A MESSAGE FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

(a link to a worship service including this message on the YouTube channel is found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHRZWb1sL9I&t=793s)

Prayer of the Day:

Blessed Lord God, you have caused the holy scriptures to be written for the nourishment of your people.  Grant that we may hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that, comforted by your promises, we may embrace and forever hold fast to the hope of eternal life, through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

 Luke 4:14-21

¹⁴Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. ¹⁶When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” ²⁰And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

We have before us in Luke Chapter 4 the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.  Luke is, of course, Volume 1 of Luke's two volume work, Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.  Luke obviously has as its key character Jesus.  All the gospels are the story of the earthly life and passion and resurrection of Jesus.  But if there were an Oscar given for Best Supporting Actor in a Gospel story it would be the Holy Spirit.  In Luke's Gospel in particular the Holy Spirit is very busy.

The Holy Spirit has already been very busy in the first three chapters of Luke's Gospel the Holy Spirit has indwelt and empowered numerous people.  The Holy Spirit has filled and spoken through Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon, John the Baptizer, and now Jesus.  Then Jesus filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. 

But when was Jesus filled with the power of the Holy Spirit?  Luke tells us it was at his baptism.  As he was coming up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended upon him bodily like a dove and the Holy Spirit dwelt in him.  That Holy Spirit had as its first function to drive Jesus into the wilderness to be tested and tempted.  That was often the function of the Holy Spirit, and it comes and fills us at times of transition, temptation, testing, great major decisions.  The Holy Spirit is God's wisdom, God's power, God’s strength, and God's courage in us.

Then Jesus filled, with the power of the Spirit, returned from the time of testing in the wilderness to Galilee, to home.  Galilee was the region where he grew up, not in Judea, not in Jerusalem, but out in this area where there were more Gentiles than Jews.  This was where Jesus began.

If you allow me a pop culture reference, for many people the Beatles first appeared on the Ed

Sullivan Show.  I remember seeing it.  Many of you might remember seeing it.  They were introduced and the crowd went berserk, and life and certainly popular music was never the same.  We know looking back that they did not just suddenly appear on Ed Sullivan.  They had been working the Cavern Club in Liverpool quite steadily.  But even before that, they polished their abilities in small and seedy clubs in Hamburg, Germany of all places.  Even before that, the beginnings of the Beatles was at a local community fair. 

Where do these people begin, these great figures in history?  As far as the public knew, Jesus began, not in his pre-existence as in John’s Gospel, not as a baby as in Luke and Matthew, not at the Jordan as in Mark.  He began publicly, well, at home in Galilee.  We are told that he appeared in their synagogues and taught and caused quite the stir.  A report spread about him through all the surrounding country.  He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.  His public ministry began with quite the bang. 

We know he would appear in synagogues on the sabbath throughout his ministry.  He was raised by Joseph and Mary, observant Jews, and was himself an observant Jew as were his disciples.  Wherever he was on the sabbath he was in the synagogue.  When he was in Jerusalem he was at the Temple.  As his reputation, grew his invitations to teach would have increased.  The manager of the synagogue, who was responsible for who would teach.  If Jesus were in town, he certainly would have offered that invitation.  He was getting a reputation and people wanted to hear him.

And then, after a while, after his reputation began to grow, he goes home-home.  Not just in Galilee, not just the region where he grew up, but to Nazareth, the place where we are told he had been brought up.  These people knew him, they watched him grow up, they knew Mary and Joseph.  And so, after cutting his teeth in synagogues in the area, he goes home.

I can tell you as a preacher this is more intimidating than it sounds.  Now, I do not want to say Jesus as the Son of God was intimidated.  But I can tell you as a preacher, preaching at home was the worst.  I remember the first sermon I gave at my home congregation when I started seminary.  It was horrible.  It was a definite kind of crash and burn situation.  They were incredibly gracious and continued to spiritually, emotionally, and financially support me in my work, so they were also forgiving.  But it I so wanted to be so good that I ended up being so bad.

Jesus went to Nazareth where he had been brought up.  He went to the synagogue on the sabbath day as was his custom and he stood up to read.

Now, just a moment about posture.  In the synagogue everybody stood, and the teacher would sit.  There are some days where that sounds wonderful, the congregation stands, and I sit.  But no, we have come a long way since then.  I am not sure I could sell that now.  That is also what we heard in the reading from Nehemiah, everybody stood when the scriptures were read. 

And so, we are told that Jesus was brought the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he picked what he was going to read.  We are used to a lectionary that has pericopes as set readings.  The readings I have read to you, this Gospel Lesson, was appointed for this day, for this part of the liturgical year.  But Jesus chose his lesson, what was he going to read here in his home synagogue.

He chose what he was going to read, and he unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, we know to be in the 62nd chapter of Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor,

he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

The year of the Lord's favour was the Jubilee.  It was taught in Isaiah, although never observed it was taught and, I would imagine, dreamt about, and we hear how not so much spiritual but practical it was.  Good news to the poor.  Release to the captives.  Recovery of sight to the blind.  Freedom for the oppressed.  The year of the Lord's favour indeed.  The Jubilee Year, the 50th year, was the big reset.  Land returned to its original owners.  Debts were forgiven.  Slaves were freed.  Everything went back to the way it was.  Everybody got a fresh start, a second chance.  No one was in debt.  No one was enslaved.

An amazing idea that was never observed.  It never came to pass.  Well, until now.  Jesus took this, this image of expectation, of hope, and said it had been fulfilled.

and he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.  Again, this was a signal he was about to teach.  The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.  What was he going to say?

Then he began to say to them: Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.  This promise never fulfilled now fulfilled.  I mean, how does that work?  How can he do this?  How can he announce this?  We know it was because he was the Messiah.  And we know that the rest of his earthly ministry would be a living out of this, where the blind did receive their sight, the oppressed were set free, captives were released, and the poor did receive good news.  These are the people to whom Jesus went: the marginalized, the oppressed, those who were not powerful, those who were not influential.  It was one of the things that got him in trouble.  It was one of the things that led to his betrayal to the Romans.  The people with whom he associated were not to be associated with and yet that was where Jesus was, with the poor,

the oppressed, the captive, the blind.

This would have been wonderful news and I will reveal a bit of the message for next week.  In next week's gospel lesson is the crowd's reaction to this message and it was, well, less than positive.  But here we stand, here in this moment with Jesus’ declaration, that the Jubilee, this wonderful reset, this wonderful gift to everybody, the second chance for everyone, was fulfilled.  As Jesus said elsewhere, the Kingdom of God was at hand.  That was what he came to do, to bring the kingdom.  The Kingdom of God was and is a Kingdom of Jubilee.

I think we can all appreciate what that might be like in two years of pandemic, when we want so desperately to go back to what we remember to be normal.  We are, I think, coming to the realization that is not going to happen.  Normal, whatever normal was, is just not going to come back.  We will have this virus with us in some form for a very long time and we will have to learn to adapt.  And we will learn to adapt still in the midst of this promise.  Jesus declared this for time and all eternity.  The Kingdom of God has come in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and, if the kingdom has come, then the Jubilee has come, this great reset has come,

Jesus spent the rest of his earthly ministry enacting the Kingdom, showing the Kingdom.  His miracles were a way of saying: “See, in heaven there will not be blind people, so the blind receive their sight.  In heaven there will not be poor people, so the poor receive good news.  In heaven there will be no one oppressed and so the oppressed receive relief.

We as the body of Christ, as Paul so poignantly put it in the Second Lesson for today: “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”  Jesus himself said that by the Holy Spirit, this Holy Spirit that indwelt Jesus, that indwells us, we will do even more amazing things than he did.  What could be more amazing than bringing hope?  The Kingdom has come.  Jesus has risen.  And so, there is hope.

Will things be the same?  No, I am afraid they will not be.  But that merely means that they will be different.  In some ways we have a chance to be better.  It is that question that has been posed I think almost every day of the pandemic.  When the pandemic is over, whatever that is going to look like, what do we hope goes forward with us?  What do we want to hang on to?  What I hope we hang on to are hallmarks of the Kingdom: gentleness, patience, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, love.  We have the calling and the opportunity to do that very thing, to live out the Kingdom by the Holy Spirit.

May we do that very thing.  Amen.

Be safe.  Be well.  God bless you all.

Pastor Greg