid of what is to come in the coming years. Many are outraged that she as an elevated leader in the Church would ask the president for mercy when God is the sovereign agent of mercy (see for example, Deut. 7:9, Psalm 25:10 Isa. 30:18, Eph. 2:4-5, Jas 3:17, 1 Pet. 1:3). I argue that the bishop’s radical speech-act might be generative to the Church for a doctrine of lifting the lowly, inspired by Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55, the teachings of Jesus, and the work of discipleship. Following the example of the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8, our demand should be “grant us justice!”
The lowly and least of these whom Jesus taught the disciples to be in solidarity with (see Luke 1:52; 4:18-19, Matthew 5:3-12; 25:31-46) are in grave danger due to the decisions of this presidential administration. These lowly ones are especially vulnerable at the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationhood status. Simultaneously, those who are not made vulnerable also run the risk of embracing a false comfort that allows some to sit on the sidelines and watch what is happening. In this season we are about to learn the cost of discipleship far beyond Bonhoeffer’s imagination (Mark 8:34; Matthew 16:24; and Luke 9:23).
Jesus Christ is always located in solidarity with the lost, the lowly, and the least. Therefore, it is up to the followers of Jesus Christ to work toward a repentant world where “justice will roll down like waters, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24). Furthermore, we are witnessing that the social distance between who we count as the least of these and those of us with the relative privilege to act on their behalf will shrink significantly as citizens find themselves collateral damage of the administration’s policies. By collateral damage I mean those who will regardless of their political party, race, gender, or perceived privilege lose jobs, funding, resources, and other essential support as the president fulfills his promises. Fear, distraction, and divide-and-conquer tactics are tools of the enemy. The Church must remember that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, and of love, and of self-discipline” (2 Tim. 1:7).
Lifting the lowly of these times
Rather than focus on Bishop Budde’s plea to the president, let us look at the scared people Bishop Budde lifted in her closing remarks:
- There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some of whom fear for their lives.
- Those who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals.
- Those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away and … those fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands, to find compassion and welcome here.
Social activist and biblical scholar Obery M. Hendricks writes that Jesus used seven political strategies in his earthly ministry. Among them was to “treat the people’s needs as holy.”[1] Following in Jesus’s example and Bishop Budde’s list, we must see the safety of our LGBT children as holy. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them (Matt. 19:14). Similarly, the dignity of laborers and service providers is holy (Deut. 24:14, Matt. 11:28). We made previously invisible essential workers visible during the COVID pandemic and repented for overlooking them. The security of immigrant families and seekers of refuge is holy. This compassion and commitment have been given to us by God (Exod. 22:21; Deut. 10:18-20).
A doctrine of lifting the lowly begins with creating the conditions of possibility by which the dividing wall of hatred between the least of these and the privileged is broken down as the work of discipleship commanded by God and modeled by Jesus (Eph. 2:14-16).
The impact of the occasion of Bishop Budde’s sermon is amplified by the fact that it was delivered on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. More than 50 years ago in a sermon delivered at the National Cathedral in D.C. on March 31, 1968, King told us,
We need to learn to live together as It’s Simply Biblical, Love Your Neighbor or perish as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured.[2]
Learning to live together as followers of Jesus Christ is to work for a world “where the oppressed are liberated, the last become first, the humble are exalted, the despised are preferred, those rejected are welcomed, the long-suffering are rewarded, the dispossessed are repossessed, and the arrogant are humbled.”[3] Living into these possibilities is to realize that the kingdom of God is among and within us (Luke 17:21), if we would have the courage to activate it.
Not mercy; Justice!
The parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge in Luke 18:1-8 helps us imagine the outline of a doctrine of lifting the lowly for today’s disciples. What if, like the widow, we demanded justice on behalf of our siblings instead of asking for mercy? First, we need to pray for our country, our world leaders, and for our siblings who are afraid. We should pray and not lose heart. Second, our prayers must gain voice as public outcry and reparative action as we address the powers and principalities demanding “grant us justice!” Each of us in our particular geographical and political locations and contexts must discern the best ways in which to make interventions for the lowly and the least of these. Whether we are advocating for undocumented immigrants, trans and nonbinary siblings, reproductive rights, clean water, criminalization of the unhoused, or the many systemic contributors that are invested in maintaining a contingent of the lowly, we must appear before the unjust judges crying “grant us justice!” Third, living our faith on earth is the work of Christian disciples, especially in intercession for the lowly. To not lose heart is Jesus’s lesson and the widow’s example; it is to be unrelenting in our demand. Thus, “blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy (Matt. 5:7)” is an intervention of the disciples; it is not a plea to the powers. The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel and the Sermon on the Plain in Luke’s gospel critique the imperial administration and instruct the disciples to lift the lowly, the least, and the lost. The Belhar Confession speaks to us from South Africa saying, “The Church as the possession of God must stand where the Lord stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged; that in following Christ the church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others.” This moment is not an appeal to a kind of pax Americana, it is to bring forth the justice of God for the healing of the world.
Constructing a doctrine of lifting the lowly helps us to live into Bishop Budde’s commission and benediction: “May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love, and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. The good of all people in this nation and the world.”[4] It is a practical way to participate in the change we wish to see, wherever we are located, whatever our gifts and talents might be. May it be our practice of faith on earth now, and until Jesus returns in glory (Luke 18:8). Amen.
[1] Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’s Teachings and How They’ve Been Corrupted (New York: Doubleday, 2006), 99ff.
[2] Martin Luther King, Jr., “Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution” sermon delivered at the National Cathedral on March 31, 1968; entered into the Congressional Record on April 9, 1968.
[3] Renita J. Weems, “Reading Her Way through the Struggle: African American Women and the Bible” in Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation, Cain Hope Felder, ed. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1991), 70.
[4] Bishop Budde, “Full Transcript of the 2025 Inauguration Prayer Service Address.”