Matthew 11: 2-11 (Common English Bible)

Luke 1: 46-55 (New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition)

In Vida Scudder’s 1917 essay collection, “The Church and the Hour,” she names the "extraordinary paradox,” of the church's social condition. The poor and the humble were the first to join the Jesus faith while the rich ignored it. Now it is just the opposite. The rich are now the ones who claim to be Christians, but are they really following Jesus? Or, are they really following the false “prosperity gospel” instead of Jesus? 

Vida Scudder who lived from 1861-1954, was an American writer, educator and social reformer known for her important contributions to social welfare and progressive beliefs. Her work emphasized Christian values with social justice, and she became a pacifist who opposed World War One.

In Mary’s radical prayer, the Magnificat, she was a young woman in an occupied country. Mary believes that God takes the part of her people to set them free and condemns the rich because of their selfish ways. If you read the Magnificat, it shows that Mary was a political activist and not the meek and mild person as people believe.

Scudder describes American prosperity as a temporary comfort which will eventually end. Jesus said "Blessed are the poor.” He didn’t say, blessed are the rich.

What is to be done? Scudder had an answer. She believed our paradox must have a summons, a calling to a God given task. Wealthy Christians must become martyrs. 

Scudder knew the word “martyr” would confuse people. The word “martyr” to most people means those who suffer and are even killed. But the word literally means, “witness.” The early Christians who died for their faith were called martyrs not because they suffered and died, but because they were a witness of the truth and power of Jesus the Christ. 

Rich people who claim allegiance to a religion of the poor have an opportunity to be a witness to the Jesus faith by actually donating their money and wealth to the poor. As with the early martyrs who gave their lives, this new martyrdom will involve painful sacrifice, not on the body, but giving away much of their wealth to the poor. One thing for sure, if one donates food, clothing and shelter to the poor and later donates money to a politician who wants to end federal assistance to the poor, they are doing the direct opposite of what they should do.

One of our greatest presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, realized that. And he was condemned by the rich calling FDR a traitor to his rich background and social class. He was even called a communist by some who hated his New Deal. These same people would probably love this so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” which I call the “One Big Selfish Bill.

Private giving is a good thing, but it reinforces the power of the ruling class, which leads them to an air of moral superiority. Instead as Vida Scutter wrote, there should be a solidarity that overturns the social hierarchy.

The difference between philanthropy and solidarity is like the difference between sympathy and empathy. Sympathy is like feeling sorry for someone. Empathy wants to feel the pain of that person. This is how the rich can imitate Jesus. As it says in 2nd Corinthians, “Though he (Jesus) was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich. Now this is not about material wealth, but the spiritual wealth of following Jesus..

The primary duty of the church is to keep open the channels between the temporal and the Eternal, through the sacraments and the Word of God. Vita Scudder’s Christian socialism emerges from her devotion to Christ. But her politics came second after the Son of God. 

Knowing the crucified Jesus requires becoming like him in his death. As Jesus said, “By the cross the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Vida Scudder argues, it must be translated into social terms. The economic martyrdom might cause the wealthy to leave, but that isn’t the physical pain that crucifixion brings.

John the Baptizer is in prison. He was put in prison by King Herod the Younger because Herod had ignored Mosaic law. Herod had married his brother’s wife, Herodias. Herodias wanted her new husband to arrest and execute John the Baptizer. John was put into prison but he wasn’t worried about that. John spent his adult life in the wilderness, clothed in camel’s hair, surviving on locusts and wild honey and in the meantime preaching without fear. Prison was probably the least of his worries.

What bothered John the most was he had doubts if Jesus was the Messiah. Rome was still powerful. King Herod became even more corrupt and Jesus had not yet restored the Kingdom of Israel. And people like John were still finding themselves being oppressed and in prison. 

But what John does is what makes him a good and worthy role model for doubters. He sends a message by his disciples to ask Jesus a question,”Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”

Jesus answers John’s question by quoting the same book of Hebrew scripture that first inspired John to “prepare the way of the Lord,” in the book of Isaiah. Jesus replied, the Messiah may not overthrow King Herod, but he is healing the blind, those cripled and raising the dead.

Jesus makes a remarkable claim. He tells us, “Among those born of women, no one has risen greater than John the Baptizer. What is Jesus saying here? It means we are greater than John because we live in a post-Easter world. John was executed before Jesus died on the cross, before he was raised on the third day. And before he ascended into the heavens and sent the Holy Spirit.

We who are blessed to live in this post-Easter world, we know how the story ends. And that makes us greater than John the Baptizer. John didn’t have those events to reinforce Jesus as the Messiah. We are called to share our faith, and to answer the question that everyone, at one time, we are bound to ask, are you the Messiah, or should we wait for another? Yes, Jesus is the one, the world’s savior, the resurrection and the life. Thanks be to God. 

A benediction prayer from Origen of Alexandria (185-254 AD).

“Lord, inspire us to read your Scriptures and to meditate upon them day and night. We beg you to give real understanding of what we need, that we in turn may put its precepts into practice. Yet we know that understanding and good intentions are worthless unless rooted in your graceful love. So we ask that words of Scriptures may also be just signs on a page, but channels of grace into our hearts.”

AMEN