A Sermon by Sydney V. (Skip) Jackson — January 31, 2010
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
Texts: Psalm 147:1-11  ; Luke 4:14-30

The Lord lifts up the downtrodden… — Psalm 147:6a

When [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been

the prophet Isaiah was given to him. — Luke 4:16-17a

This (hold up Bible) is not the word of God.  How strange… you might think.  I’m sure you’ve heard it called the word of God.  But it’s not…at least not all by itself.  By itself, it’s a book, a thing, an inanimate object fashioned by human hands.  Like all books, it’s filled with words—page upon page of words.  But even those words are not themselves the word of God.

If you listen carefully you may have noticed that when I open and read from the Bible in worship, I often say something like, “Listen for the word of God,” not “Listen to the word of God.”  That’s because it takes something more for the static words on the printed page, the words I read aloud, to become the word of God for us.  After all, many are the times when we all read or hear the words of the Bible and little or nothing happens.  We remain unmoved, and nothing changes.

 

But, you see, the word of God is always more than just words on a page or even words spoken and heard.  The word of God encompasses the full creative activity of God, as in God speaking the whole of creation into being with the words, “Let there be light” [Gen 1:3].  In Hebrew, the word, dabar, means both word and deed.  Word and action are one and the same, inseparable.  So anything called “the word of God” must be living and dynamic, must bring about movement and action and change.  When John speaks of Jesus as the word of God, saying, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God,” he is saying that in Jesus the fullness of God is present and active and at work in our world.  To encounter the word of God is to be transformed and enlivened and called to new ways of living and acting.

The something more that makes the printed or spoken words of scripture the word of God for us is the Holy Spirit.  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” reads Jesus, and in the words that follow the Spirit is speaking through Jesus.  The people may or may not comprehend.  This is why we follow scripture readings with the words—a prayer actually, “Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.”  It makes no sense to say, “The bible says…” without considering what God is saying and doing.  This is especially true because without the Holy Spirit, the words of scripture can become deadly instead of life giving.  Perhaps only deadly dull and easily dismissed—“Oh, that again. I’ve heard it all before.”  But also deadly in the sense of misusing the words of scripture to confirm our prejudices or to trample upon the lives of others.  Over the centuries, the Bible has been misused to justify things like slavery, the subjugation of women and children, violence against so-called “pagan” peoples, discrimination against the handicapped, and hatred of Jews and of homosexuals.

Yet in and through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Bible becomes the word of God for us—life-giving and life-affirming, reaching out into all of creation.  The Holy Spirit breathes freshness and newness into the words of scripture.  You may well hear them again for the first time… maybe even over and over again and each time as if for the very first time, ever new by the power of the Spirit.  Then as word of God, the Bible’s words touch us where we are, here and now, and offer new hope, new alternatives, new paths for growth in our faith, new ways of living and moving and being.  Such is the work of the Holy Spirit, who is the giver and re-newer of life.

According to Luke, Jesus stands in the synagogue and reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah:  “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.”  See how the word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit is not a private word for those in synagogue or church.  It’s not just about us, here in this place.  It is a public word that reaches out into the world.  It is meant to have an effect on the way people and communities go about the business of life.  And more than anything, the word of God is meant to bring good news to all—as a word of justice, as a word of fairness and equity, and as a word of grace

We need to remember this always.  For it is all too easy to view the Bible in narrow terms—as a rule-book, perhaps, to be imposed on the world, or as a compilation of answers to all our questions, or worse as a kind of crystal ball to know God’s will.  Rabbi Burton Visotsky tells a story of a rich man whose business is going under.  Facing financial ruin, he decides to try letting his Bible fall open at random and then acting on the first words he reads.  Later he tells his rabbi how this gave him the solution to all his problems—how he got precisely the message he needed.  Curious, the rabbi asked what words of scripture had caught his eye.  “Oh” says the man, “the very first words I read from my Bible were ‘Chapter 11.’”  Perhaps you’ve heard the version of the story where things turn out badly.  The first words the man sees are “And Judas went and hanged himself.”  Shaken, he tries again, only to read, “Go, thou, and do likewise.”

Either way, this is not how the word of God works.  The Bible is never God’s private word of advice for the favored few.  When it functions as God’s word to us, it may well offer comfort and consolation.  Yet it also leads us to look beyond any private concerns to see to the needs of our neighbors, especially those in our world who exist at the margins of society—the poor, the downtrodden, the lost, and the brokenhearted.  Psalm 147 reminds us that the God who acts within all the wonders of nature also cares deeply about justice for the outcast and the oppressed.

It has been said that the word of God comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.  Look what happens in Luke’s story as Jesus reads from scripture in his hometown synagogue.  The words of the prophet Isaiah proclaim God’s grace flowing out to the nation of Israel.  So when Jesus says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” his friends and neighbors rejoice.

But Jesus recognizes that the words his friends and neighbors have heard just confirm something they already take for granted—namely, that God is on their side and their side only.  These words leave them comfortable and cozy in their situation and do little to change how they relate to the poor, the hurt, and the oppressed.  At most, the congregation will want to see Jesus work some of the same wonders here at home that they’ve been hearing so many rumors about from the surrounding countryside.  So he proceeds to shatter their complacency.  He reminds them of stories in scripture where God acted, not on behalf of the people of Israel, but on behalf of strangers and foreigners.  In the midst of dire famine, the prophet Elijah worked wonders for a widow living off in Sidon.  And with so many lepers to choose from, the prophet Elisha healed a Syrian of all people.  Here’s where the word of God gets dangerous, when it challenges comfortable preconceptions.  Dangerous for those who hear God’s word, as well as dangerous for the one proclaiming it.  “Afflicted in their comfort” by these stories, the congregation turns on Jesus and tries to hurl him off a nearby cliff.

The Bible is not exactly an easy book.  Read and study it with care.  For the words of scripture may, by the power of the Holy Spirit, speak the very word of God to you.  That word may comfort… or it may afflict and transform.  Which one probably depends on what you most need at the time.  Are you anxious and aching for relief, to know that someone cares?  Or are you comfortably snoozing away your life with little though to anyone but yourself?  Maybe both comfort and affliction are in store for you.  It’s always a little risky to be in the presence of the living word of God.  Watch out.

The Bible offers so much more than laws, and rules, and instruction—although it does, indeed, offer those.  Yet, I dare say, you will always find more questions than answers in the Bible—questions that lead you to greater maturity… and answers that lead you to yet more questions.  You will find poetry and songs that will refresh your soul, and words that will lead you to question the very meaning of your life.  And most of all, you will find stories—wonderful and strange stories about a people and about the nature of the God those people experienced at work in their lives.  These stories will give you new ways to think about and talk about your own experiences.  They may well lead you into new ways of living.  But always at the heart of the Bible’s stories, the Holy Spirit will lead you to hear God’s word of steadfast love and grace.

Still we must always remember that scripture, when it functions as the word of God for us, is never addressed just to us.  For the word of God is radically and entirely inclusive.  It offers good news for all people, even though certain of those people may not welcome it as such.  I’m not just saying that as some abstract theological idea.  The word of God is not inclusive in the abstract.  It is inclusive in the particular.  It reaches out to each and every one of us as particular, cherished individuals who are related to each other in community.  In God’s word, you will find your own particular story reflected, your sins and fears addressed, your hopes and dreams affirmed, your experiences accepted and validated, and your name known to God—even as the Holy Spirit leads you to share in God’s love and justice with all people.  Indeed, I can say with all confidence that:

    The Spirit of the Lord is upon you,
    because the Spirit has anointed you to bring good news to the poor.
    The Spirit has sent you to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
    to let the oppressed go free.
    The Spirit has sent you to proclaim to all people
    the year of the Lord’s favor. 

Amen and amen.