Pastor’s Corner – January 26, 2025
Inauguration of Jesus’ Mission/Luke 4:14-21
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19
My reflection this week has been navigating from Trump’s inauguration on Dr. King’s Day juxtaposed with Interfaith Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral led by Bishop Mariann Budde, to this coming Sunday Gospel lesson from Luke 4:14-21, Jesus’ Mission Statement – his inauguration at his hometown synagogue reading from the Prophet Isaiah. Along the way, I came across two particular poems by Loryn Brantz and Mary Oliver that will help deepen our reflection, and finally a link that will lead to an article from Outlook, our Presbyterian magazine about what seems now to have gone viral online concerning Bishop Budde’s plea for mercy for LGBTQ concerns and immigrants. I encourage you to read the following and reflect with me for this Sunday worship. Let us come together, facing the cross and gathered around the table of the Lord, as baptized followers of the way of Jesus. Let us declare the good news together in word and deed, the gospel of God’s love and grace in this time of great need for ministry, to care for the powerless and give voice to the voiceless. – Pastor Dae
Inauguration 2025
In a time of hate
Love is an act of resistance
In a time of fear
Faith is an act of resistance
In a time of misinformation
Education Is an act of resistance
In a time of poor leadership
Community is an act of resistance
In a time like this
Joy is an act of resistance
Resist. Resist. Resist.
–Loryn Brantz
Of the Empire
We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded amassing of things, that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity. And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and that the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness. –Mary Oliver After eyebrow-raising sermon to Trump, Bishop Budde beset with criticism and praise – The Presbyterian Outlook