Epiphany III - in your hearing of it

There is a return to the Gospel according to Luke today -- Luke is our companion for this third of a three-year lectionary. We're still interested in 'beginnings' at this point in the lectionary, so today's reading is Luke's description of how Jesus begins what we learn to call his 'public ministry.'

After making the rounds of the local towns, teaching in the neighboring synagogues, he heads home. He goes, '...to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom,' and reads for the hometown crowd. A nice bit of Isaiah - beloved prophet of the people.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," Jesus reads from the scroll.

"Ooo, who is this?" That's the general response from the hometown crowd -- at least in this part of the reading. "He reads so nicely! So gracious a presence and voice, Not Like Some..."

Hometowns are dangerous. Too familiar.

Perhaps you have been in the position of meeting people's expectations, or being an occasional crowd-pleaser. It can be intoxicating. 'Let's stay on this mountaintop,' one might say. Certainly, I wouldn't want to disappoint or challenge anyone's expectations.

Before we get to Jesus' challenge to the hometown crowd, though (that's next week, when we finish the scenario), we have his simple, cryptic response:

'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'

To hear is to obey.

In the section Jesus read to the synagogue, Isaiah had been writing how the Spirit of the Lord was resting on the Prophet, and that the measure of whether the pronouncement of the Prophet (and all prophets) was indeed drawing from the spirit of the Lord was whether it did indeed bring 'good news to the poor.' Does it liberate, restore sight, set free that which is oppressed? Does it proclaim in word and deed what it means for divine favor truly to dwell richly with us?

This proclamation is made real, enfleshed, 'in-your-hearing-of-it.' Truly hearing it. Truly taking it in, as water into parched soil. Embodying this liberative word, it is fulfilled then in us, in our truly hearing it.

Yes, Jesus may be alluding to himself - certainly much later Christian interpretation preferred this route - in saying that the Spirit of the Lord rests on the speaker, Jesus, who has been anointed (Christos - in Greek - means anointed).

So, look out! If I were the hometown crowd, I would not be complimenting him (so handsome! Is this not Joseph's son?) -- I'd be wary, wondering what is coming next after such a statement.

Are the poor given good news in our proclamations?
Are the captive and oppressed made more free?
Are those suffering from any blindness given their sight to see truly?

The Spirit of the Lord rested on him, and He was anointed to show us the way to participate in God's liberation of all things.

The Spirit of the Lord rests on you, too, and this word is fulfilled - embodied - in your hearing of it.

Take it into yourself. Let it penetrate to the core of your being, your sadness, your vulnerability. Be made into an instrument of the Peace of God, the Spirit of the Lord, the Way of Peace.