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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