 Word Luke 4:14-21
Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
"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,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
And 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. Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Meditation “The Lord’s Embrace”
Mega pastor Rick Warren wrote the popular book, The Purpose Driven Life. Whatever Warren might have said in his book about purpose, Jesus found his purpose in the book of Isaiah. Jesus chose a verse from Isaiah and claimed that he was anointed and sent to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom to the captives and sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. This is the purpose that drove Jesus’ life as he began his ministry. “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
There are a variety of ways to ponder these verses, but one way is to focus on the last one, the year of the Lord’s favor. Some scholars say this is what Hebrew scriptures called the Jubilee year. Every 50 years, debts were to be forgiven, land returned, all things went back to the beginning. Even though some scholars say it never actually happened, there are lots of possibilities in Jubilee as a description of what Jesus was about to do. Another possibility is to consider the word “favor.” It actually means to receive or to welcome. Given that translation, we could say that Jesus was called to proclaim the Lord’s embrace, the Lord’s embrace of the poor, the captive and the blind, the broken. Jesus’ purpose was to proclaim the Lord’s embrace to those in spiritual poverty as well as material poverty, to those who were captive and powerless to sin, death and devil, to those who were blind to God’s presence and God’s work, to those who were broken by a broken world. All were welcomed and received in the Lord’s embrace.
Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing as your eyes are fixed on bread and wine, the means Jesus chose to live in us on the night before he died for us. This Holy Communion is the Lord’s embrace for you, whether you hunger for bread or for righteousness. This Holy Communion is the Lord’s embrace for you, to free you from captivity to sin by forgiveness, to free you from captivity to death by giving you hope in eternal life, to free you from captivity to the devil by claiming you as a child of God and promising that nothing can ever separate you from the love of God. This Holy Communion is the Lord’s embrace for you, to open your eyes to God’s presence and power in ordinary and everyday places. This Holy Communion is the Lord’s embrace for you, to heal that which is broken in you and to give you peace that the world cannot give. The Lord’s embrace empowers you and gives you purpose, for you are now anointed and sent to bring good news, to proclaim freedom, to open eyes, to heal the broken, to proclaim the grace of the Lord’s embrace.
Prayer
Blessed Lord God, you have caused the holy scriptures to be written for the nourishment of your people. Grant that we may hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that comforted by your promises, we may embrace and forever hold fast to the hope of eternal life; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
NEXT WEEK IN WORSHIP
January 31, 2010: The 4th Sunday after Epiphany
Jeremiah 1:4-10 Psalm 71 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Luke 4:21-30
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