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3rd Sunday after the Epiphany
January 24, 2010
“The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me”
Reverend Michael D. PowellLuke 4:14-21 |
"I am not an optimist, because I am not sure that everything ends well. Nor am I a pessimist, because I am not sure everything ends badly. I just carry hope in my heart. Life without hope is an empty, boring and useless life. I cannot imagine that I could strive for something if I did not carry hope in me. I am thankful to God for this gift. It is as big a gift as life itself." (Vaclav Havel)
The images are overwhelming. After a couple of miraculous rescues of survivors after 10 full days in the rubble, the search and rescue operation has been suspended. Anni and I watched the Hope for Haiti telethon Friday evening and when I woke up Saturday morning the first thing I thought of was how much I had done in the past ten days, all the places I’d been, meetings I’d attended, meals I’d eaten, people I’d talked with, comfortable nights I’d slept, and as I laid there in bed, I thought of what it would be like to be injured and in pain, with no food or water, trapped in the darkness under tons of concrete. A single night would be horrifying. I simply can’t imagine anyone surviving for 10 days. And there was the story of the mother, hearing her crying baby and digging by hand for 50 hours before help arrived, and they rescued the child alive. The images are miraculous, horrifying and overwhelming.
We are a blessed church. Last Sunday, in one single offering, you opened your hearts and wallets, giving $2,662 to UMCOR for Haiti relief efforts. I’m aware that many others made online donations, and probably many of you have given through other channels as well. Your compassion and generosity are a huge part of what makes us the Body of Christ. You are a blessing!
And then I read this morning’s scripture, when Jesus opens his ministry with these prophetic words from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” It is a scripture that goes directly to the heart of these times we’re living in.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me:” These days we hear the phrase “Spirit-filled,” and it’s often understood as practically antithetical to a socially concerned ministry to the poor. All too often it’s been co-opted to mean a kind of private spirituality. But for Luke, and in our United Methodist tradition, the criteria for determining what it means to be Spirit-filled can never mean escaping or ignoring the needs of the world. In our own United Methodist Book of Discipline the local church is described as a community of faith, “under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.” To be filled with the Spirit leads us into a deeper awareness of situations of suffering, and for compassionate identification with the poor and the oppressed of the world.
Luke was a Greek physician who cared deeply about those who were sick and poor, and that influenced the way he perceived and presented Jesus in his gospel. The Jesus Christ he preaches is the Great Physician, ministering to the powerless and disenfranchised, including women and children. This morning’s scripture is a signature story for Luke that sets the stage for everything that is to come. The Holy Spirit anoints Jesus as the bringer of the Good News, the gospel of God’s healing love, and it is proclaimed to “the poor, to prisoners, to the blind and the oppressed.”
And it’s important that we don’t spiritualize away the literal meaning of those words. He’s not just talking about the “poor in spirit.” He’s talking about the dirt poor who are dying in the rubble! The clear teaching throughout the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts is that the infilling of the Holy Spirit resulted in concrete acts of what United Methodists have called “social ministry” or a “social Gospel.”
It is also obvious, however, that the Good News of God’s love is not proclaimed exclusively to those who are literally poor, blind and oppressed. That would exclude most of us, and many devout and faithful believers. There are both physical and spiritual dimensions to being poor, blind and oppressed. The point is that God’s love always bends toward human need. For the hungry and the thirsty, the gospel may be bread and water. For those confronted with death, the gospel is God’s promise that death is not the end. For those who are suffering, whatever that suffering may entail, the gospel may very well be the words, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble.” For others, the Gospel may be freedom from political tyranny. Likewise, if a person is wallowing in guilt, the gospel is the assurance of God’s forgiveness. The point is that the gospel is always related to human need. It is never truth in a vacuum. The gospel is God’s Truth, God’s hope, God’s action, God’s presence manifested to a particular person, a particular need, a particular historical situation.
You and I are the Body of Christ living in the world today. Our challenge is to be “a community of faith, living under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.” Our mission is to proclaim the Good News of God’s liberating, healing, comforting love to those who are in need. “We are all God’s people. We are called by Christ to ministries of love, justice and reconciliation to our church, community and world.”
Jesus concludes his reading of the Isaiah passage with these haunting words. “Today, the words of this scripture are fulfilled in your hearing.” The words are a challenge laid directly at our doorstep. I am thankful for the comforting words of Jesus. God knows we all need comfort and assurance. But I am also thankful that today and every time we gather to worship, the gospel of Jesus Christ confronts and challenges us to be more than we might otherwise be. The gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to change and to be more! That change may involve an attitude, such as becoming more loving, less judgmental, or more forgiving. It may be a challenge to change our way of thinking about ourselves, or others, being more positive, more hopeful, more encouraging. Or it may involve financial priorities, such as being more trusting, more generous, focusing more on giving and less on getting. Always we are being confronted, challenged to change and grow, to open ourselves up to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and become more Christ like!
Comparisons are deadly, but even those hit hardest by the recession, even those who have taken pay cuts and lost jobs have so much to be thankful for. Mother Teresa spent a lifetime working among the poorest of the poor in the worst slums of the world, but she once commented that the greatest spiritual poverty she had ever experienced was in America, among those who had not yet learned to trust, to be generous and to bless others as they had been blessed. The therapist/spiritual writer, Jacob Jampolski, tells of an eye opening experience he had when he was blessed with an opportunity to spend time with Mother Teresa. As she was about to depart for New Guinea, Jampolski asked if he could fly with her in order to have more time to learn from her. "'Do you have enough money for airfare to New Guinea?' she asked. 'Yes,' he replied eagerly. 'Then give that money to the poor,' she said. 'You'll learn more from that than anything I can tell you.'" He goes on to say that her gentle response opened his eyes, and changed his life.
We are a blessed church. The Spirit of the Lord is upon us, for in our own small way we have been appointed, and anointed to preach good news to the poor. Your compassion and generosity inspire me, and offer hope for the world. I’ll close by repeating the words I opened with, written by Vaclav Havel, the Czech poet/President who, after years of suffering and persecution, wrote: "I am not an optimist, because I am not sure that everything ends well. Nor am I a pessimist, because I am not sure everything ends badly. I just carry hope in my heart . . . I cannot imagine that I could strive for something if I did not carry hope in me. I am thankful to God for this gift. It is as big a gift as life itself." Thanks be to God; and may Christ be your shalom. Amen.