I Corinthians 12:12 – 31a / Psalm 19 / Luke 4:14 – 21
This is the homily given at St. John’s,
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, January 23, 2022.
“TODAY”
(Homily text: Luke 4:14 – 21)
Perhaps most of all of us
have used the phrase, “I can’t wait until….”. And then when “until” comes, it’s
often an event we’ve been waiting for with anxious anticipation, perhaps
something we really like doing.
But another way to look at
an event in our lives is to see something coming that we don’t really want to
see or experience. A homework deadline when we are doing school work, for
example, might fit the bill.
Still another significant
experience is the one that takes place right in front of our eyes, but one that
we either didn’t expect, or didn’t appreciate for the impact that that event
later had on our eyes.
These sorts of events are
markers, events that separate what came before the event from what came after.
In our Gospel reading this
morning, Jesus says, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Today.
The Lord’s pronouncement
is, it seems to me, of the third sort mentioned above. That is to say, it is an
event that took place before the eyes of those who were in the synagogue in
Nazareth that Sabbath day, but who didn’t see the event coming, and didn’t
appreciate fully just what the statement that began with “Today” meant.
Taken on its face, Jesus’
statement is an audacious one, for He begins by reading from the prophet Isaiah,
saying, “The Lord has appointed me….”. At the conclusion, after handing the
scroll to the attendant, Jesus says, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your
hearing.”
Isaiah’s ancient prophecy
is propelled into the here-and-now, today. That old prediction had taken life “today”.
(At the risk of getting
ahead of ourselves, let’s set aside the reaction which those who were present
in the synagogue had to Jesus’ comment, for that will be the subject of next
Sunday’s reading.)
For now, let’s look at the
business of anointing.
To be anointed is to be
set aside and empowered by God for a ministry or mission. Anointing is a
commissioning for a specific purpose. Kings in ancient Israel were anointed
with oil, signifying God’s favor on them. (Kings and queens in England are
still anointed in much the same way, although we’ve not had such a ceremony
since 1953, when Queen Elizabeth was crowned.)
In baptism, the person
baptized is anointed with holy oil in an action called crismation. At
ordination, a person who is being ordained as a priest often has their hands
anointed.
Indeed, the titles that
are applied to Jesus stem from the idea of anointing: Messiah is the term which
comes to us from the Hebrew, meaning “anointed”, while Christ is the same term,
meaning the same thing, coming from the Greek. So when we refer to Jesus as the
Messiah, or as the Christ, what we are saying is that He is God’s “Anointed
One”.
Anointing is an action
that can be done with oil, as we’ve noted. But it can also signify a person’s
call to a ministry or mission, whether or not oil is involved. The same can be
said for a parish church: It, too, can be anointed with significant, special
gifts which are to be used for God’s purposes and for the good of all who will
receive the ministries and the mission of the parish.
What sorts of the
anointing of Jesus does St. John’s possess?
To begin to answer that
question, we might look at the specific sorts of mission and ministry that
Jesus referred to in His comment that “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in
your hearing”. There, we see a list of specific things that Isaiah had in mind
when those words were written so many centuries beforehand.
We see that the anointing
Jesus referred to had to do with: 1. Proclaiming good news to the poor; 2. Proclaiming liberty to the captive; 3. The
recovering of sight to the blind; 4. The setting at liberty those who are
oppressed; and 5. Proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.[1]
I submit to you that this
list has to do with the everyday, basic stuff of life. Each of these things are
practical steps that the Lord took to make people’s lives better and more
meaningful. (Recall with me that, for many in that day and time, life was
uncertain, it was often short, it was difficult, and it was lived under the
threat of Roman occupation.)
The Lord’s ministry then,
takes on a sacramental[2] aspect, for it uses outward and visible signs to assure people of God’s
continuing presence and power. Outward and visible signs are the markers of
God’s power, working through Jesus’ ministry, as He heals, comforts, and breaks
down walls that separate one person from another; and as He welcomes in the
outcasts of His day (the tax collectors, sinners, and prostitutes, e.g.).
This parish church, St.
John’s, is called to be an anointed place. A place which, by its words and
work, proclaims the release of those who are oppressed, of relief to the poor,
of welcome to the outcast, of the assurance of God’s love and continuing
presence and power. All of these things are sacramental acts, pointing beyond the
acts and actions themselves to the reality of God’s presence and power, working
through us.
We are now in a time of
discernment, as we are looking to the future of this place through a diocesan
program called “Shaped by Faith”. We’re beginning to consider just what it is
that St. John’s has to offer in terms of living out its own, unique anointing
in the Huntingdon community and beyond. I believe that this parish church has
gifts to offer that no other church in the area has in quite the ways we have.
We’re called, I believe, to an assessment of those gifts, that we might better
live into our own anointing as a community, for God’s glory and the welfare of
those around us.
AMEN.
[1] Some biblical scholars think this last reference has to do with the ancient practice of the Jubilee Year, which took place every fiftieth year, at which time slaves were freed and debts were cancelled.
[2] A Sacrament is defined as being “an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace”.
