Morning Prayer: Tom Lyda Hymn of Faith *God the Spirit, Guide and Guardian* Witness of Scripture: Luke 4: 14-21 Anthem *Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart* David A. Wehr. Chancel Choir Sermon *When Newness Comes Close* Steve Graham
Recorded on January 26, 2025
When Newness Comes Close
The Good News Shared with the Beloved Community,
First Christian Church, Norman, Oklahoma
January 26, 2025
Dr. Stephen D. Graham
Luke 4: 14-21
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. News of him spread throughout the countryside, and everyone admired his teaching in the synagogues.
Then he came to Nazareth, his hometown. On the Sabbath, he stood up to read the scriptures. The book of Isaiah was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where these words were written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor:
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised,
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
(Luke 4:18-19; Isaiah 61:1)
Then, he rolled up the scroll, handed it to the attendant, and returned to his seat. Every eye in the synagogue focused upon him. Then, as it was customary, he commented upon the reading telling them, “This very day this scripture has been fulfilled, while you have been listening to it!”
Everyone was amazed at the beautiful words that came from his lips! Jesus had been to the synagogue many times before and had sat beside his father, Joseph, holding his calloused hands as the scroll was opened and read. Even before this held his attention; he had watched as his father listened with keen interest and realized, overhearing these words, that it was an important moment because it was important to his father. Fred Craddock makes the case that our children first learn what is important by discovering what is important to us. We train a child in the way she is to go by letting her listen, watch, and learn as we go the way we are to go.
We gather believing that the shape of worship arises from Scripture. Marcus Borg affirmed that the Bible is our sacred story; the foundation upon which we rely. It shapes our sense of who and whose we are. After reading the text, we respond, “This is the Word of the Lord.” The New Zealand church responds: “Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.”
Those gathered in the synagogue were amazed at the beautiful words that came from his lips. However, this warm and positive reaction soon turned hostile as the weight and magnitude of Jesus’ message sank home. This sudden reversal becomes clear when we better understand the “year of the Lord’s favor.”
The Jubilee, Yabal, began every fifty years with the sound of the trumpet, a signal to let the oppressed go free and cancel debts. The poor, those who had lost their stuff in the rough and tumble, were let back into the economy, bringing everything back to where it ought to be.
Imagine, the signal is given, and everybody returns property, cancels debt, and breaks off the mad scramble of accumulation and acquisition. Brueggemann calls this, “an act of communal sanity because life in the community of faith does not consist in getting more but in sharing well.”
Jubilee sounds good, but to consider doing it is another thing altogether. “Divestment on signal” is exceedingly difficult. Few folks are interested, and we know why. We know the yearning to have ours, keep ours, and make ours grow. I hear you asking, “Is there any evidence they really did this?”
Thus, the resistance Jesus encountered when he declared, “I am going to enact the Jubilee!” Filled with rage, they tried to kill him by throwing him off a cliff. He barely escaped, but the Spirit of the Lord was upon him giving him a different vision of the future; not of accumulation and monopoly, where only the one who gets Boardwalk wins. This vision is about God’s kingdom coming on earth as it already is in heaven, where the practices of justice, mercy, kindness, and peace are the order of the day every day. It is a vision of neighborliness where no one is under threat, no one is at risk or in danger because all are safe, valued, and cared for. Inequities curbed by the practice of neighborliness discover each day that rich and poor, haves and have-nots, are in it together. It calls for us to find ways of being together as neighbors.
Divestment makes newness possible. I know families that practice an intricate web of debts held over and old wounds, old fits of anger, and old resentments remembered. Jubilee sounds the taps to break old cycles of bitterness and hurt. The signal announces that debts are forgiven, and sins are pardoned. “Let newness come close.”
Luke repeatedly teaches that Jesus is the signal for Jubilee. “The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, the poor have their debts canceled” (Luke 7:22).
Jesus declares that he is the signal that will break the vicious cycles that define our existence. The Spirit of the Lord is upon him. The Spirit has joined him in partnership. He is not alone. Anointed by the Spirit, Jesus shares with us in our common humanity; not by going it alone.
Let the Spirit be upon us to live in partnership with the divine and with all humankind. E open to the persistent, nagging power of the Kingdom that builds community. To a world crying, “I will do it myself!” Jesus sounds the trumpet declaring his partnership with God on behalf of all humankind, and the uniting Spirit that joins all to all.
Life at its best cannot be done alone. Several years ago, I got a call from my nephew, Jay. Jay was a remarkably gifted young man with Down Syndrome, who time after time met challenges set before him. He was an assistant trainer for the University of Utah football team, and the head coach, Kyle Whittingham, had given him two sideline passes for their bowl game in Ft. Worth. He wanted me to fly in from Kansas City and meet him at D-FW to the game together.
He told me he had a problem that he could not solve alone. There was a surprise birthday party planned for his dad; so, his mom, dad, or brother, Aaron, could not join him. Unfortunately, I could not go. As he explored all the possibilities, it did not look as if Jay would make it to the game.
Commiserating, I asked if this gave him a new appreciation for a line in his favorite movie, The Princess Bride, “Get used to disappointment.” I told him I, too, was disappointed. I tried to encourage him, “You’ll have fun at your dad’s surprise party.”
Jay, ever persuasive, responded, “I was thinking maybe you could get them to reschedule the party!”
Jay could do about anything. He had driven four-wheelers on a ranch in New Zealand, rode horseback on the beaches of Vanuatu, and snow-skied some of the best runs in Utah. Jay was capable of doing most things, but not necessarily alone. He worked best in community.
Jesus, joined by the Spirit, invites us to partner with him and all others in community! We see ourselves differently because the Spirit of the Lord is upon us. We envision a community that would have never come into our heads in a hundred years; a beloved community beyond our wildest imagination.
May we hear what the Spirit is saying to the church in this fine hour! Let us pay attention when newness comes close! Amen.