Open to Receiving
“Open to Receiving”
Third Sunday of Epiphany, Year C, January 27, 2019
Psalm 19 Luke 4:14-21
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Pastor Andy Kennaly
“Then 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.” (Luke 4:14-15)
Did you get all that? Two verses start out this passage, and as brief as they are, they set the scene by saying five different things. This is the first public appearance of Jesus following the temptation in the wilderness, we’re at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and Luke sets the stage right away by laying out these five dynamics. “…the ministry in Galilee gives [us:] an indication of the nature of Jesus’ ministry [1 which is] (teaching), one of its common settings [2] (the synagogues), the source of its power [3] (the Spirit), its result [4] (praise), and its extent [5 which is] (to all).” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX Luke/ John, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1995, pg. 103).
Of all the possible scriptures to read, Jesus chooses Isaiah, which is a preview of his own ministry, echoing Luke’s theme of including the marginalized and the outcast. Everything Jesus says in that teaching is played out in the chapters ahead, in ministry throughout Galilee.
With all this foundational material, I really like how David Lose, a Lutheran seminary president, keys in on one word, Today. Today. He notices that when “Jesus has finished reading, rolled up the scroll and given it back to the attendant, and sits down to preach, he doesn’t simply say, ‘The Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,’ or ‘The Scripture will be fulfilled in your hearing,’ but rather, ‘Today, the Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ Today. What in the world did Jesus mean by that?” (http://www.davidlose.net/2019/01/epiphany-3-c-declaration-promise-and-invitation/ David Lose’ online commentary, Partners in Preaching, posted Jan. 23, 2019)
Lose explores some possibilities of why Jesus says the word, “Today,” but then reminds us that word, “today” isn’t a static term, “but rather is far more dynamic, active, and tensive, as in ‘today is just the beginning.’ And as it turns out, the tense of Jesus’ declaration that ‘the Scripture has been fulfilled’ isn’t the once and done present tense or the singular past tense but rather the ongoing, even repetitive, and definitely re-occurring perfect tense. So Jesus is kind of saying, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled and continues to be fulfilled and will keep being fulfilled and therefore will keep needing to be fulfilled in your presence.’”
Isn’t that amazing? Here’s a verb tense, the Perfect tense, which expresses something that English misses out on. Jesus is reading in Hebrew, commenting in Aramaic, and Luke writes in Greek. We are several languages removed from the actual scene, and even though it may sound familiar, subtle aspects sneak past us. Yet the dynamic of this passage remains. Who Jesus is, what his ministry does, the source of inspiration to these teachings, where this is proclaimed, what the effect is, and what the extent involves. Not just back then, but even now, again and again.
Our world still needs Jesus, the Living Christ, teaching through the Spirit, resonating through the community of faith and reaching out into the world with God’s love for all. For ALL!!!
The other day I was out shoveling snow along the church sidewalk and I heard jets flying over, airplanes really high. I looked up and, sure enough, there was that white con trail like a stripe in the sky. Only there were three of them, each from a big, four engine airplane. One jet was in front, another right behind it, and the third lagged farther back, like it was waiting its turn. The first two were linked in the act of refueling. Fairchild Air Force Base, just west of Spokane, was either practicing their mission of refueling, or maybe some global flights made their way past this area on their route to Asia, since they were heading West, and they needed a drink before going out over the Pacific. I don’t know what their mission was, but I wondered about that school bus in Yemen.
Remember not too long ago when Saudi Arabia’s jets, refueled by the United States Air Force, used American made bombs to blow up a school bus with about 40 children on it? I wondered if any of the pilots or crew on those three planes were involved in that mission which killed children, and here they were, flying over Sandpoint?
Oh, I’m sorry. That example was supposed to be in next week’s sermon, when the people of Nazareth, the hometown mass, the patriotic crowd, gets upset when Jesus challenges their arrogance and assumptions. Next week, that’s when they get upset! This week, we just get the “feel good” part, even though “Isaiah’s promises are not […] obviously fulfilled in our world right now either.” Even though we live in a strange mix of Church and State where theory doesn’t always equal practice.
Thankfully, Jesus says, “Today” and its written using the perfect tense, where it means it is ongoing, so we’re not left out. All the more, we are called upon. David Lose suggests that
“the perfect pushes us to see Jesus’ words simultaneously as declaration – in Jesus, God acts on behalf of those in need – promise – God will continue to take the side of the vulnerable – and invitation – we are called to this same work of embodying, manifesting, and fulfilling God’s declaration and promise.”
Declaration, promise, and invitation. It seems we resonate with the declaration part. People seem more than willing to share who they think Jesus is, to assume they have the truth, and all sorts of churches proclaim wide spectrums of messages shaped from an assortment of assumptions on who Jesus is, and their image of God is expressed through their declarations.
The promise part is pretty key as well, and we like hearing that God promises to help us, especially when we think we’re the ones that need the help, or that we are somehow special, the inside crowd who ‘gets it’, not like so and so who is unacceptable for various reasons.
I thought it was really interesting as we sang the beautiful choral anthem today how the words are so inclusive, stretching us to broaden our understanding and help our hearts break open to include people who are often marginalized. I’m glad we sang the words that challenge human divisiveness based on gender identification, or sexual orientation. I sang those words right out, skipping over the only alternative words printed in that song. The songwriter must have anticipated that not all churches would be open to singing those words of inclusion, so a subscript is printed right in the music to avoid talking about sexuality or gender. That’s the only line with subscripts, all the other areas apparently aren’t as controversial. I thank the choir for having the courage to sing the words as the song writer intended. We may be one of the only churches in Sandpoint that would include those words, which gets to that third thing challenging us today with an opportunity to live responsive lives actively receiving the promise and the declaration. This involves invitation, as “in ‘you are invited to be part of God’s fulfillment of God’s promises. Today. Tomorrow. And the next day.’”
As David Lose says,
“Admittedly, that invitation can be daunting, leading to a variety of self-doubting questions: Me, us, really? Have you been paying attention? The problems just now seem so big! But the invitation can also be empowering: Me, us, really? We can make a difference? You mean the small things we do [or sing about] matter? That God is at work in our lives and relationships for the sake of the world? Cool!”
As I mentioned earlier, this sermon is basically part one. The reading for next week has the rest of this scene so we’ll get another look at how Jesus embodies that word, Today, as he declares the fulfillment of scripture. Next week, we’ll look at challenges which are right before us as we seek to live lives which involve declaration, promise, and invitation.
The Season of Epiphany is certainly dynamic. Celebrating the Incarnation of Christ in our midst, of God among us, we come on the heels of Christmas and pause before the Passion of the Lent and Easter cycles. Today, as we gather poems at our Annual Meeting which seek to raise awareness of God at work in the neighborhood and in our daily living, we use the art of writing as a way to express that which is experienced within the heart, if we are open to receiving.
So to close, let’s read a poem. This is written by Howard Thurman, and it’s called, The Work of Christmas. It’s been, by the way, over a month since Christmas, and we’re just now starting to read about the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. The poem helps up in this, and it’s “empowering,
calling us to something worthwhile and simultaneously also giving us the confidence that we can do it.” (Lose)
The Work of Christmas” by Howard Thurman
When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.
As the work of Christmas continues, again and again, may God be glorified, NOW, even as forever. Amen.