Sermon

January 21, 2007

“When Will Someday Be Today?”

Luke 4: 14-21

January 21, 2007

In our passage today Jesus is in the power of the Spirit.  Word about him and his ministry has been rapidly spreading throughout the countryside; people are praising him.  On this particular day, he arrives in Nazareth at his home church to preach.  This sermon is, in fact, Jesus’ only sermon we have in text.  His sermon begins, in good synagogue fashion, with the reading of a passage of scripture.  Jesus is given the scroll which contains the passage.  Whether it is fixed by the lectionary, or whether Jesus chooses the passage himself, we do not know.  When Jesus stands up to read from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue that day, the people are sizing him up, as people in small towns will do.  He is not the young man they had known before.  He reads a fantastic and otherworldly passage, plainly not about Nazareth but about some other place. 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”  The Spirit that began Jesus’ life within Mary, the Spirit that came upon him at his baptism, the Spirit that preserved him during his temptation in the wilderness - that same Spirit now fills him with power as he begins his ministry. 

It is the Spirit of the Lord that directs Jesus and empowers him to declare Isaiah’s vision fulfilled – good news preached to the poor; the captives freed; the blind regaining their sight; the oppressed forgiven, and, he concludes – “This is the acceptable year of the Lord!”  When Jesus finishes the scripture, he rolls up the lambskin scroll and gives it back to the attendant.  The custom in those days was to read the scripture standing up – and to preach sitting down.  Jesus sits down – and begins to preach. 

“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” Jesus says.  His listeners are startled!  Is he talking about them?  Who is going to raise this hope?  Who is going to free the captive, give sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free?  Is he talking about himself?  And what does he mean by proclaiming right there, in his hometown, “the acceptable year of the Lord”?  Actually, Jesus’ target audience was the townspeople.  He would not tolerate their pride in him, because of their narrowness.  He was telling all who would hear that His brothers and sisters would be “those who hear the word of God and do it – today!” 

When will someday be today?  Sometimes our churches today are like that synagogue in Nazareth.  We are proud of Jesus.  We are more comfortable proclaiming Jesus, however, than in proclaiming his dangerous message.  It has been easier, more acceptable, for preachers to preach Jesus than what Jesus preached.  That message in Nazareth could just as well be preached today.  This radical message, first proclaimed by Isaiah in the Assyrian empire, then by Jesus in the Roman empire says that now is the day of fulfillment.  For Luke’s church, and for us, it is still “today,” and we need to get busy in fulfillment.

Jesus’ earliest followers called their faith in Jesus “The Way.”  Some of “the way” is clear and easy – when life is manageable, we become involved in the church by doing essential things like serving on committees, pledging to the budget, taking communion and celebrating the high holy seasons.  But, as a Christian, those are not necessarily our seasons of deepest spiritual growth.  If you came to the prayer vigil yesterday, you were hit with the reality that some of us leave the path of spiritual growth; some of us are forced off the path of spiritual formation, plunge into the swamps and drown.  Others are assaulted by devastating loss - the loss of sight, all kinds of disease, accidents, betrayal, and abuse.  These are the times when we find we cannot live with pat answers to life’s harder questions.  When churches preach of Jesus, but not of social justice; when churches preach of Jesus but do not embrace all people as children of God; when churches preach conversion but offer no sustained means of grace, people begin to see organized religion as a false hope, a false someday, a never today. 

For someday to become today, the church needs to serve as a guide for those who have lost their way; we need to embrace wisdom and tolerate uncertainty; we need to acknowledge that no one has all the answers this side of heaven and that we all have the right - and need - to examine our faith – unexamined faith is not faith.  

Something that has concerned me more and more is what seems to be a lack of interest in searching the scriptures, scriptures that should guide us. While it is true that Sunday School has been declining in United Methodist churches for some time, it is also true that FUMC, The Colony, is far, far behind the average United Methodist church in our Sunday School attendance.  The SPR hired someone they felt would be very good in providing a challenge in that area – adult and children’s Sunday School – Rev. Rebecca Grogan.  Yet our attendance, at check-out, was 87 on many Sundays.  That includes the smallest children to the youth to the adults!!  I have wondered if perhaps some of us already feel that we learned everything we needed to know in kindergarten, or at least soon thereafter, or is it that we need more time on Sundays for things outside the church, or is it that we THINK we know the scriptures?  Surveys, research tells us it is quite the opposite.  We are at an all-time low of biblical knowledge; we are biblically illiterate for the most part.  Perhaps it is simply that we intend to study the scriptures - someday, when our children are older, when we have more time?  I cannot stress to you enough my concern as your pastor that you find a place to recover the discipline of Wesley’s means of grace – the group study of the Word.

During these past ten days, I have been so excited to see people turning out for a Bible Study that doesn’t avoid the very controversies Jesus raises in Nazareth today.  Separation of church and state, creationism and evolution in the public schools, and euthanasia and the death penalty are just three of the hot topics met head-on in “Confronting the Controversies,”  a course begun 1 week ago last Wednesday.  It has been so popular that we are now offering the same session on Sundays as we offer on Wednesdays.

It is this willingness to submit your faith and spiritual knowledge to scrutiny that will prepare you for Discipleship, whether it is in the form of a youth leader, friend or co-worker, a Stephen Minister, or a Committee Chair. It is this willingness to commit to group Bible Study that will enable you and this faith community to answer the question: When will the captives be freed? When Will Someday Be Today?  

Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie, has a new book.  It is entitled One More Day.  It is about a man who had been so distraught with his life, he had given up and jumped from a water tower.  He lives to be rescued, but, he tells Mitch Albom, not before he has the opportunity to spend ONE MORE DAY with his deceased mother.  During that time he somehow sees the things she had done, the extra jobs she had worked, to make his life better.  What a difference that makes in his resolve to make someday today!  What difference would it make if you knew you could spend one more day with Christ?  Someday would surely be today!  So let it be.  Let it be today that you resolve to make someday today.  There are teachers just waiting to enroll your child in their Sunday School classes, just waiting to have you in their new adult classes.  Rebecca is anxious to have those small supportive groups that Wesley counseled would sustain us in God’s grace.  Let someday be today!  Amen.