This sermon from Nadia Bolz Weber ponders what Jesus might say if he walked up to preach one Sunday. The whole sermon is worth reading, but here’s a taste:
“I imagine Jesus standing here and saying that The Spirit of the Lord has sent him to release to the captives
- to free the addicts from the needle and the bottle and the laptop
- to remove the feeling of worthlessness from the depressed
- to bring rest to the sleep-deprived parents of babies
- to free those wrongly imprisoned by justice system so often lacking in actual justice
- to take away the profit making system of the US prison industrial complex
- to remove all desire for the kind of cheap goods that only can come from child labor
- to give a sense of belonging to the alienated
- to forgive the sinner
- to save us from having to prove ourselves
- to remove all resentments from those who can’t let go of the past
Because the Spirit of the Lord has sent him to bring release to the captives.”