Whose Life Matters?
Based on Isaiah 61:1-3 and Matthew 5:3-10
August 31, 2025
Trinity Congregational Church, Gloucester MA
I recently saw a meme going around on the internet that inspired
this sermon. It was a drawing of Jesus preaching his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus
starts with the words “Blessed are the poor”, but then someone in the crowd
interrupts him and says: “Actually Jesus, all people are blessed.” This meme was originally designed as a
response to what was happening during the Black Lives Movement. Some people
insisted on correcting those who said Black Lives Matter, and instead, would
interrupt the narrative with the statement All Lives Matter.
All lives do matter. Our faith teaches us that each person is
created in the image of God, that each of us has intrinsic worth and value. But
when Jesus proclaimed good news to the poor, release to the jailed, sight to
the blind, and freedom to the oppressed, he did NOT mention the rich, the
prison-owners, the sighted, or the oppressors. He said “Blessed are the poor”,
not “Blessed are All Lives”.
Clearly, Jesus believes that all lives matter. But the
reality in the world is that all lives are not treated as if they matter. It is
a fact that certain groups of humans are valued differently and treated
differently. Jesus spoke specifically to the marginalized, to those whose lives
did not seem to matter. Jesus knew some people were harassed, helpless,
distressed, and dispirited; kicked to the curb; lacked any solid protection
from those in power; denied human rights and social dignity; viewed as
disposable. So he specifically called out THOSE people as mattering to God.
The Gospels and early church leaders demonstrated specific
concern for the poor, sick, women, children, slaves, and persecuted racial and
ethnic groups. When Jesus read scriptures like the one I read for you from
Isaiah, Jesus heard the call for extraordinary concern for those not properly
valued as human beings. At the heart of His faith, he recognized the plight of
those who were not being well-treated. “Lepers Lives Matter” “Children’s Lives
Matter” “Poor Lives Matter.” “Women’s Lives Matter.” “Samaritan Lives Matter.”
Undoubtedly Jesus would have proudly proclaimed that “Black Lives Matter.”
When one’s life is treated as if it matters, they have access
to the basic resources needed to survive and thrive: a warm place to live in a
neighborhood with little or no violent crime; access to good, affordable
healthcare and education; clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and
healthy food to eat.
Black people in the U.S. today, just like Samaritans or
Lepers in Jesus’ day, do not see evidence that their lives matter, that their
perspective matters, that their flourishing matters. For example, black people
are less likely to be shown apartments and homes in certain neighborhoods than
white people, and more likely to be offered the highest-risk, highest-cost type
of mortgage. Black people are more likely to live in segregated neighborhoods
with poorer housing stock, failing schools, inadequate municipal services,
lower-quality food in stores, more concentrated poverty, and more violence.
South African anti-apartheid activist and politician Nelson
Mandela once wrote: “It cannot be denied that Black people, globally, are some
of the most disenfranchised and oppressed people in the world. We must be
specific in redressing that injustice and specifically note the Black Lives
Matter. Saying black lives matter does not mean you do not value all
lives. Nobody is saying “only Black
Lives” matter, of course all lives matter.”
But when Black lives are systemically devalued by society,
our outrage justifiably insists that attention be focused on Black lives. When we
boldly claim “Black Lives Matter” at this moment, we are intentionally standing
up for people whose lives deserve more. By insisting on the intrinsic worth of
all human beings, Jesus models for us how God loves justly, and how we, his
disciples, can love publicly in a world of inequality. We live out the love of
God justly by publicly saying Black Lives Matter.
What Mandala said about Black Lives Matter, saying that it
does not mean you do not value all lives, got me thinking about another group
of oppressed people that it has become unfashionable to support: Palestinians. A
recent report published by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (or
IPC) confirms a major food crisis in the region, with more than 500,000 Palestinians
experiencing famine. This situation is the result of prolonged periods of supply
blockades. The Israeli government disputes these accusations and Benjamin
Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, dismisses them as antisemitic prejudice.
I want to be clear: supporting the Palestinian people does
NOT make you antisemitic.
Jewish Rabbi Alissa Wise, the founding director of Rabbis for
Ceasefire, said in a statement, “All life is sacred, but Palestinian lives are
not treated as such, and that is a blot on our collective humanity. We are here
to insist on the sanctity of life of every Palestinian, of every Israeli, of
all of us.”
She is one of over 1,000 rabbis worldwide who signed an open letter demanding that Israel “stop using starvation as a
weapon of war.” 23,500 American Jews, including over 750 rabbis and over
100 Jewish congregations, synagogues, and organizations, have signed a
statement titled “Jews for Food Aid for People in Gaza.” More than 35 US rabbis
were arrested this summer in demonstrations for Gaza food aid. Jews are
speaking up.
One of these Jews is Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders, who
released this powerful statement directed towards Netanyahu’s claim that it is
antisemitic to speak up against Israel in support of Palestinians. He wrote:
“It is not antisemitic to point out that Israel has
·
killed
62,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 159,000 – seventy percent of whom are
women and children.
·
completely
destroyed more than 245,000 housing units in Gaza, leaving more than 1.9
million people homeless – almost 90% of the population
·
obliterated
Gaza’s civilian infrastructure including electricity, water, and sewer services
·
annihilated
Gaza’s health care system by damaging or destroying 94% of all hospitals in the
Gaza Strip
·
destroyed
all 12 of Gaza’s universities and 118 of its schools, with hundreds more
damaged, leaving 625,000 students with no access to education
It is not antisemitic to agree with virtually every
humanitarian organization in saying that Israel has unreasonably blocked
humanitarian aid coming into Gaza, creating the conditions in which hundreds of
thousands of children face malnutrition and famine.
Antisemitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that
has done unspeakable harm to many millions of people. But, please, do not
insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us
from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist
government. It is not antisemitic to hold you accountable for your actions.”
Palestinian lives matter. The people of Gaza today want life.
They want a night without bombing. They want medicine and surgical operations
with anesthesia. They want the simplest of life’s necessities: food, clean
water, and electricity. They want freedom and life with dignity.
Black lives matter. They want equal access to fair housing,
well-paying jobs, safe neighborhoods, and good schools. They want to stop being
disproportionately stopped by police and killed in the streets.
Those of us who are white Christians in America mostly have
the luxury of ignoring the realities that Palestinians and black people
experience. Over and over, the message is hammered into their heads: You don’t
matter. Your well-being doesn’t matter. Your life doesn’t matter. Until we who
are white acknowledge these realities, our effectiveness as change agents
is limited.
We must admit that there are people in this world who are
treated as though their lives don’t matter as much as our lives, and then we
must focus on changing the equation.
Some specific things we can do: we can educate ourselves
about both history and present-day reality through reading and other forms of
learning. We can be in solidarity with people who are different than us and
believe them when they tell us what their lives are like. We can donate money
to organizations that support people who live on the margins of society. We can
write letters to the editor that get people thinking. We can vote for
politicians who acknowledge the reality of the world, are not afraid of talking
about it, and are committed to doing something about it. We can join
organizations that address these issues. We can say out that Black Lives
Matter, that Palestinian Lives Matter, and we can encourage others to do so.
Anything we do that invites more people to be part of the
solution is an act of living on the side of love.
If you are already doing this work, may you be blessed in it.
If you are ready to do it, may patience and courage be yours. May we all be
part of the building of a future in which black lives matter, and Palestinian
lives matter, and transgender lives matter, and immigrant lives matter.
Blessed are those who lives are not treated as if they
matter, for they will be loved and cared for and included in God’s kingdom. And
one day, may that kingdom be here on earth.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment