Title: “Nothing is the Same”
Text: Luke 4:14-21
Day: Epiphany 3C
Date: January 24, 2010
New Student Orientation at Trinity Lutheran Seminary was a week chock-full of speakers, activities, and information. Understandably, there was a lot of stuff to cover: financial aid information, campus tours, introduction to the staff, student life activity guides…you know…all the usual new student stuff. It was an exhausting week, and by Friday my brain was so over-saturated with information I was doubtful if anything else could be stuffed in there. In fact, only one more thing found a home in here [point to head] on Friday: it was a talk that was given by Mark Ramseth, the president of the seminary.
He began by instructing all of the new students to gather around the baptismal font, which was a bathtub-sized, stone basin located just inside the entrance to the chapel. Once we gathered around, he dipped his hand in the water and said, “This water has changed your life forever, for in it you were baptized into the Body of Christ. And, as you know, Martin Luther always understood baptism as the defining moment when everything changed for us.” At that I looked around the room, and it seemed like all of my classmates – most of whom were steeped in the Lutheran tradition – were all nodding their heads in agreement. But I – a good ol’ Catholic boy – was baffled! I couldn’t believe it because it didn’t seem possible. How does something that happened 30 years ago change everything today? How does it make any difference? My baptism hadn’t solved all of my problems, I can tell you that! I still struggled to do well in school. I still had ugly, imperfect teeth. I still failed to live up to my expectations of myself. The world in which I lived still suffered from war, disease, hunger. As far as I could tell, nothing had changed as a result of my baptism. So, what on earth could this guy be talking about, I thought? What does he know that I don’t?
I wonder if the people in our Gospel text felt equally confused by Jesus’ words today. The whole scene takes place not long after Jesus‘ own baptism…you remember, when he was praying and the Holy Spirit came upon him like a dove? Well, immediately after that, the Spirit drives him out into the desert where he teaches Satan a thing or two about what it means to be the Son of God. And then we get our text for today.
So, here is this Jesus – worn, weary, but determined – who walks into his home town and finds his way to the synagogue. Once he’s there, he stands up in the midst of the assembly and prepares to read. The people sit in wonder at this Jesus who’s all grown up and they wait patiently to hear what he is going to read. Visions of Jesus growing up, playing in the back of the synagogue, must have filled their minds. And then Jesus begins: “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.” But the real kicker for everyone is what he said next: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Confused and befuddled, the people look around. Does he really mean that? Does he really mean that all of those things have happened NOW? HERE? You can imagine them looking around with cautious hope, but that hope would quickly turn to disappointment when they confirm that nothing is different. They are still captives, ruled by the Romans – suffering under a foreign emperor, with foreign gods, and a foreign language. They are not free. They are still poor, since they must pay taxes to the Romans for so-called “protection,” and they must pay taxes to the Temple, and they must be prepared to pay up more money whenever the Romans feel like imposing some new financial burden on them. They are not rich. Nothing has changed! They still pray without results. There are still sick, blind and lame people in the streets. They are still oppressed. Nothing had changed!
Similarly, I think we also struggle with this problem. Because of our baptism, we understand and believe and trust that God has claimed us as his privileged people. Now, privileged might sound like a presumptuous word, but I think it’s accurate. As baptized Christians, we have privileged access to the grace of God. As baptized Christians, we have the privilege of the powerful gifts of the Spirit: preaching, teaching, healing, and so on. And as baptized Christians, we have the privilege to laugh at death, stomp on the power of the devil, and bring powers and principalities to justice in light of God’s ultimate reign of truth.
Now, that all sounds well and good. It sounds terrific, actually! But when we look around, when we open our eyes to see the world in which we live, it is hard for us to say that our baptisms have done much of anything for us. Life is still a struggle. We boast of our freedom in America, but in our fight for political freedom we have only found ourselves captive to other things: big businesses that mistreat employees and cover up scandals with money, but whose products are so cheap we cannot afford to look anywhere else; or a food system that gets richer and richer by making food that is more and more unhealthy. Nothing has changed because of our baptism. Death still threatens us. The devil still brings us to doubt God. And powers and principalities are still so elusive it seems that they have the power to bring God down from the divine throne. Nothing has changed!
So, what on earth could Jesus have been talking about? What does he know that we don’t? What does he see that we cannot? Chances are good that you would have found yourself just as puzzled as those synagog-ians sitting around Jesus that day.
But Jesus doesn’t back down from his bold statement. Nor does he soften it to say that the poor might receive good news, or that the captives someday could be freed, or that the blind people will have their eyes opened…eventually. Jesus doesn’t say that. But then again, why SHOULD he? What he said to the people in the synagogue that day was profoundly true. Everything HAD changed…the people just don’t know it yet. They haven’t experienced it. They haven’t seen it. They haven’t let themselves be a part of what God was doing in and through Jesus. But indeed Jesus was right. These things were fulfilled in the person of Jesus. In him, God was actively doing these things. Jesus himself embodied God’s freedom, God’s vision, God grace, God’s favor. Through Jesus, people were changed. Nothing was the same!
And we, living two thousand years later, can still be so bold as to say the same thing: an experience with Jesus changes everything… nothing can be the same. After years of struggling with Dr. Ramseth’s talk about how my baptism changed my life, I finally began to understand a little of what he was talking about. Here, in these waters, I was joined to Christ. Here, in these waters, that same Holy Spirit that lit upon Jesus also fell upon my shoulders. Here, in these waters, I met Jesus…and nothing was ever going to be the same as a result. The same goes for you, too, and, indeed, the whole creation.
So, even though we look around and still see our lives and the world in such disrepair, we know that nothing is really as it seems in light of Jesus. Nothing is the same! Is death overwhelming you? In these waters, JESUS BECAME YOUR LIFE. Do you feel captive to disease or addictions? In these waters, JESUS BECAME YOUR FREEDOM. Do you feel as though you are wandering through life without purpose? In these waters, JESUS BECAME YOUR VISION. Do guilt and shame weigh heavily upon your shoulders? In these waters, JESUS BECAME YOUR FORGIVENESS. As baptized Christians, we have the bold confidence that these things do NOT have the final word, because Jesus has already dealt with them. Jesus has changed everything! Nothing is the same! Today, in our hearing, Jesus has truly released us, opened our eyes, and empowered us to be free, unbound, rich, vision-ful people of God, sent into the world to spread this Good News to all the earth!
Let’s get going!
Amen.
