Third Sunday after Epiphany

January 24, 2010

Sermon by Rev. Dr. Marcus Pera

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (Luke 4:14‑21)

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

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.

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Gospel of Our Lord.

In the name of Jesus, sisters and brothers, grace, mercy, and peace be unto you. Amen.

What do you hear when you hear the word “Bible”? Probably some of the hearing, most of it I hope, is good; some of it maybe not quite as good. I’m sure you have heard phrases like “Bible thumping.” I’m sure you have heard phrases like “being hit over the head with the Bible.” I’m sure you have definitely heard “The Bible Belt,” and also references to a “Bible-believing church.” Most of these references come out of a particular strain of Christianity called “fundamentalism.” Fundamentalism basically has five tenets to it. And one of the tenets is, they believe in the verbal inspiration of scripture; every word of it is inspired. And that’s why a lot of times TV evangelists are always seen holding the Bible with it flopped open. And then, if there is any question about any part— for example, six 24-hour days of Creation—you simply turn to that portion, point to it, “The Bible says so.” No more argument. It is simply a matter of logic.

Much of other Christianity—main‑line churches, and certainly the Lutheran church, as well—has a broader understanding of scripture of the Bible. It understands, to be sure, that it is “a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” It understands for certain that it is the power of God unto salvation. In the Reformation, we talk about the free soul as grace alone, faith alone, but also scripture alone. Scripture alone forms the basis for our doctrine and for our life together.

The ELCA, about a year and a half ago in assembly, passed a resolution called the “Book of Faith Initiative.” The “Book of Faith Initiative” was intended in order that our church body might become more focused and might become more fluent and familiar with its first language of faith, which is the Bible. The Bible provides the basis for our understanding and our conversation and our sense and our shaping of who we are as a person, as who God is, and who our world is, as well. And so that has been commended to the church. And it is kind of embarrassing how few people in the ELCA actually are involved in formal Bible study on an ongoing basis. That beautiful collect for today, which is a classic, talks about how scripture, we should hear, read, learn, mark, and inwardly digest it. And this morning the theme of what I’m talking about is going to take that one phrase, “inwardly digest,” and add the phrase to it, “and outwardly display.” Inwardly digest and outwardly display.

The role and place of scripture in the First Lesson for today in the Book of Nehemiah is very clear. This is what we call a postexilic reading. What it means is one of the first books that was written after the exile. When the people came back from Babylonian exile, they faced a lot of challenges. They had to rebuild the Jerusalem wall; they had to rebuild the temple; they had to rebuild the nation; they had to rebuild themselves as a people of God, and figure out what it meant to be God’s covenant people.

It is interesting in that text, I think it is the first time that the people are in possession of the torah, of the Bible, as they had it at that time. And they bring it to Ezra, the scribe, and they say that, “We need to hear this. Read it to us.” And they gather outside of the gates so everyone could be there, men and women and children alike, young and old, rich and poor, and they read from the scripture from six in the morning until twelve noon. Six hours. When time goes a little over fifteen or creeps toward the twenty minutes of a sermon, we get a little anxious. When the worship service goes to a little bit after one hour, we also get a little bit squirmy. It went from six in the morning until twelve at noon. And then they heard the Word in fact interpreted as well, an understanding of who they were as a people of God, that were gathered around how God had acted for them and had a made a covenant with them, and what it meant for them at this particular point in their lives.

The basics of what they did in that description is what was basic to the synagogue in the time of Jesus, and even in our worship today. There was a procession of the scroll, kind of like we do a Gospel procession, and the scroll was given, and the people responded and rose to the reading in respect to the words of God. And there was a prayer of blessing, and there was a double “Amen. Amen.” And then the people sat down. And then there was an interpretation, which is similar, obviously, to the sermon of today. In Jesus’ day, it is said in the Gospel Lesson that he went to the synagogue, “as was his custom.” What that says is not only were the people in Nehemiah’s day attentive to the Word, but Jesus was attentive to the Word. It was his custom. And so he, too, sat there and read from the scripture, and then sat down to interpret it. To be attentive to the Word, to inwardly digest it, but it is also important to hear from it in terms of what our understanding is. And for Jesus, the Gospel Lesson for today is that the Word gives him his understanding of what his mission is.

It is interesting that congregations, for the last two decades I think, have spent a lot of time on mission statements. And we have a mission statement at Immanuel, too. And it is important to do that work and to clarify how we particularize the mission of God for ourselves. But it is also interesting that a lot of times none of those mission statements, or the efforts going into it, start at the point of Jesus’ mission statement. A person that made that observation, in the preparation I was doing for this sermon, also pointed out the fact that Rick Warren, I don’t know if you recognize the name—Saddleback Church, Saddleback, California—Rick Warren wrote this very popular book, “Purpose Driven Church,” translated into a lot of languages, known in many countries. And this person observed that in the index, which identifies the scripture readings that are contained in this book, talking about the mission of the church, what its purpose is and what is to drive it, there is no reference to Luke 4, the Gospel Lesson for today, Jesus’ understanding of his own mission.

It is also interesting to note that this Isaiah 62 passage from which he quoted didn’t just happen to be read that day. There are one of two possibilities: either Jesus knew, they had a lectionary similar to what we do, readings that are coming up, and either Jesus knew that that lectionary was coming up that day or he requested that it be read, knowing that he was going to be there. At least the Isaiah passage was brought to him. And there are four parts to that mission statement: “To proclaim good news to the poor, to bring release to the captive, recovery of sight to the blind, and to proclaim ‘the acceptable year of the Lord’.”

One of the main questions that is in that passage is: “Who are the poor?” And it is interesting how often that reference is sanitized in a kind of way that we only will talk about it in terms of “the poor in spirit.” But in Luke’s Gospel, every one of the references refers to the economically poor. And in the culture of that day there was a little bit more siphoned into that concept of poor, probably contained in our phrase, “the socio‑economic level of people.” It included a person’s gender, a person’s family connection, where they lived, a person’s religious purity. All of these in the context of the poor and being, so to speak, on the wrong side of the tracks, included people in the marginated of society. And Jesus says that the poor have the good news preached to them.

He also talks about this word “forgive” or “release” debts. And that is connected to the last reference in terms of talking about “the acceptable year of the Lord.” “The acceptable year of the Lord” more than likely was a reference to the “Year of Jubilee.” And the Year of Jubilee was a fifty‑year observance in Israel, in which everything would be turned back to ground zero. Nobody would own anything, and the wealth would be redistributed. Kind of a, what was it, Joe-the-Plumber phenomenon or issue in a recent election that we remember. But at any rate, what happens during those 50 years, people that were not able to pay for certain things or land or collection of fees, and whatever, would very easily be put into prison, their family, their wives and children abused, et cetera. When the 50th year came, there would be a release of all of the captives, all the people in prison; there would be a release of the debts as well. And some people make an association with that to what might have been a primary image that was heard when Jesus prayed in The Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive our debts as we forgive those who have debts also against us.” So those are the references that are there, a core part of Jesus’ understanding of the mission statement.

And then comes the part today, a mission statement also for us. Jesus does the interpreting, and it’s a very short one. He says, “Today, this is fulfilled in your midst.” Today, in the person of Jesus, the in‑breaking of the kingdom is happening, in which these inequities are beginning to get reversed. That understanding of us today calls us to action as well. It, first of all, says to us, if this is Jesus’ mission statement, then should not it be the mission statement of the followers of Jesus? And, secondly, doesn’t it also say that it calls for action and response today?

A lot of times people want to live in the past. The past is important in terms of getting a handle on our identity of the day, but it isn’t where we live or where we need to live. Sometimes people only want to live in the future. They are dreaming ahead, and it’s always, “mañana, mañana.” But that isn’t a productive place to live either. The today comes to be a part of the in-breaking of God’s kingdom, to make our commitment to that, and to live and be a part of it; that walk towards what sometimes is referred to as God’s preferred future, the full in-breaking of God’s kingdom.

You know, when the people in Nehemiah’s day heard the Word, there was some crying and there was some feeling badly, but there was also rejoicing. And it was said that they are to have sweet wine and also share it with those that didn’t have any prepared. Once again, the wine creeps into the picture in a festive kind of way. And we’re aware, once again we taste of that sweet wine this day, where we come into the awareness of the presence of Jesus once again, and his power, and the in-breaking of the kingdom. We hear the message to which he calls us this day, and we experience the power to respond to it.

Our presiding bishop, Mark Hanson, when he introduced “The Book of Faith “at a gathering at the church‑wide building—and it is on video on “elca.org.”—he made reference to the fact of his godmother Betty. His godmother Betty was getting up in years—and you people will like this—she was living at Lyngblomsten. And Mark was at the point of a sabbatical. I think she was 88 years old at that point, and she had no family anymore that was living. And so he decided to use part of his sabbatical by literally moving into her apartment and living there and being able to do a special caring for her during her very failing years or days. And they were there one day, and he said he heard some mumbling. He kind of leaned over, and he said, “Do you need something, Betty?” And she said, “I was just reciting Bible passages.” A person who had digested the Word to the point that she could retrieve that at the point of need and that God was present to her in such a meaningful and powerful way.

We hear the call today. Let us read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest, but also outwardly display.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.