January 27, 2013 – Luke 4:14-21
Luke 4:14-21
Spirit in Action
Third Sunday after Epiphany – January 27, 2013
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
This Gospel reading from Luke is Jesus’s first public declaration.
He’s been creating quite a stir and returns to his hometown to
do what he’s been doing everywhere: to teach at the Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath.
He stands up to read from a scroll of scripture.
Isaiah is handed to him but it appears he has some choice in what he reads from Isaiah.
He chooses a couple of verses from Isaiah 61.
These are verses that include promises for the most vulnerable people in society.
It’s about their inclusion in the benefits of society.
And the last line is about God bringing in the Jubilee year described in Leviticus 25.
The Jubilee year is a dream God had of restoring, every 50 years or so,
the land and possessions to people who had lost them,
when debts were forgiven and
when people enslaved as a result of debt were released.
The Jubilee has at its heart the principle that God’s land and the wealth it generates is
meant to be shared equitably by all people so that all may benefit.
As one commentator states, the Jubilee years is God’s way of restoring
the original balance and connectedness among the people.
(Richard Swanson quoted by Kathryn Huey at http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/january-27-2013.html)
So Jesus reads this kind of revolutionary reading – imagine it! – and then, of course,
you can well imagine that everybody’s going to be pretty curious to hear
what he has to say about it.
So he sits down to give a sermon on the reading,
and he begins his sermon by saying something astonishing.
Today, he says, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
Wow: Jesus knows how to create quite a stir.
Since President Obama’s Inaugural Address this past week is fresh in our minds,
it’s not unhelpful to think of this as Jesus’s Inaugural Address.
It sets out the plan for the days ahead, it sets out a vision, it sets out the big picture.
In Jesus’s case, the inaugural announces his mission and describes the reign of God.
It announces the good news, the great news, that God is coming to rule with
justice and mercy and peace.
And it summarizes what the good news – the gospel – is:
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.
And Jesus doesn’t just announce this good news: he becomes it: Jesus himself is the good news.
Okay: so Jesus doesn’t have any land to share because, in fact,
Jesus doesn’t appear to own anything.
But he does have gifts to share:
he’s a teacher and he teaches freely, maybe in exchange for a meal.
He’s a healer, and he heals freely, again, maybe in exchange for a meal.
He forgives freely, he feeds freely, he includes freely, and he raises to life freely.
He shares the wealth he has:
he announces the good news that God is now – today! – powerfully at work
extending God’s reign of mercy and justice and peace and
he is – he embodies – the good news of
extending God’s reign of mercy and justice and peace.
It’s important to remember that before Jesus announces this good news and
before Jesus embodies this good news, Jesus is first baptized, blessed, and
anointed by God.
Indeed, the accent in the first three phrases from Isaiah say precisely this:
the Spirit is upon me for [the Spirit] has anointed me and [the Spirit] has sent me. . .
Before Jesus can announce anything and before Jesus can do anything,
God has to give him the Holy Spirit, the divine loving energy, to say and do these things.
The thing is: we are now the body of Christ.
The Gospel of Luke describes the ministry of Jesus
in his individual body before the resurrection, right?
And Luke’s sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, describes the ministry of Jesus
in his resurrected body, the church, right?
You are the body of Christ, says Paul in his letter to the Corinthians this morning,
and he can’t say it much plainer than that.
There are many members, and yet one body, animated by the same one Spirit,
and every single member is necessary for the body to do what God calls it to do:
participate in God’s loving mission to love bless and heal this world and every person in it.
Today is ELCIC Praise Appeal Sunday.
It’s a day to remember that we are part of a much, much larger body than this congregation.
A day to remember that we are part of national congregation of 145,000 members.
A day to remember that we need each other in order to be the people God is calling us to be.
And it’s a day to be thankful for the National expression of our church.
I’m grateful that the priorities of our National Church are so clearly shaped by
Jesus’s inaugural address.
I’m grateful that our National Church provides such a wonderful context for
us in this congregation to be the people God is calling us to be.
And I’m grateful for the ways in which our National Church is dedicated to stirring up
the Holy Spirit given us in baptism so we can be the people God is calling us to be.
And I’m grateful for the ways in which our National Church enables us to participate in
announcing and being the Good News, in being part of the extending of God’s reign of
mercy-giving and justice-doing and peace-making and manna-sharing.
Our National Church is hard at work on both these fronts.
On the one hand, I’m really pleased that our National Church Council is encouraging
all 145,000 members of our church to do the things that will stir up the Holy Spirit
given us in our baptisms:
National Church Council is calling for our Spiritual Renewal and is
giving us tools to accomplish that.
It encourages us in six spiritual practices that are deeply rooted in our tradition:
– daily prayer and scripture reading
– regular attendance at worship
– yearly involvement in a program of study
– regular service in the community (not just the congregation)
– regular and proportional giving similar to the understanding of the tithe found in scripture
– and commitment to sharing the good news with those around us, beginning with friends and family
You’ll hear more from me about this call to Spiritual Renewal and these practices during Lent.
On the other hand, our National Church enables us all – as Spirit filled people –
to participate in being the Good News, in embodying it, as Jesus does.
The ELCIC engages in much ecumenical work on our behalf,
especially with our full communion partners the Anglican Church of Canada.
Through its partnership with Canadian Lutheran World Relief, we are all able to engage in
emergency relief and development work across the globe.
Through its membership in the Lutheran World Federation you serve
one and a half million refugees every day,
for the LWF is the second largest provider of refugee services in the world.
And through its partnership in KAIROS – a group of Canadian church working for
justice and peace – you engage in some mighty important work here in Canada.
At the last ELCIC National Convention in 2011, delegates committed the ELCIC to
encouraging right and renewed relationships between Indigenous and
non-inidenous peoples within Canada.
Much of this commitment is lived through our partnership with KAIROS.
The Idle No More movement has brought this to our attention, but
regardless of how you feel about that, I know from conversation with many of you that
you are concerned that treaties be honoured in some meaningful way, and that
you have a deep concern for the conditions on reserves,
particularly in regards to health care, education, and poverty.
Our National Church’s partnership with KAIROS is one way in which
you actually participate in that concern, today.
It would be difficult to participate in that work without a National Church,
and without our Assistant to the National Bishop Paul Gehrs,
who serves as Chair of the KAIROS board.
This is a very meaningful way in which you participate in Good News Jesus announces,
to bring good news to the poor and to participate in the year of the Lord’s favour.
I’m proud to be a member of this church, the ELCIC.
Today you have an opportunity to directly support its work in all these areas by
making a contribution to the Praise Appeal by using the envelopes provided.
Please be generous.
We are all in this together, and the work God calls us to requires every single one of us,
just as a body with many parts needs all its members to function.
Indeed, this is what Paul means by the Body of Christ: the agency of God that
delivers the promise of good news to all who are in need.
Energized by the loving Spirit of a loving God, may we announce and embody
the good news that Jesus announces and embodies this morning.
May it be said that today this scripture has been fulfilled in our hearing.
So together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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