on the day Oscar Romero was canonised, a liberation theology sermon

a sermon  preached at Christ Church for College Communion on 14/10/2018.

Trinity 20

Hebrews 4: 12-end

Mark 10: 17-31

+May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our Strength and our Salvation.

Today is a very exciting day. In a few hours, in Rome, Oscar Romero will be canonised – made a saint. (The question of how one makes a saint is one for another day!)

Oscar Romero was the RC Archbishop of San Salvador in the late 1970s, until his death in 1980. As Archbishop, he spoke out in an increasingly corrupt society against social injustice, against poverty and exploitation, against a government that ruled by fear, torturing and assassinating their political opponents. And he died by assassination, shot as he celebrated Eucharist, by a government that was frightened by the truth he spoke.

Oscar Romero was one of the major figures in liberation theology, the Catholic theology that grew up in the second half of last century in Latin America. I love liberation theology It’s a theology that says God cares about the world and its people. It’s a theology that takes seriously the vast amount of the Bible that is about creating just societies where God’s will can be done in the life of all who live there.

The phrase that liberation theology became known for was “God has a preferential option of the poor”. That’s an easy phrase to misunderstand – and a lot of people in the Church did misunderstand it, and dismissed liberation theology as suggesting that God prefers people who are poor. That’s not quite what it means. God – according to liberation theology – notices the injustice and inequality of the world we live in. God cares for all people. And God has a particular desire to give good things to those who, because of poverty and inequality, rarely get the change to enjoy the good things of the world.

Liberation theology draws on huge swathes of the Bible, both OT and New. But one of the passages where we see that preferential option for the poor most clearly is the Gospel reading we’ve just heard. Jesus loves the rich man – but because he loves the rich man, he tells him to stop being rich. To demonstrate God’s preferential option of the poor. To give to those stuck in poverty the good things that he himself had been enjoying. And when Jesus’ disciples react in shock and astonishment, Jesus reminds them that with God all things are possible.

It’s easy to read that phrase as referring quite narrowly – how can a rich man be saved? God can save anybody. But it doesn’t just say salvation, it says all things – and liberation theology reminds us that it might mean all things, too. Salvation is important and is in the hands of God, yes – but God cares about this world and its people too. In the words of the old Christian Aid slogan, liberation theology believes in life before death.

The trouble with this reading is that we are tempted to hear it from the point of view of the disciples – to say, Lord, we have left everything and followed you. And in most of our cases – we haven’t. I certainly haven’t. Even if we are students, with student debt and worries about the future, we’re far more like the rich man than like the disciples, or people who genuinely don’t know whether they can afford to eat tomorrow.

I may be alone, but I think I’m probably in the company of at least some of you, in finding this a really difficult passage and a really difficult message, calling on me to do some really difficult things. As soon as you realise – as we realise – as I realise that you, we, I am more like the rich man than the disciples in this story, the whole basis on which we are working changes. It’s not a case of pointing at people whose income puts them in the top 1%, or even the top 10%; it’s not a case of pointing at tax evaders or billionaire businesspeople or faceless corporations. It’s a case of looking at ourselves – at our own attitudes to money, to those less powerful or privileged than us, to Jesus’ call.

And yet – with God, all things are possible.

With God, not only can both rich and poor be brought into the kingdom, but those who are tempted to ignore the needs of others can be converted to see their neighbours. Those who are tempted to dismiss others as benefit scroungers or shirkers can be converted to recognise their own privilege. Those who want to share their possessions on their own terms, in a virtue-signalling way that magnifies their generosity, using those with less privilege as accessories, can be converted to value the good they can do, not how good they can look.

Because with God all things are possible!

And I don’t think Jesus’ requirement for this man to sell everything he owned and become a disciple is a universal requirement for all people. That was a particular call for a particular person – some other people have been called in the same way, like Francis of Assisi, but that’s not the way Jesus calls everyone.

I think Oscar Romero might be a better model of the way we are all called. Initially, he wasn’t a supporter of liberation theology – but he listened to the experiences of other people, particularly to people living in poverty. He realised that God wanted more for those people and that he was called to take an active part in that work. He acted with courage and commitment – and he was so committed, he didn’t stop even to save his own life.

He listened; he was converted; he acted; and he remained faithful to God’s call, even when it meant death.

May we follow that example. May we recognise that God’s call is to something worth participating in; may we learn to be completely dependant on God; may we commit ourselves to using whatever we have – our money, our privilege, our talents, the place where we are – to work for God’s Kingdom, where all people are blessed with God’s abundance.

Because with God all things are possible!