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It is Epiphanytide, and we are hearing gospel readings about revelations, new understandings, truths breaking into the world. We’ve heard the Magi proclaim that a new star was in fact a sign of a portentous birth. We saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and heard the voice of God booming out over a baptism in the river Jordan. We attended a wedding feast, and saw water become wine.
Today, we hear the subject of these epiphanies really speak up for the first time during this Epiphanytide. It’s important to notice where Jesus has been just before the events we read of in this morning’s gospel from Luke. Jesus has been in the desert, and he hasn’t been alone. The Devil has been with him, tempting him. In response to these temptations, Jesus has refused to turn stones into bread. He has refused to try to gain dominion over all the kingdoms of the earth. He has refused to throw himself from the highest pinnacle of the temple so that the angels might rescue him.
Jesus has flatly refused to use his status, his authority, as the Son of God to his own personal advantage. So, what will he use his status and his authority as the Son of God for?
After the tempting in the desert, Jesus comes to Galilee, to Nazareth, his hometown, to the synagogue there. And there, much as Ezra does in our Old Testament reading This morning, he proclaims the Scripture. In particular, he reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He reads the ancient texts as a proclamation and a prophesy to the people.
And in the first verses he reads, he establishes his own authority. He proclaims, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me…” (Luke 4:18a) So, as God’s anointed, what will he say, what will he do?
Does he appoint himself to the board of the synagogue, or make himself its leader? Does he call a new rabbi to lead the congregation, or make himself the rabbi, demanding a generous salary and an exorbitant benefits package? Does he go further, and proclaim himself the new Chief Priest of the Temple at Jerusalem, the religious leader of all the Hebrew people? Does he claim secular authority for himself, and ascend the throne of David as so, so many are waiting for, hoping for, the long-expected messiah to do?
Jesus does none of these things. Once again, as he did in the desert, Jesus refuses to seek dominance or recognition for himself, he refuses to seek his own gain, or to establish himself at the head of, well, at the head of anything. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Jesus uses his status and his authority as the Son of God to help the lowly, the oppressed, the poor, the imprisoned, the very least of the people of Israel. Quoting from the scroll of Isaiah, he says he has come “to bring good news to the poor... to proclaim release to the captives… recovery of sight to the blind… to let the oppressed go free’ He says that he has come to proclaim the jubilee year, the year of the Lord’s favor, when debts are to be forgiven, and slaves set free. Then he rolls up the scroll, returns it and says very simply and straightforwardly, “‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”
William Temple was the archbishop of Canterbury during part of World War II. He was archbishop of York, bishop of Manchester, and the son of a previous archbishop of Canterbury. He was a noted theologian and author -- his most famous work is Christianity and the Social Order. In that work and others, and in sermons and speeches he urged the church to engage the problems of the world, and to work to ensure a just society for workers, children, the poor and oppressed.
Archbishop Temple’s theology can be summed up in what is likely his most famous quote, “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members."
Like the Virgin Mary of the Magnificat, and like Jesus, her son, Archbishop Temple was not afraid to proclaim the gospel truth that God’s concerns are for the poor and the oppressed, and that the work of the church was not its own benefit or its members’ just deserts, but the solace and succor of the least of those outside of it.
For who among us can say we have gotten what we deserve from God or from God’s church? One of the basic tenets of reformed theology is that we are the recipients of God’s unfathomable grace and unbounded mercy. Our own shortcomings and sins might well warrant condemnation and punishment, but such is not what we receive from God. We have been saved and redeemed by the mercy of God and the atoning sacrifice of no less a person than the very Incarnate God himself, Jesus, God’s son.
By God’s bountiful gift of mercy, we are forgiven, through God’s extravagant grace, we are saved and redeemed, and given the exalted position of heirs, through Christ, of eternal life, a place little lower than the angels, far above the station we might rightly deserve.
We don’t get what we deserve from God or God’s church, but much, much more than we can ever deserve. More than we can ask or imagine, more than we can ever repay. The only response to such unjust deserts is unbounded praise and worship, and joyful service to those whom God calls us to serve: the poor, the oppressed, the captive, the sick, the disabled.
This may seem a rather ironic message to deliver in the midst of our Annual Meeting, during which, after our worship, we will concentrate intensely on ourselves. We’ll elect a warden and vestry members, and hear about our financial health and our search for a new rector. All interior concerns, all interests that might be construed to be for the benefit of the members of this church, rather than its non-members.
Well, it’s not about that, or it shouldn’t be. The efforts we undertake this morning must not be about us, but about our health and readiness to perform our mission as Christians. We seek to preserve and prosper this parish not for its own sake, but for the sake of those who might find their way here in search of the beauty of holiness and the salvation and hope of the Gospel.
We select lay leaders whose leadership is grounded in and proceeds from their recognition of God’s grace and their desire to be as one who serves others, rather than themselves, so that the people of God in this place can respond in mission to the needs of our neighborhood, our city, our country and our world.
All we do this day is, or ought to be, not to our own benefit; not to the benefit of our own egos, or our own aesthetics, our own political beliefs, our own desire for power or influence, or a desire to create our own legacy. We are not here to build a community for ourselves, but rather a community that serves those without a community. So that, in whatever small ways we can, we reflect the open arms with which our God embraces us, and offer to the world the grace and mercy that we have been offered in Christ.
And, again ironically, when our focus is on our service to others rather than any benefit to ourselves we, in fact, do benefit. Not to put too fine a point on it, but when the homeless shelter volunteers rota is full and the Sunday School teachers jobs are more coveted than positions on the vestry we are a healthier and happier community because we are a community in service to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The rich compensation and exorbitant benefits package that comes with being a member of this church are unique. The chief benefit is salvation unto eternal life. Quite a perk, when you think about it, quite the executive level of compensation. And the work done to earn such compensation and benefits has been done for us by Christ, our Lord.
All we need do, is to recognize it, and to make everything we do an act of thanksgiving, an act of worship to such a beneficent God all we need is to make all our service a song of grateful praise. +Amen.
© The Rev. Mark R. Collins
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