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Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, I Thessalonians 5:16-24, John 1:6-8, 19-28
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Rev'd W. Lee Shaw
Even in the first verses of John’s Gospel we see the tensions building between John and the powerful political and religious establishment. He is being questioned about his identity and mission by men sent from the Pharisees to determine what kind of threat John presents. John is very astute in his answers. He makes sure they know he is not the Messiah. He quotes Isaiah to build his case as to who he is: the one to prepare the way for the Messiah. Then comes his wonderful teaser: “Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me….” You can just see them looking around. And there in their midst is a young man named Jesus, the cousin of John. He is right there among them and they cannot see him. Nor will they be able to hear him later.
The very next day Jesus begins his ministry by calling the first of his disciples. Then in John’s Gospel Jesus’ ministry gets officially started with the wonderful miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the changing of water into wine. I believe it is always nice to start a new venture with a party.
Throughout the Gospels we hear of the miracles and healings, the stories and parables, but we get very few sermons from Jesus. The most famous being the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, or as Luke puts it, the Sermon on the Plain. But there is another sermon and one I feel encompasses all of them, his very first sermon as recorded in Luke’s Gospel, (Read Luke 4:16-21).
Does that sound familiar to you? We heard part of it earlier today in the reading from Isaiah. The prophet, sometimes called Third Isaiah, wrote this after the restoration of Israel from Babylon. They are back in Jerusalem. He is encouraging them for the rebuilding—restoring—of the city and recommitting themselves to God. The original context was in the rebuilding of the nation of Israel. Jesus is not merely quoting the prophet; Jesus is fulfilling the prophet.
Jesus has taken the passage and made it his own. He uses it to set out his own agenda for the building up of the new Israel, what will become of the Christian faith, or as the early members called themselves, “The Way.” Jesus has fulfilled and then pushed the words of the prophet into a new context, the setting of a new way, a new law that fulfills all that had come before it. This is Jesus’ first sermon and in his home town. This sets his agenda for all that will follow. He is careful to emphasize the words of the prophet that highlight his new ministry.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me….he has anointed me…,
(Messiah means the anointed one). Then hear what he feels he is
called to do in this fulfilling of the prophet’s words: preach good
news to the poor�proclaim release to the captives�recovering of sight
to the blind�to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim
the year of the Lord’s favor
, (Luke 4:18-19).
For us, the followers of the Christ, for those of us on The Way, this
is our call to faith, our call to ministry. Christianity is not a
passive religion. Jesus calls his followers to specific actions in
his name: preach good news, give release, restore sight, set at
liberty the oppressed, �proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
All of this speaks to the Gospel imperative of justice. This is the stump speech, as it were, of Jesus. Everything he does and says builds on this understanding of his mission. It needs to be our understanding as well if we are to follow him along The Way.
Justice is the imperative of the Gospel as much as love is the law of the Gospel. They go hand in hand: justice in voice and body, love in heart and mind.
I do not believe we can fully follow Jesus along The Way unless we
�work for justice and peace among all people,
using the words
of our Baptismal Covenant. We are commissioned in baptism, to work
for justice and peace for those on the margins of society, the
oppressed, the persecuted, the minority, any person, or group, less
they fall victim to the tyranny of the majority.
Let me be very clear because this is so important:
It matters not who these people are.
It matters not the color of their skin or their race.
It matters not their accent of if they even know English.
It matters not their age or their sex.
It matters not their sexual orientation or sexual identity.
It matters not their poverty or their wealth.
It matters not their ability or their dis-ability.
It matters not if they are human or not. We are called to work for justice
for all creation because God made all creation and God declared it good.
What matters is that Jesus calls us—you and me—into his reign to work for justice for them, for all God’s children and all God’s creation. This is the message of his first sermon, which almost got him killed. This is the message he died for on the cross. This is the message he gives to us in his resurrection: to make disciples of all people so they will follow him on The Way.
The great prophet of our own day, Martin Luther King, Jr., put it this
way: The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.
As St. Paul notes, if God is on our side who can be against us?
History is on the side of justice. God is on the side of justice. It
is our call to work for justice and peace for all people, all
creation. No exceptions.
Now, some may call me a so-called bleeding heart liberal for this. I
don’t know about that. What I do know is that I am called to follow
the message of the man who bled for me on that cross outside of
Jerusalem; the man who gave his life so that I could preach his word
and work to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
How can I
do any other? How can any of us?