The season of
Epiphany is a season of beginnings. Over the past few weeks, our attention in
worship has been focused on Jesus’ firsts: his first visit by non-Jewish people
when the Magi came to greet him; Jesus’ baptism and the first time God announced
to a crowd that Jesus was God’s beloved son; Jesus’ first miracle, the turning
of water into wine at the wedding in Cana. Today, we hear over the years
another “first” for Jesus: His first sermon and public teaching to a crowd.
Listen now to the
story as it is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, verses 14 through 21:
Scripture Reading Luke 4:14-21
Jesus returned to
Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the
whole countryside.
He was teaching in
their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
He went to
Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went
into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read,
and the scroll of
the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it
is written:
“The Spirit of
the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up
the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of
everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.
He began by saying
to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Here ends this reading of the word of God for
the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer for Understanding
Open our ears, O Lord,
to hear your word and know your voice.
Speak to our hearts and strengthen our wills,
that we may serve you today/now and always. Amen
Message Good News, Good Ways
I suspect the people gathered in the
synagogue at Nazareth who heard Jesus’ first message were a bit perplexed. Jesus
was a local man, a known entity. The village people of Nazareth had watched
Jesus grow up, they knew his parents, they visited his carpentry shop, they chatted
with him at the market place, and they celebrated with Jesus at community
weddings and festivals. Every year, a large group of people made pilgrimages to
Jerusalem for holy festivals, and so the villagers had travelled with Jesus and
slept alongside him on the road. The village people did not expect Jesus to
surprise them, but I suspect one of their reactions to Jesus’ words that day
was surprise.
Jesus, this regular guy, read: “The
Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good
news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and
recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the
year of the Lord’s favor.” And, then Jesus declared: “Today this scripture is
fulfilled in your hearing.”
So, after Jesus read the word of
God, Jesus proclaimed the scripture was fulfilled. Jesus said that the Spirit
of the Lord was upon him – When Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of the Lord, the
Holy Spirit, visibly descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove. Jesus said he
was God’s anointed, the messiah. And Jesus claimed God wanted him to proclaim
good news to the poor, to free the prisoners, to restore sight to the blind, to
set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the Jubilee year, the year of the Lord’s
favor.
These are bold claims. Jesus
announced to the people gathered in the synagogue that he was the Messiah and that
he was going to fulfill the prophesies that were attributed to the messiah. The messiah made his public debut that day in
the synagogue at Nazareth.
Although we don’t have
messiah-complexes, I have been wondering what the world would be like if all
Christians decided to take on the mission Jesus read from the book of Isaiah. What
would the world be like if we believed this was our mission to fulfill? What good news would we proclaim to the poor?
How would we help prisoners become free? How can we help the blind see? How can
we free the oppressed from their oppression? How can we proclaim the year of
the Lord’s favor, the occasion of Jubliee?
In the Old Testament book of Leviticus,
God proclaimed there was to be a Jubliee year every 7th year for crops. Every 7th
year, farmers were to allow their land to remain fallow so that the nutrients
in the soil had an opportunity to be replenished. In modern farming, this is
done with crop rotation, where farmers will plant their types of crops in
different fields every year and allow some of their fields a rest year.
In Leviticus, God also said that the
entire Jewish population should practice a year of Jubilee every 50 years. During
this year, Jewish people were to free their slaves and return property to the
property’s original owners. If you bought your neighbor’s field, you were
supposed to return it descendants. If you bought your neighbor’s house, you
were supposed to return it to them or their descendants.
Creating a Jubliee is a bit
daunting. I don’t know if it would exactly work out in our diverse and
complicated culture. Certainly, we are good with freeing slaves. But returning
land to the original owners is a messy, fought process.
Ursinus College and the Perkiomen
Valley School District are working to develop a partnership with the Lenape Delaware
Tribe of American Indians. The Lenape tribes were the original inhabitants of
eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Southern New York. The tribe now primarily lives in Oklahoma with
a contingency living in Delaware and New York. Tribal representatives from
Oklahoma have made several recent visits our area. Each of
the PV middle schools are developing Arboretum’s on their campuses and are
working to collaborate with the Lenape Delaware people in how the land is managed
and cared for. The District will not be returning the land to its original
inhabitants, but the schools are looking for ways to partner with the Lenape
people in how the land is overseen and managed, so that it will be a resource
for all of us. So, a bit of restoration
and Jubliee is in the works,
As the People of God, we are called
to look for ways to collaborate with other people. We are given the responsibility
to work to create the Kingdom of God here on earth. This means we are called to
help relieve the burden of people who are financially poor or emotionally
struggling. We are called to reach out to people who have been in prison and
help them reacclimatw to life outside of prison, to help them obtain jobs and
safe living situations. We are called to help the blind see, to work to make
sure that all people have access to medical care and treatments, affordable and
consistent medical care and treatments. We are called to work to help people
who are living in oppression, the victims of domestic violence at home,
refugees fleeing oppressive and dangerous governments, people who need help
obtaining the education or training they need to afford safer and healthier
living conditions. And, we are called to care for our environment so that all
the inhabitants of our world are able to access nature and experience a
restoration and grace.
Our work as Christians is big. But,
many hands make light work. What we could never accomplish on our own as
individuals is manageable when we work together as members of the body of Christ.
People need to hear the Good News – our lives are not our own, we belong to God.
And working together, our lives will have purpose and blessing beyond our imagining.
It will be so. Amen.
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