“With God on Our Side”
Luke 4:21–30
Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.”’ And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
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[Invitation to Personal Reflection - Song: Revision (v. 2-5 Re-Written) of “With God on Our Side”]
Oh, my name, it ain't nothin', my age, it means less
The country I come from is called the Midwest
I was taught and brought up there, the laws to abide
And that the land that I live in has God on its side
Oh the science it tells us, it tells us so well,
The ice caps are melting,
The wild storms swell,
The ice caps are melting,
The wild storms collide,
But the science doesn't matter, when God’s on your side.
Old men speak of salvation, of bringing a light,
Yet the bombs in the desert turn day into night.
And the blood on their hands, they still try to deny,
Said it was justice, that God's on their side.
They come to this nation, with hope in their eyes,
Fleeing ruins of war and terrorized in the skies.
We lock them in cages, where mercy has died,
Then claim that it’s righteous, ‘cause God’s on our side.
The streets are divided, the nation is torn,
Shouting their words of hatred with red anger worn.
They wave the flag proudly, claiming God is their guide.
Guess the fascist now to have God on their side.
Through many dark hour I been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you, you'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side
So now as I'm leavin', I'm weary as hell
The confusion I'm feelin' ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head, and they fall to the floor
That if God's on our side, they’ll stop the next war
In the 1990s, anthropologist Robin Dunbar proposed that humans can comfortably maintain around one hundred and fifty relationships. Whether that exact number holds true is still up for debate, but it's clear that when our connections surpass a certain point, our understanding of community becomes more abstract. We begin to think in terms of towns, states, and nations. We form tribes, each focused on the well-being of their own. Yet, into this picture of communities, we've so carefully crafted, steps Jesus, who disrupts our assumptions and pushes us to stretch our capacity to welcome others in ways we never thought possible.
How will we respond when Jesus turns the norms we've come to embrace upside down? How will we react when we realize that Jesus is not just on our side but calls us to something far bigger than our own narrow vision?
The people in Jesus' hometown weren't ready to hear the good news he brought. At first, they were excited—who wouldn't be? The scripture has been fulfilled! That's incredible news! But Jesus doesn't stop there. He goes on to reveal how that word is actually fulfilled. He reminds them that God didn't send messengers and prophets just for them. In some of the most challenging moments, God sent emissaries to stand with those cast aside by God's people—the ones living on the periphery. These were the ones who had always been there, but in this moment, Jesus brings them to the forefront.
Upon hearing this, the people were so enraged they nearly killed Jesus, driving Him to the edge of a cliff! How much has changed, I wonder. Despite all our advancements, it often feels like we remain trapped in the smallness of our human connections. We still struggle to see beyond the narrow lens of "me." Science tells us that creation is groaning; we sit by as bombs level homes overseas, and here at home, we can't even agree on who belongs to our community. "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." It feels like many of us are still not ready to hear the good word of Jesus.
Perhaps what's truly disorienting is that we create systems that reinforce what we can immediately experience, and we like to believe that God must somehow ordain what we do—it would certainly give more credibility to our actions. But Jesus takes our present reality and stretches it, challenges it, urging us to consider that God might be calling us to something far greater than we can imagine right now. Jesus brings to mind Elijah and Elisha—prophets called by God to reach out to those who were not considered "insiders," yet they represented the ever-expanding kin-dom that God calls us to. Though it may be uncomfortable at first, Jesus invites us to broaden our capacity to feel, to love, and to serve, opening ourselves up to a vision of community that goes far beyond the familiar.
It's not that God is asking us to care for our neighbors and those on the margins, at the expense of our own well-being. But the truth is, we cannot be truly whole or fulfilled when there are members of God's kin-dom suffering in ways that we have the power to prevent: if that offends to the point of stirring up a violent response, then it's time to re-evaluate whether we're truly walking in the footsteps of Jesus or merely following the path of earthly rulers who are focused solely on preserving their power by unjust means.
With storms swirling around, I find myself drawn to a collection of murals by Alberto Morackis, Alfred Quiróz, and Guadalupe Serrano, titled Paseo de Humanidad (Walk of Humanity), displayed on the Mexico side of the US/Mexico border wall. These murals capture the journey of people, the harsh reality of encountering US border agents, and the blending of people from various countries. Perhaps it’s naive, but I wonder how our perspective on life might change if we tore down these borders—the walls that divide us, separate people, nations, and even churches from the communities they serve. How would our world, the ground beneath our feet, be more compassionate and open, if we removed the barriers between us?
Jesus invites us to embrace the work of radical welcome, grace, and love—not to sit idly by while creation and our kin groan under the weight of our sins. We may ask if God is on our side, but perhaps we should ask if we are on the side of those God loves. For a time such as this, we've always been called to this work. Take a brave step forward in trust and faith. Acknowledge the darkness, but don't stop making God's radical love tangible in the world. Be part of the reconciling work of grace, practicing unconventional welcome, and caring for creation and one another.
As the great American poet Bob Dylan once wrote, "I can't think for you; you'll have to decide." But I'll leave you with this thought. The late Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero once said, "A church that does not provoke crisis, a gospel that does not unsettle, a word of God that does not touch the concrete sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed—what kind of gospel is that?" (The Violence of Love). God is not on "our side." God is on the side of all who are hungry, weary, oppressed, and worn. God goes ahead of us, calling us and inviting us to join in forming a community that unsettles the foundations of what has always been for the gospel's sake. Will we drive Jesus off the edge of the cliff, or will we follow and trust the vision of life together that Christ offers for all people and creation?