Epiphany 3C
January 23, 2022
Good Shepherd, Wells, MN
Luke 4.14-21
One of the first things you learn in preaching class (called homiletics) is that you have no control over your sermon once it has been preached. We learn that people often hear what’s said differently, perhaps what you didn’t intend. That’s been my experience as I’ve heard comments about things people heard in my sermon that I’m pretty certain I didn’t say. After all, I was the one who preached it! My first sermon was preached well before I went to seminary. I was a youth leader at Hope Lutheran Church in South Minneapolis. I don’t remember much about the sermon except that I know I finished by saying, “If the shoe fits, wear it!” Ouch. I was not in a good place at that time. But, that’s another story for another sermon. Even so, I have long wondered how the folk heard that sermon, though I didn’t care as much at the time.
Though our Gospel reading indicates that Jesus has been preaching and teaching before he visits his home congregation in Nazareth, for Luke and the rest of the Gospel, this is his inaugural address. In this text we hear that Jesus is a faithful Jew, attending synagogue on the sabbath whenever possible. Synagogues developed during the Babylonian captivity when the Jews were forcibly removed into exile into Babylon, which is modern day Iraq. With no temple to worship in, Jews gathered into houses to meet and keep connected to God. In the liturgy, a psalm is sung, prayers are prayed, a section of Torah is read, then one the prophets. Finally, there is some exposition on the reading, a sermon if you will.
This particular sabbath, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah is handed to Jesus, and he chooses promises from what we now call “Second Isaiah.” This portion of Isaiah was written during the Babylonian captivity and it was designed to bring comfort and consolation to the exiles. In doing so, and claiming that his presence provides fulfillment, Jesus sets aside any notion he is a warrior-king Messiah that some people expect. Rather, he claims to be a prophet-king anointed with a somewhat surprising mission, which I’ll deal with later. Meanwhile, as people heard these words in a different time and context than ours, I wonder how they heard them. No doubt there were various reactions (as we’ll see next week), especially as he says, “Today this has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
For the rest of the sermon, I’m going to unpack what the words of Isaiah indicate. I’m asking you to pay attention to what you are hearing and the reaction these words create within you. Ready? When Jesus talks about bringing good news to the poor he means not only saying a comforting word. Jesus, in the manner of Old Testament prophets before him, also speaks out against unjust systems that not only make people poor but are also designed to keep them there. There is a similar dynamic in Jesus’ intention to free the marginalized. They are to be released from oppressive institutions and those that keep those people in power who keep those institutions in place. You may recall that these are themes we heard in Mary’s Magnificat during Advent.
As jarring as those claims are, perhaps the most radical one is to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Now this seems innocuous enough, but most people see that this is likely a shorthand way of proclaiming a time of jubilee, something that was commanded in the Old Testament, but never practiced. Jubilee involved restitution and restoration for all Israel: debts are to be forgiven and land returned to families who had leased them or used them for collateral. In other words, it was a massive redistribution of wealth. In sum, Jesus says he comes to give special attention to those who are not the powerful, whom the world often ignores and chooses not to see, those who are overlooked, forgotten, or discarded.
So, my sisters and brothers in Christ, what do you hear as I unpack these words of Jesus? What kind of reaction or feeling comes from listening to what I’ve had to say about them? For now, I want you to simply hold those reactions or feelings in awareness. Try not to evaluate them as good, bad, or otherwise, but to just sit with them. Then after a while, ask what God is saying to you in, with, and through your reactions.
If these words make you uncomfortable, then sit with the discomfort and hold it in awareness. If these words make you angry, then sit with the anger. If you find yourself afraid, then sit with the fear. If joyful, then sit with the joy. And if you feel nothing, then sit with that feeling as well. Whatever you hear and whatever the feeling, know that isn’t right or wrong, it just is. Know also that God is stirring up within you something that God wishes to do in, with, and through you. Next week we’ll learn how the people in Jesus’ hometown react, but for now, what do you hear? Amen.
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