What the Story of Christmas Teaches Us About Oppression – Ecclesiastes 4:1-3; Isaiah 9:6-7
December 7, 2014Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaker: Jerry Cisar
Starting this Sunday, we are taking a small break in our Acts Series and doing a 3 week series titled: God Remembers: What the Story of Christmas Teaches Us About Oppression, Adversity, and Grief. This Sunday will be on the first of those three: What the story of Christmas teaches us about oppression.
Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. Oppression involves injustices being carried out on the weak by the powerful. Some people are oppressors, some are oppressed, and many are neither—just in between. But Scripturally, that doesn’t mean we have no responsibility. We do.
While current events certainly highlight this issue, I want to clarify: This is not a message about racism, but injustice and oppression. Racisim is one motivating factor in injustice, but not the only. Even if something is not racism, that doesn’t mean it is not injustice. Even if the events of Ferguson or Stanton Island had not occurred—whether you think they are injustices or not, a message about injustice would be relevant for at least two reasons: 1) Injustices existed all around us long before either the Ferguson or NYC events. 2) The subject of oppression or injustice is all over our Bibles and is therefore always relevant. It’s not a stretch to say that one cannot significantly grasp the message of Scripture without understanding what it says about the injustice or oppression.
As believers, we need to have more than CNN or Fox news, Rush Limbaugh or Al Sharpton informing our view of the events happening in our world today. We need Scripture. We need the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.