Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC's - Third Sunday after Epiphany - 01/24/16 Sermon - “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled"

Sunday 01/24/16 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s

Sermon Title: “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled”

                            

Old Testament Lesson: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

                                            

New Testament Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Gospel Lesson: Luke 4:14-21

          Welcome again my friends, my brothers and sisters, on this the Third Sunday after the Epiphany. Three Sundays after we celebrated those Wise Men or Magi coming to see Jesus, and bringing him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The Wise Men or Magi who took the long journey to meet Jesus, were one way when they came. Yet, they left his presence different. You see, the power of God called them to Jesus, as God calls us all to come as we are, but to leave changed. Jesus Christ calls all people to him, as he invites us to come as we are, but to leave changed. To come in with sin, and to leave forgiven.

          While last week I talked about Jesus’ first miracle of turning the water into the wine at the Wedding in Cana, this week is a unique week as well. For this week in our lectionary reading, Jesus announces in the town that he grew up in, the town of Nazareth, just who he is. Since Jesus grew up in a Jewish culture, and since practicing Jews usually go to worship God on the Sabbath, Jesus went to the synagogue on this day. Instead of going to worship on Sunday though, most Jews worship on Saturday.

          Now before I get into this Gospel lesson, it is important to note that Jesus while born in Bethlehem, but that at some point he returned as a child to Nazareth with Joseph and Mary. This means that the majority of Jesus’ childhood, up until he was thirty years old, was spent in Nazareth. Sure, Jesus and his family might have went to Jerusalem every year for the Passover, or maybe he traveled for some other reasons, but in general he was in Nazareth.

          We read in scripture and take from church tradition once he was old enough, Jesus adopted the trade of his adopted father Joseph. This trade was that of being a carpenter. Given some of the translations of scripture from ancient texts this trade of being a carpenter, might be closer translated to being a stone mason. Part of this has to do with the lack of available lumber in Nazareth at the time, and the fact that many homes and structures were built out of stone at this time. It is likely that Jesus was some sort of builder or stone worker with Joseph. Jesus could have worked with wood, but once again it was not plentiful in the area that he was in, when he walked the earth. The other side note here, is that we don’t when Joseph died, so I am speculating when I say that “Jesus worked with Joseph”.

          I give you this background to shine light on the fact that Jesus was in Nazareth for the majority of his life. He likely then, spent many Sabbath days in the synagogue or temple worshipping and praising God. Likely everyone in the synagogue or temple knew Jesus. I can imagine that some women in the synagogue might have said things like, “I can remember Jesus when he was just a little guy”. If Jesus had a trade as a carpenter or a stone mason, then he likely did work for many people in Nazareth. Jesus himself might have helped build certain people’s homes, or other things. Due to this, Jesus’ work ethic, his reputation, and his identity was very much tied to Nazareth.

          Nazareth is an important place, as this is where Jesus lived much of his life. As a result, we have a college in Rochester called “Nazareth,” being named after the town that Jesus was raised in. We have a Christian denomination called “The Church of the Nazarene,” as Jesus was a Nazarene, raised in Nazareth. In the Old Testament it is written that the Messiah will be called the “Nazarene”. Nazareth then, was an otherwise small area, a town that was no New York City in size, yet it soon became a common name. Nazareth and the term Nazarene are words that we might have heard many times in our lives.

          On this day then, Jesus goes to the synagogue, just like he probably did on many other Saturdays. In the worship in the synagogue, just like our church services, scripture is read. Further, just like many Christian churches, not only do the religious leaders read from the scriptures for the congregation, but lay people do as well.

          In a way then, in the gospel of Luke reading from this morning, Jesus was the scripture reader. Or he was one of them. I doubt that there was a scripture reader list at the synagogue in Nazareth, like we have. It would seem that in Jesus’ synagogue or temple, that people were just handed the scriptures during worship, and asked to read them for the congregation.

          What is important to know, is that in the Jewish religion, many Jewish synagogues or temples do not read their Hebrew Bible, or our Old Testament from a book. Instead often in a Jewish synagogue or a temple, if you are behind their altar, they have the books of the Hebrew Bible or our Old Testament in scrolls. This means that there is a separate rolled up scroll for the Book of Genesis, the Book of Exodos, and etc., all the way through the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament. In our Bibles, we have 39-books in the Old Testament, so you can imagine the amount of scrolls that were behind and likely imbedded in that alter table. Some alter tables have tubes or almost little cubby holes where each scroll of scripture resides.

           From some historical accounts, as well as from one of my Bible commentaries, it is thought that Jesus was asked with no notice by a religious leader to read scripture in worship (African Bible Commentary). Many think that it happened in a way where Jesus was asked to read scripture, and so he stood and was handed the Isaiah scroll. It is important to remember also that the Book of the Prophet Isaiah is 66-chapters. The gospel lesson doesn’t say that the leader of synagogue asked Jesus to read a specific chapter or set of versus. It could be true then, that the leader of the synagogue was basically asking Jesus to stand and read from the book of this great prophet. Perhaps it didn’t matter what Jesus read, as it was just important that he was reading God’s word in public worship.

          So was Jesus asked specifically to read the chapter and the verses that he read this morning? We have no indication of this. Further, when Jesus was asked to read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah did he know instantly what he wanted to read? Lastly, if Jesus did in fact know the scriptures that he was going to read and proclaim, did he really unroll that whole scroll of the Prophet Isaiah to near the end, or did he just open the scripture and recite the versus that he already knew that he was going to say? I say this, because today Jesus read from Isaiah 60.

          Another interesting thing to note is that texts of the Jewish Hebrew Bible, while often on scrolls, are seen as sacred. At the top and the bottom of the scrolls are often found wood handles. It is perfectly acceptable to grab the handles of the scroll, but you would never touch the scroll itself, as that is God’s word. In fact, you would not put you hand on the text of the Prophet Isaiah, instead you would use a “Yad,” a pointer stick of sorts, to touch the text. For the word of God is too holy for us to touch. The name of God is also too holy for us to write in the Jewish faith, as some of my Jewish friends write “G-D,” instead of God. This is how sacred the scripture and the name of God is too many of our Jewish brothers and sisters. Imagine if we had this sort of regard for the word of God, and the name of God?

          So Jesus, the one who was raised and lived most of his life in Nazareth, stands up in his synagogue on this day, and is asked to read from the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah. He likely carried it up by the wooden handles, and then laid it out on the pulpit.

          Jesus then reads, or recites if he already knew what he was going to say Isaiah 60:1-2a, which says:

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me;
he 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; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Isa. 60: 1-2a, NRSV).

          Now, you will notice some translation differences from what I just read from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, and the Gospel of Luke reading that I read this morning. Further, when Jesus completes reading this portion of the scroll from the Prophet Isaiah, the gospel of Luke says, “He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the synagogue assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the synagogue was his on him. He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as your heard it” (Luke 4:20-21, CEB).

          You see Jesus Christ, the man who grew up and worked in Nazareth, just told the whole synagogue, the whole church that he was the messiah. He announced in Nazareth that he was the savior of the world.

          Not only this, Jesus said this is what I am going to do as the savior of the world: “bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Isa. 60:1b-2a, NRSV). Jesus Christ, the savior of the world, tells his people that know him well this morning, in his synagogue in Nazareth, that he is the savior. Not only will he die for our sins, not only will he be raised from the dead, but in addition to all of this “The Spirit of the Lord is upon” him (Luke 4:18a, CEB). For when Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit did go into him, but it rested upon him, for “The Spirit of the Lord is upon him” (Luke 4:18a, CEB).

          Jesus then tells his people in Nazareth that, “the Lord has anointed me” (Luke 4:18b, CEB). Beyond dying for our sins and beyond being raised to new life, Jesus said that he has also come to “preach good news to the poor, to proclaim the release to the prisoners and recovery to the sight of the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18b-19, CEB).

          Jesus is saying, I am about give hope, love, and empowerment to even the lowest of people. Through me he is saying, all things are possible. Through his blood and through his gospel, he is teaching us how to change the world.

          So, how was Jesus rewarded for this proclamation of him being the messiah? Well, they got angry at him and tried to throw him off a cliff. Jesus escaped, and we have that famous line that Jesus spoke in the gospel of Luke 4:24, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown” (Luke 4:24, NSRV).

          Yesterday, many of us had the honor and the privilege of celebrating the life of Kenneth Brong at the Homer Avenue UMC. Ken was not born in Cortland, but for the almost thirty years he lived here, many quickly got to know him. He was involved in our city, but unlike the Gospel of Luke reading from this morning, we embraced Ken Brong, where Jesus was almost thrown off a cliff.

          My brothers and sisters, when we embrace the gifts that God puts in front of us, when we promote, support, and encourage those gifts, then don’t be shocked when people like Ken Brong change our lives.

          This morning, Jesus Christ tells the town of Nazareth, a town of people that knew him well, that he was the messiah. He told them that he was the chosen one. Instead of embracing the gift that God had given Nazareth though, they tried to kill him.

          While Jesus Christ is the true gift, what do we do with the people that God has gifted us with? What do we do with the Ken Brong’s in our lives? To me, people like Ken made me believe more strongly. When we believe that strongly, we don’t try to drive Jesus Christ off a cliff, but rather we celebrate the miracle that is the living God.

          When Jesus Christ was crucified, raised from the dead, and the ascended into heaven, the apostles felt alone when Christ finally left. In the same way, when great leaders in our church pass, we might feel alone to. Friends, brothers and sisters, fear not though, for God is up to something. God is in the business of raising up leaders. While we could never replace some of the great pillars of our church, God will to continue to raise up new people to serve him. The question then, is how do we receive the gifts that God puts in front of us?

          We have already had the savior walk the earth, be crucified, and risen, but when God puts a person in our paths, and has called him or her, we must embrace them. When we do this, we might just be raising up the next dynamic and spirit filled leader, who will proclaim the gospel, and who will proclaim that Jesus revealed his true identity in Nazareth.

          So while today, Jesus Christ reveals himself as the Messiah to the town of Nazareth, let us be ever aware of the people that God is calling to serve him, that are all around us. Praise be God. Amen.