Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday January 23, 2022
Scripture Reading: Luke 4:14-22
What do you want to be when you grow up? If you are one of the younger members of our church, maybe this is a question that the adults in your life like to ask you. If you are one of the adult members of our church, maybe this is a question that you ask of the young people in your life.
When I was a kid and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I went through a variety of different stages. I wanted to be a firefighter. I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to be a speech and language pathologist. I wanted to be a physiotherapist.
And I did become a physiotherapist. But then maybe I’m not grown up yet, because many years later I became a minister. Right now, if I think about what I want to be when I grow up, my answer has changed a bit - it has become more about being than it is about doing. I want to be someone who is kind to everyone I meet. I want to be someone who is generous. I want to be someone who laughs easily and who cries easily.
In our bible reading today, Jesus is back in his hometown of Nazareth, back in the synagogue, in the place of worship that he grew up in. I can picture the rest of the congregation, all of the aunties and uncles, pointing him out and whispering among themselves, “Here’s Jesus, Mary’s boy, the son of Joseph, the carpenter. I wonder what he’s made of himself? I wonder who he is, now that he’s all grown up?”
Even though we’re in Chapter 4, this is right at the very beginning of Jesus’s ministry. In the Gospel of Luke, we get lots of stories from before Jesus’s birth and a couple of stories from his childhood. In chapter 1, we have angels appearing to Zechariah and Mary, we hear Mary’s prophetic proclamation, and we have the birth of John the Baptist. Then in Chapter 2, Jesus is born and is laid in a manger, shepherds come to visit him, he is circumcised and presented at the temple in Jerusalem where a Anna and Simeon, a couple of prophets, recognize that he is someone special, and then we hear about Mary and Joseph losing track of 12-year-old Jesus when they visit the temple together. Chapter 3 includes John the Baptist’s preaching and ministry out in the wilderness, as well as Jesus’s baptism. Then Chapter 4 begins with Jesus spending 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. And now Jesus is back in his hometown. He has been baptized and he has resisted temptation, and now it is time to start his public ministry.
In the synagogue, with all of the eyes on him, he asks for the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah, and he unrolls it until he finds the passage he is looking for, and he 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 captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
I can imagine that it must have been silent there in the synagogue as he rolled the scroll back up again after reading from it. Every ear would be straining to hear what Mary’s boy, what Joseph’s boy would have to say about this passage. And then Jesus preached what might be the shortest sermon ever. All that he said was, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke tells us that everyone spoke well of him and were amazed at the grace-filled words that came forth from his mouth; but I can imagine that there must have been some puzzlement as well. He is saying that these promises from Isaiah have been fulfilled – that he is bringing good news to the poor, that captives will be released, that healing has come to those who need it, that the oppressed are free, and that this is the year of the Lord’s favour. I can imagine the questions that the congregation must have had. “But Jesus, there are still people being held prisoner who haven’t been released. There are people who are still in desperate need of healing. You talk about the oppressed going free, but we are still living under the oppression of the whole Roman Empire, let alone the oppression of poverty that is all around us. How can you possibly proclaim that this, here, now, is the year of the Lord’s favour?”
In Luke’s gospel, like I said, this is the very beginning of Jesus’s public ministry. These is Jesus’s first teaching opportunity, and he uses it to outline what his ministry is going to be all about. His ministry is going to be about bringing good news to the poor, it is going to be about releasing captives and ending systems of oppression. It is going to be about healing. And through all of this, people will know that this is the year of the Lord’s favour – that God hasn’t forgotten them, and God is working in this time and in this place. This passage from Isaiah almost functions as a mission statement for all of Jesus’s ministry to come. And so he says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
If you were with us last Sunday, we started talking about how the church is the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit gives each of us different gifts, and when we share our gifts with the church, then the church together is able to serve the world just as Jesus did. We, as the church, as the Body of Christ – we are called to this same mission statement that Jesus was – we are called to continue Jesus’s ministry of bringing good news to the poor, of proclaiming release to captives, of healing, of overturning systems of oppression, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favour.
But I also come up with similar concerns to the ones that Jesus must have heard. How can this be the year of the Lord’s favour when we are living in a world that is entering year three of a pandemic? How can this be the year of the Lord’s favour when racism and homophobia and trans-phobia are still present in our world? How can this be the year of the Lord’s favour when gender based violence is still a thing? How can this be the year of the Lord’s favour when there are such deep inequalities between one part of the world and another? As Bertis sang earlier, we sure could use a little good news today.
My brain wants to say, let’s wait until this pandemic is over, and then I’ll proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. Or once racism is eliminated from the world, then I’ll proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. Or once there is true and lasting reconciliation and deep relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada, then I’ll proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. Or once all people in the world have access to the same rights and opportunities, then I’ll know that the year of the Lord’s favour is here.
We sure could use a little good news today; and Jesus offers us this good news. This moment in time, right here and right now, this is the year of the Lord’s favour. Not some unspecified time in the future when things get back to “normal”; not some distant time when all of the wrongs in the world have been righted, but right now. This is the year of the Lord’s favour because God is with us.
God is with us, no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in; and God is gifting us, by the Holy Spirit, so that we can continue with the work that Jesus began. God is transforming us, by the Holy Spirit, into the Body of Christ so that we can continue Christ’s work of healing and of liberation and of proclaiming a message of hope and love to the world. This is the year of the Lord’s favour, because God is with us and will be with us.
So what do I want to be when I grow up? I want to be transformed to be more and more like Jesus.
The Scroll of Isaiah from Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls)
No comments:
Post a Comment