Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from the Holy Trinity, Amen.
So, from what I understand through various facebook posts I’ve seen lately, there are some guys playing football tonight during the Beyonce concert...so if that’s your thing, just go ahead and check the score on your phone after the sermon.
This week, as is pretty customary at House, I’m going to defy the lectionary gods in this sermon. Last week we heard the first half of the story, and today we hear the second half, but I think they go better together than apart.
Jesus basically is a pretty good Jew...he goes to synagogue, and often picks up the liturgy booklet labelled first reading. This day is no different. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
"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 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. Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
The next thing they say to him is along the lines of “aww, it’s Joseph’s boy...isn’t he cute” to which Jesus gets a little defensive and tells the people that prophets are not welcomed in their hometowns. The people take their cue and go to run Jesus off a cliff but because he’s Jesus, he just sort of miraculously walks away from the whole situation.
I just got back yesterday from a trip to El Paso and the US/Mexico border for a retreat with Urban Servant Corps. We learned about immigration and border issues, and this text was nagging at me throughout the trip but never as much as when we were having a presentation from Border Patrol while we were standing next to the chain link fence that divides two nations. Jesus’ words of “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” laughed sarcastically at me as I looked through the mesh chains into Mexico and considered my own views of immigration.
The scripture that Jesus claims is fulfilled says that he would proclaim freedom for the captives...and yet, there I was, standing talking with people who detain hundreds of thousands of people annually...Jesus’ words sounding strangely unfulfilled in my mind. Walking past the immigration courthouses, the detention center next to the bridge, the bridge itself...all keeping people captive in some way...made me want to find Jesus and question him about all this.
If I were a different person, I’d want to just circumvent Jesus altogether and just do something about it. And there are people who do that, who take matters into their own hands and advocate for undocumented people, who spend their lives working for the dignity and humanity of every person. I met them through USC’s sister organization Border Servant Corps and their volunteers and agencies where they are placed. Hearing both sides of the immigration issue, from Border Servant Corps to Border Patrol, raised more questions than answers and deepened my understanding that there are no easy answers, and no right mindset.
But I am still stuck on this promise of Jesus that these things are fulfilled in hearing them.
Because I see, not just around the border, other things that are oppressive, other things that are in need of healing, other things that need good news surrounding them. I see it in families who don’t put the fun in dysfunctional. I see it in emotional and physical scars left after a difficult pregnancy. I see it in mental illnesses that grip tightly onto people, holding them captive to themselves. I see a multitude of things that still need fixed in this world...and we’ve heard Jesus’ words...so why aren’t they being fixed, like he promises?
I think it’s easy to quickly run towards the idea that people are in such bad shape that there’s not much hope in the world. But then again...I’ve seen it happen, or begin to happen. Colorado is in the midst of talks which would give the freedom of civil unions to gay couples who want to make their partnerships publicly accountable and have been oppressed by their fellow citizens. President Obama has talked publicly about immigration reform, which while not perfect, has rays of hope for some of the poorest and most unnoticed people in society. (Name removed for privacy) has, with the help of our community holding him, begun the journey toward mental health. So there is evidence of something at work in our world, moving us toward the promises of God...
And yet...it’s still not done. It’s still not done in society, and it’s certainly still not done in myself. Because just as I can look at society and point out the incongruency with Jesus’ promise....I can do the same for my own life and everyone here can do that as well...
What are you blind to? Are you blind to love? Community? Your emotions?
What oppresses you? The fear that you don’t have enough? Family that is either overbearing, or bitterly distant? Addiction?
What holds you captive? Jobs that aren’t going anywhere? Unhealthy relationships? Yourself?
We all need Jesus’ words, and we all are desperate for Jesus’ promise to us: freedom, good news, release...We are desperate for these promises because all the things that hold us captive, that keep us oppressed, that blind us...are rooted in sin.
The language we sometimes use in the confession and absolution reminds us of this truth. It says “we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves”. Our captivity, whether societal, or internal, is due to the fact that humans are sinful creatures. We turn in on ourselves and don’t look out for our neighbors. We turn in on ourselves and begin to think that we are God. We turn in on ourselves and fearfully hoard our resources. We turn in on ourselves and forget that we are someone else’s neighbor...that someone else wants to love us.
And we desperately need that freedom. Freedom from whatever force of sin and evil that keeps us captive from God.
Today, we hear that Jesus proclaims freedom, and in hearing that proclamation we are free.
The promise of Christ is not just relegated to one time in the first century where some people in a synagogue heard him, it transcends time and place. The promise of freedom in Christ comes to us every week at the Table where we fill ourselves with his body and blood which we believe forgives sin and releases us from the captivity we face.
We are forgiven in our hearing words of forgiveness during the Confession and Absolution at the beginning of liturgy. We are freed in Christ in our eating bread and drinking wine with other blessed sinners and broken saints at the table. The things that hold us captive no longer have power over us, and no longer can keep us from the love of God. And the thing that is unsettling about all of this? We have absolutely no control over it. Upon hearing God’s promise of freedom, we have absolutely no say in the fact that daily God comes to us with forgiveness and freedom. Daily Christ shows up to break the bonds that hold us captive. Daily God says to us “I love you and you are my child with whom I am pleased.”
Because, In the realm of God, our attempts at freeing ourselves or others can only be complete when God steps in and finishes the work which God does time after time after time.
So hear this: In Christ God brings you good news, God releases you, God gives you new sight, God frees you, and God’s favor is upon you. Drink deeply of these promises, for they are fulfilled in your hearing them.
Amen.
