Epiphany 3

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Epiphany 3
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 21,2001

See also: EPIPHANY 3C - 1998

TEXT: Luke 4:14-21 – He (Jesus) unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “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 favor.” . . . . . . . Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

ISSUE: - Luke’s account of Jesus in the community synagogue marks the Inaugural Speech of Jesus new ministry. The Spirit of God is upon him. He shall give new insight to the blind. He will release the captives from the bondage of demons and oppression. He brings good news to the poor, the last, least, and lost, proclaiming The Year of Jubilee, forgiveness and mercy. The Inaugural Speech also sets the theme for the work of the church as the body of Christ in the world today. We have a mission with Christ.
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This Third Sunday of Epiphany is the one to which every Layreader in the church looks forward. It’s so exciting to read all those names of significant leaders of Israel who stand with Ezra. Difficult as that reading is, it is a significant one in the history of the Jewish people. It tells of a time when the nation, which has been in exile, is allowed to return home. Standing where the destroyed temple had been, Ezra calls the people together along with all of the nation’s significant leaders as listed in the passage and begins to read the Torah, the Mosaic Law of God. The people weep for joy at their restoration, the renewed hope and restored faith. It is a new beginning for them.
The Nehemiah reading is appropriately positioned with the reading of Jesus who attends the synagogue of his home town to announce another new beginning for the people of God. According to Luke, Jesus attends the synagogue on the Sabbath. Our own worship on a Sunday is strikingly similar to the worship in the synagogue. There was the reading of the Shema: “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is One. You shall worship the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” We do the same in Rite I. There was then prayers, and reading from the Torah, or Mosaic Law, a reading from the prophets, a sermon, and a blessing.
Jesus is assigned as one who can read on the Sabbath that he attends to read the selection from the Prophet Isaiah. He opens the scroll and reads a selection from what we know as Isaiah 61:1-2. “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.” This selection is Jesus’ Inaugural Address. It is the keynote proclamation of the ministry that is to begin. His ministry shall be a mission.
Notice that the ministry and mission is clearly marked by God. It is not his own. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and has anointed me.” For the people first hearing this message the anointing imagery by the spirit would have reminded them of how their kings, like King David had been anointed by the prophet and the Spirit of God. It is mindful of a great day in the life of the nation, and now a new day has come again in the anointing of Jesus and his ministry by the Spirit of God. The time has come to rebuild a nation of disenfranchised peoples.
The ministry and mission described in the Isaiah passage which Jesus selected as his Inaugural address deals essentially with three things. First is his announcement of Good news to the poor, the announcement of the Year of the Lord’s favor. In this period 98% of the population was poor. A meager 2% was considered to be the rich. Keep in mind too that poor in the Christian Scriptures does not only refer to limited funds. The poor were people who had no power, no standing, minimal honor and status. Widows, children, slaves, the landless were all considered to be the poor with little respect, honor, or dignity. The sick, lame, blind, deaf, injured were also considered unworthy and cursed. Jesus comes to restore the dignity to a forlorn people. In the Hebrew Book of Leviticus 25:18-55, there is a reference to The Year of the Lord, or The Jubilee Year. Every seven years there was supposed to be a time of re-accounting and restoration. The poor who had made loans were to be charged no interest, and in some cases the loan forgiven. Person who had become slaves because of their poverty were to be freed and restored to their homes and ancestral property. A person who had lost his land as a result of financial difficulty after seven years had the right to buy it back. What Jesus implies from the Isaiah passage is that he brings good news to the poor and proclaims a new release from their lack of respect and indignity. He proclaims a new forgiveness and new hope, and new opportunity for the people of God to reclaim their rights as the people of God. He brings renewed respect and dignity releasing and proclaiming the grace, the graciousness of God that the culture had greatly obscured by corrupted and unjust world powers.
Also involved in the message was freedom from oppression and release from evil powers. The ministry of Jesus was one which repeated heals, restores, and sets people free from the demonic forces. Remember that in the ancient hierarchy of things was God at the top, angels, and spirits. Then came humans and subhuman creatures. People believed they could be possessed and cursed by the spirits. The message of Jesus is that through faith in God, the human spirit itself is lifted up by the grace and love of God, and the power of evil cannot claim what belongs to God. Jesus is liberation from obsession and degradation of the human spirit. Thus, you have a ministry and mission of Jesus that is healing, exorcising evil spirits and that gives new hope, love, forgiveness, honor and status to the disenfranchised. Blessed, honorable are the poor and those who mourn, because claims them for his own.
The focus of the Isaiah passage is the recovery of sight for the blind. (See John Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus, Cycle C, p.25) The aim and focus of Jesus’ ministry was to call people to change and new insights. He brought about a clear insight into what God was like. He challenged people to see things differently, to have respect for one another, to value women, to value people who were different, to expand horizons to see God as Father not of just me, or of my race, or of my persuasion, but to see God as loving Father, The Abba, “daddy” of us all. Jesus intended to give new insights into seeing the importance of the law, but through the eyes of compassion and mercy. So many of the parables and sayings of Jesus challenged the way people saw things: The Prodigal Son and the Loving Father, The Good Samaritan revealing the potential of people different, and often hated by ourselves as good neighbors. The first being last and the last first was a whole new insight that Jesus proclaims in a world of eye for eye, tooth for tooth, survival of the fittest. No one stands outside the redemptive power of God.
Needless to say, I think - I hope, is that Jesus’ Inaugural Address, Proclamation, or Sermon was addressed to the early Church. Surely Luke includes it for that very reason. A church without mission, meaningful purpose, in joining the mission of Christ is just another worldly club. The mission of the church is to be constantly reaffirming, and readjusting when it must its insights. It must be checking its insights and visions to be in keeping with what God in Christ is calling us to be and to do. Lets be well reminded that over the years the church sometimes supported and condoned, or if not supported took very a very apathetic approach to such issues as slavery. For a long time we were blind to the nation’s prejudices toward African Americans and Native Americans. The church excluded women from its ministries and positions of significant leadership. We are still sensitive to issues of gender and the homosexual issues of our age. One of the significant issues facing the Christian Church today is its anti-semitism, which we find in Luke and John, and in ourselves.
By and large we are a people enriched by a wonderful understanding of God, that comes to us in the ways and the teachings of Jesus Christ. We are called upon as St. Paul stresses in the reading from 1Corinthias (12:12-27) to be the body of Christ, a body in unity of purpose and mission. Human body’s often need check-ups and our eyesight checked. We need to be the members, the arms and legs of the mission of Christ in the world today. We have a new hope, a wonderful message, and work to be done. Our efforts in caring for the hungry, homeless people and children, our concern for people suffering from disasters in the world around us are a significant part of our mission. We must also root out our prejudices and seek ways to be more Christian or Christ-like in our lives and endeavors, to join with Christ in that servant priesthood by virtue of the anointing given to us at our baptism. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever. When any of us is weak and withdrawn, we weaken the whole body. When we are healthy, strong, and our sights are in focus, then we serve Christ and God’s world. It is such and honor, such a unique calling, to be the people of Christ in God’s world.
Yesterday we heard the inaugural speech along with its hopes and dreams for our nation. Today we hear another one, this one from the Anointed One in whom the Spirit of God dwells. It is no less important and even more important that we embrace our mission as a people, and as a church in the service of Jesus Christ our Lord.