Universal Society of Music Lovers: Bagpipers not welcome!?

3 Epiphany C          January 27, 2013   

Neh. 8:2-10           Ps. 19      

1 Cor. 12:12-27       Luke 4:14-21    

Lectionary Link

   We are familiar with the word Gospel, but what is the etiology of this word?  Gospel comes from the middle English word, god-spell, meaning “good tidings or good news.”  It is a translation of the Greek word “euangellion” meaning the same thing “good news.”  Gospel is the title that we use for the first four book of the canonical New Testament.  These literary accounts used narrative presentations of the life of Jesus to teach and guide the liturgies of the communities from which they were written.

  So, we might think that the Gospel originated from Jesus Christ, but today’s portion of our Gospel lesson reveals a more ancient origin for the notion of Gospel.  Jesus is the lector and preacher at a synagogue in Nazareth and he read from the scrolls of the prophet Isaiah.  He read the portion of Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.”  The Hebrew word for “good news” is basar, and in the Greek translation of basar the same root word for euangellion is used.  So Gospel comes from the ancient prophetic tradition of Israel.  God sent  messengers to proclaim good news to the poor.  Jesus of Nazareth locates himself within this ancient “good news” tradition.  From euangellion we have the word evangelism and this word sometimes has gotten a bad name in our society.  “Evangelical Christians” are regarded to be a voting bloc in our county and sometimes identified with what is called the Christian Right and they are people who seem to be motivated by only two social issues of our time.

  We are in dire need of rehabilitating the word evangelical, because if we are to be like Christ we are to be evangelical.  To be evangelical is to be in this ancient Good News tradition.  The Good News tradition is a more than a Christian tradition because it pre-dated Christianity.  And we should look for the Good News tradition everywhere in life even if it comes without Christian sub-titles.

  When Jesus read from the ancient prophet Isaiah he read, “"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."   After Jesus read these words, he in effect declared, “My life resembles these words.  My calling is to live this life of the good news.  My life is Evangelical.”

  When one reads these words, we cannot avoid the fact that they have material, physical, social, economic and political meanings as well as spiritual meaning.  What is good news to the poor?  Good news for them would be to have enough to live. What would it mean to release the oppressed?  It would mean the justice of freedom coming to those who were held back by an oppressive authority.  What would sight for the blind mean?  Certainly anyone who has been temporarily blind would know the recovery when it came.  Good news would mean having access to health care.  What would proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor mean?  It would mean that we experience our life circumstances as being fortunate or lucky.  The freedom to pursue life, liberty and happiness.

  Jesus lived in an era of lots of bad news in the conditions of the people with whom he lived.  Jesus did not literally release any political prisoners in his time.  Jesus is known to have brought sight to the eyes of blind people.  And if Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet, was he proclaiming the favor of God’s imminent intervention to bring a final cosmic justice to Palestine?

  What happens when words do not seem to have any literal reference?  We are forced into their spiritual meanings to maintain their credibility for our lives.  The kingdom of God did not have an earthly manifestation in the form of an actual perfect government with righteous armies and judges.  Jesus did not bring about a New Deal or Great Society or Social Welfare for the poor of Palestine in his time.  When the Christian movement became the Christendom of the Holy Roman Empire, we find that absolute power corrupted absolutely both empire and church.

   The Good News tradition may indeed always be a parallel inner spiritual tradition that we have access to in order to bring manifestations of good news into actual physical order of our lives.  Justice may never be fully realized but it is always there to be the model for our laws and our social, political and economic behaviors.

  So what would good news be like in the community?  St. Paul believed that good news in his community had to do with the finding and the mutual support and tolerance for the gifts of everyone in the community.

  Can you imagine this oxymoronic sign: Universal Society of Music Lovers: Bagpipers not welcome!  Our kilt wearing friends from Scotland would be highly offended.  How could you proclaim yourself to be universal and exclude bagpipers?

  St. Paul encouraged his community to live up to the universality of God’s love and the good news of God in Christ.  If a person in the community is excluded because of the way in which he or she knows her gift to be available as a valid expression of the good news of their life and the benefit of the community, how can that be good news?  How can the community pretend universal love and good news with exclusionary practices of the gifts of people who want to be contributing members of the community?

  St. Paul was saying, “Live up to the universality of love and good news and this cannot be done by exclusionary practice of those who are gifted for the benefit of the community.”

  My friends, the good news tradition is still an invitation to us.  We are invited to be truly Evangelical as Jesus was in seeking to embody in his life practice what good news is for all people.  Let us not be afraid of the word evangelical today.  Let us renew our commitment to this ancient tradition of the prophets and that was given the ultimate stamp of approval in the life, death and resurrection of Christ.  And now in the resurrection of Christ, the Christ life is within us to keep us firmly in this Good News tradition.  Amen.