God's Year to Act

THIS WEEK’S GOSPEL: LUKE 4: 14-21 (MESSAGE)

Jesus returned to Galilee powerful in the Spirit. News that he was back spread through the countryside. He taught in their meeting places to everyone’s acclaim and pleasure.  He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written:

God’s Spirit is on me;

            God has chosen me to preach

the Message of good news to the poor,

Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners

and recovery of sight to the blind,

To set the burdened and battered free,

to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.”

On the heels of President Obama’s second inauguration, we hear this passage from Luke.  Some commentaries have called this Jesus’ inaugural address because it lays out his vision and mission for the ministry that is before him.  More than simply a very short sermon, Jesus proclaims the year of God’s favor or God’s year to act.  It is a time in which those for whom justice has been out of reach, for whom a life of poverty is the only reality one has ever known, for whom circumstance and situations leave a person feeling oppressed and imprisoned, this is a time where one and all receive a message of good news, God’s news, of pardon, justice, recovery, liberation, healing and hope.  That is a message I for one can get behind.

What kind of message, what kind of good news, do you need to hear?  Where are you struggling?  Where do you need liberation and hope?  Where do you need healing and justice? What is keeping you oppressed today?  When we have the courage to name the places in our lives that aren’t perfect, the places where we need healing, when we have the courage to face the bad news in our lives, then we are able to truly hear good news.  Unless we recognize that we are blind, we will never appreciate recovery of sight.  Unless we can be honest about our hurt, our fear, our longing, we can never experience comfort, healing and transformation.

So what message do you hear in Jesus’ inaugural address?   What are your dreams for this year?  What are your hopes for your community of faith? What is one way you can help make your hopes and dreams a reality?  What is Jesus calling you to this year?

Following our night of fun and visioning, we will hear Jesus proclaim that this is God’s year to act!  This is just what we need as we move forward with a new vision and new direction for the ministries at Christ Church!  Please join us this Sunday, January 27 at 10am in Christ Church for the celebration of the inauguration of God’s year to act.