January 21, 2007 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Nehemiah 8:2-10 + Psalm 19 + 1 Corinthians 12: 12-30 + Luke 1:1-21
The Jesus of Luke’s Gospel who emerges from the shadows of his youth is a man of purpose and direction. He knows who he is. He knows what his life is for and what he should do with his gifts. He is focused, consistent and clear about his life. We never get a sense in Luke’s Gospel that he was self-conscious, doubted what God asked of him, or what direction to take with the choices he faced.
These are not divine qualities, and they ought not be dismissed by some silly Christology that suggests that his Divine Nature made life easy for him. These are human qualities that Luke proposes should be found in those who would be his disciples and follow him. Now Luke does not just suggest that we must be like Jesus as his disciples. He shows us how to become like Jesus. He proposes where these qualities are developed and how to nurture them. This is part of the purpose for this Gospel event today. Jesus of Nazareth defined himself, set his goals, and found his courage to be faithful to his mission he believed God had called him to from his faithful observance of his traditions in the synagogue and his knowledge of the Word of God.
How could it possibly be different for us? We see people all the time, and everyone of us knows someone who just does not seem to “get it”; who simply can’t seem to figure out who they are, where they are going in life, or what to do with their gifts, and many of them are richly blessed. Some of them think they’re here to look good, be attractive be successful in business, yet all the while they are empty and there is a nagging sense that all is not really right. They go around in shallow circles, lonely and uncomfortable with themselves, lonely and fearful that this might be all there is to life.
This cannot so with disciples of Jesus Christ. They know who they are. They know where they are headed. They know what to do with their lives, their gifts, the opportunities that God’s providence supplies. They find things where Jesus found them: in the faithful observance of their religious tradition. They are in church. They are part of that church’s life so much so that they might be called upon to do something as Jesus was called upon to read that day. He was no stranger there. He was not passing through. Most of all, he knew the scriptures. He didn’t just play scriptural roulette and let the scroll fall open. He knew exactly where to find the prophet, and he knew a passage that focused his life and expressed God’s will for him.
I want you to leave here today thinking about that scene with yourself in it. If I walked down into this assembly and handed anyone of you these scriptures, could you find a passage that is for you an expression of God’s will, and a passage that gives your life purpose, meaning, and direction?
If not? Why not? The desire to imitate Jesus is not just a moral imperative
that concerns doing good and showing mercy. It is must also include imitating the whole of his life which also was about fidelity to religious tradition and a firm knowledge of the Word of God. This behavior on his part was the source of his goodness as a human being. It has been so for me, and I hope it shall be so for all of you, especially the young among us who still are discovering who they are and what they shall become.