To Bring Good News to the Poor

To bring good news to the poor 

When we listen to the Gospel here in church, we hear only the selected portion for the day. It is helpful to know what preceded it as we consider the meaning of it for our own lives. Today’s Gospel follows directly on from Jesus’s 40 days in the wilderness as recounted in Luke 4: 1-12. This is important because it tells us that Jesus was led by the Spirit, struggled with the power of evil during that time, that he was truly tempted as all human beings are. After 40 days, he emerged from the desert “filled with the Holy Spirit”. 

Today’s Gospel tells us what happened next. Jesus returned to Galilee and began to preach in the synagogues and news about him began to spread. We might imagine that he did more signs and wonders but there is no evidence of this, so what was it about him that made people view him so favourably. Why did news about him spread so quickly? The answer is right there in Luke, telling us that he was “filled with the Holy Spirit”.  

What drew people to Jesus was the presence of the Holy Spirit within him: the Spirit that animated him, empowered hm, and gave him the innate authority to speak. And the Gospel makes clear that this endowment of the Spirit is not a one-time thing. Jesus, in the synagogue is handed a scroll and from it he reads from the prophet Isaiah: 

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. 

When Jesus finishes reading, he rolls up the scroll and gives it back to the attendant and he tells the crowd who are watching him intently:  Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. 

I’m sure that most if not all of you heard part or all of the sermon given by Bishop Mary Ann Edgar Budde at the National Cathedral in Washington at the prayer service held the morning after President Trump's inauguration. I was deeply moved by this particular sermon: partly because of what she said, but particularly, how she said it. She is clearly a person of faith, a person of prayer. And being grounded in prayer and a relationship with Jesus, she had the courage to speak truth to power, to proclaim the Gospel without compromise. 

I don’t want to detract from Bishop Budde’s courage. It takes a steel constitution  to say what she said where she said it and she delivered her message calmly and with compassion. But I am concerned by the way many people are holding her up as some kind of exception. The message she preached last Tuesday was the Gospel: pure and simple and straightforward. It is what we are called to be through our baptism and it is not an easy message to live out. And yet, many are living it out day by day, including all of you as you strive to be faithful to the call to be merciful. Bishop Budde had an exceptional platform from which to deliver her message and even then, many were not able to hear it: it was too compassionate, too forgiving, too gentle, too full of God's mercy towards every human being. Yes, every single one. 

For mercy is God’s default, grace is extended to all, with no exceptions. Occasionally we see it lived out in particular circumstances, sometimes delivered by an eloquent speaker such as Martin Luther King or as we witnessed this week, Bishop Budde, because God does indeed send prophets to speak a difficult truth during challenging times, and we are indeed living in challenging times. 

But most of the time the mercy of God is lived out and transmitted in the small connections between human beings.  We don’t all have a pulpit in Washington’s National Cathedral (and thank God for that!) , but we are all called to be merciful. The scriptural passage from Micah which I love so much and which we often pray here at St. Matthias, has several translations: the most accurate being Act Justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. It is a call to a deeply intimate relationship with God.  

Listening to various prayers said publicly for the newly inaugurated president, I was struck by the fact that most referred to the Hebrew Bible and the concept of an empowering but distant God. In many ways, a safe God who would bless the president and the United States of America above all others, without asking anything in return. Bishop Budde preached the Gospel, and specifically Jesus’s call to us to treat others with mercy. Her message was received joyously by some and with dismay by others. To quote Bishop Gene Robinson: “It’s funny isn’t it? That you can preach a judgemental and vengeful and angry God and nobody will mind. But you start preaching a God that is too accepting, too loving, too forgiving, too merciful, too kind….. and you are in trouble”. 

The message of mercy, of good news to the poor, of freedom to the oppressed, of sight to the blind, and release to captives; well, that’s central to what we believe, it’s central to what we are called to be, it’s central to how Jesus lived, and it’s much harder for us to hear such a call and to respond to it. It’s not a comfortable call. It’s not an easy call, and above all, it’s not about us. It’s not even about what we can do; it’s about what the Spirit of God empowers us to do; it’s about what we can do together, and it’s not usually about big accomplishments. We are not all called to be prophets (and most of the prophets were very reluctant to accept the call), but we are called to be a prophetic church and together to witness to the mercy of God. 

We are all of course concerned about what is happening politically in the United States, and we should be concerned because it is very troubling. Most of what we are witnessing is the oppositive of mercy. There are a few things we can do. The first is to pray: this is within the ability of every single one of us; the second is to protect our mental and spiritual health by limiting our exposure to the web of sensationalism, lies and half-truths that are currently streaming on all outlets; the third is to refuse to engage in political negativity, whatever form that might take, it doesn’t help. 

Finally, we have issues of our own here in Canada that require our prayer and our carefully considered attention; specifically, the choice of a new Liberal leader, and likely quite soon, the choices we will make in the upcoming federal election. For those who consider that religion has nothing to do with politics, I am here to remind you that Jesus was very political, and as we know, his views were not popular. As we make our choices about who to vote for, we must remember that as Christians, we are to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly. This should influence all our choices every day, including those we make at the ballot box. 

I want to conclude today with a quote: I used to have this taped to my desk when I worked for the diocese of Prince Albert. I can’t credit the author but I heard it once in a sermon and it made an impact on me: 

Those who have finally learned to love, find themselves absurdly happy, totally involved, tragically vulnerable, and frequently in trouble! 

Amen