[Propertalk] Fw: PREACHING RESOURCES FOR JANUARY 24 (2)

[Joe Parrish]

PREACHING THE LESSON: Luke 4:14-21

This week offers the first half of the account of Jesus preaching in his hometown of Nazareth, and next week offers the second half. Preachers might focus on scripture as revelation, and in particular on Jesus as the fulfillment of all of God's promises, an appropriate focus for Epiphany.

In 4:14-21, Jesus returns from his temptations in the wilderness "filled with the power of the Spirit" to begin his teaching ministry to universal acclaim in Galilee, where he "was praised by everyone" (4:15). Eventually arriving in his home town he goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath, is handed the scroll containing Isaiah, and whether by his own choice or by prescription, he reads verses 61:1-2, that in Luke's rendering is missing a line of the original ("to bind up the brokenhearted"), includes specific references to the poor and blind, and adds a line from Isaiah 58:6. These differences may be more important to highlight in a Bible study than in the sermon.

The passage Jesus reads in Isaiah speaks of the prophet being Spirit-filled and led to speak on behalf of God to the people: from these words as much is learned about the nature and character of God as about what lies ahead for those who are the objects of divine promise. The poor receive good news, the captives have release, the blind see, the oppressed are freed, and now is the year of the Lord's favor. These words connect with the year of the Jubilee in Leviticus 25 in which, not least, every fifty years families have a right to buy back family land they have lost. God has special concern for the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, the oppressed, and all of those who have received ill treatment in life.

In the custom of his day, Jesus stands to read and sits to comment or teach, so that there can be no confusion between the interpretation (the sermon) and what is written (the reading). In this instance, however, because of who he is, both are equally the Word of God. His sermon on this day opens in a daring manner, he announces that this scripture is "fulfilled in your hearing" by which he claims his anointment by the Spirit at his baptism, that he is filled with the Spirit, and that he is the fulfillment of the prophecy. He anticipates his own ministry in which he will act on behalf of the poor, release those in bondage, restore sight, and proclaim the Lord's favor.

A promise is not worth much if it is not carried out. The preacher may note that the world seems filled with promises that fall short: like the ads that imply that drinking the right kind of beer will surround one with friends, wearing the right kind of clothes will make one the center of attention, or investing with the right company will allow one to reap unbelievable dividends.

The Bible is filled with promises concerning God's love, mercy, justice, and faithfulness. How are these promises any more reliable than those of the world? Many people, particularly those with little or no church background, regard the Bible as a curiosity at best, and wonder why other books of great literature are not also read regularly in church. For many, the notion of the Bible containing the Word of God in any specialized sense is foreign. By contrast for others, the Word of God is dynamic, living, something to be sought in the Bible and something that once discerned is typically and publicly proclaimed in the sermon on Sunday. Even greater than this is the sense in which Scripture is promise and Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of those promises, in at least three senses: his earthly life and ministry, his continuing work through the Spirit, and his coming again at the end of time to make all things new. 
 
When Jesus says to the folks in Nazareth, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing," he claims that the promises made in Isaiah are fulfilled in him. How do we know that what he promises is true? We have simple yet profound assurance in his resurrection from the dead. To every promise that God has uttered we may point to the power of God's love that is stronger than death itself. The resurrection of Jesus is the divine act that rightly banishes despair, brings forth justice, pours out mercy, lifts up the weak, frees the oppressed, feeds the hungry, cures the sick, restores sight to the blind, offers a home to the homeless, and brings outsiders into community.

Too often as preachers we center on what people must do, and too often we take for granted that people already understand about who Jesus is and how God is manifest in him. Yet this kind of exploration holds most potential for renewing faith. In other words preachers stop short of proclaiming the gospel. Presumably every time we preach and make plain what God has done in Jesus Christ and how this relates to our text, we may say of any scripture, "this text has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Paul Scott Wilson


"A WORD FROM THE LORD": Nehemiah 8:1-10; Luke 4:14-21

I had just taken on the responsibilities of the Interim Senior Pastor in a congregation in a small Southern town. I was talking with another UCC pastor in the area, when he asked, "So, has your church received a visit from the barefoot preacher yet?" "The who?" I asked. He told me there was a man had been showing up unannounced at church services around the county wearing a preacher's robes but no shoes. He would ask if he could bring the people a word from the Lord. No one knew much about him, but this barefoot preacher had shown up in several congregations in the area lately. I told my colleague I'd be sure to keep an eye out for him.

I have to admit that the description of this man really caught hold of my imagination. What would this barefoot preacher be like, and what word from the Lord would he bring us? How would my congregation react? It was the sort of place where everything was always done decently and in order. They were accustomed to preaching that was quiet, thoughtful and a bit on the intellectual side. No preacher, to my knowledge, had ever shown up there asking to speak uninvited, let alone barefoot.

So I wondered. If this man were to show up at my church, what would happen? Would he rant and rave? Would he call on us all to repent because the kingdom of God was at hand? Would the ushers try to throw him out? Should I bar the door? Try to keep him quiet? The older people were unsettled enough having a young woman in such a responsible role. If there were a disturbance, it wouldn't reflect well on my leadership. This sort of thing had never happened when Dr. Irvine or Dr. Hamilton was there. Yet, for all I knew the man did have a word from the Lord.
   
Isn't it strange? Week after week all over this nation, preachers climb into pulpits and take out their notes, say a prayer, take a deep breath and preach. Each one of us is supposed to be bringing a word from the Lord. But nobody gets tense or worried. No body tries to throw us out or hush us up. Instead we calmly settle in, read the announcements in the bulletin, yawn, or maybe take a peek at our watches. We're expecting a sermon, but are we expecting a word form the Lord?

It was an ordinary Sabbath day when Jesus came to the synagogue. He was in his hometown going to services with his family, his neighbors, his childhood friends. Nothing could have been more natural. The people sat on plain wooden benches. There was a raised platform at one end of the room. In that day, there weren't any professional rabbis. The service was simple. Prayers were said, scriptures read and commented on, and a collection was taken for the poor. Jesus had been away doing a bit of teaching and preaching. People in the area had good things to say about him. Now he was home. What could be more natural than to ask him to read the scripture and to say a few words? They handed him the Isaiah scroll. He read a few verses. They settled in to hear what he had to say. They were expecting a sermon. They were expecting to go home commenting on what a fine job Mary and Joseph's boy had done. They weren't expecting a word from the Lord.

A sermon, if it isn't too long, can be a nice thing. It may provide a good story or two, keep you entertained, make you feel good. You can take it or leave it, agree with it or not. But a word from the Lord can't be ignored. A word from the Lord disrupts our carefully ordered routine. A word from the Lord can change things.

When the people of Israel returned from their land after their long exile, Ezra was asked to bring the book of the law of Moses, the Torah. Read to the people. It had been a long time since they'd heard it. We don't know what parts Ezra read. Maybe he read to them the story of God's faithfulness to Abraham. Maybe he read the story of Moses leading the people safely through the sea to escape from the Egyptians, or the story of their wilderness wandering and grumbling, or maybe he read of the clear requirements God set down for the people of the covenant to follow. He read for hours and he made it plain to them. They took it straight to heart. They took it as a clear word from the Lord. They stood there, and they cried.

When Jesus stood to read in the synagogue in Nazareth, he brought a word from the Lord as well. He read:

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.    

Then he rolled up the scroll, handed it back, and sat down, because sitting down was what teachers did in the synagogue. The gist of what he said to them was this: "Today all of this has been fulfilled, right here, in Nazareth." It was nice to think of the prophet's words coming to pass in some rosy, distant future. It was nice to think about those giants of faith, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, or David, encountering Almighty God. But suddenly, this word was about now; this word concerned them. It was a word from the Lord.

With these few short verses from the scripture, Jesus told them what he was about to do. When he said that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, it meant that Jesus' agenda was God's agenda too. Jesus brought good news to many poor people like the hungry crowds on the hillside whom he fed with bread and fish. He showed them that God wants everyone to have enough to eat. This is the one of whom his mother sang, "He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, he has lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty."

Jesus brought release to the captives. Some were held captive by demons of the mind. Others were held captive to a mat by paralysis. Still others were captive to their own greed for money like Zacchaeus. Jesus set them all free. Jesus brought sight to the blind. Sometimes he did this literally as he did with the blind man by the roadside. But he opened the eyes of everyone he taught to look at God in a new and different light.

Jesus brought freedom to the oppressed like the woman who was trapped in a life where people used and despised her and at the same time labeled her the sinner, until she came to him and washed his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair and he lifted her to her feet again and told her about love and grace.

Jesus proclaimed the year of the Lord's favor, the great Jubilee that took place every fifty years, when every debt was forgiven, every piece of foreclosed land returned to its original owner, and every slave was freed. The great Jubilee was a symbol of God's forgiveness, a taste of God's reign. "Today," he said, "this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

What Jesus began, his disciples continued. All throughout the gospel and the story of the early church, today is never allowed to become "once, long ago," or put off until someday. In centuries since we have not been so faithful to God's agenda. Yet, God promises that all of us who are baptized into the church are baptized with the same Spirit that filled Jesus.

Today, in churches everywhere, someone is reading scripture. Someone is reading about God who breathed life into us, about a God who calls us by name. Someone is reading about a God who brings life out of death, about a God who claims us as God's own people. Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Today there is a word from the Lord. 

Beth Lyon 
Glenside United Church of Christ 

(4 of the 68 plus preaching resources available at GoodPreacher .com for this Sunday.)

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