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Epiphany 3, 01/24/2016
Sermon on Luke 4:14-21, by Bradley Everett
Jesus has returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. He is back from his sojourn in the south where he was baptised in the Jordan by John and then led by the Spirit into the desert where for 40 days he fasted and was tempted by the devil.
News about him is quickly spreading through the countryside as he is teaching in the synagogues to the acclaim of everyone. And now he is back in his hometown of Nazareth, and finding himself there on the Sabbath he went to the synagogue as usual. Presented with the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, our Lord reads for the congregation the passage from 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's favor."
Finished reading, he rolls up the scroll, hands it back to the attendant and sits down. The eyes of the assembly are fixed on him, waiting expectantly to hear what he would say about this portion of Holy Scripture—to see if his teaching was everything they had heard it to be.
Yet what St. Luke records isn’t so much teaching or a sermon as it was a declaration, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
In another sermon I might address the importance of what Jesus said, but for today let’s note the significance that he said it.
Jesus’ ministry has begun. What we read in these verses provides the framework for everything else he does. Jesus’ ministry is to do the work of the Father who sent him. Because the Spirit of the Lord is upon him, because he has been anointed, it is for that reason that he lives the life he does, in word and deed to do the will of the Father. As over the next weeks we read through St. Luke’s gospel we’ll note that some days are easier, and others more of a struggle for Jesus. The reactions he receives from those who see and hear him will range from joyous acclaim to violent hatred. Yet at no point in time does he waver from living the life to which the Father has called him. This is what it means for him to be the Son of God, and so he does it. Note as well in the coming weeks that while Jesus calls his disciples and others to follow him, he never asks them—he never asks us— to be him, rather we are to be and to become who the Father has chosen us to be from before the creation of the world.
This essential truth is set out for us in the epistle lesson from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. The church at Corinth was beset by conflict, strife and division, in large part, because the believers were concerned about their status and standing among others in the congregation and community. They had constructed for themselves a hierarchy of spirituality and were devoting their time and energies to climbing this ladder at the expense of their own spiritual welfare and that of others. In short, by pursuing their own spiritual goals they were forsaking the lives to which God had called them.
St. Paul uses the analogy of the Body to try and help them understand that the most essential thing is to be who God had called them to be and not who they might like to be or what someone else thinks they should be.
While I’ve often thought of these Corinthians as simply a bunch of egomaniacal status seekers, I think it’s more likely that it’s not quite that simple because life, and certainly congregations, are never that cut and dried. Chances are that mixed in with the egomaniacs, were individuals sincerely trying to serve God, to grow in their life of faith and service, but for whatever reasons they had gotten off track.
Thus St. Paul’s illustration of the necessity of the each of the parts of the body, fulfilling the purpose it was created for—not just for its own sake but for the sake of the rest of the body which depends on it. And that each part has been created, appointed and arranged by God just as He wanted them to be. Which means that we are free from the tyranny of comparing ourselves to others, or worse to an idealized version of what we think we should be and instead can become the person God created and called us to be, confident that He who knows us best and loves us the most can be trusted with His vision for us.
There was only one Jesus, one St. Luke, one Blessed Virgin Mary, one St. Paul, one…well you get the picture. Each of us is unique in the body of Christ and each of us is essential to the well-being of that body, for its sake and the sake of the world. The gifts, talents and qualities you possess are a particular gift of God, for the time, place and situation you find yourself. Our Lord and the saints who have gone before us, did the will of Father where they found themselves, trusting in His love and the power of the Holy Spirit as they did so. God only asks that we do the same, trusting that out of His great and steadfast love He has called and appointed us for his purpose, gifted us according to His good and gracious will, and placed us where we might best live out the lives to which we have been called. And when we have occasion to consider our brothers and sisters in the faith we don’t dare compare ourselves to them, giving occasion for either pride or misplaced humility, but give thanks to God that they too have their particular place in the body of Christ, uniquely theirs by the call of God.
While still in seminary, I had been asked to preach in the home congregation of a close friend of mine. I worked and struggled with the sermon but it just wasn’t coming together as I felt it should and I was starting to panic. After some prayerful reflection it finally dawned on me that in my desire to do a good job on the sermon I had ended up trying to write it in the style of a preacher I particularly admired at the time—and failing miserably. And then the thought flashed across my mind ‘If God wanted that preacher to be in the pulpit in this congregation today the Lord would have made it happen. But you’re here, so what does God want you to preach.’ So I re-wrote the sermon and delivered it as best I could—trusting that God knew what He was doing by having me there and that being the Almighty could make use of what I had to offer.
It’s something I continue to struggle with and know others do as well. But God is faithful to remind and reassure us that all of this is by His grace. It’s not about measuring up to some arbitrary standard that we or someone else has constructed, but trusting that our Lord who has called, appointed and gifted us will provide all we need to live as members of the Body of Christ for His glory.