Sermon January 27 2019 (1)

Sermon

Amanda Lewis 

January 27, 2019 

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if there were cameras in the biblical days? I think it would be fascinating. And It would also be a great reminder that Jesus was a brown man, with callouses on his hands and dust on his feet traveling from town to town seemingly without a home of his own. But even without a camera, the beginning of the Gospel of Luke is kind of like a family scrapbook. We can flip through of snapshots of their lives.
At the beginning of the family scrapbook are pictures of Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Zechariah. Their hair is streaked with grey and you barely notice Elizabeth’s laugh lines for that radiant glow. Her arm is caressing her belly, and Uncle Zee is holding up one of those letter boards because he lost his voice after he met the angel Gabriel. Between us, I secretly think that worked out for the best: it kept Uncle Zee from annoying her.

Then there’s a picture of Mary, in a flowy dress, she’s decorated that page with doodles of angel wings, but you can still see the tear stains on the page. Ah and there’s another picture of her when she went to stay with Elizbeth and they both are rocking those baby bumps. And there are even song lyrics Mary wrote. On the next page there’s a picture of baby John, and there’s the first picture of Jesus wrapped in that white blanket with the blue and pink stripes snuggled in the manger. And here’s a picture with Mary and Joseph all dressed up in their temple clothes with “Old Man” Simeon and Anna. And there’s a bunch of pictures from that time that when Jesus was just two, and people came from another country to visit him! Mary and Joseph weren’t expecting company, but all the visitors were so lovely and even have a postcard they sent when they got back home. And there’s Jesus’ Hebrew School report card, and pictures from their annual family trip to Jerusalem for Passover. And there’s one of Jesus when he was 12 at the temple. He’s so young but he’s already seated like a teacher and everyone seems to be listening with rapt attention. The family didn’t take as many pictures when the kids got older, but we still have a few. Here’s Jesus down by the river with John, and there’s another of Jesus out in the wilderness- he desperately needs a haircut in that picture. And there’s even a note where someone wrote out the family genealogy with it seems like almost 70 generations!

These snapshots and other mementos in Luke’s Gospel teach us about Jesus and his family. But now Jesus is all grown up, and he’s even guest preaching in synagogues. People can’t stop talking about his sermon at First Synagogue and they just loved what he had to say at Main Street Synagogue. And now Jesus is back visiting in Nazareth. He volunteered to read and preach. He read perfectly, and everyone, even the folks in the back, could hear him.

I pause the narrative here because here is the place where most folks expect me to talk about a prophet being rejected in his hometown. And that is indeed what comes next in the narrative. And that message is important and does indeed resonate with many people. Whether it be a young adult going back to visit and feeling like people still see them as a kid, or maybe someone who’s ideas or beliefs are different from their families and they know that they mix just about as well as oil and vinegar. Or maybe their parents or folks they once called friends won’t accept their identity and what they now understand about who they are.

It’s a message worth exploring, but we’ll save that for another sermon. Rather I want us to pause and stay with Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth. Sure, he’s read and taught many times, but this is different. Back then he was a dedicated student and the one they all turned to read on youth Saturday. But this is a new chapter of Jesus’ life, this is the beginning of his ministry and the spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus! And Jesus doesn’t just arbitrarily choose a text out of a pile of scrolls.

Though our first text this morning from Nehemiah is not the passage Jesus reads from Isaiah, we get a glimpse at an example of Jewish worship. The priest stood before all those gathered where everyone could hear. And the priest read from the Torah and interpreted so that people could understand. And he helps to interpret it in a way that points them to what is essential to their faith as they rebuild their identity and their city after the Babylonian exile.
So when Jesus helps to lead worship in Nazareth and he stands up to read and sits down to teach he’s taking part in an ancient tradition reading sacred texts and helping folks to come to a meaningful understanding. And as Jesus reads it and tells those gathered “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus practices Midrash giving the prophetic call upon the Isaiah new meaning as the essence of Jesus’ calling, and the foundation of the Kingdom of God.

I believe Jesus carefully chooses the text he will read, laying down the foundation of his ministry, and who God calls him to be. And let us not forget, who his momma raised him to be. For the words Jesus declares echo Mary’s song of praise to God, the Magnificat, she speaks about her faith in God who lifts up those who are cast down, who feeds the hungry, and who helps those in need.

It’s easy to want to glance over the message Jesus declares, treating them like a company mission statement, only brushing them off for staff meetings or Sunday mornings. It’s a whole other thing to embrace this as the foundation of the kingdom of God. To open our heart to God’s radical justice. Jesus invites us to take part in bringing forth God’s kingdom. Jesus declares a message which is simultaneously old school and radical at the same time. And Jesus lives it out. Jesus lives out God’s justice. It’s not an easy path to follow, and its certainly not always the popular option. I don’t know about you but when I hear about it, or see it in action my spirit jumps for joy. Because even without film of Jesus’ life we get to catch glimpses of folks who follow Jesus’ example to make manifest the Kingdom of God.
On this Sunday following Martin Luther King Jr. Day let us remember the Rev. Dr. King’s dedication to following Jesus’ example. And I’m not just talking about just remembering that King had a dream, let’s remember King’s work on race, economics, and war. Folks, Kings life, advocacy, and ministry was grounded in the teachings of Jesus, and that made him so unpopular that like the Jesus he followed, he was killed. In 1967 the Rev. Dr. declared the United States, is suffering from “the sickness of racism, excessive materialism, and militarism.” A sickness that King said “has been lurking within our body politic from its very beginning.” And he went on to say “Again we have deluded ourselves into believing that the myth that Capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor- both black, and white, both here and abroad.” This is Jesus’ message at work calling for those who are oppressed to be liberated and those held captive by corrupt economic systems to be freed.

I offer you another picture of God’s kingdom in the life of Clarence Jordan who was dedicated to following Jesus. Clarence Jordan in 1942 founded a racially integrated community, Koinonia Farm outside of Americus, Georgia. The Klu Klux Klan shot at, bombed, and vandalized Koinonia. But that didn’t shake him from preaching about the new order, the Kingdom of God, which Jesus proclaimed. Jordan believed deeply in the Year of Jubilee, that Year of the Lord’s favor which Jesus invoked, and his faithfulness to this also inspired visitors to Koinonia, Linda and Millard Fuller. And together they started Habitat for Humanity.

Clarence Jordan once said about Jesus, “the good news of the resurrection is not that we shall die and go home with him, but that he has risen and comes home with us, bringing all his hungry, naked, thirsty, sick, prisoner brothers with him.” Folks this is the Good News, this is what it means to follow Jesus.
It’s good news, but if we admit it to ourselves it might not always sound like good news. For even though you and I face hardships in life we are simultaneously extremely privileged- we have access to quality education, we speak with the same accents and dialects as people who hold power, the very color of our skin is like a hall pass allowing us to go unquestioned and unbothered while others are targeted and attacked for theirs. And the teachings that Jesus proclaimed, the foundation of the Kingdom of God, calls us to examine our privilege, to make changes, to take up less space to create space for others, and to change corrupt systems for the wellbeing of all folks.
Living out Jesus’ teachings isn’t easy, it goes against the culture in which we’re immersed. And its not always popular, but it’s what God calls us to do. We may not do it perfectly, but God calls us to keep trying. So let’s keep listening to God’s promptings, and lets have open ears and open hearts to hear the voice of God, speaking through all of God’s children: our black and brown siblings, folks of every ability, gender, and identity. Particularly from voices that have been ignored and silenced: women of color, our trans siblings, and folks who are or were incarcerated.

Because this is ultimately good news, we are welcome in God’s kingdom, and we get to share it with others. We each have our own unique opportunities and the scrapbooks of our journey will all look a different, but together we get a to see more full picture of God and and God’s kingdom. May it be so and may it be soon.