Abolish oppression among you!

^{LTR: Tawakkol Karman, Leymah Gbowee and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.}
^{Photo: Harry Wad}

Abolish oppression among you!

The starting point for God's criticism of unjust conditions is an unhealthy religious practice: people are fasting. This can be very healthy. But people are fasting in the hope of buying God's help. They are hoping for a barter: ‘If I prove to you, God, through my fasting and suffering, how important you are to me, then you will surely give me what I expect from you.’

But we hear: That's not how it works. God says: ‘How can you expect me to listen to you when you don't listen to me? Why do you believe that I will bring you justice when you not only tolerate injustice, but even uphold it with power and violence?’

"You act as if you listen to me and my commandments. But you pick out one commandment and twist it so that nothing good remains. You are only interested in your own advantage. You don't even want to interrupt your profiteering for all the holy times. And then you want me to confirm what pious people you are; you want divine reward for your worldly profits."

God is not impressed by such self-centred and self-serving religious practices. On the contrary, God reminds people of what is at the heart of all religion: love. Love for God. Love for one's fellow human beings.

What does that mean for us in concrete terms? What should we stand up for in society? We have heard it:

And then – for we hear not only God's command, but also God's promise:

A second time we hear the divine claim:

A second time, divine encouragement follows:

Dear siblings! I trust in God's promise. I am convinced that it pays off when we work to make our society – our world – more just.

And that is why – on today's International Women's Day: Abolish oppression among you!

Let us not resign ourselves to the fact that

your life is more at risk if you are not a man;
you earn less money for your work and do more unpaid work if you are a woman;
you are much more likely to be objectified rather than allowed to be a subject.

Let us not resign ourselves to all the injustices, big and small!

The text from Isaiah calls on us to raise our voices. And not just a little. But really loud. God calls on us to make a fuss when injustice prevails.

I think we all agree that there is still far too much injustice in the world: warmongers, sexists, racists, seducers, the merciless, the power-hungry, the ruthless, the deceivers, and so on and so forth – they are still at the levers of power. But God is not impressed by such self-loving and self-serving politics.

We cannot completely ignore powerful men. If we want justice, it is important to keep a close eye on those in power.

But what we should finally stop doing is looking spellbound at people who have proven time and again that they will not bring about justice, that their moral compass is not well calibrated.

Instead, we would do well to fix our eyes on the person who embodies God's justice: Christ Jesus (cf. Hebrews 12:2 and 1 Corinthians 1:30). We can orient ourselves by Jesus' example.

In the Gospel, we heard how Jesus encountered a woman in Samaria and took her seriously as a theological discussion partner. To do so, he had to set aside cultural conventions: Jesus did not do what was customary or what most people considered normal. Jesus looked at the person in front of him and invited her into a relationship with God that brings healing.

So let us not stare too much at the outdated models: the powerful who strike out and enrich themselves. Let us rather look to Jesus and to people who are inspired by Jesus' spirit!

One of my favourite stories is that of the women's sex strike in Liberia in 2003. Leymah Roberta Gbowee, the peace activist who was largely responsible for it, later said that the strike was actually not very effective. Other means were decisive in ending the civil war: networking and cooperation across cultural, ethnic and religious boundaries, education, courage and political pressure. And it was precisely the latter that the sex strike helped to achieve. The call for a strike attracted incredible attention from the global public. This helped the peace movement, which was primarily supported by women, to achieve its goals and ultimately bring about a peace agreement.

Abolish oppression among you!

Dear siblings!

We can draw inspiration from the many people who dedicate their lives to doing good. They take gentle, loving but strong paths to achieve their goals. I find unusual strategies, such as those of the women in Liberia, appealing and encouraging.

Together, we can be the gardeners who prepare the fertile soil; sow the seeds; water and fertilise them; weed when weeds such as populism and indifference threaten the little plants.

I trust in the promise: we ourselves will be like a well-watered garden. A garden that gives life. Not only to ourselves, but also to our children and our children's children.

God, who accompanies, encourages and strengthens us, be praised and glorified forever!