January 25, 2004
Nehemiah 8:2-4,5-6,8-10 + 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 Luke 1:1-4,14-21
Two weeks ago, we were given an intimate look into the experience of Jesus at his Baptism. We heard what he came to understand about himself, and Luke revealed to us in those verses the source of power, courage, and fidelity that motivated Jesus, provided his sense of himself and his relationship with God. Today we move a little further into the mystery of Jesus Christ, and Luke takes us to his hometown where we see something the habits that were part of his life, and how his life there shaped his future and his ministry. Luke tells us that Jesus was accustomed to go to the synagogue; that it was his habit. We further discover that it was there that he came to sharpen his focus and understand his purpose in life, his ministry, and in a sense, his vocation. In the grand scope of Luke’s writing, there develops a parallel focus in which he reveals something about Jesus in order to reveal something about the church as the community of believers.
What he says in the first part of his work, which we call “The Gospel” he says again in the second part of his work, which we call, “Acts of the Apostles.” When we look at the whole work, what he says of Jesus he is saying of the community of believers. What he tells us about the church he first establishes in Jesus. In other words, if Jesus did it, so does the church. If the church does it, it is because Jesus did it. So today, when hear Jesus put forth his agenda, it is the agenda of the church. In both volumes, Luke puts heavy emphasis upon the Spirit. The work of Jesus begins with the descent of the Holy Spirit at his Baptism. The work of the Church begins with the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. First the Spirit guides and empowers Jesus, and then directs and empowers the church. What we must not fail to see and understand is that the work of Jesus is not simply “spiritual”, and it is not just for sometime in the future. What he does is for the present, and what he comes to do is for now. The liberation and the setting free he came to accomplish was for more than in the future in the Kingdom of God. Those he touched did not have to wait till heaven before they could see, hear, walk, or be clean. Those who came in faith were saved by that faith, not later, not in heaven, but right then; and their joy, their praise, and their thanksgiving didn’t have to wait either.
The agenda of Jesus was the whole person, and the liberty and release he came to accomplish came to mean the forgiveness of sin and all its consequences and manifestations. So if he came to confront the sin of injustice, then the consequences of that injustice were eliminated, all of them. If he came to release those who were held bound, then everything that held them had to go.
Luke makes it clear that this ministry of Salvation effected the liberation of the whole person, body and soul, mind and spirit. If it were so for Jesus, then it must be so for us as well. Sharing in the same Spirit by the will of Father, we share the same agenda. We, the liberated become the liberators. We who are saved share the message of salvation for all. We the forgiven share forgiveness. Just as we have been gathered into this wonderful experience of Jesus Christ, so shall we gather all with the same inclusive and all-embracing love. What we proclaim and what we do because of our Pentecostal understanding of our selves will also be the same: affecting the whole person, body and soul, mind and spirit. Our mission in the same spirit as the mission of Christ will be liberty and release. The forgiveness of sin that is ours to proclaim and accomplish
will bring an end to all the manifestations of that sin and its consequences or it will not be forgiveness at all.
What we become and how we live because of the Spirit’s power in our lives is for now and for today, not for some time off in the future, in far-off “heaven.” And so we confront injustice and we make it change first in our own lives, and then we change or systems and our ways of doing things and seeing things that result in injustice. We see the poor and the hungry, and we do not say: “You’ll have enough to eat in the Kingdom of God: because Jesus said: “Feed them yourselves.” The pity with which Jesus looked upon the crowds and the mercy that he showed them is the same pity with which we must look upon the crowds of hungry and homeless; and the mercy God extends to them comes from our own hands and out of our own lives, or there is no mercy at all.
What we hear spoken in the synagogue must be what we say in this church. The habit of Jesus must be the habit of those who would follow him. If he was in the habit of going to synagogue, and there perceived through the Word of God what his life was to be about, it is the same for us.
His habits must become our habits. The places where he found his identity and the vision of his live must become ours: in Baptism and in the Spirit. Try out the words of the prophet on yourself, try .out the role of one who is beloved by God, chosen as his own, and sent to proclaim liberty and release, salvation, forgiveness, and love. For that is what we are, and it is what we become in this place. The agenda of Jesus is the same for every one of us.