(Sometimes you have to go back to basics. For Jesus that was Isaiah 61 and for us at Empire Remixed and Wine Before Breakfast it might look like Luke 4.16-30. In light of recent events, and in large part in response to Jessica Brown’s post last week on this site, this is the sermon I preached for the community on July 23, 2013.)
“He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written.”
He went looking for this prophecy.
This was his home town, the family was there,
so were the neighbours who had watched him grow into the man he now was,
and so also, his Torah teachers were waiting to hear what their student would say,
and he wanted to get it right.
So he took a moment and found the prophecy.
And as he began to read, smiles came upon everyone’s faces.
Yes, this was the prophecy that was on their hearts,
this was the prophecy that they could recite by heart,
this was the prophecy that was at the heart of it all.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”
The Spirit that brooded over the face of the deep in the beginning,
the Spirit who was blown into the earth creature and he became a human created in the image of God,
the Spirit who restores the face of the earth,
the Spirit who filled the builders of the tabernacle as they made an earthly home for God,
the Spirit who led the children of Israel as the Shekinah presence of God in the wilderness,
the Spirit who indwelt the Torah and led them in paths of righteousness,
the Spirit who possessed the prophets to stand up against idolatry and injustice …
that Spirit, says the prophet ‘is upon me,’
because he has anointed me …
to bring good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to captives,
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
Jesus reaching for Isaiah 61 was almost as predictable that morning in Nazareth
as is my reaching for Luke 4 this evening in Toronto.
If you want to get to the heart of things quick,
then these are the texts.
If you want to find a word that will speak radical hope
into a context of injustice,
then Jesus quoting Isaiah is the place to turn.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.
Here is the beginning of his Manifesto.
Here is the platform of the campaign,
Here is the foundation of it all.
Why are you here?
Because the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.
Why might we want to follow you?
Because I have been anointed by that same Spirit.
You see, no one had seen much of the Spirit for generations in Israel.
The Spirit kind of left home,
got out of town,
back around the Babylonian exile.
And while she sometimes would show up as Lady Wisdom,
and sometimes would help illuminate the Torah for the community,
no one ever thought that the Spirit, the Presence, the Glory
of the Holy One had ever returned to the land
(or for that matter, to the Temple).
And without the Spirit, there is no hope,
Without the Spirit, there is no future,
Without the Spirit, there is no vision.
Without the Spirit, there is no Presence.
Without the Spirit, there is no return from exile.
And without the Spirit,
there is only bad news for the poor,
imposed captivity,
blindness,
and oppression.
Indeed, without the Spirit,
there is no favourable year of the Lord,
just one damn year after another.
But make no mistake, Isaiah is saying,
and make no mistake, Jesus is echoing,
when the one who is anointed by the Spirit comes,
there is a revolution afoot.
Neither Jesus nor Isaiah would have any use for the kind of pietism
that rejoices in ecstatic spiritual experiences
devoid of justice.
They would be appalled at the Spirit being evoked
in the name of the gospel of prosperity.
They would be horrified that folks who claimed to have the Spirit
could legitimate systems of oppression, torture and violence.
No, says, Jesus, if I am anointed by the Spirit,
then real socio-economic and political change must come.
This kind of spirituality is all about good news for the poor
and dismantling the social, economic and political structures
that made them poor and keep them poor.
This kind of spirituality is all about release to captives,
especially in a criminal justice system that incarcerates the poor,
and African American and Canadian First Nations people
more than anyone else.
This kind of spirituality is about sight to the blind.
And this is interesting, because Jesus snuck that bit into the reading.
Isaiah 61 doesn’t say anything about the blind,
but Jesus knew that if you couldn’t see
because you were blinded by your privilege, your race, your ideology,
then you would never see the poor who need justice
and the captives who need release,
and therefore, you would never have the eyes to see the Kingdom of God
dawning in Jesus.
Jesus knew that the good folks of Nazareth were blind,
and the way in which the story unfolds demonstrates their blindness,
so he adds that the spirit that anoints him gives sight to the blind.
This kind of spirituality is all about liberation for the oppressed.
If it isn’t about liberating the oppressed,
then it has nothing to do with Jesus,
it has nothing to do with the Spirit of God,
it has nothing to do with the deepest hopes of Isaiah’s prophecy.
The Spirit of the Lord is about setting free those who are beaten down
by unjust social biases, economic structures and political systems.
The Spirit is about setting free those who live under fear
because of their skin colour, their ethnic heritage,
their appearance, their sexual orientation.
The Spirit of God is about liberation from oppression,
or it is about nothing at all.
And because the Spirit is about all of this,
the one anointed by the Spirit is sent to
proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
Yes, we know that Isaiah immediately adds,
“and the day of vengeance of our God,”
but Jesus drops this as deliberately
as he added the reference to blindness.
Isaiah may have thought that the Spirit anoints the one to come
to declare the day of vengeance,
but this is not part of the job description
that Jesus is prepared to take upon himself,
much to the disappointment of his townsfolk.
No, for Jesus, this is the year of the Lord’s favour,
this is the year of Jubilee!
If there is to be good news for the poor,
if there is to be release to captives,
if there is to be an opening of the eyes to justice,
if there is to be liberation for the oppressed,
then there must be Jubilee;
there must be a radical forgiveness of all debts
– economic, social and moral –
there must be a restoration of just relationships,
there must be an economic redistribution so that the poor
have the resources to make their contribution to the community,
there must be a leveling of all things that runs in the face
of a society of hierarchy, privilege and an ever increasing
gap between the haves and the have nots.
So Jesus rolls up the scroll, hands it to the attendant and sits down.
The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
What will Jesus say about this explosive text?
What will he say to this audience of hungry, beaten down
poor and oppressed neigbours?
He waits a moment and then says,
“Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Today. Now. It is happening. The anointed one is in your midst.
Today is the day of Jubilee.
Today is the day of good news for the poor,
today is the day of release for captives,
today is the day of sight to the blind,
today is the day of liberation for the oppressed.
Writing from a prison in Birmingham two thousand years later,
Martin Luther King Jr. called the African American community
“to reject the tranquilizing drug of gradualism”
and in the name of “divine dissatisfaction” with injustice
demand change now.
Dr. King came by that kind spirituality from Jesus.
Jesus also rejects the tranquilizing drug of gradualism,
and out of a radical divine dissatisfaction with injustice
proclaims that “Today” this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
Sisters and brothers, we need to be animated by that kind of dissatisfaction with injustice.
That is why our sister, Jess Brown, wrote so passionately and eloquently last week at empire remixed
on “Trayvon Martin and bearing witness to injustice.”
Jessica’s reflections named the fear imbedded in racism,
and by bearing witness in the way in which she did,
she expressed divine dissatisfaction with injustice
and in so doing, she helped to open the (mostly white) eyes of the blind,
and called to be released from her own captivity.
Bearing witness to injustice,
Jess helps us all to imagine a year of Jubilee
in which all stand equal,
all are valued,
and all are loved.
My daughter Madeleine just returned from Palestine where she also
learned more of the divine dissatisfaction with injustice.
With a group of international young adults,
she sang under the watchful eye of Israeli soldiers at a check point on the Apartheid Wall in Palestine,
“We are marching in the light of God,
we are marching in the light of God.”
And the soldiers danced along, until the words changed to,
“We are dancing and the wall must fall
we are dancing and the wall must fall.”
The soldiers stopped dancing.
Later they came to pray and sing “We Shall Overcome”
outside of an Israeli military jail for Palestinian children.
Palestinian children!
Set the captives free.
Liberate the oppressed.
Good news for the poor.
Sight for those blinded by ideology and nationalism.
That’s what our sisters Jess and Madeleine bear witness to.
It is Jubilee time, sisters and brothers.
It is Jubilee time
for the mothers who keen after their children in Palestinian graves and Israeli jails.
It is Jubilee time
for the mother of Trayvon Martin and every mother of a black child in North America who live in fear for their children.
It is Jubilee time
for the clan mothers who see their children lost to drug abuse, alcoholism, violence and prison.
It is Jubilee time
for the mothers who are trying to put the resources together in Toronto
to pay the rent and feed their kids.
“The moral arc of the universe is long,” said Dr. King,
“but it bends towards justice.”
Or we could say that justice is at the very heart of the universe.
This is the heart of true spirituality.
This is the heart of the kingdom of God,
Because this is the heart of the Spirit,
this is the heart of the Creator,
this is the heart of Jesus.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to captives,
for the recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free.
May it be, Spirit of God,
may it be, Spirit of Jesus,
may it be, Spirit of justice,
that you would so anoint us to such a ministry.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
May it be so, Lord,
May this be a year of Jubilee.
May this scripture be fulfilled today.
May it be so, Lord.
May it be so.
Can I get an “Amen,” anybody?
One Response to “It’s Jubilee Time!”
Jake Arnold
Amen!