Third Sunday of the Year

Jesus words today are the first that Jesus says in Luke’s Gospel, and they caused much commotion within the community. Luke reveals that what drives Jesus following his anointing by the Spirit, is to reflect God’s passion for people.  The Spirit drives Jesus into the world. Our anointing does this as well. It pushes us into the world and calls us to participate in the risky work of justice: ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in their own hometown’ (Lk 4:24). It means to love what God loves and to see and live in such a way that there is no longer a ‘them’ but only an ‘us.’ It is a recovery of sight where we see more deeply.

As we begin World Faith Harmony Week this week, this hugely important and relevant. There is no reference to religion or worship that can erect walls but only communicate liberation, hope, and compassion for all people especially those made poor and marginalised in any way. ‘The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord’. Then he tells them: ‘This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening’. The Spirit, like a peaceful dove, that came upon Jesus at his baptism sent him toward people who are poor, the most in need, the most oppressed, the last chosen, the most unlovely, the most despised and unseen and most humiliated. What a blueprint for Jesus’ followers! The Spirit does not support the status quo but an edgy advocate who takes us out of our comfort zones to find new ways of being one people, one community. It cajoles us to be prophetic and in solidarity with people marginalised by church and society, family, and nation.

We see that God’s chosen people does not refer to a national entity, but to the poor and oppressed. It has powerful implications in our present historical context where God’s chosen applies more aptly to the Palestinians than to the Zionists who kill Palestinians on a daily basis without the least objection from our government or from church and religious leaders.

This is God’s option and God’s passion which we must bring into our world. We cannot proclaim Jesus as the Christ, or the value of religion and worship, if it does follow by defending vulnerable people and standing with people who are forgotten or excluded in society. Jesus could today be saying that he has been sent to bring release to those captive drugs, alcohol, mobile phone; to take away feelings of worthlessness to people who are depressed; to bring freedom to people wrongly incarcerated by the justice system, especially children who treated as criminals at the age of ten, to people of colour in Australia and the USA, and to our blindness to bonded or slave labour that provides us with cheap goods.

Jesus offended people by reminding them that God’s sense of community is greater than theirs. Jesus’ mission statement goes with John 10:10: ‘I have come that you might have life in all its abundance’. No doubt there is often an inbuilt resistance to hearing such things when they disturb us. Jesus offended people by telling long forgotten or ignored stories of God who passed over those who thought they were special and chosen to minister to strangers – people from like the widow from the wrong side of town in Zarephath, or Naaman the Syrian, an enemy army officer. It can be annoying to hear that God’s friends are those we consider enemies. No wonder he was a favourite son in the village one minute and then seen as a degenerate who should be killed.

Paul reminds us that the Christian community is like a body. No part is more valuable than another. No part is expendable. It is true for the church, for our world and for us. Paul’s world was defined by class distinction, racism, tribalism and nationalism and people prided themselves on separating themselves from others which tore at the fabric of social unity. We are reminded that women, refugees and immigrants, and LGBTQ+ people, are a necessary and important part of the body of Christ though they still hear voices that suggest that they are not needed or made to feel they do not fully belong as occurred at the recent Synod in Rome. Paul explains that just as a human body is made up of many different parts, with different but necessary functions, the body of Christ is also made up of diverse members - interconnected and belonging to one another. The message is that each of us is unique and a necessary part of the body of Christ. So, in the spirit of solidarity, may we look out for and identify fellow members of Christ’s body, who may be overwhelmed or disengaged in anyway pain, suffering and grief.  We are very aware today of separations that still exist based on religion, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender. But this is the world that God loves, nevertheless. God is acting in us today. God’s reign is activated when Jesus' agenda becomes our agenda.  Today’s gospel does not speak of projects, issues, campaigns or structures but of bringing liberation, hope, light and kindness to people on the edges of society.

So, will we, the people of God, gathered in worship leave with a greater sense of our own call or vocation in the world? Jesus is telling us, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon you. You have been anointed to bring good news to the poor … to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.’ We need to put back on the agenda what is off the agenda for the well-being of our sisters and brothers as we face another election year – such as care of the aged in institutions and families; asylum seekers; incarceration of very young and juvenile Indigenous people; care of the earth. We need to believe that a different world of interconnectedness is possible. Jesus’ mission statement must not be domesticated. Any Jesus who makes us comfortable is not true. Any Jesus without wounds is not true. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, ‘to speak about God and remain silent on Vietnam (Syria, Sudan, Gaza, Palestine, Yemen, Haiti) is blasphemous.’ Jesus’ mission is not neutral. The Gospel is not neutral. To avoid blasphemy is to fail to speak out for and opt for those facing genocide, for those who are poor. The Spirit of that breathes life into each one of us and breathes upon us is the same Spirit that urges us on to cry out enough to all that stifles its movement for justice our communities and homes, our churches, our countries, and our world).

Jesus, who was filled with the power of the Spirit reveals its power to be with and for those who are poor, oppressed, imprisoned – those who suffer injustice. The First Letter of John states, Jesus finally revealed that God is Love. The power of the Spirit does not use the law to divide the world into us-and them, pure and impure, included and excluded. It leads us to work for a world of unity where our mentality is us with them. There is only us. But God’s love does not allow oppression to happen. It is not weak and passive. It is strong, courageous, and determined in its pursuit of love and justice. It actively seeks to let the oppressed go free and to care for the poor. This is done through determined nonviolent action. It is not about destroying enemies but seeking to transform political, economic, and religious systems led to oppression and that oppress the poor. The Spirit leads us to transform these systems, not through violence against individuals, but through acts of nonviolence in our pursuit of justice.