3. Sunday after Ephipany, 01/24/2010

Sermon on Luke 4:14-21, by Walter Harms

14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

What "Spirit" Drives Us?

What "spirit" drives us? The Christmas and Epiphany stories are replete with the Holy Spirit leading people. Mary and Elizabeth, the prophets Simeon and Anna are all lead by the Holy Spirit. And now in our reading for today we hear that the Holy Spirit is leading Jesus.

He is lead by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. He returns to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit. Without a doubt, if Luke asked the people who gave witness to Jesus being the Messiah, they would have answered: the Holy Spirit.

I don't know about you but I know about me. I wonder if I believe the Holy Spirit leads me. And I wonder does the Holy Spirit lead you and the community of people with whom you worship the Savior. Does God the Holy Spirit lead us? You? Your church? What "spirit" leads us, guides us? And how can we even know if it is the Spirit of God or an alien, evil spirit that leads us?

What "spirit" drives us?

Before you think about that any further, this needs to be said first. A person who has been baptized into the Christian faith has the Holy Spirit living within him. Our very bodies are the "temples" of the Holy Spirit. We are led, driven by the Holy Spirit in our lives. I would not want anyone to think that somehow as a person who confesses Jesus as Lord and Savior does not have the Holy Spirit leading them in their lives. So remember that in all this talk about who drives you.

At the same time we need to examine who does drive us. Because the alien spirit, the "old man" continues within us always attempting to lead us to follow his concepts, precepts and goals. It is in that area where the "rubber hits the road" of these words to you.

So to begin why don't we try to take apart our motivation in living and acting the way we do act. We might start by wondering why we don't seem to hear or feel or experience the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We pray and? Well, we don't often get an answer or at least an answer that might be defined as that coming from the Holy Spirit. That surely leads us do as we please and forget about any leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit.

So we follow the culture of our time. We eat, drink, try to be merry, and try to experience all the sights, sounds, and tastes of the world. We all have a "bucket" list of things we want to do, see or experience before we "kick the bucket."

We are led by the spirit of our times. We buy without needing. We spend without reference to the needs of so much of the world. We want for ourselves. We like what we have and we want to keep it that way.

How many times haven't I heard that we are to be "mission-minded", that we are to witness to and bring in those who are without Christ. We even state that we are to speak the Good News of a forgiving Savior to others. But all too often our statements are not in sync with our actions.

We keep the same formulae of worship that has been used for hundreds of years. We want to change nothing, neither the liturgy, the architecture, the music, or anything else. Many people dress in "Sunday clothes" (you got to be "old" to understand that phrase,) while many in the market place no longer even have a suit or tie or special "church" shoes.

Almost without exception, people have experienced some of the results of the recent recession. Only one family member working now. Drastic loss of income for many. For some of us great losses of savings. We cringe in fear about what is coming. We have to cut back on doing many of the normal activities we engaged in before all of this happened. Foreclosures, bankruptcies, and ending of jobs because of these and store closures or defaults seem to bring us to despair, right where the alien spirit wants to drive us. We are going down the tube, the future is black, little hope of any good coming.

The bare facts are that "having food and clothes" we should be content-words from the mouth of the One who sends the Holy Spirit-seem way out of place, as we are encouraged to make use of the many bargains offered at this time of year.

A simple statement from God that we are to "trust in the Lord with all our heart and don't lean on your understanding of things" drives us back to see that we are totally dependent on God, on a God who loves us, on a God who sends us the Holy Spirit so that we know in "all things He is working for good in those who have come to love him."

To understand in this time when we are to have an epiphany, we turn again to Jesus who driven by the Holy Spirit says about the words from an ancient prophet, the prophet Isaiah: "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Today, this, I believe in your and my "today." Today Jesus is telling us that we have experienced the year of the Lord's favor. It is here; it is now! The mighty God who created us looks at us, bulging with a multitude of spirit alien to that Spirit of God that he looks at us with favor. He accepts us with all our snooty attitudes, our prejudices against others of different religion and race, our rich man attitudes toward the Lazarus's of this world, our stubborn belief that God has not lead us in our lives, our belief that wealth is a sign of God's favor-he accepts us and forgives us.

Jesus at Nazareth, his home town begins the pilgrimage that leads to death so that we might be free and favored now, so that we could see ahead not to the bumps and detours on the road we want to travel, but to the end of the journey. He proclaims that there is freedom now from all that hold us as prisoners, whether that is failed relationships, abusive situations, loveless marriages or families that we don't know how to deal with. These are all evidences not of the lack of the Holy Spirit's presence, but of the attacks of the evil one which would lead us to despair and other great shame and vice.

I must say (without stealing anything from next week's message) that Jesus' hometown did not think much of this message or of Jesus himself. They tried to get rid of him.

Why? Because his message is alien from anything that the devil, the world or our own sinful flesh believes is right. Because his message alone brings hope, a future, because his forgiveness alone can mend the broken and restore all that we break ala Tiger Woods.

His message to us that the Holy Spirit is to drive us as individuals, us as families, us as a local church, us as the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church in the direction of proclaiming the Good News to the poor, freedom to the prisoner, recovery of sight to the blind and release fro the oppressed. And the question now asked is does it?

What "spirit" drives us and the message we say is God's message to the world?

Amen.

retired pastor Walter Harms
Austin, TX U. S. A.

E-Mail: waltpast@aol.com

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