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January 26, 2025 "Revealed Word"

pastoremily5

Third Sunday After Epiphany

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Psalm 19

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Luke 4:14-21


Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

 grace and peace to you from the Word of God. Amen

 

Today, as we continue through our season of epiphanies,

 Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment of scripture.

 

So far in this season of epiphanies

we have seen Jesus revealed as a human baby

 

We have seen the child Jesus

 revealed at King of the Jews

from a sign in the stars,

 

Along with the crowds in the wilderness

we witnessed Jesus’ baptism,

 after which the heavens opened,

the Spirit descended on him

and a voice from heaven-the home of God-

 proclaimed Jesus the chosen beloved child

 with whom God was well pleased. 

 

Last week

 the glory of God was revealed

 as joyful abundance in community

 through Jesus’ act of turning water into wine

 at the wedding at Cana

 

And today Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment of scripture.

 

Jesus has started his public ministry,

 he’s been teaching in synagogues throughout Galilee

 to much public acclaim,

 and then he goes to Nazareth where he grew up,

 and on the sabbath he goes to the synagogue

and when the time comes

 stands up to take his turn reading,

 and what he reads is from the scroll of Isaiah:

 

“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,

 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 

And then, as was the custom

 he sits down to teach,

 and gives what is affectionately known as his first sermon:

 “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

 

Short and sweet-

 we’ll get the reaction of those who heard this sermon next week-

 spoiler alert there are mixed reviews

especially when Jesus elaborates.

 

But for today we’ll focus on the one sentence.

 Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. 

 

Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment of God’s word,

 

 God’s promises to the people

are conveyed by prophets and recorded in scripture,

 and in announcing this

Jesus announces his mission,

to bring good news to the poor,

release to the captives,

recovery of sight, freedom,

 

and the year of jubilee-

a time when debts are forgiven,

land and wealth are redistributed

 to put everyone on even footing

 to live again as God taught them to live in the wilderness,

 

when God gave them manna each day

 and they were to collect enough for the day

and any extra spoiled rotten,

 

the wilderness where God gave the people the gift of the law,

 teaching the former slaves

 how to live as free people

in harmony with God and one another.

 

 The law which the people soon forgot

and as a consequence

 they ended up exiled from the promised land.

 

 But we know that God keeps the promises God makes

 and in due time

God brought the people back to the promised land.

 

That’s the back drop for our first reading,

the people have returned from exile to Jerusalem

 and found everything destroyed,

 

 they’ve been rebuilding and settling in

and then having gotten things pretty much in order again

 they return to the law,

 

 and as the priest Ezra reads it to them

and they hear it for the first time in a very long time

 they weep

because they realize all the many ways

they have broken the law.

 

But the Ezra the priest and Nehemiah the faithful governor

 who organized the rebuilding

 tell the people not to weep

 but to celebrate,

 that there is joy in returning to the law,

 this is a very much in the words of Maya Angelou “When you know better, you do better” situation,

 the people are to celebrate

because the gift of the law has been returned to them

 and the joy of the Lord is their strength.

 

The law of the Lord can bring people to tears and to celebration

And as the psalmist says:

The law of the Lord is perfect,

Reviving the soul,

 making wise the simple,

 bringing joy to the heart,

enlightening the eyes,

and the judgments of the lord are true and righteous and sweet,

 sweeter than honey in the comb

 

This is the scripture that Jesus is the fulfillment of,

this is who Jesus is,

 he is the Word (capital W)

 as the prologue of the gospel of John states:

 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

 

Jesus is the word of God,

 but he is not law,

 he is the gospel,

 

 God’s good news response to the law

and the worldly consequences of the breaking of the law

that means there are people without enough

 and people with too much,

 and that there are those who are powerful

 and those who are held captive by the powerful

 such that they long for freedom,

that there is ignorance and injustice.

All contrary to God’s vision and promise for creation.

 

Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,

 in the very person of Jesus.

 

Jesus who does all of the things promised by Isaiah,

and more,

 including dying and rising again

 

Jesus who ensures that we receive the fulfillment of scripture

 by joining us to his very self in the waters of baptism,

 giving us the good news of life

 because in Christ life will always have the last say.

 

 And because we have been granted this life,

 made members of the body of Christ

Jesus’ mission is now our mission,

We are to proclaim the good news,

to set free the captive,

 to live in ways where all have enough,

to live out the vision of the gift of the law in the world,

the law that Jesus sums up as

love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength and your neighbors as yourself, and how are we to do that?

To love one another as I have loved you, Jesus tells us.

 

There is joy in hearing this,

This promise and reality of life

 but we might also feel like the returned exiles,

weeping when we look around at the world

 and realize how far we are from living the law of love,

 

 and the enormity of it all

might threaten to overwhelm us,

 how can I just one person,

 how can we just one small group of people

ever have a chance at living out Christ’s mission?

Particularly with the staunch opposition of those with worldly power.

 

And here, once again,

we take solace and joy in Christ,

because it is not all up to us,

 it is up to the body of Christ,

of which we are a small part,

 each with a valuable role to play

whether we are a foot, or an eye or a mouth, or an ear.

 

And yes we feel the pain of those members who are hurting

Because we are connected to them and suffer with them

 and we also draw strength and yes even joy from our unity

 in the one who is the fulfillment of scripture,

the Word of God. Amen

 

 

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