January 27, 2019

Third Sunday After Epiphany
Nehemiah 8:1-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthian 12:12-31
Luke 4:14-21

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace to you from the one with a purpose. Amen
 
We are still in the season after Epiphany,
the season where our readings reveal who Jesus is
 and what he is about.
 
So far in the time after Epiphany
We’ve heard the story of Jesus’ baptism
where the spirit came down and claimed him
and God’s voice named him as beloved son,
 
we got a glimpse of Jesus’ capacity for abundance
as we watched him in action
at the wedding at Cana
 turning a huge amount of water
 into a vast amount of fine wine
so that by the grace of God relationships could be repaired
 
and today
 Jesus announces his purpose,
what he has come to do.
 
From his baptism
 Jesus is driven out into the wilderness
 to be tempted by Satan,
he successfully survives the test
and that is where we pick up the story today
 when filled with the power of the spirit
Jesus returns to Galilee
and begins teaching,
 
people are impressed
and word begins to spread
about how great this new teacher is
and so of course he has to go home and teach in the home synagogue,
local boy makes good better come home and share his talents right?
 
So there is perhaps a greater sense of anticipation
when Jesus,
in his home town synagogue,
 among the people who watched him grow from a cute baby
 through those awkward teen years
into the man before them, stands,
takes the scroll and turns to Isaiah and reads:
 
“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 captive and recovery of sight to the blind to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
 
And he sits down to teach
 and eyes of all in the synagogue are fixed on him.
The people are holding their breath,
what is this reportedly great teacher going to say about this passage?
Will he talk about the tradition of the prophets?
The hoped for messiah?
 
And Jesus delivers his sermon in one sentence:
 “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
That’s it.
Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
 
 The way the planners of the lectionary set it up
 we don’t get the crowds’ reaction until next week,
so this week we get to unpack what is revealed about Jesus
 through his reading of Isaiah
and his one sentence interpretation of the reading.
 
These are the first words we hear from Jesus
 after he starts his ministry
 and in his choice of reading from Isaiah
 Jesus lays out his purpose for the rest of his ministry,
 
Jesus is to bring good news to the poor,
proclaim release to the captive,
recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the lord’s favor
 
Jesus has rooted himself firmly
in the prophetic tradition
and the expectations of the people of Israel,
 
 but we know of course
 that the way Jesus works
is decidedly unexpected
so we wonder what does Jesus mean
when he claims that the scripture has been fulfilled?
 
- we will see just what this all means,
 as Jesus lives out his purpose,
in how he feeds the hungry,
thousands with a few loaves and fish
 
forgives those captive to sin
with the words ‘your sins are forgiven’
 
heals those oppressed by sickness
as simply as saying ‘get up take your mat and go’ 
 
Jesus will live his purpose out
 in more controversial ways as well
by choosing to associate with tax collectors and sinners over the religious elite,
he will break the law to fulfill his purpose
whether it’s healing on the Sabbath or not washing his hands
 
and in a grand display
he will cleanse the temple of money changers
and merchants selling animals for sacrifice,
disrupting the established economic system
 in a bid to turn the focus of the temple from worldly gain
to prayer to the creator of the universe.
 
 And as you can imagine
 all these actions disrupting the status quo
upset the people who benefitted from the status quo
which leads to the cross
Jesus’ most unconventional way of being messiah,
 dying for the sake of life
 
And it is Jesus’ short sermon in his home synagogue
at the beginning of his ministry
that starts this all off
sounding the death knoll of the status quo
  
because good news for the poor
means consequences for those who are rich
 
freedom is good news for the oppressed
and means changes for those who oppressed them
 
the year of jubilee, the Lord’s favor
when the ancestral land is redistributed
 is exciting for those who have no land
but perhaps not so much
for those who have acquired great amounts of land.
In the words of the hymn the Canticle of the Turning
 “the world is about to turn”
 
 Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
What are we to make of this pronouncement of Jesus
Especially in light of all that’s going on in the world around us
A world still full of the hungry, poor and oppressed.
 
Allow me if you will
 to take a slight detour into the world of grammar.
There is a tense called the perfect tense,
and it describes actions that have been completed
but whose consequences are ongoing in the present.
 
For example the statement:
I made lunch.
The making of lunch is complete,
an action of the past
 
 but the consequence of that statement
 is that there is now lunch available to eat.
 
Jesus’ sermon is like that,
In the perfect tense
the words of the prophet Isaiah have been fulfilled.
 Completed by Jesus’ pronouncement
 
 but the consequences of his statement,
 of what he has done
is still being worked out
and we have a part in living them out
 
As Paul said in our second reading for the day:
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one spirit we were all baptized into one body- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free and we were all made to drink of one spirit.”
 
In our baptisms we were joined to Christ
 and when we were joined to Christ
 his purpose became our purpose,
to bring good news to the poor,
 proclaim release to the captives,
 recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free
and to proclaim the year of the lord’s favor.
 
And as we look around at the world
 and see how many people are still poor, captive and oppressed
we realize there is a lot of work left to do,
 
and when this seems overwhelming
 we pause and look around at the body of Christ,
made up of many members
each with a role to play according to the gift of the spirit.
Who, joined together as one in Christ
 live out God’s purpose in the world. Amen