Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] September 5, 2021 “What Is Our Work?” Luke 4: 14-30 – Common English Bible If Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news about him spread throughout the whole countryside. 15 He taught in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16 Jesus then went to Nazareth, where he had been raised. On the Sabbath he went to the synagogue, as he normally did, and stood up to read. 17 The synagogue assistant gave him the scroll from the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord anointed me. And sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, 19 and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. 20 He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the synagogue assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the synagogue was fixed on him. 21 He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.” 22 Everyone was raving about Jesus, so impressed were they by the gracious words flowing from his lips. They said, “This is Joseph’s son, isn’t it?” 23 Then Jesus said to them, “Undoubtedly, you will quote this saying to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we’ve heard you did in Capernaum.’” 24 He said, “I assure you that no prophet is welcome in the prophet’s hometown. 25 And I can assure you that there were many widows in Israel during Elijah’s time, when it didn’t rain for three and a half years and there was a great food shortage in the land. 26 Yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to a widow in the city of Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 There were also many persons with skin diseases in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them were cleansed. Instead, Naaman the Syrian was cleansed.” 28 When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with anger. 29 They rose up and ran him out of town. They led him to the crest of the hill on which their town had been built so that they could throw him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the crowd and went on his way. Here we are, gathered on Labor Day weekend, the last hurrah of summer. At the beginning of the summer, we were full of hope and relief that we were finally approaching the other side of the pandemic. Just think, on Memorial Day weekend, we weren’t yet back in the sanctuary. We made plans assuming the cooperation of the general public, but instead of cooperation, bad behavior, even reprehensible behavior, has sunk as low as at any time during the pandemic. Health care workers were once hailed with the banging of pots and pans every night. Now they’re saving people who argue about Covid even as they go on oxygen. They’re worn out and angry, questioning their choice of profession. Today, even if for one day, we honor and celebrate them. And on this Labor Day weekend, ask, what is our work? School teachers and bus drivers have been made experimental subjects by ambitious politicians in search of poll numbers. I simply don’t understand how anyone can fight over keeping them and kids safe and legislate to guarantee infection. Different methods, yes. But a complete refusal to ensure public health? Today, even if for one day, we honor and celebrate them. And on this Labor Day weekend, ask, what is our work? Remember the term “essential workers?” People working checkout lines, stocking shelves, who wait on us, clean, cook, harvest, repair our utilities, deliver mail and packages, stand on the line to process meat, pick up garbage… Some in unions who have rights, and many who would love a 40-hour work week, but have to string together multiple jobs to survive, few with any benefits like health insurance. The “working poor” on whose backs the country depends to avoid collapse. And migrant workers in the hot sun but who have to hide at night. Today, even if for one day, we honor and celebrate them. And on this Labor Day weekend, ask, what is our work? So, I turn to our text today. Jesus returned home. News had spread throughout the land about his work as a healer and miracle worker. Throughout the countryside he was welcomed as a teacher in synagogues and, as it says, was praised by everyone. Naturally when he went to Nazareth, the people were excited. Everyone who had previously known him as simply Joseph’s son wanted a little taste of his fame. Do for us what you have done for them. On the Sabbath, the synagogue assistant handed him the scroll from the prophet Isaiah to read. You realize, of course, that he wasn’t handed a Bible that he could flip through and choose a text. You don’t flip through a scroll. He read from the scroll he was handed. It was from Isaiah 61: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. The Lord has sent me to preach good news to the poor, To proclaim release to the prisoners, To liberate the oppressed, And to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. As Phil Campbell said at Lunch and Lectionary on Thursday, that text includes lots of buzzwords that make progressive Christians smile, especially the liberation of the oppressed. To proclaim release to the prisoners, or as other translations say, release to the captives. That preaches well because we can write all kinds of sermons about that to which we are captive, from addiction to capitalism and white privilege. But I don’t know if you noticed, and I don’t know if the hometown crowd at the synagogue in Nazareth noticed either; Jesus added one line to his reading that isn’t in Isaiah. What did he add? It’s right in the middle. Release of prisoners “and recovery of sight to the blind.” Now, you might ask, what’s the big deal about that. He was a healer. Of course, if he was going to add anything, he would add healing. But that’s not the kind of blindness he was referring to. If it were, the crowd wouldn’t have ended this encounter with an attempt to throw him off a cliff. As an aside, Sharyl Peterson reminded us on Thursday that there are no cliffs outside the town of Nazareth. Luke used that for dramatic effect. It is, in fact, useful for us to imagine the extent of their rage that they would throw off one of their own, the boy about whom they had just expressed so much hometown pride. They were about to throw him off a cliff?! They just wanted him to do something special for them. So, he did. He accused them of being blind. And just in case they didn’t notice that line added to Isaiah, he added insults to their injury. He told them that God saved the widow from Zarephath of starvation but let the widows of Israel suffer the famine. He told them that the commander of the enemy army, Naaman the Syrian, was cured of his leprosy but not the many lepers in Israel. So, if they hadn’t noticed the line about blindness before, they saw it now. Again, they tried not only to run him out of town, but to throw him off a cliff. But through their blinding rage, they didn’t notice him walk right through the middle and off, not a cliff, but on his way. That’s actually one of my favorite lines in scripture. While everyone was so busy with their anger and overcome with rage, he calmly passed right through. Perhaps there’s a sermon in there for this pandemic rage we are living through. Imagine those scenes on the news of school board meetings and meetings of public health officials. Crowds so riled up, they’re frothing at the mouth. But imagine while in the middle of that, officials just get up to leave while the crowd is distracted by their rage, leaving them to look up and wonder what just happened. Yes, that’s pure fantasy, but sometimes we need to dream. And perhaps that’s the way we could deal with those who wish to get into arguments with us. So, for today, what might be our response to the blindness of which Jesus spoke? It is certainly to examine and confess our participation in the exploitation of all who labor for our comfort and who care for our needs. It is to ask, where does Jesus push our progressive buttons or make us uncomfortable? That’s where we will find the gospel. But here’s my other suggestion: It is to see the exhaustion of health care workers. We’re tired of all this division, but our work is to not turn a blind eye to their plight or of schoolteachers. It is to see the struggle of essential workers. And say something. They are enduring the unjustified angry onslaught of people who refuse the Common Good of our neighbors. We can’t just roll our eyes. We must speak up to support and to challenge. Not necessarily the science, but to remind the world that there is such a thing as a public good. How is it that we have lost sight of our role as members of a community? How is it especially that Christians choose to break the most important commandment of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, to love our neighbors as ourselves? As Jim Keck said at the beginning of pandemic, our role as Christians is to love our neighbors, not infect them. But we’re left having to pray to Jesus, please save us. Instead, I pray, Jesus, please help us recover our sight. Give us eyes to see the suffering of our neighbors. To not turn a blind eye. And so, on this Labor Day weekend, that is our work. Despite our exhaustion with this pandemic, don’t be sightless of workers on the front lines or voiceless in their defense. Friends and members of Park Hill, let me remind you: The Spirit of the Lord is upon you, because the Lord has anointed you, as Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah: To preach good news to the poor, (or rather with, and alongside) To proclaim release to the prisoners and all who are captive, To liberate the oppressed, to free those who are overburdened, And proclaim the year of our Lord’s favor – the time when justice has come. And yes, as Jesus added, recovery of sight to all who choose blindness to our neighbors, to neighborliness itself, and all who suffer. Look and see. In the time of transition now upon us, the temptation is to look inward, only inward. That is very important, but see it not as your only work. I know you understand. And therefore, I look forward to continuing to hear the news spread of how you are reimagining these words of Isaiah and Jesus for the days and years to come.
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