"To let the oppressed go free"
Luke 4:14-21
Epiphany 3, Year C
Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come. Take my lips and speak with them. Take our minds and think with them. Take our hearts and set them of fire with love for you. In Christ’s name, we ask it. Amen.
So I’ll begin today with a small confession…I promise nothing too scandalous here…though I hope you will continue listening even if its not that juicy…but a couple of weeks ago when the power ball payouts got close to and then exceeded a billon dollars, in case that means nothing to you…it’s the national lottery…but anyway…when the power ball numbers got so high it was making news…which is what brought it to my attention…Ashley and I played a couple of times till it was finally won…not by us. I know…a priest playing the lottery…scandalous indeed. I think I kind of thought I could trick God into helping me win…with promises to build St. Julian’s the awesome-est church ever…the Vatican on Brushy Creek…the youth room would look something like Main Event and the sanctuary something like Canterbury Cathedral…and of course a healthy endowment to fund our outreach ministries. I kid of course…I learned in college that bargaining with God, despite Abraham’s experience outside the city of Sodom, doesn’t result in my wishes being granted. For surely there was many a moment sitting in Daryl K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium at a Longhorn football game on a Saturday promising God an amendment of life…and regular church attendance…for just one more first down…and it never worked. Thankfully for all concerned, I have learned something about the power and purpose of prayer since then…God is no genie in a bottle…he is way more faithful and loving and good than that.
But in all seriousness…why play…innocent fun…mainly…to do some good…hopefully. I like to think if I came into any sort of financial fortune…small or large…I would try my best to do God honor with it. But as I truly search my feelings, as Obi-wan encouraged Luke, I think the desire to play…even if the chances were better to be struck by lightening than to actually win…was something, not entirely, but something about an experience of freedom. Freedom from financial worry…freedom from any commitment that feels burdensome or demanding…freedom from anyone ever being able to hold anything over my head…freedom from work being driven not by joy found in work or good work done, but being driven by a sense of needing security…that monthly pay check that keeps a roof over our heads and food on the table. And I suppose this is maybe some sort of freedom…maybe…though certainly not freedom from the power of money…the god of mammon…yet at a very base level, financial freedom, is indeed compelling.
And if you are wondering how I am going to get from the lottery to the Gospel reading…which at this point would be a reasonable question…here it is…freedom plays a pretty important role in Isaiah’s prophecy that Jesus first reads to the folk gathered in the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth…and then further…following his reading of Isaiah’s prophecy claims that this promise involving freedom has indeed been fulfilled in their hearing. That is…that the prophecy has been brought to its final and forever completion in and through Jesus…through his incarnation, healing, teaching, death, and, of course, resurrection. As a reminder, Jesus has returned to his hometown…the days of carpentry now left long behind. He returns as a prophet himself, actually much more than that, he comes as God’s living presence in the midst of everyday human life…not unlike our own lives lived. He comes teaching and proclaiming God’s all encompassing and unconditional love for all of humankind…the outcast and the privileged…the rich and the poor…those well and those suffering…those within the family of Israel and those beyond…gentiles like most of us...those who worshiped the God of Abraham and those who worship other gods or no god at all…Jesus proclaims God’s love for all…no exceptions. And he comes as a healer…releasing those held in captivity by sin and disease…by oppression of all sorts and conditions…both of our own making or that of others.
Luke says, “Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.” Praised for his teaching about God’s love and acts of healing that was quickening the people’s hearts. And again in the midst of this joyful expectation and anticipation, Jesus arrives in Nazareth…enters the synagogue full of people, unrolls the sacred scroll containing Isaiah’s prophecy and begins to read from it, “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." And the words ring out…with the hope of the discovery of a new found freedom…freedom from poverty in body and spirit…freedom from the soul-sucking bad news that seems to always be around us threatening to consume us…freedom from all sorts and conditions of captivity…freedom from disease and darkness which is first an foremost a spiritual condition…freedom from all kinds of oppression that seeks to bind us…to control us…these are political and economic systems that do violence and warp us to the demands of those who would use others to their own ends. Isaiah calls this moment and experience of freedom…the year of the Lord’s favor…which Jesus indeed proclaims…but he does much more than that…he claims, again, that this work has and is being accomplished and fulfilled in their hearing…in our hearing…in and through him…through God’s incarnation, teaching, healing, death and resurrection in the person of Jesus…one who lived among us in flesh and blood…in time and space.
Now, it’s important to note that this event in Luke’s Gospel is taking place at or toward the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry…so you could say that this very moment is Jesus’ coming out party…he is setting the stage for all that has, is and will happen in and through his life…from his humble birth to his glorious resurrection. He is giving his audience both those in Nazareth and us hearing this story once again today…his purpose statement…the very reason for his existence…the very reason for God’s visit to our planet…he is sharing the thesis statement for his life…here at the beginning of all things…like a book that opens with its ending…Jesus tells us that he has come to bring nothing less, nothing more than freedom. I say to you by faith and believe with all of my heart…that Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection brings to us and our world the promise and possibility of freedom. Jesus came to set us free from the power of sin, our own and others, that seeks to wreck our lives and cast us into a living hell…and Jesus came to set us free from power of death, which reminds us that we are each and everyone of infinite value…our selves, souls and bodies…each atom and the souls they contain are by God’s creation and grace indestructible and eternal. And this is so much more valuable than…and a much more all-consuming sort of freedom than…anything the lottery or earthly gain could ever, ever provide.
When it came out and for many years to follow, my favorite movie was “Braveheart” and setting Mel Gibson and his, lets say, inconsistent behavior aside, I love the heart-pounding scene as the Scottish army made up of mainly farmers and shepherds stand before the well trained and equipped English army…prepared to fight for and give their very lives for freedom’s sake. William Wallace rides before them, preparing them for battle, giving his pre-game speech…sword raised…as he shouts…you know this…“They may take out lives…but they will never take our freedom!” And then he leads the Scots into battle…and on to victory. And indeed he is in a sense correct…eternally so. Our freedom is not limited by the power of sin and death…and claiming our freedom can be worth sacrificing for…certainly Jesus thought so…as he endured the cross and grave for freedom’s sake. But I think…as we think about freedom…that freedom from something…is not the only or complete way to understand the purpose of our freedom. Surely freedom from sin and death are gracious gifts that God in Christ has bestowed on us…they are both facts to give thanks to God for…to reflect on often…and never to be taken for granted. For they offer us real power…power and deep encouragement to stand for the right, just and good…to stand against violence in our culture without resorting to violence because death has no power over us…to seek change in our own lives were sin has taken hold…for God has surrounded us with freedom giving resources like prayer and his own sweet Spirit and communities and people of accountability and support…that help shape us more into the Christ-like people God has called us to be. I need to go no further than to point to ministries like AA groups and the twelve-step spirituality that undergirds their shared work…to point to the real power we have been granted to overcome captivity to sin and disease…to experience freedom. So freedom from sin and death, which God in Christ offers, is surely worthy of our gratitude, reflection and should never be taken for granted. But still I think there is another way to think about freedom…and that is instead of freedom from…freedom for. Freedom from sin and death yes…indeed…but that freedom from is intended to lead us, if you will, to freedom for.
We are freed from sin and death for the purpose of encumbering ourselves with the weight and gentle yoke of love and care of both ourselves and others…for entering into many meaningful relationships that require and demand our time and attention. At the outset, I spoke of freedom as something that un-encumbers us from anxiety and worry and commitments that feel uncomfortable or demanding…but this is not so in the kingdom of God…which Jesus indeed established in his fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. You see living in God’s kingdom calls us to exercise our freedom for love’s sake…for loving all well. I am freed for loving you…for entering into your own anxieties and worry…as one who bears the gift of freedom…to help you experience it…when you need it most…when the job is lost…the life is lost…when the kids don’t get along and disappoint…when there is a relationship lost or compromised…when we make our own poor decisions that have real consequences. My own freedom is for this demanding and blessed work. And the same is true for you to me…and each to the other. The freedom God in Christ offers us from sin and death is mightily diminished when it is not used for something…for love’s sake…for the benefit of the other…for the furtherance of God’s kingdom.
You see authentic freedom…the freedom that God has graciously given to each of us…is always for…it calls us not to throw all things off…even at times demanding and uncomfortable things…but to take on the love of other and self to ever greater depths. In doing so, we become God’s own agents of freedom…and in doing so we will see and get, with Jesus, to be a part of the year of the Lord’s favor…good news spreaders, light bearers…taking down the walls of captivity and oppression. And here is more good news, for indeed God is so very good, we find in using our freedom for love’s sake, for love of the other for really caring appropriately for ourselves, that it is not really a burden…though it can at times be hard…but as a blessing, for our own experience of freedom is only made deeper and wider…more all consuming…then even before…and that is a greater freedom than all the money in the world, even power ball kind of money, can buy…and you can take that to the bank. Amen.