Beloved People of St. Martin’s,
This Sunday we have a single service beginning at 9 am for our annual meeting, in which we look over the events of the last year and look toward the future for our parish home. Today, our Renaissance or Requiem group also meets as we seek ways to strengthen our entire parish’s sense of mission. That’s why I hope we can all be inspired by the inspiring reading Jesus reads in the synagogue 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.
As our leader and Savior, as the head of the Body of Christ of whom we all are members, as Paul reminds us, Jesus hands on this mission to us, and it is at the core of what members of the Body of Christ are called to do in following Jesus our Model and Guide.
This is a time of reflection for St. Martin’s, one we are called to approach as boldly as ZJesus did his public ministry. It’s a time of looking for ways we can grow stronger in our faith as both individuals, and as the collective parish. It’s a time for us to reflect on ways we may have fallen away from making God central in our lives, and the precious ways this parish nourishes and sustains us, as we nourish and sustain it.
And so I think our readings for this Sunday are particularly helpful. The are:
So let’s put these readings in context. After hopping around through Mark and John the last couple of weeks, we are finally entering a long stretch of Luke in the lectionary gospel cycle. Therefore it might be very helpful to consider some of the main emphases of Luke’s gospel at this point. Since this study group didn’t begin until Epiphany, we have missed talking about the earlier readings from Luke that occurred during December.
The first reading in Advent was from Luke 21: 25-36, which talked about the importance of looking for and reading the signs that the kingdom of God was near. That helps set the tone for the cycle for this lectionary year. We have to be looking for signs, because as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol.”
There are three ways prophecies and prophets are discussed in Luke:
1) Metaphorically--Jesus and John are identified at times AS prophets, and there are other prophets mentioned, such as Anna. Jesus and John are both LIKE previous prophets, as well.
John is like Elijah (as his father Zechariah is told by the archangel Gabriel in chapter 1). John is also identified as being Isaiah’s 40:3-5’s “one who is crying in the wilderness preparing the way for the Lord” which was referenced in Luke 3: 4-6 on December 9 during the 2 week of Advent.
Jesus is like Moses: sent out to the wilderness; 12 disciples= 12 tribes of Israel; 70 disciples sent to out= 70 elders to help govern the people; and both teach the Law. The difference is that Jesus is the FULFILLMENT of the prophecies. Jesus will refer to himself specifically as a prophet four times in the gospel, and the term “prophet” appears 30 times.
2) Prophecies by Jesus--As a prophet, Jesus will make prophecies, therefore, and Luke will point out in both Luke and Acts when one of the prophecies Jesus made is being fulfilled.
3) Old prophecies being fulfilled--Prophecies from the Old Testament are referred to throughout the gospel that Jesus is fulfilling. Today, this is the type of discussion about prophecy that we see in our gospel reading.
The Gospel implicitly links Jesus with the fulfillment of prophetic claims about the Messiah, continuing the theme in the season of Epiphany of the revelation of God through Jesus and his ministry. Luke specifically links Jesus as the linchpin that connects Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law that began our cycle of readings this Sunday. The gospel also emphasizes the power of the Spirit to animate us and use us to fulfill God’s will. Things will be turned on its head; as he late great songwriter John Prine sang, this is the “Rebel Jesus!” The humble will be exalted, the oppressed freed, the blind made to see, and signs explained in three major canticles, or songs of praise, which also appear in our Book of Common Prayer.
Besides Jesus himself proclaiming his status when it comes to prophecies as we see today, Jesus as the fulfillment of prophecies are celebrated in Zechariah’s Benedictus, when he speaks of God raising up a savior for us as God spoke through the prophets of old, who has redeemed Israel from captivity and “that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.” (BCP 92-93, citing Luke 1:68-79)
Coming so soon after the day we celebrate the prophetic ministry of the Rev. Dr/. Martin Luther King this Monday, and remember his faithfulness to peaceful resistance to unjust laws that sought to terrorize and dehumanize millions of Americans due to their race, to hear Jesus speak prophetically to us today, as he does, is thrilling. We are reminded that God calls upon us to dare great things as disciples in witnessing to what God has done and is doing in our lives, and to seek to carry on his mission to bring good news and freedom to all.
In Christ,
Mother Leslie+