C 3 Epiphany 2016 Luke 4:14-21 three years and I am very likely to zero in on the same message now and then. Before I read the gospel today, we are going to begin with a Furthermore I had a preaching professor who said that most little conversation in the pews. Nothing threatening. good preachers had only about 5 key messages to tell her Something we have done before. congregation. Jesus is Christ, Importance of forgiveness, I just want you to find a couple of people to chat with for 3 The gift of grace, the gift of Salvation and the gift of eternal minutes so that you tell each other some good news. life. Do you have a new grandchild? Did you get a good grade on a test? So today I am preaching one of my favorite messages and it Did you have fun yesterday? is one you have heard before. Did you win the lottery? And that message is the importance of sharing the good It doesn’t have to be a big deal but something good must news of Jesus Christ with one another and with those have happened in your life this week. who long to hear it. Share a few examples and the best news gets a prize! Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he Someone asked me recently if I ever preach the same has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent sermon twice. me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight The truth is “no”. I don’t even preach the same sermon twice to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the on the same weekend. year of the Lord’s favor. Because preaching is Living word and because each gathering is different the sermon will be different every Jesus came to preach the good news to a world that time. needs some good news. I know what he was really asking is what many wonder and that is do I pull out a sermon from a sermon file and reuse it. Life was difficult in Jesus’ day. Life expectancy was only Again the answer is “no” because every sermon is set in a around 30. Death of family and friends was the norm. specific time and place and therefore, generally doesn’t All of Israel from Galilee in the N. to Jerusalem in the S. “preach well” in a new setting. were under Roman occupation. Taxation was heavy and So I do spend several hours every week preparing for this resented by the Jews. Prisons contained people who couldn’t sermon time. And I love doing it. pay their debts. Roman armies in Judea created an explosive situation. Having said that, I should say that the texts that we read on It was difficult to be a Jew and keep traditional Jewish Sunday are on a 3 year cycle and so you will see them every values and expectations. In Luke, we have Jesus, beginning his public ministry by It is an announcement of his vision and he is inviting us to going to synagogue in home town of Nazareth. join in his mission. And like Ezra in our OT lesson, it was customary for adult It is a description of the Kingdom of God and a promise of men to stand and read a bit of scripture and then sit down God’s activity in the world. and teach about God’s faithfulness and God’s promises. And this is certainly good news.

From the Holy Scrolls, Jesus chose to read Isaiah 61: vs 1&2 However, David Lose at Luther Seminary observed that for which promises Israel that someday God would send good this to be word’s of comfort for us, we must first recognize news to the oppressed, bind up the brokenhearted, our need. proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the In what ways are we poor, captive, blind, or oppressed? prisoners; Lose wrote, “God offers words of comfort, but such words only mean something to those living with Jesus then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, discomfort….Jesus comes bringing good news to those in and sat down. need, and those, who don’t see and admit their need, want The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him, nothing to do with him.” (Working Preacher: Jesus Inaugural Address 1/20/13) They were ready to hear his teaching on this familiar passage. Many of you know that I spoke at my Godchild, Annie Lundahl’s funeral last week. She died last November and But Jesus did not come to give a lecture. Instead, Jesus because of the holidays and the fact that her family was announced , “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in scattered all over the country, the funeral was postponed 7 your hearing.” weeks. The wait for the memorial service turned out to be In other words, the Day of the Lord’s favor will not happen far more difficult than I expected. “some day;” as the Hebrew scriptures had promised, but rather the astonishing news that the Day of the Lord’s I preach the good news of the gospel every week and yet I favor is “now.” sorely needed to hear God’s promises of the resurrection, hope and comfort spoken to me, to my achy heart, to my This is very good news indeed. grief. Here was something new! And clearly Jesus is part of it! In In the days that followed her funeral I felt like a fog had these words we get a glimpse of who Jesus is and what he is lifted from my life, a fog that I was not even aware that was about. there, and I am once again standing in the light of Christ. That is the message of Epiphany. In a sense this is Jesus’ inaugural address. And it is why we need to return to worship week after week. Maybe we learn something new but more than likely we hear something we already know but we need to hear it spoken to us and to our specific moment in time.

Yes most people, who have gone to church or Sunday School sometime in their lives, know about Jesus, salvation and heaven, but it is not enough to hear the good news once. We need to hear it again and again and to tell it again and again so that it becomes part of us and part of the world around us.

Jesus’ announcement in the synagogue not only set the agenda for Jesus ministry, but also sets the agenda the church: We are to share the good news of the gospel with each other and with a world that longs to hear it.

Jesus Christ is the good news and he reminds us that the good news is not for the perfect but the imperfect, not for the healthy but for the ill, not for the righteous but for the unrighteous, not for the strong but for the weak. God comes, that is, for us,” you and me and all for all people. (Lose)

This is not only good news. It is the best news of the gospel.