Becoming God's Echo

January 27, 2013
3 Epiphany, Year C
Luke 4

            My family couldn’t quite get ourselves to the Mall for the inauguration -- a little too cold, kids not quite at the right age to make it through.  And so we had front row seats, sitting on our comfortable couch, still in our pajamas, munching popcorn.  But I felt like we were doing our civic duty, still part of the momentous occasion, even watching from afar.  I love the pomp and circumstance of inaugurations.  Seeing the capital covered in flags and the Supreme Court justices in their black robes, hearing the patriotic hymns and the booming 21 gun salute.  No matter what we might think about any particular president, as Lamar Alexander pointed out, the peaceful transfer of power is proof that our country’s ideals are still in place.  And the inaugural address is by its nature a historical and powerful moment.  It is a president’s opportunity to introduce a vision and a mission with words that may someday be etched in stone. 

            Like Abraham Lincoln’s “With malice toward none; with charity for all”. 

And Teddy Roosevelt’s “Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us.” 

 

And FDR’s “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. 

And John F. Kennedy “Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.”  

And Lyndon Johnson’s “Justice requires us to remember that when any citizen denies his fellow, saying, 'His color is not mine,' or 'His beliefs are strange and different,' in that moment he betrays America.”

These leaders spoke more words than just these, but these are some of the ones that remain in the public lexicon.  What must they (or their speechwriters) have thought as they penned these words?  What must the Presidents have thought as they spoke them?  Did they have any idea they would become iconic?  Did they know that at that moment they were starting something in the presence of their listeners – that at that moment their words were in some way edging toward fulfillment?  Did they predict how their words might spur people to action?  That their words would become more than words?

            In listening to President Obama’s inaugural speech on Monday, I wondered if there were words like that, words that might someday be familiar.  If in some piece of the speech he gave, we might be witnessing the beginning of something that we could only begin to glimpse.  I know my ears perked up when he spoke about certain things that haven’t gotten enough attention, like climate change.  But only time will tell if his words were just words, or if they will become more than words, and start on their way to fulfillment.

The inauguration is an interesting backdrop for our gospel reading for this morning because what we hear from Jesus this morning is from his inaugural address to his people.  In Luke, the only words that Jesus has uttered so far were as a teenager to his parents in the temple in Jerusalem and to the devil when being tempted in the desert.  So this is Jesus’ first public address.  His shining moment.  His chance to introduce himself and his mission and vision to the people around him. 

And he chooses these words from Isaiah: “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.”  And then Jesus announces, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

These are the words remembered and passed down and recorded.  These are the words etched in stone on his memorial.  For Luke, this is the heart of the Gospel.  For Luke, to hear and understand these words is to hear and understand who Jesus is and what he is up to.  The section of the scroll of Isaiah that Jesus reads foretells a figure known in theological circles as The Suffering Servant.  This Suffering Servant would be both prophet and Messiah and would redeem Israel through his own suffering.  This part of Isaiah promised the passing away of the old age of pain and exile and the dawning of a new age of hope and redemption that would begin with Israel and grow to include all the world.

When Jesus read this passage and then told the people it was being fulfilled that day in their hearing, Jesus identified himself as this Suffering Servant, proclaimed God’s bias towards the poor and the powerless, and promised that the new age had begun.

            Now Luke says that Jesus was reading from the scroll of Isaiah, and indeed he was.  But Jesus wasn’t reading word-for-word.  His citation included a bit of Isaiah 61 and a little bit from Isaiah 58 to emphasize more strongly his mission of release and freeing from bonds.  It’s even more intriguing what Jesus chose to leave out.  Rather than ending with Isaiah’s full phrase, the Lord has sent me “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God," Jesus left out that vengeance part.  As Jesus began his ministry, he was promising a focus on life and hope rather than judgment. 

            This sounds like very good news indeed.  It was an affirmation of God’s love and presence and help for all creation, including, and even especially, the downtrodden, the poor, the blind, and oppressed.  But they weren’t just words to listen to.  They were powerful and world-changing words that spoke a new reality into motion, just like God spoke the world into being, just like Jesus the Word was in and through creation and lived among us and lives among us still.  These words were a call to action.

Commentaries on this passage point out that the translation we get this morning for that last line (“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”) isn’t actually the best translation from the Greek.  The Greek word for fulfilled is in the perfect tense, meaning it is an action that already has begun but is continuing and not complete.  So Jesus really said something more like “Today this scripture is being fulfilled in your hearing.”   These promises from Isaiah that Jesus pronounces as the good news he has come to proclaim aren’t finished.  They continue to be proclaimed, continue to be fulfilled.  Today.  In our hearing.

Jesus’ words spoken in his hometown synagogue weren’t just words for the people of Nazareth living 2000 years ago.  These are words for us.  Jesus’ vision includes us.  We have work to do.  The Spirit of the Lord is among us to continue the work of bringing good news to the poor, to continue the work of proclaiming release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to continue the work of letting the oppressed go free, to continue the work of proclaiming the year of the Lord's favor.  We can’t watch this scene from Luke’s Gospel from our comfortable couch while munching on popcorn in our pajamas.  This is our call, our mission too.  Jesus’ words invite us to be the Body of Christ living out God’s good news to everyone we meet.

            We have a children’s book by Rabbi Sandy Sasso called God’s Paintbrush that has meditations and questions that help kids (and their parents) think about how we encounter God in our lives. In it there is a piece that I think beautifully describes what we do with Jesus’ inaugural address:

My class went on a hike the other day.  We climbed to the top of a mountain.  And I shouted HELLO!  I heard a voice call back HELLO!  It sounded just like my voice – only far away.  My teacher said the sound I heard was an echo.  It was fun to hear our own voices.  We kept calling out and the sound from space kept calling back. 

I wonder what God’s voice sounds like.  Is it deep and gruff?  Is it soft and gentle?  Is it loud or quiet? 

I think God keeps calling out and maybe we are the sound that calls back.  Maybe people are God’s echo.

How can we live our lives so that we are the echoes of Jesus’ good news of release, recovery and freedom?  Amen.