Imagine a young Chamorro man – Do you even know who the Chamorro people are? They’re the indigenous people of Guam, a U.S. Territory that is probably as significant to the U.S. as Israel was to the Roman Empire. Imagine such a man, born semi-illegitimately, claiming to be the fulfillment of prophecy in his home-town. Imagine him further, brought forward to the U.S. authorities by his own people on charges that he was proclaiming himself king. Imagine even further his rag-tag followers proclaiming him the son and heir of the creator of the universe, with authority to judge all people. Imagine the U.S. executing him in a thoroughly degrading way. Now imagine you actually believe he is the second person of the Trinity made flesh.

Would you not wonder what God was up to? I mean the chance of such a man being known to us seems near impossible. Why take the chance that only a few people would know of the incarnation? Why would God let Herself be so humble, and then so disgraced? What happened to dramatic gestures like parting the Red Sea and drowning Pharaoh’s army? I’d like to suggest that this move on God’s part is a bigger deal than the overthrow of Rome would have been.

Empires come and go, whole civilizations come and go, even the U.S. won’t last forever, assuming it even survives the current situation. Rome fell, but who was responsible for its fall is just a matter for historians. In the midst of the second gulf war, a friend asked me what Jesus would do in Iraq. She was torn, but trying to reconcile her understanding of Jesus with her belief that Bush Jr. was acting out of his Christian faith. I answered; I think you know what Jesus would do in Iraq. He’d heal the sick, feed the hungry, and forgive sins.

I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing God would do something about the horrifying things that are happening right now. But you see, that’s asking God to fix a certain time and a certain place. Even if God did that, the results sooner or later would be lost to history. How would such a thing help people sixteen centuries from now?

What I believe can help us now, and will help our 37^th century descendants, is what Paul refers to as clothing with great honor the members of the body that we think less honorable and treating our less respectable members with great respect. For through the incarnation God has arranged humanity, giving the greater honor to the inferior members.

Especially the members the U.S. government considers inferior, and that list is getting longer by the day. I’m sure it includes the indigenous people of Guam. In becoming an undesirable like them, God gave the captives and the oppressed the greatest honor.

There’s a translation of the Bible I like that reads tonight’s last verse as, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled even as you heard it being read.” It emphasizes the present tense of Jesus’ claim. And it echoes the present tense of Mary’s political assertion in the Magnificat. God HAS cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the humble. Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, has proclaimed the release of captives and let the oppressed go free, here now, by becoming humble, by being a captive and by being free even while being oppressed.

This is why I like crosses to have Jesus’ dead or dying body on them. Why every depiction of the resurrected Christ should be shown to have the wounds of the stigmata. God, who heard the cry of Her suffering people, now knows our suffering first hand, and is with us in ours.

The poor you will always have with you, whichever Empire or World Power is in charge, and Jesus will always be with you in the poor, and all the other “least of these.” Not only is Christ with you, Jesus IS YOU in those moments of your own oppression, in your moments of poverty and bad health, in your most humble and vulnerable moments. He will be that for your 37^th century descendants as well.

Does our young Chamorro man make more sense now? Can you see that it wasn’t really much of a gamble on God’s part as the Spirit was with the rag-tag followers of Jesus and the message was Good News for the suffering? God was not only on the side of the victim, but God is each and every victim for all time. This is God’s Glory, a Glory much more profound than if God had become the victor over a fleeting empire.