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Homepage >> Ministry >> Worship And Music >> Sermons >> Bold Proclamations Bold ProclamationsIn this season of Epiphany, we learn of the many ways God is made manifest – revealed to us in the person of Jesus. The past two weeks have told us of two of the ways – Jesus’ baptism and the turning of water into wine at the wedding in Cana. This week we are at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in Luke’s gospel. What might be revealed today? Jesus has come out of his forty-day ordeal in the wilderness. He has been baptized and anointed as God’s chosen One. He is filled with the Spirit. Jesus has returned to Galilee, his home region, and has been teaching in the synagogues. Reports about him have spread throughout the territory. Today, Jesus comes home to Nazareth – the place where he had been brought up. On the Sabbath, as was his custom, he went to the synagogue. What does Jesus have to say to the hometown folks… to Luke’s readers… to us? For Luke, this passage frames Jesus’ ministry as the fulfillment of God’s salvation time and sets the context and content of that ministry within the texts of another great prophet, Isaiah.In Luke’s account, Jesus – as teacher and prophet – takes the sacred scroll and reads the words of another prophet who was “spirit filled” and anointed to · Bring good news to the poor · To proclaim release to the captives · To offer recovery of sight to the blind · To let the oppressed go free · To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor This may be a conflation of words from two chapters of the Book of Isaiah but nevertheless this is what Luke reports that Jesus chose to read. Everyone was listening. All eyes were fixed on him. Perhaps that day there were two surprises in Jesus’ words: one, the identification of those to whom God’s favor was extended and two, the time frame in which God would act. Who were the people the prophets were speaking about? The poor – in spirit, economically, religiously? The blind – physically or spiritually? The captives – in prison, hemmed in by daily circumstances, personal demons? The oppressed – by what forces were they put down or being held down? Jesus, assuming the role of teacher and prophet, proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favor for all these groups. Release, freedom, an unburdening was being offered. All that had been promised was being delivered.The surprise was to whom… not just the villages of Nazareth – not just to the Galileans or the entire people of Israel who believed themselves to be God’s chosen people, but to all who were “poor” in any respect or “captive or oppressed” by any circumstance. For the people of Nazareth, this must have been a radical broadening of the idea of God’s favor – God’s promise of salvation and redemption… an uncomfortable exercise in thinking “outside the box.” To the ears of the people of Nazareth – to those of Luke’s readers – the radical message of inclusion – of the expanse of God’s favor – must have been unsettling. To us, in this day in this place, to comprehend the message that God’s favor is with all the poor and oppressed both within and beyond these walls might be unsettling as well. But for me, the most striking feature of this proclamation was the timing of when all this was to take place… today… now! “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus’ proclamation was not of an event in the past or of something to come in the future, but a present reality. God’s promises to those who may have given up hope – who may have considered themselves abandoned and forever on the margins of society – were indeed being fulfilled. They were not forgotten – never had been forgotten! For them, that was the good news! Salvation was at hand! Jesus the anointed and spirit-filled one was there to deliver God’s promises to those in all walks of life who were poor, captive or oppressed. What a stunning announcement from the hometown boy! We’ll hear the reaction of the townspeople in part two of Luke’s narrative next week, but for now we are invited to soak in the importance of the message – the breadth and depth of God’s mercy and favor extended to all. We are invited to wonder who it is in our lives, who beyond our doors meet that criteria? We are invited to explore how it is that we reach them? How do we tell the story? How do we set them free? All of this recalls my trip to Italy two years ago when I visited Rome and the Church of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls. What a magnificent structure, built outside the old city wall of Rome – hence the name. There seems a certain freedom in that. St. Paul tells us that we are living members of the body of Christ – filled with the Spirit and anointed at our baptism. Jesus reminds us that we are called to an urgent mission. We cannot afford to dwell in the past, relying on former activities or old traditions. Nor can we afford to wait for the future to arrive. The time is now. We are called into action this very day. Today, perhaps we can begin to imagine ourselves as a new congregation – St. Chrysostom’s Outside the Walls, a community of people going forth outside these magnificent walls to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, to offer recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to tell of God’s favor to all. What if we made such a stunning proclamation? What a bold revelation that would be right here in the heart of the city of Chicago! What an epiphany of God among us – alive and at the heart of our very being! Our collect for today reminds us so wonderfully of all this: “Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (This
sermon was preached by the Rev. Terri Stanford, Associate Rector, in St.
Chrysostom's Church, Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday, January 21, 2007, The Third
Sunday after the Epiphany.)
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