|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Jeremiah 1:4–10
|
Psalm 71:1–6 |
1 Corinthians
13:1–13
|
Luke 4:21–30 |
Jeremiah was one of the greatest of Israel's prophets. Active as a prophet for 40 years, he saw the rise of two of the ancient world’s most powerful empires. God called him when it was a terrible time to be any sort of leader with integrity or to stand out in any manner in the land of Israel. The Assyrian Empire had long destroyed northern Israel, some hundred years before. Jerusalem and the smaller southern part of Israel had precariously held on, trying to gain some advantage by playing the larger surrounding empires against each other, but with ultimately disastrous results. Then as the Assyrian Empire began to wane, the Babylonian Empire began its rise and held the ancient world in its grip. With the exception of the brief renaissance under the king Josiah, Israel’s society was rent by violence, uncertainty, and turmoil.
Jeremiah struggled to keep a wall of excuses between him and God and considering the circumstances that Jeremiah would labor under, it was quite understandable. Jeremiah wanted to keep the call of God at arm’s length and push it as far back as he could. We can imagine his protests, “Lord, I'm too young, too old, too busy, too upset, too sick, too tired, too uneducated, too untrained.” You and I know all the excuses also even if we live in relatively safe and stable times. The story of Jeremiah's reluctance is similar to our story, too. God’s reply is also pretty much the same. I am your God and I will touch your lips and give you strength and the appropriate words when you need them.
For the Gospel lesson, we continue to read the story of Jesus' return to the synagogue in Nazareth. It was customary in the synagogue after someone read a passage in scripture, for people to offer comments about it and to discuss it. Jesus read a passage from one of the last chapters of Isaiah, offering the vision of God reconstituting Israel after years of exile. That vision was framed by an ancient tradition of tribal times of what was called a jubilee year, a holy year in which indentured servants were set free, debts were canceled, mortgaged property returned and amnesty and pardon granted. “The spirit of the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty, recovery, freedom.” Jesus read these words proclaiming that a sign of God’s salvation will be like the liberation of a jubilee year. Then Jesus rolled up the scroll and announced, today the jubilee year begins among you, today the saving grace of God is loose in the world.”
For Luke, today was the operative word for the church’s mission. The Good News announces that God’s objective of reconstituting, of reconciling and restoring humanity is being fulfilled. Later Jesus gives his disciples a prayer, reminding them and us to ask, “give us today, O Lord, our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. The action is in the present. On the cross, Jesus tells a fellow sufferer, today, you will know of God’s paradise. The primary message of the Christian community is not a nostalgic reminiscence of yesterday nor a vague idealistic vision of tomorrow, but a vigorous and alive announcement that God forgives our sins today, that grace, healing, renewal, and insight is accessible and possible among us now. No, the final sign of God’s harvest, of God’s kingdom is not clearly manifest, but it has begun and we are never left as people without hope and without a vision of God’s intentions that in some way are being realized.
Too often our prayers fall into complaining or blaming God for what God has presumably let happen. We want to play over and over again the same old why, why, why song. Or, our prayers involve giving God instructions about what we think should occur. God answers by asking the same question asked the universal first man and woman who became estranged and lost in the garden. God didn’t say where have you been, but where are you. Where are you? Where are you now? That is the point God begins, but like the prototype of humanity, like Jeremiah, and many others, we attempt to strong arm and keep good news from penetrating our hearts.
Next week is what is called super bowl Sunday. It is not really a holiday as much as being an entertainment spectacle. But if you do watch it so you can tell people that you did, every time you see a big offensive lineman pushing or shoving the defensive players away from the back that has the ball, think of Jeremiah, When you see those big linemen grunting and shoving, think of Jeremiah, hiding behind his wall of big excuses. Nevertheless, God’s word got through to Jeremiah and in a sense tackled him. Or, think of those who wanted to drive Jesus away from Nazareth, and shove him over a cliff. Jesus slipped though them and kept going. The Gospel was not stopped nor thwarted. Remember, when we want to keep the call of God at bay, God’s word announces to us to carry the ball and run with it today!
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
