I Searched…but couldn’t find any trouble in the text!
There is always a bit of trouble!
But in Today’s gospel
There isn’t any trouble
There’s no trouble because we only get the first half of the story
The trouble…comes next week
When the Golden Boy of Nazareth who wowed everyone
Is going to get run out of town
pushed to the edge of a cliff
TODAY
The lectionary sets up for something different
Nehemiah, Psalm 19, and the happy section of the Lukan episode
Are all brilliantly matched up
All three places are examples of scripture talking about scripture
[scripture and interpretation and preaching]
In Nehemiah
The Torah is read and interpreted
“they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading”
And “the people” are center-stage
(mentioned 8 times)
The people hear and understand…and they weep
They recognize themselves as having missed the mark
As not always having been faithful
But the summons is to Joy
Returning to the Lord is cause for joy and celebration
Psalm 19
Is a love song to the Law of the Lord
The Law…God’s loving guidance to God’s people
The Law:
· Revives the soul
· Makes wise, the simple
· Enlightens the eye
· Endures forever
· Is altogether righteous
And more:
More desirable than GOLD
Sweeter than HONEY!
This is scripture telling…and singing to us about scripture
TODAY the Gospel is the main attraction
The Gospel text
Goes further in its understanding of what I will call the Event of the Word
The Event of the Word…what we are doing right now!
It is beautifully set up
Imagine being the cinematographer
You are on one of those moving crane-like bucket trucks…the camera is rolling
You can zoom all over to capture the action
You have been zoomed out as Jesus was baptized…catching the river and the crowd
The Spirit descends on the one in whom God is well pleased
The Spirit leads Jesus into the desert where he was tempted
The camera follows...then
“Filled with the power of the Holy Spirit”
Jesus returns to Galilee
And here is where the narrative goes into ‘Real Time”
‘Real Time’ means that the actual happenings that are being narrated
take the same amount of time as the reading does
Approaching Nazareth…zoom in a little further
Entering the Synagogue…a little more
Then the assembly inside fills the screen
Jesus stands making his way to the shtender
The scene gets narrower
Now just Jesus and the Attendant
Now just the scrolls unrolling
Just his arm
Just his hand
Then his finger running down the paper
Searching
Aha…found it
His finger stops
He reads
Breathe...Proclaim
Then the the zooming out begins
He rolls up the scroll
And hands it back
He returns to his seat
All eyes are on him
Do they expect something more?
“Today…Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”
The content of the Isaiah passage is key to the whole of Luke’s Gospel
The great theme of the Gospel is that God sees all of us…everyone…no one is left out
Especially those who live unseen
Choosing this Isaiah passage to inaugurate his adult ministry
Highlights that the Good News is about the business of release
It is about setting people free.
But like Nehemiah
this Gospel reading is an instance of scripture talking about scripture AND preaching
Scripture and preaching in the life of the community
The Gospel of Luke adds a nuance to our understanding of the place, function and dynamic of scripture in the life of the community.
“Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in our hearing”
The grammar in the Greek makes the translation tricky
It isn’t simply the past tense
In the sense of “Now that’s done…completed…what’s next”
Rather there is a dynamic past-perfect-like feel to it
“Today this scripture is fulfilled
…Continues to be fulfilled
…and will keep being fulfilled”
The implication is that
All of us
[3 of 4 Sundays I am sitting where you are]
All of us (the many) and All of us (the whole of us)
our ears, and hearts, and bodies
are in charge of completing the Event of the Word!
Fulfillment is on us
And that speaks beautifully to the dignity you/we possess as the people of God.
Today
On that 4th Sunday
All I have to offer is my own encounter with the story of God and the person of Jesus whose life is narrated in these sacred scriptures
I invite the Word to change me
And (when I'm at my best) I share that experience using every gift I possess
And the hope is that our gathering and singing and praying and confessing
And FULFILLING nudges us to a deeper life of lived faith.
And what is this faith that hopes to lodge deeper and deeper in us?
That God is with us
That God showed himself perfectly in the person of Jesus
in the events, the words, the deeds of his life
that the mystery of God is revealed
in the manger,
on the cross,
at the empty tomb,
as we gaze at the Ascension,
experience the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,
and walk with him on the road to Emmaeus.
And according to Luke
Jesus’ choice of scripture for his inaugural sermon
sets the theme for the whole of the Gospel
According to today’s Gospel
The epiphany in today’s Gospel
Is that
The best way for this faith to work its way deeper and deeper in us
Is to live and love in such a way that
We participate in
Releasing people from captivity
in setting people free
Even ourselves
Free from sin
Free from greed and envy and murderous thoughts!
And we can do this
like Jesus
only in the power of the Holy Spirit
Jesus’ power…Authentic Christian power
Is power only when it sets others free
The releasing has begun
And is assured
We are not alone in it
It was/is/and continues to be fulfilled
We all need release
Everyone needs release…the World needs release
What from? Well…I suppose it is different for each of us
That is the fulfillment part!
I hold all my worry and tension in my shoulders
Release for me is like taking a deep breath
and when I exhale my shoulders relax and I can stand up straight and relaxed.
Rob released me this morning when he accepted my “I’m sorry” (long story)
I felt release when I thinned out our coat closet and took 7 little-used coats to the homeless shelter
When do you feel release?
-----
TODAY
For this homily
To be fulfilled in our hearing
We might live with this question close to mind this week
The question of our participation in releasing and setting free
If we pay attention
We will notice the times when something we say or do
Someone we touch or hug
is truly an act of release
(…my guess is that there will be quite a few)
And the surprise gift of this noticing
Is that it fills us with JOY
Which makes us want more JOY
Which causes us to simultaneously notice the times when we
…metaphorically speaking
Ignored the captivity that surrounds us in friend and stranger alike
Jesus’ agenda
Echoed in the words of the prophet Isaiah
Is our agenda too
When we come here we confirm that with our many Amens
So here’s the Challenge for all of us:
-pick one fellow St Stephens-ite-person
And before next Sunday, tell that person
how The Gospel was fulfilled in your living
And in doing so we will have fulfilled
TODAY’s
Event of the Word
...In our living
