Gloria Dei Lutheran Church

Luke 4: 14-21

One early morning this week, I sat in my kitchen trying to make some headway on this sermon. It was mostly me staring at a blank page. My husband Nate passed through on his way to work and I said, “You need to pray for this preacher because none of the words are working. Everything sounds trite.” And he said, “Honey, you need to pull up the Mountain Goats song This Year and listen.” This is a song that we blast when spirits are low and times are hard and it never fails to help a bit.  Which I did and I did feel like it moved the needle a bit in my spirit.

I feel afraid. I can feel it in my jaw and the fact that my shoulders feel raised to my ears unless I remind them to release. My right hip hurts whenever things are bananas. How about you? Raise your hand if you feel afraid right now. Afraid for yourself or someone you love.

Okay, church, look around.

When I asked my friend Rachel how on earth I could have something to offer folks this Sunday, she said you always remind me to go back to the basic when things are super hard. Do that.

So here is what I want to say to you. It doesn’t seem like the chaos is going to stop anytime soon. So basics. The basics are: eat food, take your meds, drink water, move your body as you are able, shut off the news, call your mom, call your friend, lean into something creative, make a playlist of songs that bring you back home or at least remind you of good things.

When the world feels like it’s in chaos, we go back to the spiritual basics, too. If you are afraid, come here and be among God’s people. It will give you courage. If you are lonely and isolated and stuck in a despair loop, come here for community. If you are discouraged and feel like there is no use, do not neglect to gather together, to pray, to sing and to break bread. God’s people have been doing this from the beginning. These will bring you back home to yourself. As we continue to do these things, the path forward will be revealed. The places where we are called to show mercy and speak truth will be evident. But it begins with gathering and praying and singing and breaking bread.

This very day, the Holy Spirit has gathered us from from all over this metro. People have come from the North and the South and East and the West to feast at the table of God. We have faithful folks on the North Shore of Lake Superior and snow birds in warmer places and those who cannot leave their homes all tuning in. She has brought together our beloved from Guatemala and Tanzania all to remind us that we are not alone and God is working in and through every mess.

And we have a story from the Gospel of Luke that might be helpful. Here it is.

This is still the beginning of Luke, and Jesus went straight from the waters of baptism into the wilderness where he was confronted with the temptations of unchecked power, authority, wealth. Having come through the wilderness, he is now anointed and filled with Holy Spirit.

Jesus rolls into his hometown synagogue and stands up to read, meaning he assumed a position where he could share insight and wisdom. The Gospel says, “as was his custom,” meaning Jesus knew his way around the synagogue and scrolls already.  On this day, he was on firrrrre. He said, that he came to bring good news to the poor. To release those who are bound. To help people see and to show us how to live as free people. This is the whole Jesus program in a nutshell.

Think about his mom in this scene. Don’t you think his Mother Mary is so very proud at this point? I mean, she knew. Remember when she was pregnant and she sang that hit song called the Magnificat basically outlining all these things he is claiming today? I bet she leaned over to her best friends and said “Totally knew this was coming.” In any case, Jesus is coming out, loudly and proudly as the one who brings good news and freedom and it is glorious. At least for a few verses. Then it takes a turn but that’s for another day.

In any case, his words weren’t just words. His words do something as they are spoken. Much like some of the most important things we say. Some words perform something, they shift and change us and our lives just by being said. Think about when you took the risk to utter, “I love you” for the very first time in a relationship. Oooooooo boy. I bet it changed things.

When you say, “I forgive you. Or please, forgive me.” Or when you hear, “This is the body of Christ, given for you.”

In a marriage service, it is the words, “I take so and so to be my partner or spouse or wife or person or husband” it changes your life and the world because those words in that setting mean you go from single to married. It’s not the music or the vibes in the room or the clothes. It is actually saying the words out loud. They function.

This is what Jesus’ words do. When he says, I have come to bring good news to the poor and the people hear it, it means it’s already happening. It’s unstoppable. Out of anyone’s control. He’s not passing on information, like a lecture. He is offering freedom and it is immediate. “Today.”

You might have witnessed at the National Prayer Service related to the inauguration. My phone blew up with messages from friends because our heads were exploding as we witnessed Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde preach not just a little Gospel but the full on Gospel. She called upon our newly elected to have mercy on immigrant families and transgender children and all those who feel afraid. Let there be mercy. The good bishop asked kindly and directly and with great courage. And of course, there was an immediate cost because it did not go over well with the newly elected.

When you invoke the mercy of God in places of lack, the Kingdom of God bumps up against the the kingdoms of this world and it offends. No matter, we still plead for mercy with all the freedom Christ has already given us.

Early in the civil rights movement, Dr Martin Luther King Jr said to his people, what if we live as if we are already free? Yes, the systems of oppression and segregation are still in place. But what if we live as if we are free despite the systems?

The DNA of our Christian community is freedom in Christ and with that comes healing. It is good news. This is who we are in the world. This is the Jesus program and if you are not down with that, it will offend you. My favorite headline in the backlash of Bishop Budde’s sermon called her a troublesome preacher. Which had me immediately praying that one day the Holy Spirit might call me to be troublesome preacher.

For the students in the room, I wonder how you feel about group projects. Man alive, I hated group work in school. I thought those assignments would end with high school. So it was a bitter pill to swallow when I got to college and we still had to do them. And then in seminary! Can you believe they made us work together in small groups at a grad level?  Group work in grad school! For the Love of God, no thank you. Because I know how it goes. Someone is always doing the most, the least, not showing up, over-functioning, under-functioning. You have to pretend someone’s terrible idea is a real possibility. No thank you.

Imagine my offense then, to re-read that passage from 1 Corinthians for the millionth time in my life and remember once again that it’s all group work. All of life. This sermon is group work with help from my friend Rachel and husband Nate and Bishop Budde, the Holy Spirit, the Mountain Goats, Jesus in the Gospel of Luke and many, many commentaries.

We are here, together, this the Spirit forming us into a community. And God gave some of us the wisdom, some the ability to speak other languages, others the ability to interpret what other people mean. God made some of healers, some workers of miracles. Some were granted the gifts to make us laugh just when we need it. And others, to remember to bring snacks. And so on and so on and so on. What the world needs is already in this room.

The Holy Spirit is in our corner. Here, ready to give courage, to spur us on, to quiet us down when we need it, to provide the words we think we don’t have and when all words fail, the Spirit will intercede with big sighs that are beyond words. (Exhale). Like a giant exhale so our shoulders can go back down where they belong.

The Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus that day in the synagogue.

The same is true for everyone here. The Spirit of the Lord is upon you. You are anointed and called to go about the business of this Jesus program-to carry the promises and the hope and the freedom everywhere you go this week. To Guatemala and Tanzania and Inver Grove and across the river to Minneapolis. Everywhere. And that is what we are going to.

And maybe, one day we will dance as we sing that Mountain Goat’s song together as we remember who we are. I mean, probably not, I feel like most of you won’t like it, but who knows? Let’s live with the possibility. In the meantime, we are going to sing Beautiful Savior, which is another good one. We are recording this part to send to our partner church in Tanzania. If you don’t want to be in the recording, make your way out for this part now because it’s about to go down.