What was the spirituality of Jesus like? What animated his mission? Which is also to ask what animates us? And we’re going to discover that it includes a word that might not have come immediately to mind, and that it includes activities that we might not have called “gospel,” and involve a vocation that we didn’t expect. I’m speaking about the words “today” and “justice” in order to bless others.
1. The spirituality of Jesus is the joy of “today.”
21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
It is interesting that in Luke’s Gospel the first word of Jesus’ public ministry, apart from reading Scripture, is the word “today” (the word appears in Luke more than any other Gospel and Luke, unlike Matthew and Mark, puts this story first). The promise of God is here, right now, Jesus says; God’s purpose has arrived, he declares; there is good news, freedom, and liberation, “this very day.”
And Jesus throughout his ministry will say more than that he was the long-awaited King that the Scripture foretold would come. He will model a daily spirituality that points to good news for the present moment. He teaches his disciples that we are to pray daily for what we need and ask every day that the will of God would be present “on earth as it is in heaven”. He taught that we should let go of worry about tomorrow and on many occasions will announce “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:9). And that means that every moment has potential for the in-breaking of God. Notice how Jesus borrows from what is around him, or possesses an awareness of what is occurring right in front of him, even when he can’t see it with his own eyes (i.e. the woman who surreptitiously touches his garment). He always seems aware of the present moment – what God seems to be doing in real time.
But friends, I’ve been in the church long enough to know that Jesus says, “today” and we say, “tomorrow.” Jesus says, “Look! right now” and we long for the past. Jesus says, “This very day God is here, active, present, liberating people on the earth” and we say “trust Jesus so that you can go to heaven when you die.” So how do we cultivate a joyful spirituality for “this very day” like Jesus? Well, I’d like to offer two tried and true practices that help cultivate a daily awareness of God.
First, Jesus regularly worshipped with others and immersed himself in Scripture. Luke tells in vs. 16, “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.” Now think about that for a moment. The theological tradition of Christianity is that Jesus was fully human – in every way – no cheats, no Cliff notes, no special privileges. He acted as our Savior from the vantage point of full humanity. So he came to the daily awareness of God’s ever-giving love through practiced devotion of worshipping with others, wrestling with others over Scripture, and daily, solitary, prayer. Sabbath worship was not the culmination of his week but the very beginning – it set the tone, was the diving board for his own leap into ministry. He needed it. So do you. Second, cultivate an awareness of gratitude. Gratitude keeps us in the present moment and helps realize that God is ever-giving. Our current commercialized spirituality wants us looking for the next best thing, which keeps us blind to the present moment. Illus. Our Amazon rainforest guide. A spirituality of today means that we already have so much – now – for the best thing is not something better, it’s not even better circumstances, it’s union with God by the power of the Spirit. Research on joy and happiness charts a direct correlation between happiness and fulfillment and a spirit of thankfulness. The more grateful you are, the more “thanks” you offer, the happier you will be because you will be more aware of the joyful gifts that exist “this very day.”
2. The spirituality of Jesus is about the joy of liberation in this life and not simply the next.
18“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The mission of Jesus – the one he received from God and derived from Scripture is not to save souls out of the world, but to save the world, to heal all of creation by drawing the human race back into its proper relationship with God and with each other. That’s what we mean by the word “justice.” And Jesus would add only one thing to that: “this very day” on the earth. But the passage from Isaiah also reminds us that this work applies not only to the anointed one but to us as well. For this anointed one, we are told will establish a people who are “oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”
God greets us every day with this charge, this promise, this joy – not simply for us to be faithful but for us by the Holy Spirit to be lovingly, graciously, liberating people. We are to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve . . . to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
Friends, this past year we set out on a difficult journey of justice – of looking at our sins, our ill-begotten privileges, our inequities, and it’s been hard. We’ve made initial attempts to comfort mourners, and provide for those for those who grieve – we didn’t do it perfectly, I (and we) made some mistakes. But the biggest mistake was probably this: we forgot the oil of joy and gladness that lubricates the machinery of this work. Oil may not make the car run but it will not work without out. The heat and friction of the engine (despair, mourning, and grieving) will have the engine destroying itself if it’s not well lubricated. We have so much to learn from our brothers and sisters of color in this regard. In the present moment, nothing seems more important than the need for joy and gladness this very day as we join Jesus’ liberating work. Let “hallelujah” be the oil that fuels your justice because God is doing it.
One more remark – that mission reminds us that my personal liberation is important but always connected to the liberation of others.
3. The spirituality of Jesus is about the joyful liberation of others “this very day” and not merely ourselves.
Up till now, in our passage, everything seems great. And the crowd tells Jesus: “Do these good things for us! Bless us!” Jesus’ strategy of church growth seems right on target and his spirituality appears poised to be a great success because who doesn’t love good news, freedom, and favor and so it’s ironic that the resistance is provoked by Jesus himself, by quoting two proverbs: “Physician, heal yourself” and “No prophet is acceptable in his own country.” Jesus’ response is to say, “Your vocation is do this work for others. You are to bless others, even enemies. Now Jesus isn’t saying that God doesn’t care for them. Rather, he’s exposing the people of Nazareth’s assumption of privileges for themselves first and their unspoken resentment toward any notion that God’s love could be for others, particularly enemies. Jesus uses two stories from 1 Kings 17:8-14, about Elijah aiding an enemy and outsider of Israel and from II Kings 5:1-17, about Elisha healing an enemy and outsider of Israel. Jesus isn’t rejecting Israel he’s reminding them of the social contract of salvation given to Abraham in Genesis 22:18 – “through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed”. They were to be the vehicle of that blessing and not merely its recipients. Jesus was reminding them prophetically of their purpose . Jesus, it turns out, was speaking Zulu. He was reminding them of the life connecting principle of “ubuntu” – I am because we are.
Anger and violence are often the response of those who are made to let go of their privileged importance (Gen. 22:18; Acts 3:25.) The crowd, however, could not face the reality that they might not be first in line - today. They got violently angry when they learned that they might need to give up their seat - today. They were very upset that God’s way of liberation ultimately connected to others, would mean that they should step down, divest, forgive, lose - today. They were confronted with the oneness of humanity, the challenge of Jesus that there is no ultimate liberation for me without liberation for you, there is no ultimate liberation for us, without liberation for them. Will we face that truth of our own vocation to be a blessing for enemies or will we play the part of our own ancestors and try and hurl love off of a cliff? Friends, “this very day” God is loving our enemies. “This very day” God is blessing people that we would wish he didn’t. And if God does such a thing “this very day” then we should give up our privilege and hope for their healing as well - today.
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