Today This Scripture Is Fulfilled

My parents mentioned last weekend that the house I grew up in was for sale. When we bought it, the rain dripped down the living room walls. It was built in 1938. We refinished the woodwork, sheet rocked the walls,…instead of vacations, our family spent our free time renovating this house. Lots of wonderful memories there. We joked about them buying it and moving back. But it’s been more than 20 years since they sold it, and mom pointed out that it would need to be renovated again. I am sure that my room doesn’t have the cream and rose wallpaper I picked out when I was in 6th grade. Yet, there is this longing, to go home and it be HOME again.

But it’s not home. It never is. Because it isn’t the same. And you aren’t the same. Jesus was back at home. He had been gone a while – we don’t know how long. He was baptized and was driven by the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness for 40 long days of temptation. But, when he left there he was filled with the power of the Spirit. He had changed. He began to preach in synagogues all over Galilee and everyone who heard him had nothing but praise.

Then he returns home to Nazareth. And on the Sabbath, he goes to the synagogue where he grew up, as was his custom. Everyone there knew him. It was an exciting homecoming! They were so proud, one of their own. Worship began. The chazzan, a cantor, led the congregation in prayer. And then, the chazzan chose a respected adult male in the congregation to read Scripture and interpret it for the people. If there was a visiting rabbi, he was normally invited to be the one to read Scripture and teach. The chazzan asked Jesus to read Scripture that day in his home synagogue.

The person who was going to read and teach got to choose the Scripture because there wasn’t a lectionary, and they didn’t read straight through the Scriptures. So, Jesus chose to read from 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.”

The congregation was oh, so proud. Heads were nodding; faces were beaming. He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the chazzan, and sat down. All eyes were fixed on him. “Today,” he said, “this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

The whispers through the crowd were like a tsunami. The energy was frenetic! “Is not this Joseph’s son?” The year of the Lord’s favor…such grace…such good news…. It wasn’t just hometown pride that swelled, it was expectation – expectation that they be shown preferential treatment, as his family and friends, his church family, his hometown. Good news – no more poverty – we’re gonna be rich! Good news – no more captivity – we’re gonna be rulers! No more blindness – we’re gonna be healthy! The Lord’s favor is a jubilee year – our debts are forgiven!

And then Jesus says, “Doubtless, you will quote to me this proverb, “Physician, heal thyself.” And you will say, “Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” Jesus knows
that their passionate reaction to his words is because they are excited about what it might mean for them. No doubt, you will ask me to heal my hometown and do here the things I’ve done other places. But, the works I do are not for those who are close to me already.

You have waited for Elijah to return, but during the time of Elijah, there were many widows in Israel, there was a severe famine over all the land…and Elijah was sent to only one widow at Zarephath in Sidon. During the time of the prophet Elisha, there were leprosy was a major problem in Israel and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.

Luke tells us at this, they got up and drove him out of the town to stone him.

Jesus turned, passed through the crowd and went on his way.

Nothing had really changed since Isaiah had spoken the words Jesus read in the synagogue that day. Just as Israel asked “Why do we worship week after week, we fast and pray and humble ourselves, yet you are so far away, and why don’t you answer, loudly, with the things we’ve asked for? We seek you, God. Where are you?” The people at the synagogue in Nazareth, just like the Israelites in Isaiah’s day, were focused on themselves. “What’s in it for me?”

I love how Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor phrases God’s response in Isaiah, “‘It is not I who have forsaken you,’ God says to the people, ‘but you who have forsaken me. If you cannot hear me, it is because you have strayed far from my voice. It is not I who am ignoring you, but you who are ignoring me.’”

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to let the oppressed go free? To share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”

This is why the congregation in Nazareth gets mad at Jesus! They are his kin, “Is not this the son of Joseph?” He is part of them and they anticipate “friends and family only” special rewards!

And he quotes Isaiah, who says that the hungry and the homeless and the naked and the oppressed are your kin. He declares that he is THAT kind of Messiah. Isaiah says when these folks are your kin, then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help and God will say: “Here I am.”

Has anything changed today? Not when we come to worship and pray nice words without any action. Not when we think about giving something up for Lent, and consider what we won’t miss too much, hoping that will bring God closer to us. Not when we hide ourselves from our own kin, our brothers and sisters in Christ, who are hungry or homeless or naked, who are oppressed by injustice. Not when we are excited by Jesus’ teaching for us, but angry when we realize it is for them too.

But, Jesus said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Today, January 24, 2016. Today, we affirmed that the Holy Spirit binds us together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the church. Today, this Scripture is fulfilled through us. Today, the Spirit of the Lord is upon us, upon Farmington Presbyterian Church, upon you and upon me. Because God has anointed us to bring good news to the poor. He has sent us to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim God’s love and forgiveness. Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing when you and I stand beside one of them as one of us, a brother, a sister, and say “Here I am.”

When we do God says, “Here I am. Welcome home, child, welcome home.”