3rd Sunday after Epiphany

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today we hear the story of Jesus coming into his hometown. So far, he has been baptized and announced as God’s beloved Son, emerged from temptations in the desert, and begun preaching around Galilee. Now he is in the town, in the synagogue where he grew up, where he was nurtured in his faith, where he was bar-mitzvahed, where he heard the word of God read and interpreted his whole life.

Today, it is Jesus’ turn to read and interpret scripture. He is handed the Book of Isaiah. Jesus looks up the passage he wants and then reads these words:

“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.”

This is the first time in Luke’s gospel that we hear Jesus preach. That’s why some commentators describe this as Jesus’ inaugural address. By quoting these words from Isaiah, Jesus is describing what he understands his mission to be: good news to the poor, healing for the suffering, release to the captives, freedom for the oppressed.

His audience would have loved these words of promise. And they would have been eagerly awaiting how Jesus was going to explain or interpret them.

Would Jesus look back to the days of Isaiah and reminisce about God’s people being released from exile and coming home and having a chance to rebuild their nation? Back then, God did indeed let the oppressed go free; coming back to the Holy Land was a sort of jubilee.

Or would Jesus look into the future and express his faith in God’s promises, his certainty that someday all these promises of freedom and health and equity would be fulfilled? His audience, oppressed by the Roman occupation and squeezed economically, would have cherished such words of assurance.

Looking back in history or looking forward into the future can be wonderful sources of hope. They can also become problematic.

Looking back can easily develop into nostalgia for the good old days. Remember when the church was packed, when our Sunday school was busting with kids, when Luther League was the place to be, when stores were closed on Sundays so everyone went to church, when the choir sang every week, when there were plenty of volunteers, when money wasn’t so tight, when people knew their catechism, when … (fill in the blank).

Hopes for the future can also be treacherous. We hope for prayers to be answered; we hope for our children to come back to the church; we hope for new members to join us so we can continue our ministry; we hope for the church to regain its standing in society. What if those hopes don’t materialize?

Dr. Diana Butler Bass writes:

Both "past" and "future" as the primary location of faith have their shadow sides. Overemphasizing the past results in nostalgia--the belief that the past is better than either the present or the future--a disposition that is steeped in grief and fear. Overemphasizing the future--the belief that all that matters is that which is to come--often results in thwarted hope, doubt, and anxiety.

A recent survey from Public Religion Research discovered that the majority of churchgoers in the United States express high levels of both nostalgia and anxiety. By strong majorities, religious Americans--particularly white Protestants, [….]--believe that "our best days are behind us" and that the future of society is bleak. In particular, mainline congregations are caught between valorizing the good old days and a deepening sense of desolation that some promised future will never arrive.

It seems to me that right now, this is particularly true. COVID has been rough. For two years now, we have not been able to be the church in the way we love being the church. We miss worship services with decent attendance and joyful music; we miss getting together for Bible study and fellowship; we miss just plain seeing one another at coffee hour or service projects. Yes, it is very easy to wallow in nostalgia and fear that the best days are behind us.

Looking into the future fills us with anxiety, for sure. Will COVID ever be over? Will people come back to worship? Will our congregation survive this? Will we have the energy to rebuild?

Into this sense of anxiety and desolation, Jesus breaks with the first word of his sermon: “Today!” “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus wakes us up and challenges us to look around us in the here and now. He wants us to stop mourning the glorious days of old and stop pining for a better future, but to just be present here and now. Look around. See how God is at work today. Rejoice in the people God is anointing with the Spirit today to bring good news to the poor and release to the captives and health to the suffering and freedom to the oppressed. Today these things are happening!

And they are!

Just look at the amazing health care workers who care for all those affected by COVID on top of the usual case load. They are risking their own lives, they are at the brink of exhaustion, but they faithfully show up to bring the gift of healing and compassion.

Look at organizations like the Innocence Project. That network alone has freed 375 people who had been incarcerated wrongly, 21 of them on death row. Through that kind of work, God is freeing the captives.

Look at the outpouring of help for the Island of Tonga following the earthquake and tsunami last week.

Look at how our congregation has been caring for a widow in our midst. Many of you have provided food, help with her car, technical help with her computer, and emotional support.

Look how we have continued to bring good news to the poor, in spite of COVID. The number of Christmas gifts we were able to hand out thanks to your generosity is a sign of God’s care for the needy among us.

Look at how worship has been happening. Blessed by dedicated volunteers and staff members, we didn’t miss a single Sunday of proclaiming the gospel, lifting people up in prayer, and receiving the bread and wine of God’s presence.

Look at all the creative ways in which we have been the people of God together: drive-by dinners and bake sales, outdoor VBS, creches for Sunday school families to assemble at home, a video-recorded cantata, a congregational meeting via zoom. The creative spirit of our creator God has blessed us in surprising ways.

Today! God is blessing us today. God is here today.

Memories of days gone by are good, and hopes for the future are good, but let’s not forget about today! Let’s not forget about God’s active work today!

Also: Let’s not forget our calling to be Christ’s body in the world today!

One commentator translated verse 18 in this way: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon my, because he has christened me to bring good news to the poor.” The word for ‘anointing’ is the same for ‘Christ’. This translation makes a strong connection between being baptized into Christ and having a calling to be Christ in the world.

Our reading from Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians makes the same connection. Paul is reminding the congregation that they are all one through their baptism into Christ. Together, they are the body of Christ in the world.

Paul really takes this image of being one body and runs with it. In order to have a functioning body, he writes, all parts are necessary, and all parts need to do their job. Translated to the church, every member is an important part of the body; every member has been gifted by the spirit for some kind of ministry; all those gifts together make up the whole body of Christ.

Being baptized into the body of Christ challenges us to think of the body first. Our society is fiercely individualistic; it’s all about the rights of the individual. It is the opposite in the body of Christ: it’s all about the neighbor. We do what we can to bless the neighbor. We let go of rights and freedoms if that benefits our neighbor. We hold back our own desires in order to bring good news to the poor. We are Jesus’ hands and feet for our neighbors.

And we are that together, as the body of Christ. When Paul writes “you are the body of Christ”, then that ‘you’ is plural. You all together are the body of Christ. You baptized people of God together are Jesus’ active presence in the world.

Hasn’t this pandemic shown us how much we need this ‘together’, how much we need community? Sharing the work of Christ makes it so much more fun. We can encourage one another and support one another in our service. We can bless one another with love and help when needed. We can point out to one another where we have seen God’s activity in the world today.

Good memories of the past are a blessing, and hope for the future is a blessing. But let us not forget that in between those two lies today. Pandemic or no pandemic, we are the body of Christ today. Pandemic or no pandemic, God is blessing us today! By the grace of God, we will continue in our calling, one day at a time, following in the footsteps of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.