A Sermon preached on Sunday 20th May 2012 - 7pm Holy Communion at St. Columba’s
The First Reading - Isaiah 61:1-1
The Gospel Reading - Luke 4:14-21
May my words and our hearts be now and always acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen
I wonder if you have ever heard anything shocking, been in a situation which you had not planned to be in but that you have to deal with because the circumstances have presented themselves ... what was your reaction? ... are you someone who panics, who flies of the handle, or when faced with a situation of unexpectedness is relaxed and ready to go with the flow and see what happens.
I have shared with a few people over the past couple of days of an incident which happened as we travelled home from the Holy Land. As you know aeroplanes have wings and they fly to great heights ... however when they have problems it is quite unnerving ... however you gotta trust the pilot and co-pilot to get you back down to land safe and sound.
Flaps and Fuel. (hebrew) ... Ambulances and fire brigade
An unexpected event ... how would the people react?
That is what we have in the Gospel reading tonight ... The sabbath ... the local community gathered together in the synagogue as they did week after week ... to hear scripture read and expounded. To sing psalms and to meet with one another. One of their number, Jesus son of Mary and Joseph, stands up and reads the reading which Alan read this evening ... but he goes further ... much further
Shocking, scary, unexpected ... He goes and sits down with all eyes fixed on him and says “Today this has been fulfilled in your hearing”
Which those people in that synagogue knew had huge implications ... The only person who could say those words was the Messiah ‘the anoninted one’ ... the saviour of the world ... the one who would free them from Roman Occupation ...
Huge implications if it is True, if this was fulfilled ... Then the Kingdom of God in all its fulness was being worked out as they sat there in that synagogue that day in Nazareth.
Let’s look at what Jesus was saying
Jesus declares an end to the waiting. He says that all is fulfilled in him: he is the bringer of good news to the poor; the freer of captives, the healer of the blind, the liberator of the oppressed, the one whose words bring in the new era of God’s blessing. Jesus does not look back to when it was better before, nor look forward to what might be if all went well. He says: all that is here now. In me.
This has implication for us. What Jesus does here is to say that God’s eternal new day has dawned. What the prophets longed for has been realised, and because this is the new day, the acceptable year, the day of the Lord’s favour, it is now here for ever.
The great news is that when Jesus said those words in that ancient synagogue
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” is spoken to us now as well as to the people in the Nazareth synagogue.
It means that everything about God’s new kingdom is here, for us to live in for ever.
It may not be fully revealed, but the reality is now, and part of our task it to bring this to fruition.
The huge challenge in this is for each one of us,
Firstly to accept that God’s New Rule has arrived... everything is new
Good News, Comfort, Joy, Peace, Hope
When you pick up a newspaper ... you dont see these things all that often however as Christians these are the things we proclaim ... we can do none other.
We need to accept and live in these promises.
And then we need to share ---> as people who are his disciples to help in the work of the kingdom of God in our small corners of our world.
- To Bring good news
- to bind up broken hearts
- to comfort those who mourn
Shocking news, unexpected news but it is Good News ... When we heard news about problems with the plane ... There may have been an expectation of panic however as a plane full of strangers there was a sense that we’ll get through this together. That was our response on Friday Morning.
If we read on in the Gospel reading we would see that the crowds reaction was one of anger to the point of wanting to get rid of Jesus ... of trying to fling him of a cliff
I wonder what our response day by day is to the good news which we hear in these readings tonight.
Are we ready to accept Jesus is who he says he is and then share this news with others?
This is the basis of our faith.
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