Chickens & Eggs and Horses & Carts
Luke • Sermon • Submitted
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Grace and Peace to you from the God who was, who is and who is to come. AMEN
Good morning. It is a humbling privilege to stand before you today as your acting head of staff. I am grateful for the ministry and friendship of Stephanie Perdew and personally inspired by what I See as her exceptionally faithful ministry to this community.
While I will serve in this role for only a short time, it is still humbling to me that you would welcome me into this role and trust me to pastor you and to lead First Congregational in this moment. thank you.
Our Gospel text today from Luke tells the story of the beginning of Jesus ministry. You would think that this would be helpful...unless you get to the middle of the text:
6When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18“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, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Reading a prophecy from the Bible and announcing that: “This prophecy has been fulfilled in my reading of it” doesn’t quite seem like a helpful preaching text at this point. I don’t really know that implaying of one self that they may fulfill bibilical prophecies personally, is a great opening proclamation. In fact, any implication that one is tha messiah may invite lets says too high standards. And you know, maybe this is just me, but that little line about how “(Jesus) rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.” doesn’t strike me as too helpful either. It seems like this is more than a innocne mundane detail, alongside announcing hiself the as the messiah this line seems like the equivalent of a modern hip-hop artist you know who endd their performance with a mic drop and then walking off the stage. Like “Bam! Heres you scroll!”
I was a little intimidating by this obvious and impossible correlation...I think understandably so, but I don’t want to loose the opportunity for us together to hear this text together...So at the risk of being a little precious, I changed the OT text for today from the prophet Nehemiah for the reading from Genesis 2.
Genesis 2 text is a role that I think I can fill today, and something that will set us all up to hear the Luke text as good news for us today. See, Genesis 2 Adam names the animals and I want to follow suit by naming a whole bunch of elephants in the room.
1st Elephant: Today is the first Sunday after the departure of Pastor Stephanie and we have not had nearly enough time to grieve or process that, and yet here I am preaching.
Elephant 2nd: I am preaching and serving as your active head of staff but! We all now that I am not your settled pastor and we are not sure how long I am going to fill this position, and we all now that Even now, as I am preaching we are working on finding an interim pastor to fill this role.
3rd Elephant: On top of all that it is not secret that we are staring down some unfortable challenges as a community. We are still slogging through this never ending pandemic that continues to hamper our life and worship as a community and on top of all that our boiler broke down and we need to repair these windows, and those items are not a small pricetag.
Certainly I could and name even more, and each of you could probably name your own personal elephants in the room but before returning to the text I want to name two more from Luke itsself
4th Elephant, Gospel text promises us that the “Spirit of the Lord is” on Jesus, not just by implication in the Isaiah reading today but throughout the entire text of Luke and Acts this is a major theme on which hinges the authority of Jesus and Luke.. but of course Jesus is arrested crucified and According to Luke, is raised from the dead, which whether we take that to be a reality or metaphor does not in itself magically solve our problems today.
5th Elephant, whatever we take as Jesus mission in this text read correctly it was a mission from 2000 years ago, read and executed in the occupied territory of Israel amongst predominantly Jewish people.
6th Perhaps most challengingly the text that Jesus reads from Isaiah lists his mission clearly, and includes the following to: “bring good new to the poor,release the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” I will only speak for myself but without utilizing some very liberal metaphorical interpretation I would not include myself as being poor, blund, a captive or really oppressed. I am SWM who lives in Glenview Illinois. I can’t help but wonder where I fit in Jesus mission or if I fit at all.
Having named all of those elephants, I invite you to hear the good news.
Empirically speaking, however you or we s a community interpret the meaning of the “Spirit of the Lord” that we are still here, still growing together in love, in hope, and in faith together as covenanted community through the teachings and practices of Jesus in Luke, makes and pretty strong cases that clearly that the spirit of the lord was truly and in fact upon him in a way that empirically transcendes his locaiotn, his geography and culture, and yes even his arrest crucixionx and death. His mission still lives 200 years later.
What is More! That it is Luke who tells this story so powerfully, is even more significant. In the opening of Luke’s gospel he addresses and dedicated his entire writing to Theophilus, who we know was not poor, or blind, or oppresses. And yet it is most certainly to him that Luke is preaching the year of the Lord’s favor and even more and initiation to be included in the mission that Jesus begins in today’s text and that will be revealed and elaborated more and more clearly over the coming weeks.
What is more, Luke is also the author of the book of Acts. For Luke the mission of Jesus does not end with Jesus' miracles, teachings and acts of mercy. No, not at all. For Luke, in the book of Acts, the handing on of Jesus mission to the apostles and by extension to the members of the early Christian congregations is as significant a part of Jesus mission as Jesus own actions are.
In fact, simpathetically to Congregationalists historically and to the UCC today, Luke understands, that Jesus passes the Spirit of the Lord that is up him on, through baptism, into the covenanted life of the Church itself. As we gather here together today we gather as the historical recipients of Jesus faith and mission from ancestors who founded this church nearly 150 years ago right on this spot. We are called into their covenant which was founded in the work of Jesus and upon which we are Promised is the Very Same Spirit of God!
Brother and Sisters in Christ, take heart. Reverend Murff who was with us last week loves to remind us clergy every Friday that if every church was happy, healthy and problem free, we would not have 2/3 of the New Testament. In fact, most of the book of acts is filled with stories of the grief and challenges that overwhelmed the apostles and the congregations they started.
And yet, somehow in spite of these challenges in 1875 the mission of Jesu and spirit of the Lord travelled across 2000, from Nazareth in Gallile, across the ocean to found its way to faithful pilgrim in the village of Wilmette in Illinois and that Spirit gifted them with a covenant, and a congregation.
Martin Luther King Jr. Once said “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.” Brothers and sisters in gathering today you have taken the first step forward, and the spirit of lord is upon you. Pray with me