Job Description

 

01 23 2022 Sermon

For Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Marion Oaks, FL

Luke 4:14-21

Job Description

First, I want to share with you that this Gospel reading is one that I chose for my ordination, and for my installation at all the congregations I was called to serve. It always feels like a job description for me as a pastor. So, I am delighted to get to preach on it!

Jesus reads from the Isaiah scroll and teaches from it. He probably also read the Torah passage for the day, though the text doesn’t say so. He then sits down to speak about. What he says pleases many in the congregation, at least for now. Jewish teaching typically includes reflections on similar texts, rather like a compare and contrast exercise.

Perhaps Jesus’ teaching includes some references to other prophets like Micah. For example: What does the Lord require of you but to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

And maybe he included some sayings from Amos, like this one: Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

 

And then Jesus got to his main point. Today, in your hearing, at this very moment, this text from Isaiah is fulfilled. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. The Lord 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 we think about it, Jesus did everything in this list. His work isn’t finished, but he made a good start. It’s as if he gave himself a job description and went to work. Mostly, he focused on what poor people need: freedom from oppression. In a culture where a few people held most of the power and the wealth, and the vast numbers of poor people had very little, this was good news indeed!

For three years Jesus preached and taught, healed and fed hurting and hungry people, and challenged those with power. When people listened to Jesus, even though they were still poor and oppressed, they felt free. They had hope that their current situations were not the only important thing in their lives, that God cared for them, and that God knew how difficult their lives were. They felt heard, at last.

Jesus started something, and his followers continued the work. The disciples, too, subscribed to the job description from Isaiah: proclaim the good news of liberty for those who are oppressed. It began with about a hundred followers of The Way, but soon multiplied by the thousands.

And now, we have our job description: to continue the work of Jesus, to set free those who are oppressed by feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and seeking justice for all. But I think many of us are tired of the work. We’ve done it and done it and done it, and we’re done with doing it. 

Except, for me, the music of the 60s echoes on and reminds me of the job description from Jesus. 

Peter, Paul and Mary: If I had a hammer; Barry McGuire: Eve of Destruction; Eric Burton: War [huh, what is it good for?]; Aretha Franklin: Respect. These songs and so many more shaped my attitudes about what is important. Mostly, what I heard is that every person on earth is a child of God and should be treated that way. These songs shaped my way of life. They still are my way of life.

Two thousand years after Jesus preached this message in his home synagogue, we still face the same problems of poverty, oppression, imbalance of power and wealth. And Jesus continues to give us our job description through modern prophets.

This past Monday, we observed Martin Luther King Day. His speeches continue to challenge us to dream of a day when the color of our skin made no difference in our access to good education, good jobs, and fair treatment in public situations.

And a year ago, Amanda Gorman reminded us that we still have a hill to climb for this country to be the way our ancestors dreamed it would be.

 

You, too, are filled with the Holy Spirit, and called and sent to be Jesus’ hands and feet and words in our time. Spirit has used music to shape me into the person I am. How is Spirit shaping you?