3rd Sunday after the Epiphany

 

Luke 4:14-21; 1Cor 12:12-31a

This week, as we continue through the Season of Epiphany, we start to settle back into readings from the Gospel of Luke that will be with us for this whole year and despite this being the pattern we have followed for more than 50 years, they feel especially timely right now.  Because even though the Apostle Luke was almost definitely Jewish and probably had been his whole life, unlike the other Gospel writers, he likely was not from Judea or the Galilee or anywhere in the Holy Land, he spoke Greek as a first language and wrote his Gospel primarily for people living outside of Israel both Jews and Gentiles.  And so Luke, while he knows and tells many of the same stories as Matthew and Mark focuses far more on community and inclusion than his Judean counterparts.  And as the author of the Pentecost story we know so well, he is also far more interested the Holy Spirit and how it is active in the world and the lives of believers.  So Luke seems like an especially good partner for us on our journey this year.

Last week, we heard story of the wedding at Cana and we saw John’s account of Jesus’s first public act of ministry, revealing God’s abundance through the person of Jesus Christ.  And this week, we hear Luke’s.  And it is very different, but it is an Epiphany moment all the same, where Luke take his turn to tell us who Jesus is. 

In Luke’s story, Jesus is baptized and then driven off in the dessert (we wait until Lent to tell that story) and then he returns and starts traveling and preaching in local synagogues and very quickly he ends up back in his hometown of Nazareth.  And worship services back then worked and awful lot like they do now.  They sing and pray and at some point someone gets up, reads an appointed piece of scripture and then preaches a sermon explaining the text and what it means and how it impacts people’s lives.  And so Jesus gets up and reads part of a passage from the book of Isaiah, and then he sits down and goes on to preach the world’s shortest sermon saying “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And that’s all he does.

And at first this all seems pretty normal, even exciting and likely even those gathered there, even those very familiar with the passage he was supposed to read didn’t even realize what Jesus had done. 

For you see Jesus was reading from the prophet Isaiah, the 61^st chapter to be exact and the verse on the scroll goes like this:  “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;  ² to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;”   But Jesus doesn’t say that.  He gets through the part about proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor and then he stops, puts the scroll away, sits down.  And says that “Today the scripture is fulfilled.”

And at first no one even notices what he has done.  Because they already know the story.  They know that the Messiah will come and there will be a separation and the Lord will shower his favor on the chosen ones and rain down his vengeance on everyone else.  And finally, finally, all those Gentiles, all those Romans, those snobs in Judea and everyone else who has ever wronged us will get what is coming to them.  But Jesus doesn’t say that.  He proclaims the Lord’s favor and before any mention of vengeance he stops, rolls up the scroll and puts it away.

But for the people present that day, their ideas of salvation are so tied up with vengeance, that when they begin to grasp what Jesus is doing, when they see that Jesus is bringing salvation to friend and enemy alike, if we were to read on, we would see that they quickly get so angry that they drive him out of the city and attempt to kill him.   They have lived and waited for vengeance for so long that they can’t imagine salvation without it.  And quite frankly so much of the time, neither can we. 

Someday, when Jesus returns, all those other people, all those heretics or unbelievers, all those liberals or conservatives, all those rich people or lazy people, or criminals, or whoever else is not on our side, will finally get what is coming to them.

And that is right, today the scripture is fulfilled and Jesus is going to make sure that they all get exactly what is coming to them.  But what is coming to them is love.

Because what is happening today, what Jesus is doing right now, he is bringing forth good news for everyone, for all who suffer anywhere, not just those who deserve it, who have earned it, who have waited and worked long and hard for it.  Everyone.  Welcome and unwelcome, deserving and undeserving, ready and unprepared.  No vengeance just acceptance.

And when the people gathered with Jesus that day finally begin to understand what Jesus is saying to them, it makes them so angry that they literally try to throw Jesus off a cliff.  Because this is hard, really hard, especially for people who have invested a lot of time and energy in waiting for something else.

But it also tells us everything that we actually need to know.  Because this story is indeed another Epiphany moment that tells us again who Jesus is.  Jesus is the one who gathers the lost and the outcast.  Jesus is the one who cares for the vulnerable, the poor, the imprisoned, the blind and the oppresses.  Jesus is the one who always favors mercy, who protects those who are in danger. Jesus tears down the walls we erect and takes the very people we have tried to turn into objects and restores their humanity.

God’s favor for all people free from the burdens of vengeance and earned righteousness.  God’s forgiveness of humanity’s sins through Christ’s suffering rather than our own.  This is this point around which everything else revolves.  And without it we are lost. 

And yet somehow this message has once again become highly controversial, even among those who claim to confess Jesus as Lord.  And that is why it is more important than ever, more critical than ever that faithful followers of Jesus Christ hold the line in reclaiming his message of love.

Because Isaiah’s version is a lot more fun.  Vengeance and retribution is a lot easier to sell than forgiveness, reconciliation and costly grace.   But Jesus is clear.  His message, this unbounded love, the favor of the Lord, is for everyone, not just the popular, the powerful, the faithful or the strong.

1 Corinthians tells us so.  “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.”  This is the body of Christ.  No matter how it looks.  And we are all important parts of it.  Everyone.  No exceptions.

Those who try to exclude people from the body of Christ and the human family dishonor the Gospel no matter how hard they try to justify it. Paul tells us point blank “On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect.”  Everyone matters, everyone is important, every voice makes a difference.

And that is the message we hold to today and always.  When messages of hate swirl around us, especially when those messages purport to bear the name of Christ, Jesus message remains clear.  The favor of the Lord is for all, no exceptions and we are called to act with mercy toward all of God’s children.

Amen.