Sermon: Your life matters. (Jan. 24, 2016)

Epiphany 3C

January 24, 2016

Luke 4:14-21

  

            If you have watched the news at all in the past couple years, you are aware of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. This movement is primarily responsible for bringing the issue of racism back into America’s awareness – which has left some people grateful that we are finally addressing this, and others annoyed because they feel that racism, at least as it looked in the 1960s, is no longer really an issue in America. Whatever your particular stance, the conversation has been opened, and this is largely the reason that the ELCA, our national church body, as well as the Upstate New York Synod specifically, have chosen to focus on addressing the question, “How does racism look in 2016, and how should the Church respond to it?” One way the Upstate NY Synod has addressed it is to make the topic the focus of our Synod Assembly, our annual gathering for business and learning. In fact, you’re encouraged to engage in learning about it even if you’re not attending the event. If you are interested in learning more about this, there is information in our February

newsletter, or you can talk to me about it.

            Now, I know that starting my sermon by talking about Black Lives Matter has probably already turned some people off, but stay with me here, because I think it is a helpful entry point for our Gospel reading today. First, some background: This proclamation Jesus offers in the synagogue is Jesus’ very first public appearance in Luke’s Gospel, and first appearances are really significant because they provide a key to understanding Jesus’ purpose. By reading this particular passage from Isaiah, and punctuating it with the brief yet powerful statement, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” Jesus is making a powerful statement about who he is and his ministry. Sort of like when a presidential hopeful declares their candidacy, their opening speech sets the tone for their goals and purpose, and what we will see and what we can expect from them from here on out.

            So what is Jesus saying, then, about his purpose and who he is? Take a look at the reading again – if you had to take a guess, looking at what Jesus read, and his commentary about it, for whom has Jesus come, and what is his intention? [wait for answers]

            ⁸“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,
 ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
²⁰And 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. ²¹Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

            [In conversation, highlight that this passage shows Jesus’ interest in the poor, blind, imprisoned, oppressed, and indebted. Explain “the year of the Lord’s favor” and the year of Jubilee.

Are these people important to society? Not really. Summarize conclusions.]

Now, even though Jesus likely meant this literally, and even if literally, we wouldn’t be included on this list, taken metaphorically we could consider ourselves to be any one of these people as well. We are poor – we feel the loneliness of lack, of feeling like we don’t have what we need and aren’t really sure how to get it; we may not even be sure of what it is that we need in the first place! We are captives – imprisoned by our fears, by our guilt, by our shame, by our nagging feelings of being “not enough” for whatever it is life requires of us. We are blind – unable or unwilling to see beyond our experience, unable to see the beauty even in someone who, on the outside, looks undesirable, unable to see God in all things. We are oppressed – by so many demands that life puts upon us, by the unfair expectations of the world, by the unfair expectations we put on ourselves. We are indebted – we long for “the year of the Lord’s favor,” the year of Jubilee, when all debts and guilt are forgiven, when we can finally let go of all the baggage that weighs us down and keeps us from living lives of fullness and joy. Though I think that when Jesus reads this passage, he means those who physically and literally are poor, blind, imprisoned, oppressed, and indebted, I also believe that we cannot so quickly remove ourselves from the list.

            Whether literal or metaphorical, it seems that Jesus’ interest is in the weakest and most vulnerable members of society. How counter to expectation Luke tells us that Jesus entered the scene “filled with the power of the Spirit,” yet Jesus seems to have no interest in hobnobbing with the other powerful people of the world. No, his interest is in the least powerful. You could even say that Jesus prioritizes, or has a preference for, the weakest members of society.

Now, here is where I see a relationship between Jesus’ proclamation and the Black Lives Matter movement. I was among those, and maybe you are too, who felt a little uneasy about saying “black lives matter.” I mean, they do matter, I agree with that, but so does everyone else’s life! Right? Can’t we say “all lives matter” to the same effect? What changed my mind and my heart about that was an analogy offered by one theologian – one who happens to be a black man who lives in a mostly white neighborhood, and who has various times been pulled over for no reason, and given the explanation from the police that they were “just doing their job.” He describes it this way: in any given neighborhood, all the houses matter. But if one of the houses is on fire, the fire department will come and throw water on that house – not because the other houses don’t matter, but because the

house on fire matters especially right now. He adds, “Right now, our house is on fire.”

            In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is saying something similar. The people he names – the poor, blind, imprisoned, oppressed, and indebted – they are people who, in the eyes of the world, don’t matter. They are weak, or invaluable to society. They don’t contribute. They are moochers, and ne’er-do-wells. They are the people who, at best, are the objects of pity, and at worst are looked down upon, ridiculed, and dismissed. In Jesus’ world, and in some ways, in ours, they don’t matter. But Jesus, in this introductory announcement of his public ministry, says, “Poor lives matter. Blind lives matter. Imprisoned lives matter. Oppressed lives matter. Indebted lives matter. These lives matter to me – and I have come to save them.”

            That’s pretty good news. Really, it’s great news. But the best news to me here is not that Jesus has come to save people, even the people lowest on the totem pole. What is the best news to me is that: our God would do that. The best news is that these people whom society would rather sweep under the rug and ignore – God sees these people. God sees them, and loves them so much that God would send Jesus specifically for them. Those lives matter to God.

            And going back to my earlier suggestion that, taken metaphorically, we could all be considered poor, blind, imprisoned, oppressed and indebted… that means that God sees you, too, and knows you, and loves you. Even when we feel overcome by shame, or buried in doubt, or stuck gazing into the abyss of our own navels, or completely unlovable, Jesus says to us, “Your life matters.” It matters so much, that Jesus would come to earth and die on our behalf, so that we could be raised up again with him in new life.

Today, this message is fulfilled in your hearing, and in your seeing, and in your living, knowing that this is most certainly true.

            Let us pray… Seeing God, we thank you that our lives matter to you, even when we don’t feel like they should, and that you came to earth specifically for those who need you the most. Open our eyes to see our neighbors as people who matter truly and deeply to you, and help us know how to love and serve them as Jesus did. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.