Luke 4:14-21
Epiphany 3 - Year C
If we just followed the lectionary it would be easy to mistake the setting here to be that of following a wedding in Cana with new wine. Rather this pericope follows a temptation scene in the wilderness.
This is not a significant difference as everything is connected to everything, but it might be asked if it makes a difference if one’s authority is based on a sign such as turning water to wine or a sign of not turning stones to bread? If there is not much difference then Mary can be seen as every bit a tempter at Cana. It is probably good practice to ask where a temptation is sneaking into every situation. This doesn’t mean we will be up to resistance (re: Satan) or compliance (re: Mary). But asking does increase the odds of recognizing a temptation and deciding to follow or not.
Regarding the affirmation Isaiah and Jesus and You and I can make about where we are headed — this often comes after a time of clarifying what we are not going to go. A culling of a variety of powers and privileges lends authority to our organizing principles.
It is instructive to consider what is tempting you from engaging with poor (presence is good news) or those captivated or blinded by one idol or another. It is likewise helpful to add advocacy to presence to move proclamation to action so symbolic oppressed might actually be freedom and the favor of belovedness might be experienced. Odds are our blockage is either accommodation to cultural norms or the fear of losing something felt to be an entitlement (place/class/etc.).
May your job description shine brightly and be a gift where you are.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/01/luke-414-21.html
Baptism and first results. Last week we heard John's first event with Cana wine. This week with restoration imagery that leads to exile from home. If we had tracked Matthew it would be picking up J.B.'s emphasis on repentance and sermonizing. Mark looks at a healing.
Two "miracles" and two "preachings." Quite a combo, one leading to the other when done with authenticity.
To focus on Luke, today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. What a day that will be when the poor, captives, blind, and oppressed are restored to community. It will be a day of Jubilee, a year of Jubilee.
Here is a helpful resource for bringing together Martin Luther King, Jr. and Isaiah 58.
Eventually the people of Nazareth caught on that the restoration Isaiah and Jesus have in mind is structural, not just personal. May you and I not give up this larger vision and give in to the McCarthyite tactics of the religious right with their little lists that they are checking twenty-four times a day. Yes, it may lead us to a cliff, but, yes, too, to going on our way which is the way of Isaiah, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr. -- the way of restoration of community.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/january2004.html
Let's see -- how many "favorite sons" are there? Each hometown has them in succeeding generations and sometimes a couple at a time who have a claim to that fame.
How many times has this passage of Isaiah been read? At least once a year for oh so many years.
How many have claimed it was to be be true this time? What year might not be the year of Jubilee and restitution? Who has lost so much hope that they can't still envision this ancient promise ringing clear and clearly ringing for the present time?
With all of this the home team is still on Jesus' side. Aren't you and I still on Jesus' side in expectation of what we will get out of it. The doctor will heal his own family, that's why we send them off to get that training -- so we might get the benefit.
And so Jesus has to break the news that doctors are for other families (it is bad form to prescribe for your own family). Oh the resentment, the betrayal!
Where have we ill-placed our expectations, our entitlement? We can tell that when we find our own resentment rising.
Peace be with us as the least, the lame, and the lost are cared for ahead of us. In fact, may so much peace be with us that we understand Jesus and the call to extend mercy rather than recycle it among the same old same-old.
- - -
Dave (Reader)
In his interview last week on Jean Feraca's show, Dr. James Forbes (pastor of Riverside Church) was speaking about all this stuff in relation to MLK, Jr.. He coined a word which I'm going to use tomorrow
"We must tangibilitate the gospel we preach." I like tangibilitate a lot.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/january2004.html
To be praised by everyone is either faint praise or an accumulation of political capital.
If praised by everyone it would be very easy to begin to think one can push to the next level. It was now time to move away from the exploratory committee stage and into full campaign mode. So a platform was presented and Jesus walked onto it, wrapping the mantle of prophet about himself. What we have been waiting for has arrived.
As we will hear next week, this doesn't go so well. Today candidates still go back to their hometown, or symbolic hometown, to announce their candidacy for the mantle of power.
What would you say if all eyes were upon you? Would it be that the past is fulfilled? that the future may now begin? Usually we are pretty humble about those sorts of pronouncements, but it may be time to dust off our pride of relationship with God and know the importance of this moment. It is a turning point for you and all of us.
A question before us is which way are we going to turn. Isaiah lays out a pretty good way for us to go, even as it is a pretty difficult way to travel - given the inertia and investment many have in their current state as better than it might otherwise have been.
Try saying this three times in a row several times today:
Today scripture is fulfilled in my life.
Today scripture is fulfilled in my life.
Today scripture is fulfilled in my life.
Response?
Response after you state it again?
Response after you affirm it yet again?
- - -
scriptures arc
more broadly
than we hark
hard work and perseverance
pay off for a lucky few
they are part of a pair
hard work and perseverance
fail all too many who
are the pair's other part
a fortunate few go their own way
unaware their freedom is built
on the back of captive workers
good news for the suffering
Gautama's noble truths
illumine this blind spot
a culmination of generations
lucky and many
find release
Isaiah Buddha Jesus
you I we us all
fill the arc
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
Jesus, filled with Spirit power, returns to Galilee. What do you do when so filled?
The society column of the time not only noted who poured out at Mrs. Peter's, but who was traveling and where. The editorialists and pundits picked up on yet another bandwagon and wrote and talked, repeatedly, about the significance of Jesus as though he were an extension of their own preferences.
All these reports about Jesus were leading to confusion. On the appropriate Sabbath, Jesus took advantage of the reading of the day to proclaim, in no uncertain terms, in very certain class, economics, and power terms the trouble he was brewing - a revolutionary vision for the mobilization of the poor, freedom unreasonable seizure, reform of the privileged, and overcoming oppression. This was not only a challenge end and means of systems, but a challenge not to be delayed for another year (much less 49 years) - a challenge for right now, this year.
A follow-up question to what you do when Spirit-filled (become a brewer of trouble), asks when you will do it. Well? Any reason not to have your spirit-filling revealed today?