In our Gospel reading this morning we heard how Jesus returned to his hometown and read from the scripture in the synagogue. I am sure it must have been an occasion of wonder on the part of the people of Nazareth as Jesus stood to read from the roll of the prophet Isaiah: THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME!! The crowd was probably stunned as he further told them that this prophecy was FULFILLED in their ears, that day! There was no doubt among the people of Nazareth and the rest of the Jewish people that these words referred to the Messiah, the anointed one of God, who was to come. Now we see Jesus, announcing to the world, and especially to those who knew him best, that Yes, indeed, He was that Messiah. He announces loudly, plainly and clearly that:
THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME!!
This story in the gospel of Luke is different from the other synoptic gospel writers of Matthew and Mark who describe the start of the ministry of Jesus with the arrest of John the Baptist. Luke alone refers to the work of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. He wrote that Jesus returned, from the wilderness, in the Power of the Spirit to Galilee and taught in their synagogues. Then he went to his hometown of Nazareth and as was his custom he went to synagogue on the Sabbath. Just as an aside let us reflect a moment on that verse:
Is it not comforting to hear that it was his CUSTOM
to go to synagogue on the Sabbath? It was a regular
part of his piety to participate in the Sabbath worship
with the community. Saint Luke also records at another
place in his gospel that Jesus used to go to the Mount
of Olives to pray, as was his custom. (Luke 22:30) So
our Lord customarily worshipped and prayed with the
community and in private to his heavenly Father. This
is a great example for us.
On this occasion he entered the synagogue and was handed the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah to read. The worship of the synagogue at the time required a specific reading from the Law or Torah and then a reading from the Prophets which was left to the choice of the reader. Our Lord chose what we know as Chapter 61 of the Prophet Isaiah to read:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor and to heal the broken-hearted. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” [Isaiah 61:1-2]
Jesus was telling them that he was the one that they were expecting to come and straighten out the conditions which they found themselves. He was telling them that the Year of the Lord had indeed arrived. The great day of liberation when debts were forgiven, land was returned to its original owner, and slaves were set free, the day of Jubilee had come!! The Spirit was upon Jesus! The words of Isaiah had come true as they were spoken by Jesus. For the Spirit of the Lord had descended and lighted on Jesus at his Baptism. This season of Epiphany concentrates on the beginning of Jesus' ministry as he manifested himself to the people of Israel.
The celebration of the season of Epiphany began two weeks ago with the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, by John the Baptist: last week we read of his first miracle at Cana; and now this week we read of how Jesus stood before his hometown folks and proclaimed the intent of his ministry. He told them that he had come to proclaim the Good News of Redemption and Release. This proclamation was an announcement of his gifts of healing and liberation. These gifts are a direct result of his empowerment by the Holy Spirit that came upon him at his baptism. Remember how Luke described his returning in the power of the Spirit. At the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus tells his disciples that they must remain in Jerusalem until they have received power from on high. This power came from on high as a mighty rushing wind. The Hebrew word Ruach and the Greek word Pnema mean either "wind, spirit, breath" and so the Spirit blows like a wind where it wills and imparts its gifts as it wills. Last week at the Adult Forum we talked about the same things from Rob Bell’s film called BREATH from the NOOMA film series.
In Genesis chapter 1, it says the Spirit of God moved over the waters and began the process of creation. Whenever God moves in power throughout the Bible, we read of the action of the Spirit of God coming mightily upon someone to empower them for service to the Lord. But the Spirit must have a body to empower. Throughout scripture you can read of all the people of God being empowered by his Spirit. Such as Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Jephthah, David and Saul for leadership while Zechariah, Isaiah and Ezekiel were empowered for prophecy. Throughout all ages, when people are called by God for ministry and service, we find that they boldly proclaim:
THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME!
The empowering Spirit is for the function of ministry, so that the Good News may be spread to all the people. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we learn that the Good News is that the Blood of Jesus cleanses us from every stain of sin and where we once felt distant from God we know, now, that the veil is removed, and we can draw near to him. At the beginning of December in 1997, I had the privilege of serving on the first Kairos team to Georgia State Prison at Reidsville. It was an awesome weekend. Prior to that weekend, I had spent 22 weekends at Augusta State Medical Prison, but they were nothing like the one at Reidsville. When our team arrived at Georgia State Prison we were met by the Chaplain and the Correctional Emergency Reaction Team guys who told us they wanted to see what the Kairos could do, so they were giving us 42 tough nuts to crack. They were guys who had been on death row, leaders of gangs in the prison and had tried to kill each other.
They put us in the gym and so we partitioned it into a meeting area, a dining and chapel area. Thursday evening, we did introductions and a few meditations and left for night. We came back on Friday to start with the talks. The first talk was Choices, and I knew something was up when I saw men at my table. I had never seen that before. THE SPIRIT WAS MOVING!
One of the residents at Reidsville commented on Saturday, at the “open mike session” how he noticed that the members of the team looked alike. He said it was something in our eyes that was similar and gave us a certain look. Several got up and talked about how their lives were now different and changed by the Kairos experience. They promised the Chaplain they would back him up now to spread the Kairos throughout the Prison. The chaplain was in tears, we were in tears pretty soon all of those really, really tough, bad guys were in tears.
The Deputy Warden got up at the closing ceremony on Sunday and told us people in the local restaurant that day were helping out the staff who were short-handed by serving each other and washing dishes. He could not figure it out. He thought the Spirit must have been slipping through the razor wire.
One of the songs we sing at Cursillo and Kairos is “They will know we are Christians by our love.” It begins with the words;
“We are One in the Spirit We are One in the Lord.”
In our scripture lesson from Nehemiah, Ezra the priest reads to the assembled people of God, from the Word of God. They gathered in community to hear the Word and to Worship the Lord. They drew their strength from the Word which became their shield and salvation. They as the body came to understand that all their problems came when they failed to keep the Law and listen to the Lord through his Word. But as they and we gather to praise His name and lift him up and proclaim his good news then we, like they, are also lifted by him. We draw our strength through our worship and praise of him who sits enthroned above the heavens. The mission of the church, the body of Christ is to preach good news to the poor, heal the broken-hearted, proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Behold, THIS is the year of the Lord, NOW is the day of salvation.
In our Epistle this morning Saint Paul points out that the gifts of the Spirit that we heard about last week are manifested in the Body of Christ, which is made up of many parts. The gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and interpretation of tongues are given for the common good of the body. Out of this diversity of gifts and parts of the body, the Lord develops and builds his church which lives out its mission in community. The mission to preach good news to the poor, heal the broken-hearted, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, set at liberty those who are oppressed, and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Paul was trying to get the church at Corinth to see that all the gifts are important for the proper functioning of the body. All the parts of the body are important and needed for the proper functioning of the body.
At St. Augustine’s we must be ever zealous for our mission of: With God’s help, we will proclaim Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will inspire people through worship, we will know one another by name, we will know and honor our neighbors as children of God and serve them in love, and we will strive for justice and peace respecting the dignity of all people. For when this happens, we are one in the Spirit we are one in the Lord. We can proclaim like Jesus did in the synagogue at Nazareth that,
THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON US!!