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"Claiming our Voices: Good News"
Luke 4:14-30
A Sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
We long to claim our voices as a community of faith and as
individuals. Coming to terms with who we
are and who we’re called to be is a vital task. This season, we’re looking at
the different ways people claim their voices.
We began two weeks ago by looking at Jeremiah’s call to the ministry. Next week we’ll look at the prophet Isaiah’s
call. We’re looking now at the way Jesus
defined his ministry. Last week we
looked at John’s account of Jesus’ first sign.
Today, we take a look at Luke’s recollection of Jesus’ first sermon.
After a 40-day visit with Satan and
a slew of healings in
The people must have
been so proud of their hometown preacher boy made good. They were impressed by his presence. “Isn’t that Mary and Joe’s kid,” they
asked. “Why, he’s so grown up and he
speaks so clearly. And look he is
reading from my favorite prophet, Isaiah.”
Oh, they loved Jesus and what his newfound status meant for them. Perhaps the tourist trade was going to be
helped by this, with many a weary traveler stopping by to see the famous Jesus
of Nazareth.
“We don’t actually want them to settle here, mind you. We just want them to spend their money in our
shops, speak well of us and then go on their way.” Oh the people were proud of good old
Jesus. Luke even said that they “all
spoke well of him” (
They loved Jesus at first, but then
they saw that Jesus had the audacity to take Isaiah’s words seriously. Gandhi was once asked what the difference is
between himself and most Christians.
Gandhi said, “I think Jesus meant it.”
It was Jesus’ love for the outsider
that turned the crowds on him. You see,
Jesus healed the wrong people. He
insinuated that foreigners are more important than people that are
natives. Old hospitality laws held that
when a stranger came to town they were to be held in high regard, not high
suspicion. Jesus reminded them that in
the days of Elijah and Elisha the outsider got healed
before the insider. The good news is for
every person from every nation.
The people didn’t want to hear
that. They didn’t want to be bothered by
the implications of their own scriptures.
Their cries turned from adulation to murderous rage. How quickly focus on outsiders can turn even
the best people to do unchristian things.
Short of building a wall to keep the foreigners out, they sought to kill
the messenger.
They were offended by the good news
that Jesus proclaimed. It was a good
news of radical inclusivity, radical
hospitality. It is at the heart of who
God is and it made them uncomfortable.
Jesus didn’t read just any portion of Isaiah. He read the most challenging part for the
elite and the best part for those who had been left out.
Isaiah and Jesus were both there to
bring good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, setting free those
who are oppressed and so on. Jesus said,
in essence, God’s radical hospitality called for all people to be equally loved
and cared for.
The good news meant caring for those
less fortunate than you, not blaming them for their poverty.
The good news meant speaking to
powerful institutions and in the tradition of Moses, saying, “Let my people
go.”
If Jesus' mission, as espoused in
Luke 4:18-19, was to "bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to
the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and to set at liberty those who
are oppressed," then Jesus was going to be necessarily setting himself up
against ruling authorities. The ruling
authorities kept the poor poor and the rich rich. They continued
the subjugation of women and the acceptance of unjust practices.
Followers of Jesus were wary of those in places of domination. Jesus hung out with the poor and the
outcast. He turned over the tables and
was never afraid to stick his neck out.
Good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the
blind and freedom to the oppressed. Sounds great, unless you are one of the elite, the privileged, like
most of us. Remember, the
Biblical witness mirrors our own struggles with institutions of domination.
But it is not them to which we are finally beholden. We are beholden to God and to God alone. Micah says that God requires us to "do
justice to love mercy and to walk humbly with God."(Micah 6:8) That is more important than making friends
with those in high places. Doing and
embodying the good news is more important than anything.
Let’s unpack those words of good news that upset the hometown folks and
inspired a movement at the same time.
Good news to the poor
Bringing good news to the poor did not mean granting platitudes and
saying "You will have a reward in heaven for all of your
suffering."
Good news to the poor meant feeding 5000 people.
Good news to the poor meant turning over the tables of the
moneychangers who were ripping off the people on the feast days.
Good news to the poor meant standing with the poor, taking on the role
of the servant showing them that God walks with them. God is not against them.
Bringing good news to the poor means doing
something about sweat-shop conditions in the third world.
Bringing good news to the poor means insuring
affordable health care in this nation, regardless of your country of origin or
your income.
Bringing good news to the poor means
advocating not just for a minimum wage, but for a living wage.
That’s good news to the poor.
Release to the captives
Proclaiming release to the captives meant standing up to the
authorities when a captive woman supposedly caught in adultery was about to be
stoned.
Releasing the captives meant challenging anyone without sin to cast the
first stone.
Releasing the captives meant telling the rich young ruler to sell all
that he had and give to the poor. Only
then would he be freed of the power of greed.
Releasing the captives means instilling hope in people when they have
given up on themselves and on God. We
can become captives to our own doubts.
Releasing the captives means putting an end to secret tribunals.
Releasing the captives means restoring due process.
Releasing the captives means closing down the
Recovery of sight to the blind
Granting recovery of sight to the blind certainly meant the restoration
of the sight of Bartemaus. But it also meant the modeling which Jesus
did when he stood with those whom the power structure and even the religious
leadership had counted off as less than human: the lepers, the prostitutes, the
tax collectors, the entire female gender. That is recovery of sight to the blind. And people began to see with new eyes.
It means taking seriously the 100,00+
protestors in
It means seeing and hearing from the many wounded soldiers—wounded in
body and wounded in spirit—who are trying to make sense of the world.
It means seeing the lives and hearing the cries of the people rounded
up at the swift factories in
We need to stand (with eyes open) alongside those whom our country's
power structure considers less than human.
When we do, we will see with new eyes.
Set at liberty those who are oppressed
Jesus set at liberty those who were oppressed by healing those with
leprosy.
Jesus set at liberty those who were oppressed by calling us not to
judge one another. Jesus knew that
judging one another made it easier to oppress the one who was judged.
Jesus set at liberty those who were oppressed by making a distinction
between himself and Caesar, both of whom were considered the Son of God. "See which one really is the son of
God," infers Jesus "and then render unto
each according to their holiness."
Jesus set at liberty those who were oppressed by showing them that even
in the end, he was not willing to let the powers that
be win. And he bore the cross, and by
his stripes we are set free.
Jesus' ministry and his power were in his very holy and righteous work
on behalf of the poor and the downtrodden.
For this, he was crucified. For
this work he is resurrected in the life of the church and believers everywhere.
The key for us is to look at the world through the lens of the poor,
downtrodden, the marginalized and the disenfranchised.
The key for us is to look at the world through the lens of the immigrant,
the welfare mother, the people in
The last church I served in
You know, I have always been perplexed at how Jesus, after saying all
of those harsh words to his own people was able to escape. Are we to believe that he just magically
disappeared and then reappeared a few towns away? Did he disguise himself?
My theory is that there were people
that heard his message and were convicted by it. I bet there were people who were fed up with
those in power and their exclusivity and their snobbishness. I bet
there were people who had room in their lives and in their hearts for the
prophetic message of Jesus. A group of
people who were not looking for glory, but looking to be faithful—a group of
people with the humility to say, “I believe, help my unbelief.” I bet all they needed to do was to surround
Jesus, create a diversion and Jesus was home free. It took risk. It took guts. It took faith. And it took vision and that’s what
Christianity takes, too.
The good news we embrace calls us to
radical hospitality, radical vulnerability, radical action, even subversive
spirituality. We need to offer our very lives for protection of that good
news.
Will
So, sisters and brothers, be good news
people. Make a decision to walk
intentionally as a child of God. Remember
the first sermon of Jesus. Remember your
own integrity. Remember your role in the
ongoing struggle to bring good news to the poor, set the captives free, to
grant recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are
oppressed. Make God real for someone
else. And through it all bring some
light to this world in so much need.
When we do that, then we are truly about proclaiming the acceptable year
of God's favor.
We are claiming our voices. We
are people who not only say the good news, but embody it, too. And we are truly about granting hope to this
world. Thank God.
Amen.