Inaugural Address (Second Sunday after Epiphany; Luke 4:14-30; January 15, 2017)

Inaugural Address

Second Sunday after Epiphany
Luke 4:14-30
January 15, 2017

Rev. John M. Caldwell, PhD
First United Methodist Church
Decorah, Iowa

In case anyone has been living in a cave for the past couple of months I want to make it clear so that everyone knows that on Friday of this week the 45th president of the United States will be inaugurated. This is a ritual event of some importance, marking the long tradition of the peaceful handover of power that we enjoy in this country.

It is not quite a coincidence that our reading for this morning also contains an inauguration of a sort. In each of the four years of the Narrative Lectionary, after Christmas comes Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord. On the first Sunday after all that the Lectionary moves to consider Jesus' life and ministry as found in the gospel. That's today, of course, and the reading from the early part of each gospel in which Jesus says in one way or another what it is he will be up to in his ministry. This is more or less what we expect from an inaugural address. Here it is in Luke's gospel:

Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee,

and news about him spread throughout the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to liberate the oppressed,
and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the synagogue assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the synagogue was fixed on him. He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.”

Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been raised. On the Sabbath he went to the synagogue as he normally did and stood up to read. The synagogue assistant gave him the scroll from the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

Everyone was raving about Jesus, so impressed were they by the gracious words flowing from his lips. They said, “This is Joseph’s son, isn’t it?”

Then Jesus said to them, “Undoubtedly, you will quote this saying to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we’ve heard you did in Capernaum.’” He said, “I assure you that no prophet is welcome in the prophet’s hometown. And I can assure you that there were many widows in Israel during Elijah’s time, when it didn’t rain for three and a half years and there was a great food shortage in the land. Yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to a widow in the city of Zarephath in the region of Sidon. There were also many persons with skin diseases in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them were cleansed. Instead, Naaman the Syrian was cleansed.”

When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with anger. They rose up and ran him out of town. They led him to the crest of the hill on which their town had been built so that they could throw him off the cliff. But he passed through the crowd and went on his way.

L: The word of God for the people of God.

P: Thanks be to God!

Well, that inauguration didn't go quite as well as Jesus hoped, although, to be fair, it does sound as if he picked a fight. I mean, they were "impressed by his gracious words" and he had them in the palm of his hand right up until he reminded them that God was not bound by their insider status and was, if their experience was anything to go by, just as likely to be gracious to outsiders. It got ugly there for a while. The Secret Service was asleep on the job. The crowd tried to throw him off a cliff. Jesus should have quit while he was ahead.

But that, really, is a good summary of the whole gospel: Jesus comes to announce good news. Well, really, he preaches Jubilee, on which more in a moment. Jubilee and its call for restorative justice are greeted with joy and with murderous rage. But, in the end, those who seek to kill him are frustrated and Jesus is free.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Jesus might as well be blowing a shofar to announce the Year of Jubilee. In the life of God's people imagined by the Torah, there is a recognition that any society will get out of balance. Some people will amass wealth; others will slip into poverty and even destitution. Such a thing is an affront to God. So the Torah provides a remedy: Every fifty years slaves are set free; fields are returned to their owners; debts are forgiven. Jubilee is a fresh start characterized by restoration and return.

Restoration and return takes a lot of forms among us. When Carol and I were just starting out and we were too poor to afford a mechanic, I was in charge of regular auto maintenance. I had my manuals and my tools and I took it on. Regular tune-ups were a must for our little '67 VW Beetle. A tune-up is all about restoring some basic things and returning them to their optimal operating condition. I filed off any deposits on the points and reset the proper gap. I replaced the spark plugs and replaced the oil. I--and this was most important--reset the gap on the intake and exhaust valves. Reset, return, restore--these are the key words in a tune-up.

One of my jobs at home is washing the evening dishes. I've never liked washing dishes. I didn't when I was growing up. I still don't. I used to resent having to do it. Not so long ago I realized that on the average washing the evening dishes takes me seven minutes. Seven minutes and the kitchen is ready for the next day. Reset, restored, and returned so that it is ready for use the next morning.

A car engine, especially like the little air-cooled VW engine, or a kitchen are pretty simple and are pretty easy to restore and return. A human society is more complex, but ancient Israel thought it was at least worth the effort or, as some believe, it was at least worth thinking about. They recognized the need for an occasional reset, for a return to a time in Israel when, as the prophet Micah dreamed, "All [sat] underneath their own grapevines, under their own fig trees." Those who had had to sell their land to raise money to survive a crisis, got their land back during the Jubilee. Those who had been sold into slavery to raise money for a family to survive a disaster, were freed and could return to their homes. The whole economy and the culture that it supported were restored and returned.

This is an ambitious policy. We don't know for certain that this Jubilee was ever actually practiced. It would certainly have been resisted by the one percent who stood to lose the most with the forgiveness of debts. Even so, Jubilee is a bold vision.

But III Isaiah, as scholars know him, had a vision that surpassed even that daring dream. He envisioned not only a cancellation of debts, a return of alienated land, and release from slavery.He imagined the whole of creation--not just human society--restored, reset, and returned to brand new. It would not just be good news for the poor, healing for the brokenhearted, release for the captives, and liberation for the oppressed. It would even mean recovery of sight for the blind and even resurrection for the dead. This was III Isaiah's vision and it was Jesus' vision, too. This is the substance of Jesus' inaugural address.We are Jesus followers. We embrace Jesus' vision for our world. We are co-dreamers with him of God's dream. Like Jesus, though, we have our own history and context. We have been shaped by these things.

We have spent a good deal of time and no little effort thinking about these things, recognizing that our history and context have shaped our values as a congregation. We have recognized some core values and we have affirmed them not only in front of each other, but even in front of the District Superintendent. When our Charge Conference met in November we affirmed five core values. Now, that's not just us doing something. The District Superintendent represented the bishop, the Annual Conference, and the United Methodist connection. And I'll tell you, the connection wants to know if you're serious about what you said.

So I've framed a responsive reading that will give you a chance to affirm what you have said and to say if you mean it. If you’d like, won't you please stand and join with me as we read responsively?

L: The values that lie at the heart of our shared life are God’s gift to us and the gift that God calls us to give to our world. I ask you to affirm that gift and call. As a congregation you value your history and roots in the community and the United Methodist tradition:

P: We will be faithful to our heritage by celebrating our past and committing ourselves to the mission and ministry to which it calls us.

L: As a congregation you value a practical theology:

P: We commit ourselves to seeking common ground, honoring differing opinions, and insisting that theology lead us to ever-deepening love for God and our neighbors.

L: As a congregation you value meaningful worship:

P: We will worship together prepared to give our best gifts and our very selves to the God who takes us, blesses us, breaks open our lives, and gives us to the world that God’s dream for the world may be fulfilled.

L: As a congregation you value being a community made of many generations:

P: We will value each person of every age group, foster relationships among people of different generations, and recognize and celebrate the gifts for ministry of every age-level.

L: As a congregation you value being a friendly, welcoming, and supportive community of faith:

P: We will practice a hospitality that requires us to place loving and welcoming others above our own comfort and ease.

L: These are high aspirations. How will you live them out?

P: We will encourage each other to go beyond what we have been by encouraging each other to learn new ways of loving God and our neighbors, by supporting each other when our actions fall short of our hopes, and by praying for ourselves and each other that God’s dream may become reality in and through us. Amen.

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