TODAY the Scripture is Fulfilled 1/27/19 Epiphany 3C

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

TODAY the Scripture is Fulfilled

1/27/19       Epiphany 3C       Luke 4:14-21

All the neighbors have been gossiping about Jesus over morning coffee, and talking over what happened at his baptism as they gather at the local deli for sandwiches.  “You hear about that thing Jesus did?”  “Yeah, Joseph and Mary’s boy.” “I hear from Sadie that at his bar mitzvah,  he got lost talking with the Rabbis and made them have to turn around to get him - A whole 2 more days that trip took!”  “Wasn’t there some story about a wedding where suddenly there was a lot more wine?”  “He’s visiting his mother right now, that boy.  Home from traveling, they say, with a bunch of friends.”  “Maybe he’ll settle down and give them some grandchildren now.”  “I don’t know, he’s always been kinda different…” “I don’t know, he did go see that weird guy John who was baptizing people out in the desert.”  “They’re cousins, right? Maybe there’s  some ‘crazy’ in his genes, too.” 

Anyway, since Jesus is home, he’s asked to help out at church, and read the Scriptures.  Maybe he’ll take his place among the men now, maybe he hasn’t forgotten his training in reading the old Hebrew.  So Jesus takes up the scroll and finds Isaiah, and reads the words of the prophecy:

 “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.”

He rerolls it, gives it back, then sits and begins to teach - - and makes for more gossip and talk, because he says, “TODAY this scripture has been  fulfilled in your hearing.”

What??  Is he saying that he, of all people, little Jesus all grown up now, is fulfilling the words of the great Isaiah????  Is he claiming to be a greater prophet than Isaiah, that he fulfills the prophecy????  But he’s just Mary and Joseph’s boy! Our sons ran foot races with him, played ball with him.  Remember that time he skinned his knee?  Why, he’s just like us, one of us!  And he’s still young - how can he say these things like he knows more than our rabbi, who’s been here 20 years? 

Its hard for them to let go the way they’ve looked at Jesus as the boy next door, or the boy down the street.  The carpenter’s kinda odd boy.  The other gospel writers say that he wasn’t able to do many miracles in his hometown - too difficult for people there to look at him with faith.  You know what makes an expert, right?  A stranger with a briefcase. Jesus is too familiar, and that’s confusing.

Let’s look again at what Jesus says that he fulfills:   he says that the Spirit of the Lord is on him, that he has been anointed, or set apart by God to do certain signs of the age to come - he is to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to captives, free the oppressed, and just generally proclaim this a special time of God’s favor.  In him, in other words, the lion lays down with the lamb and all other signs of God’s realm are showing that they are fulfilled.  And these folks of the village here are seeing it with their own eyes. 

The language this is written in has some peculiar verb tenses that English doesn’t have, and some words that carry deep meanings - its difficult to translate word for word, as our language doesn’t have the total equivalent.  The verb “has been fulfilled” is one of those weird tenses.  Y’know, we have past, present, future, and some others.  The verb used here doesn’t mean that this fulfillment happened once in the past or the present, and that’s all.  Its a verb tense that means its happening now, and will continue to happen into the future.  TODAY the words of prophecy are being fulfilled.  When TOMORROW becomes today, the words of the prophecy are also being fulfilled. And every today after that, the prophecies are being fulfilled.  It is a new era, an ongoing era... - an era of God’s favor, an era of healing and making right, an era of prisoners released, oppressed ceasing to be oppressed, and the poor hearing good news instead of always hearing hard things and more bad news.  It is an era of God’s favor all around. 

Jesus chose these words from the prophet Isaiah to describe his call, his anointing, the reason why the Spirit of God came upon him.  And the word he chose to say is a word that is still true in our TODAY - we are still in that era, we who make up the current body of Christ are still the called and anointed to be sharing the good news that this is a time of God’s favor. As the body of Christ, the church, this is our call just as it is Jesus’. 

I’ve been doing a good bit of thinking about the purpose of church, the reason for church, and the expected work of the church.  Actually, for most of my ministry I’ve held a view of church that I’ve tried to preach, but never felt that I communicated it well - or at least it never seemed to change much of anything, even when the folks liked my sermons. Even when I’ve been able to work with Sessions and congregations for 4-5 years in a row, I’ve never felt that I moved their understanding much from the way “church” has been done for several generations; that is, more like a non-profit do-good organization where institutional requirements are met, and the preacher is responsible to see that people join and the budget keeps up and programs that have always been done are maintained.  People “enjoy” worship services more for the sense of continuity with their childhoods than with a sense of the greatness of God; more for the sense of the familiarity of the order and the songs than for a deep feeling of praise to the God who makes all things new; more for good performances by the choir and the preacher, for affirming perhaps the moral codes it endorses and makes them feel like good people, than a hunger for a deepened spirituality and maturity in faith.  People like seeing each other and finding out who’s been sick, and organizing nice events. Just keeping this nice thing going the way its always been.   Sermons are nice religious talks that are informative and kinda motivating;judge the preacher by their speaking voice and their delivery style.  Everyone does their duty rather than using the gift the Spirit has given them. Find more people like us to join and fill the pews, rather than proclaiming the gospel of forgiveness and grace that people so desperately need to hear and heed.  Being able to quote more verses and name the chapter and verse, rather than wrestling with the difficult task of learning to walk the walk of Christ.    

Friends, if that’s all there is to church, no wonder more and more folks are finding it rather meaningless to their lives, a rote performance of a social duty that doesn’t really call to them anymore.  It doesn’t change their life, it doesn’t support their seeking and trying out of their personality and development, it doesn’t affect much in the community or make much difference in their life. Its a waste of a Sunday morning. 

Of course there IS an aspect of church as a community, a people who know each other, love each other and care for each other.  In a community like this, people are accepted, foibles and all.  Strengths and weaknesses are known and accepted.  God knows this is important for people’s lives...I don’t think we are meant to be isolated and alone.  HOWEVER, a community has to be aware of what we read last week - that people are different, and have differing gifts that the community needs...even people who seem the most different.  A close community that squashes difference or looks askance at those who question or challenge the norms, is an excluding community rather than a beloved community.   It can become an ingrown community that has forgotten that God is a God of surprise, of new life, of creation and recreation. And the winds of the Spirit can blow in unexpected and unanticipated ways. 

I mean, who could have predicted that God would choose to live among us as one of us? Who could have predicted that Joseph and Mary’s boy would speak such a new word, and with the authority of the Spirit? Or not a totally new word, rather a word from old prophecy that had been neglected or not understood?

Because Jesus also speaks a word from within the tradition - a word spoken hundreds of years before within the same faith; yet still a disconcerting word of freedom that will shake the way that patterns had fallen into.  And as Christ’s body, the church, there are more aspects of church than community - there is also the aspect of the prophetic word, the social justice word, the wholeness and wellness word, the political word even - that the poor are not forgotten by God, which can really challenge those who are well-off in the system; that those oppressed will be set free, which can be bad news to the oppressors and controllers; that captives will be released, which is bad news to those who profited as the jailers; that the blind will see again, which is bad news to those who are comfortable with the fiction that everything’s okay, simply because its okay for them.  The prophetic words that Jesus chooses to read and apply to himself is a discomfiting word to some, while a word of liberation to others.  In the realm of God, EVERYONE needs to be well, free, seeing and unchained - or else the whole system is judged wrong.  Invisible people need to be seen and cared for; hurting people need to be seen and cared for; those on the underside of the system need to be brought into the light and healed. 

Jesus is proclaiming some social upheaval - the good news of God’s favor for those who have been invisible.  Those who have been in power may at first hear it as bad news, but actually their salvation also needs this upheaval - it is not God’s realm when there are those who do well and those who don’t - in God’s realm, everyone has enough and everyone is whole. 

If we are to be Christ’s body, which is how the church is described in Scripture, this kind of healing and restoration is our call, too.  And you see where it got Jesus - this isn’t always an easy message to preach to the ruling classes, or dominant population, or those who do well in the system of the world. For everyone to have enough, some of us may have to learn to do with less. While some will feel like they’re walking into the sunlight, others may feel that they are losing power.  Yet its for the good of all, eventually, because in God’s realm, everyone is important, everyone deserves honor, and everyone is healed.  This is where the Spirit of God will take us, because it IS the spirit of GOD, after all.  And this is our call, as it is Christ’s. 

Yes, we support one another in love.  And yes, we gather in fellowship, as those who work together for God.  But that’s not the only reason for the church - the main reason is to join Christ in proclaiming the year of God’s favor, to witness to God’s grace towards humanity in offering restoration and wholeness through faith, to join Christ in offering this gift of Gd to the world.  We might admire Jesus for giving his all in sounding this message; the real call, however, is to follow Christ’s example, and follow Christ’s footsteps, and follow Christ in proclaiming good news.  AMEN.