In reading of Jesus’s visit to the synagogue, we are given a mirror to hold up to ourselves and see what we’d rather not.
For Sunday
The Third Sunday after the Epiphany
Collect
Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Reading
From Luke 4:14-21
“Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”
Reflection
This week’s gospel is the first half of a two-parter. And they really do need to go together. Because the gist is this:
- Jesus gets up in a synagogue.
- Reads from the scroll of Isaiah about what the work of God is about.
- Says to them It’s happening in your hearing right now.
- The people love it.
- Jesus describes all the way the people have rejected what God is about.
- The people hate it and try to kill him.
So what we’re doing right now is hearing the part that people love. And then next week, we’ll hear about the people trying to kill him. But the more important message for us is that Jesus is preaching one message. It’s just that we only like the first half of it.
It is much easier to hear that God has invested Jesus with Kin-dom work when it is abstract and out there. But when it is about us, and reveals our limitations, suddenly the knives come out.
The turn Jesus invites us all into is in seeing the whole thing as one, good news. Because it is a project we’re all involved in, whether we know it or not. Whether we agree to it or not. This is the deal.
This is the divine project.
The Spirit is upon him, anointing him to
- bring good news to the poor,
- proclaim release to the captives,
- recovery of sight to the blind
- to let the oppressed go free,
- to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Which has a necessary impact on how we live our lives. Particularly around economics, incarceration, healthcare, the ordering of society, and our innate joy in our present moment.
As long as these are abstract, we don’t mind them.
But when we realize these are a command for us from God, then we have a real choice: do them, not do them.
The thing is, we’ve created a third option: come up with an excuse so we can pretend that it isn’t our responsibility. Because I alone can’t solve poverty, we reason, nothing can be done about poverty. Or those in prison: are we just supposed to release them all?
These two methodoligies of individualistic and all-or-nothing thinking blend together to make excuses for our insubordination. For literally doing the opposite of what God commands. It is how we choose to reject God and feel OK with it.
But these projects remain the heart of the Good News. And we’re called to deal with it.