I Corinthians 13: 1–13 / Psalm 71: 1–6 / Luke 4: 21–30
This is the homily
given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, PA, by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, January 30, 2022.
“TODAY? YOU?”
(Homily text: Luke 4:21 – 30)
As
Jesus had finished reading from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, and had
applied Isaiah’s words (“The Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the
poor….”) to Himself, saying, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your
hearing”, it’d be easy to summarize the response of those in the synagogue that
day with two words: Today? You? And then
maybe the response might have been, “No, we don’t think so”.
What
happens when God’s wonderful acts and mighty words are brought forward into the
present day and time? What happens when, suddenly, God says He will act
“today”?
A
clear picture of the spiritual condition of God’s people in the time of our
Lord’s earthly ministry emerges from the pages of the four Gospel accounts: It
was a time when God seemed to be removed and absent. It was a time to remember
God’s mighty acts in saving His people in a time long gone. But it wasn’t a
time in which one could expect God to be acting in that time, in that
place, and among those chosen people.
Instead,
it was a time to “hunker down”, to play it safe, to value and uphold the
identity the people had as Abraham’s descendants. It was a time to honor the traditions
inherited from generations long gone, in order to preserve one’s identity.
After all, the overarching reality was one of Roman occupation, a time when it
was challenging to preserve one’s identity in the face of oppressive, foreign
domination.
But
Jesus’ pronouncement, that God had anointed Him to proclaim good news to the
poor, to proclaim freedom for the captive, and so forth, and that God had
commissioned Him to do all these things “today” meant that Jesus was doing
anything but playing it safe. (We all know how Jesus’ risk-taking turned out:
It led to a clash with the governing authorities in Jerusalem, and then to an
appearance before the Roman governor, Pilate, and from there, to the cross.)
Jesus
did anything but play it safe as His ministry unfolded: He hung out with the
outcasts of society, saying that it was to them that God had specifically sent
Him to redeem and restore. He clashed with the Pharisees, the scribes and the
priestly caste, exposing their hypocritical, self-serving ways, and their poor
leadership of the people. He demonstrated God’s power working in Him in the
miraculous healings that gained more and more attention.
Jesus’
bold acts and brash words are meant to provoke. They are meant to provoke in us
a response. They are meant to shake up our comfortableness with our own,
self-satisfied selves, our sense that God isn’t calling us to share in the
Lord’s bold, earth-changing ministry.
“Today”,
God says to us through the Gospel we’re hearing this morning.
“The
Lord has anointed us,” is the call to action. “Today” is the timeframe.
By
virtue of our baptisms, we have been redeemed as those outcasts were in the
time of our Lord’s visitation. We are anointed, we are commissioned to proclaim
good news to those who have no expectation of ever hearing any good news. We
are called to proclaim liberty to those who are in bondage to their own life
circumstances, who despair of things ever getting better.
Today!
AMEN.
