"IRL - In Real Life" (Luke 4:16-21)

"IRL - In Real Life" (Luke 4:16-21)

Preached by Sam Locke at St. Peter’s United Church of Christ (Carmel, IN) - 1/27/19

Audio File

The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth16 When 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, 17 and 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,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 And 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. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

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I hate cliches. Don’t get me wrong, I use them. I only hate them when other people do. And some of the worst cliches, the ones that sound so good but are rarely true IRL (that means in real life for everyone over 30 - I just learned this a few days ago so I had to find a way to use it), are the cliches involving getting things done early. Yuck. I consider myself a pretty efficient worker. I am rarely, if ever, late. But, I’m also not generally early. I love the deadline. The pressure is exciting and there are other things I can be doing in this moment. The things due on the 30th can wait till the 30th, that is the deadline afterall. You can confirm this with Lori, who has spent more time reading my sermons on Saturday than anyone should have to.

So, you know these “on time” cliches I hate …

The early bird gets the worm. Gross, who wants a worm?

Why put off ‘till tomorrow what could get done today. Because it is due tomorrow, that’s why. There is other stuff due today.

From my military days … to be early is to be on-time, to be on time is to be late, to be late is to be forgotten. This one doesn’t even make sense. To be on-time is to be on-time.

I could continue, but I’ll spare you.

The ancient world had cliches too. And they, too, had things that rarely happened IRL - again, that’s “in real life.”  One example found in the Hebrew Bible is the idea of festival years … a year, at some distant point in the future, where everyone would all act like children of God and try, ever so temporarily, to bring the world God wanted into being. This was called a Jubilee year ...held every 49th year with a smaller, less impactful version held every seven. In this twice-a-century Jubilee year, all borrowed property was returned to its original owner, mitigating any bad transactions that may have happened over the last four decades - wouldn’t it have been nice to be one of those original property owners? Crop land was left dormant for a rest, with people relying on their savings of resources to get by. Again, we can see the flaws of this glorified system. But there were benefits to lower class people as well. All debts were forgiven, an idea that forms the historic roots of bankruptcy - you may not have known that was rooted in the Bible. I wonder if it was hard to get a loan in year 48? Slaves were freed and returned to their families. But there was still slavery. Good things happening in the midst of a bad system.

The idea of a Jubilee year became commonly referred to as, “The Year of the Lord’s Favor,” which Jesus quotes for us this morning from Isaiah.

But here is the thing … historians widely believe that most of this didn’t happen IRL - in real life. Shocker, I know. People are people after all. In fact, people of the time didn’t even agree on how the years should be counted, let alone abiding the regulations. Even in a perfect world, would someone willingly just wipe away someone’s debts, or free a slave, or let land that could be making a fortune just sit empty? Would you? I mean, it is easy to say yes in a church pew. But, would you really? Doing these things defy reason in a perfect world, and this was no perfect world. Constant battles and extended periods living under imperial power makes the concept of Jubilee even less likely to actually happen.

It is better to think of Jubilee as something off in the distance, something we can do … later. We get to keep the hope of doing all of these things without actually having to do them. Jubilee is a great idea, but it’s not real like. Jubilee is like a strapped person needing to file bankruptcy today … it’s a fantastic legal provision to help you out … after you’ve saved up the $3,000 you need to pay an attorney.

In our passage today, Jesus is asking us to rethink how we perceive things like the year of the Jubilee. He is asking us to consider the question: “When is the year of the Lord’s favor coming … what if it is now?” Would we act the same way? He is asking us to think about … no, he is asking us to do the things we said we were going to do. In real life. Imagine that. And you can guess how that message was received. Not very well as it turns out, but Lori will tell you more about that next week.

Beyond words, there is powerful imagery in this passage from Luke. In Jewish tradition, what we think of as a sermon today would have be delivered sitting down by a rabbi. Lay readers, like is still our tradition today, would read passages of Hebrew literature standing up in front of the synagogue. So Jesus stands up, quotes this passage from Isaiah, makes a declaratory statement that “TODAY the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” and then sits down. The silence that followed must have been deafening.

Imagine being the rabbi or pastor delivering a sermon after this scene - what do you say? Or maybe there wasn’t one planned and Jesus was using this as though to tell us - YOU are the preacher. YOU should live out these words … not tomorrow … not in 49 years … but today.

Jesus quotes a beautiful passage 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.”

But Jesus isn’t just quoting history, he is asking us to make history … today.  Bring good news to the poor TODAY. Release the captives TODAY. Give the blind sight TODAY. Let the oppressed go free TODAY. People hearing this message in Jesus’ time weren’t apocalyptic thinkers - they didn’t hold the belief that God would come soon to transform the world. The year of the Lord’s favor was something they could keep putting off indefinitely. And that’s what we do too, isn’t it? We say we will take those items to the food pantry, be we are tired after work. We say we will stand up against racism and homophobia but it is easier just to quietly walk away. We say we will make an effort to give more to charity, but that vacation beckons. We can do all of these things later, there are other things more important today.

I’m going to challenge you today … to do one of those things you have been putting off for days, weeks or years. It doesn’t need to be complex and maybe it shouldn’t be. But here is the heart of the challenge. You have to do it TODAY! Maybe it is calling that aunt you haven’t talked to in years. Maybe it means apologizing to the friend for that fight from so long ago you can’t even remember what it was about. Maybe it is cleaning out that closet and taking stuff you don’t use anymore to the thrift shop. Do whatever you’d like … anything that makes God’s kin-dom on earth better TODAY. Part of making God’s creation better could be making your community better, your family, or even yourself - you are part of that creation too. Not tomorrow, not down the road, TODAY! If you are comfortable, post what you do on the St. Peter’s Facebook page, send us a note about it, or just reflect internally or as a family. I know you all will come up with wildly creative things.

Jesus asks us to do a lot in the passage today … more than we could ever accomplish in a day. And Jesus knew that. The point wasn’t to do it all but to get started. To take the first step forward. The passage from Isaiah that Jesus quoted is just a small bit of what would have been on the scroll he unrolled - evidence of his shepherding of us in incremental, even strategic, steps.

I share with you today more of what was on that scroll, not to give you more work to do but to invite you to listen to the words for inspiration as to how you can proclaim God’s favor now - today -  and moving forward.

Hear these words from Isaiah 61 and dream about the wonders Christ invites us to, not at some distant point in the future but TODAY:

The spirit of the God is upon me,
   because God has anointed me;

That means we can do this, we have all the tools we need. God believes in us and Jesus is here to tell us that it is so and inspire us into action as we celebrate those abilities.

God has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
   to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
   and release to the prisoners;
2 to proclaim the year of the God’s favor,

This is where Jesus stopped while reading at the synagogue.

and the day of vengeance of our God;
   to comfort all who mourn;
3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
   to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
   the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
   the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.

Maybe we can sit alongside people in their grief. Not try to make them feel better or tell them everything is going to be okay, but just be with them, embodying the strength of an oak. Strength is more than being intimidating to one another, more than staring each other down. Strength is being vulnerable together - mourning and celebrating, sometimes even at the same time.

4 They shall build up the ancient ruins,
   they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
   the devastations of many generations.

Sometimes the things we love fall apart. Our environment. Our loved ones in the bondage of addiction. Our government. But we rebuild, over and over again if we have to. We make up for the mistakes of other generations even though we had nothing to do with it. How might you take a step today toward rebuilding something that has long been broken - something currently in a state of ruin?

5 Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,
   foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines;

Can we invite strangers - people different from us in the way they look, the way the live, or in what they believe to the belief that they, too, are beloved children of God. Can we invite them to be part of our table. Can we allow the gift of feeding our collective flock as coequals in Christ’s community.

6 but you shall be called priests of the Lord,
   you shall be named ministers of our God;

Yep, that’s you. It’s not just your pastoral team’s job to do all this work. You are ministers too. We serve God together. In our words and in our deeds, we are the visible manifestations of Christ’s good news.

you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations,
   and in their riches you shall glory.

Let’s be careful here. This wealth? These riches? They aren’t dollars coming your way as a result of doing the right things. This is the richness of irresistible grace and unending love. Imagine the richness of our society if we all saw God in one another. Are there people you don’t see God in? A poor person? The President? How do we reframe our minds and look for the face of God in every single living thing we see?

7 Because their shame was double,
   and dishonor was proclaimed as their lot,
therefore they shall possess a double portion;
   everlasting joy shall be theirs.

Shame isn’t permanent. We will overcome together. In what way can we give someone who has been othered their whole life a double portion? Maybe helping someone a second time even though we might think they don’t deserve it. Maybe we go out of our way to give them that one extra hug.

8 For I God love justice,
   I hate robbery and wrongdoing;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
   and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

Are there ways you can call-out wrongdoing and to love justice? Write your representative about that issue that is important to you. Share an article about something in the news you think is important - but don’t just do that, take the extra time to talk about why and how your faith informs this belief.

9 Their descendants shall be known among the nations,
   and their offspring among the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge
   that they are a people whom God has blessed.

May we live our lives in a way that is impactful. So our children and grandchildren know that, for all of our faults, we tried. We don’t shut down when we don’t get the outcomes we want. What do we do to show that we are blessed by God? Instead of shutting down, how do we make the leap of faith to keep going?

10 I will greatly rejoice in God,
   my whole being shall exult in my God;
for God has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
   God has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
   and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Who knew … emptying out those closets is commanded in Isaiah! We can cover people with salvation not just with literal clothes, but with our assurance that they are beloved children of God, just the way they are. No matter what.

11 For as the earth brings forth its shoots,

   and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so God will cause righteousness and praise
   to spring up before all the nations.

Today. Our jubilee starts today. Following Christ’s example, we praise God today. This is the year … this is the day of God’s favor. What are you going to do TODAY? Take a few seconds and write down some ideas on your bulletin...No, really, write them down so you’ll remember Again, Jesus doesn’t expect us to complete all of these things in an instant. But he does expect us to get started, to tell our sermon, to inspire the people around us. Today. I can’t wait to see the things you come up with. Amen.