Gather round for my tweetsermon on here this Sunday
Luke 4:18 is Jesus’ first sermon. He quotes Isaiah when he 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”
The word for poor in Greek here is “ptochois” and it means those who have been reduced to begging
Another way to render it is those who have been made poor by exploitation
Poverty is always a making process. It is active, it has befores and afters
And this is what Jesus of Nazareth comes to disrupt - these poverty-making processes
Jesus and Isaiah are declaring that the poor, blind, captive, oppressed are under new management. And the rules of the exploitative system are rendered null. The oppressive lords are replaced, eclipsed, destroyed by this Lord
But this Lord isn’t like those who reduce others to begging. That’s the subversive thing happening here - an inversion of power relationships and processes
In conclusion, there can be no Christianity that is not social and political. A faith that doesn’t disrupt these power processes isn’t a faith I’m interested in.
End of sermon! Praise team please take over 🎵🎶
There is tea and mandazi on your way out @keguro_
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