Things just aren’t like they used to be. I’ve heard that quite a few times before, but that seems like the understatement of the century here in the midst of COVID. So many things are different. How we shop, how we dine out…or not, how we go to the doctor, or how we work. It also has had a huge impact on how we worship. Things in church are different, and more difficult and it could be easier to just give up. So often our minds tend to go in this direction, searching for the path of least resistance. Our culture has long focused on modern conveniences and making life easier. We like innovations that turn one time chores into “free time”. Paper towels and napkins cut down on laundry. Plastic utensils, paper plates, fast food and a whole host of innovations speed our lives up, so our tolerance is understandably diminished. Change and our difficulties did not just arrive with Covid. For quite a while church memberships and attendance have been diminishing, People are attending or not attending church for different reasons than they have in the past. Gone are the days of attendance out of a sense of obligation or cultural pressure. For too long the church has expended far too much energy looking to the past and wishing and lamenting. In a survey completed several years ago the Public Religion Research discovered that the majority of churchgoers in the United States express high levels of both nostalgia and anxiety. By strong majorities, religious Americans–particularly white Protestants, and without any significant difference between theological conservatives and liberals–believe that “our best days are behind us” and that the future of society is bleak. Wow, that’s a punch in the gut. “Our best days”. What does that even mean coming from people of faith that proclaim the resurrection? It seems like one of those phrases they use on computers in the movies to get the computer to break down. No, our best days are before us. They are now as they have always been. Our focus, our metrics, where we get the idea of what is best, or what success is have been sorely misplaced or misdirected. Our actions betray our words, our focus betrays our mission and our goals betray our identity. If we were to read the gospel for today based on the evidence of our actions, it would read much differently. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to build large buildings and have 500 people there each Sunday. He has sent me to proclaim the sins and shortcomings of others and ostracize them from fellowship, to make people feel ashamed and unloved, to proclaim how disappointed God is in you.” We have managed to fulfill these things. These are the methods and the actions of the world. Over the centuries we have substituted gameplan after gameplan as if they are better or more effective than what Jesus laid out, or maybe because our plans are more comfortable and ultimately, actually demand less. “I go to church because I am supposed to” should have never been in our lexicon. A church’s size or its building should have never been used as a measure of its faithfulness or effectiveness. So where do we go from here? Well we start with the Gospel and what it says, and try those things. Our actions and words would be in line with what the scripture actually says. And at the same time, the church needs to knock off the pessimism and wallowing in nostalgia and be the church in the world right now. There is a tendency in the church all the way back to the disciples to approach ministry and service from the viewpoint of scarcity, “Lord, all we have are these few loaves and fish!” and we concede defeat without running a play. Jesus however approaches the field in faith from the standpoint of abundance. What they had was more than enough. So he did what he came to do. Check out Jesus’ quote of Isaiah in reference to himself. His words are active and actualized. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus is beginning his ministry by proclaiming victory. Each statement proclaims immediacy and completion. This is God’s game plan, one of abundance and trust and faith in God’s promises. The world wants us to hear that other reading where might makes right, and size and budget are the determiners or individuals are made to feel they can not be a part of God’s family and plan because of the things they have done or left undone or who they are. We must hear and proclaim the message of the Gospel, “There’s Grace for that.” I liken it to being on a court or field and hearing the taunts of the crowd and letting them foment doubt in our mind, so we get caught there, conceding, fearing failure and what our team might think of our effort. Michael Jordan pointed out, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” That’s the interesting thing though, because of God’s promises, grace and that the Holy Spirit is propelling us and behind us in our words and actions we don’t have to be weighed down by fear. Another quote that Michael Jordan made famous that has even more relevancy and that we really need to consider is, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!” We miss opportunities to feed when we don’t offer our loaves and fish. Jesus has shown us that they are more than enough when we offer them to him. It’s a call to action for the whole church! The idea that our “best days’ are behind us is not a resurrection faith, actually, I’m pretty sure that’s not faith at all. It’s fear. It’s being rattled by the voices of the world. The voices of doubt, fear, selfishness, hopelessness and condemnation. The spiritual is right, we shall overcome. The kingdom of God will prevail. As Martin Luther states in his hymn A Mighty Fortress, No strength of ours can match his might! We would be lost, rejected. But now a champion comes to fight, whom God himself elected. You ask who this may be? The Lord of hosts is he! Christ Jesus, mighty Lord, God’s only Son, adored. He holds the field victorious. He points to the fact that if everything were to be taken from us , even life itself, that they, that is evil, can not win the day as the kingdom is ours forever. That’s the good news. One word conquerors the fears and death itself and that is “Grace”. God loves us and stands by us despite all the reasons we think that we or others should be abandoned. That love and that grace is something powerful, and liberating, something, in our thankfulness, that can propel us to do amazing things like sharing good news, freeing captives, helping people to see, bringing justice, eliminating oppression and loving and serving one another, feeding the hungry and eliminating poverty. May faith be the mindset, not defeat or employing the world’s methods, focus or measures of success. There is a story involving Yogi Berra, the well-known catcher for the New York Yankees, and Hank Aaron, who at that time was the chief power hitter for the Milwaukee Braves. The teams were playing in the World Series, and as usual Yogi was keeping up his ceaseless chatter, intended to pep up his teammates on the one hand, and distract the Milwaukee batters on the other. As Aaron came to the plate, Yogi tried to distract him by saying, “Henry, you’re holding the bat wrong. You’re supposed to hold it so you can read the trademark.” Aaron didn’t say anything, but when the next pitch came he hit it into the left-field bleachers. After rounding the bases and tagging up at home plate, Aaron looked at Yogi Berra and said, “I didn’t come up here to read.” Aaron Shut down the noise, opened his eyes to possibility and swung away. We are called to be doers of the word like Jesus, not just hearers, through our faith let’s swing away for the mission entrusted to us by the one who has insured victory. We were not brought here to just read the word but to do it and change the world.
Gospel: Luke 4:14-21
Near the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, he visits his hometown of Nazareth. In the words of Isaiah, he states and claims his identity, purpose, and mission. Luke 4 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Prayer of the Day
Blessed Lord God, you have caused the holy scriptures to be written for the nourishment of your people. Grant that we may hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that, comforted by your promises, we may embrace and forever hold fast to the hope of eternal life, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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