Gospel As Living Together Well

3 Epiphany C January 23, 2022

 Neh. 8:2-10 Ps. 19
1 Cor. 12:12-27 Luke 4:14-21

Lectionary Link

Have you ever noticed how people who tout the free market, never speak about using economic power and wealth to freely choose to make sure that everyone has enough?  Is the market creatively free if we don't include in responsible freedom the general care of all?  What most people mean by a free market is the freedom for the fittest to survive and let the weak fall by the wayside.  And this is a great sin, the sin of not being creative about how to live together well with concern about the welfare of all.

And this is what the creativity of the Gospel is about.   Too often the people of power and privilege are saying to many, many people, "We have no need of you."

When we think that we have no need for people, what do we do?  We neglect them.  Who gets neglected?  Those with impairments who cannot compete in the same way of those whom we say are well.  The prisoners are people who we say we don't need or want in society.  The poor are people whom we treat as those we don't need.  They are people treated as a blight on our cities if they try to become too visible to us.

Jesus did not invent the word for "gospel;" he in fact wanted to return to the Gospel tradition of the prophet Isaiah who wrote about his own ministry: "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."

Being "Spirit anointed" is the meaning of the Messiah and all who would follow him.  Jesus said that these words of Isaiah summed up the vocation of his life.

I am here to bring good news to the poor.  I am here to say that God and I have need of you.   I am here to free people from their prisons of selfishness and addiction.  I am here to open the eyes of understanding of people to what is truly good news about God and humanity.  I am here to let the oppressed go free, and I am going to teach you how to be free even when it seems as though we're all being oppressed by Roman occupation.   And I am here to say that you can know God's favor and blessing here and now.  

God can give us the sense of favor even in the middle of  the control of the Roman Empire.  Jesus came to help us discover God's favor in the midst of whatever is happening in our lives.

St. Paul believed that the Spirit of God anointed the members of the church with gifts, diverse gifts.  If everyone were a preacher, who would do the music?  If everyone were a gifted musician, who would do the fundraising and the administration?

St. Paul wrote about the highly ironic aftermath of the Holy Spirit gifting members of the church.  What happened in the Corinthian church and what often happens?  We easily through selfish pride convert our spiritual gifts into merely natural gifts.  And how do we do that?   By over-valuing some gifts and undervaluing or disparaging the gifts of those who are gifted in different areas than our own.

The extreme version of this is the complete dismissive attitude of, "I have no need of you."  We can offend the Spirit of God by over-valuing our own gifts and by undervaluing the gifts of others.

So what is called for?  The diversity of gifts came from the One Spirit.  What do we do if we allow the diversity of gifts to become competition among individuals?  This betrays the very unity of the Holy Spirit.  The gifts are given by the Holy Spirit, and those gifts also have to be exercised under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit to help us live in the complementarity and mutual reciprocity of ministry.

The Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus to say to everyone, "I have need of everyone of you.   I have given each of you gifts for the common good, and for your own self esteem when you use them for the beneficial good of others."

Let us as a church endeavor to be a hybrid community where God's Spirit is orchestrating us to live together in creative love and so be an example to this world that God has included everyone in the Divine favor of Love.  Amen.

Be

What does good news mean for you and me today? Good news changes depending upon the needs of the situation for each person in their lives. Good news thus needs to be adjustable to each human situation.

Gospel is the English word for the Greek word euangellion. Gospel is the name for a certain type of biblical genre. The Christian Bible has four Gospels. These books are writings which basically are narrative presentations of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. And since they were written later than some of the writings of St. Paul, they are narratives written with theological and teaching purposes within the various early church communities.

Today's Gospel reading indicates to us that the gospel meaning did not originate with Jesus or the New Testament. In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus was at a synagogue for the Shabbat liturgy. He read from the scroll of Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor...." Good News in the Hebrew language is "basar," so long before the Gospel of the New Testament we should appreciate that the Gospel for Jesus derived from the prophet Isaiah.

I would like to present to you my belief that the Gospel is a very adjustable notion. It is what the people of belles lettres literary movement called propriety. The Gospel is the word, deed or fortuitous happening that is most appropriate for the situation.

What is the good news for the poor? Having enough for oneself and for the people that one is responsible for taking care of? What is good news for the oppressed? To be delivered from the oppressor who uses power to steal the dignity and freedom of people. What is good news for the prisoner? To be freed from the confines of wrong imprisonment. What is good news for the blind? To be able to see.

Some times we limit the good news simply to the people who have really bad situations in life happening to them. But what does good news mean to the wealthy? Good news for the wealthy would be that they have been blessed with the resources to share with the poor.

Oxfam, the organization that distributes aid throughout the world released a statistic this year. They said that 26 of the wealthiest people in the world own the equivalent of 3.8 billion people or half of the world population own. How can this bee good news? It might be good news that 26 people have been able to be so wealthy because of the free market, but what about some more good news for them? What if they truly believed that the free market gave them the freedom to make sure that the rest of the world had enough in food, clothing and shelter. Wouldn't that really be free market good news?

The good news for the oppressors and the captors is that they can use their power to release and free those who are unjustly imprisoned and oppressed. And those who have the blessing of sight have the freedom to help all who are blind and impaired to get equal opportunity for qualitative life.

The Gospel is good news for those where are sinners and for those who are sinned against. The Gospel seeks what is appropriate for each situation.

In our lessons, from the Hebrew Scripture, the Gospel was the discovery of the importance of the Law. The law is the revelation of recommended behaviors which best serve the common good. When Nehemiah helped his people re-discover the law, it brought great joy. The Psalmist rejoiced in the law of the God. The goal of the law was perfection, truth, justice, clarity, purity, righteousness and enlightenment. For Nehemiah and for the Psalmist the Law was good news.

What did the Good News or Gospel required for the Corinthian Church? Apparently they had experienced some bad news. What was their bad news? It was disharmony. Some roles and ministries of the contributions of some members were being regarded as inferior and unimportant for the success of the Corinthian church. When people's worth is discounted it does not result in harmonious community life.

St. Paul wrote to his church about good news. What was the Good News? Each person has a worthy and worthwhile gift and value to the community. It is incumbent on the community to find and to bring to expression the different gifts of everyone within the community.

When the community comes to the harmonious expression of all of the gifts of its members, then the good news of Christ is known.

What does the Gospel mean for you and me right now? The Gospel is an adjustable propriety to what each of us needs right now. If we are sinners then the Gospel is forgiveness and amendment of our lives. If we are those who sinned against or those who suffer from the hardships of life, it is health, deliverance and recovery to a place of having all that we need.

Let us not limit the Gospel to writings in the Bible today. Let us understand the Gospel as the needed and relevant message of God to each of us, right here, right now.

What do you and I need to restore our lives in the direction of what is perfect, true, right, just, clear, pure and enlightened? That is the Gospel for us and it is available to us if we will arise to receive it. Amen.