Emmanuel Baptist Church 275 State St.  Albany, NY 12210 (518) 465-5161 Click here for directions
A Welcoming and Affirming Congregation

The Beginning:  According to Luke

Rev. Lois Wolff

1/24/2010

First Scripture Lesson:  Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Second Scripture Lesson:  Luke 4:14-21

Imagine:

          The people assembled inside the newly-rebuilt city walls.

                   Ezra, the priest and scribe, stood on the platform erected for him,

                             unrolled the scroll,

                                      and the people stood for the reading.

                   And Ezra read the word of the Lord …

                             and he read, and he read, and he read …

                                      for six hours he read!

                                                And the people listened attentively!

          What a preacher and teacher’s dream!

                   This was, after all, the word of the Lord.

                             The people had been long denied that word,

                                      had been in captivity to the Babylonians for a long time.

          Ezra didn’t just read from the Law, he interpreted it.

                   Though the law is very old,

                             even old at the time of Ezra-Nehemiah,

                                      it needs fresh interpretation in the new context,

                                                just as it still needs interpretation for our time.

That’s exactly what Jesus does in this first act of public ministry

          as recorded in Luke’s Gospel.

                   Each Gospel writer chose a different way

to introduce Jesus’ public ministry:

          John’s, which we heard last week, begins with a sign.

          Mark’s begins with a miracle,

an exorcism in the synagogue,

          Matthew’s begins with Jesus as teacher,

                   the Sermon on the Mount.

Luke has Jesus begin at home,

          in his home synagogue.

Lutheran preacher Barbara Lundblad points out:

When Jesus finished reading, he gave the scroll back to the attendant and sat down.  The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.  Then Jesus began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  And all spoke well of him – except for some longtime church members who were sitting toward the back, which is where they liked to sit.  Okay, I know.  This story didn’t take place in a church.  It took place in a synagogue, the synagogue in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth.  But I’m trying to imagine Jesus coming to Zion Lutheran Church in Gowrie, Iowa, my hometown.  Or maybe to the congregation where I’m a member now, on the upper west side of Manhattan.  You might picture your church …

So there’s Jesus way up in the front and he’s reading from the scroll of Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Well, it’s after that reading that Jesus gave the scroll back to the attendant and say down.  Everyone was looking at him because they were expecting him to say a word about what he had just read, for that was the custom.  That’s when Jesus said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  And all spoke well of him except for some longtime members …

But that’s next week’s Gospel lesson!

          At first they were all impressed … or so it seems.

                   Perhaps they didn’t really understand what he meant.

                             Maybe they didn’t get how radical a statement that was,

                                      maybe they missed that he was talking about himself.

I think of my own candidating sermon almost 25 years ago.

          On Mother’s Day I preached a sermon

                   about two mothers:  Hagar and Mary.

                             It was by far the most radical sermon I’ve ever preached.

          I’m convinced that only two or three people in the congregation

                   actually heard what I was saying …

                             which in retrospect I realize was probably a good thing!

Luke doesn’t report Jesus reading the whole passage.

          The citation stops halfway through a verse,

                   so it doesn’t include “the day of vengeance of our god.”

                             There’s no way of knowing

                                      whether Jesus included that and Luke left it out,

                                                or whether Jesus actually stopped there.

But three essential elements of Jesus’ ministry

          and the message of the Gospel are here:

                    the Holy Spirit,

                   the anointing,

                   and “the poor.”

We know, of course, that not only was Jesus reading and proclaiming

          the word of the Lord –

                   Jesus was – is – the Word of the Lord.

William Loader has pointed out that

what were originally the words of the prophet – speaking for God –

                    announcing Israel’s liberation from exile in Babylon

                             in the late 6^th century B.C. –

                                       have become a self-description of Jesus’ role and calling,

                                                and by extension a kind of “mission statement”

                                                          for the Church.

To the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed,

          Jesus’ “mission statement” came as good news indeed.

                   All in his hometown spoke well of him.

                             But I wonder if maybe they had been thinking

                                      “what lovely thoughts … someday those things

                                                will come about…”

                             And then Jesus let them know that The time is now.

                                      It’s not “’pie in the sky by and by”

                                                but now.

                                                          Get off your duffs and start living it now!

Being “filled with the Spirit” means not a solitary life

of meditation and contemplation,

          but some concrete acts that many have called “social justice ministry.”

This means – as most of us know though we may have forgotten –

          that being “spiritual” means engaging with the world,

                   ministering to the “least of these”,

                             definitely not separating from the world’s needs.

That’s why the acts of  tending to the victims of the earthquake

          are at least as spiritual as our prayers for those victims.

Jesus read the word of the Lord.

          He proclaimed the word of the Lord.

                   And he was – is – the Word of the Lord,

                             not as the Scriptures are word of the Lord in human words,

                                      but in the unique way that Jesus as the Christ

                                                is the Word that God has spoken to the world.

The Word that God speaks to the world today

          is our “mission statement” as disciples of Christ:

                   good news to the poor,

                             release to the captives,

                                      recovery of sight to the blind,

                                                freedom for the oppressed,

                                                          the year of the Lord’s favor for all.

We begin today.

          We will not finish.

                   But it shall be finished.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.