How many of you, like me immigrated to NZ?
So, let me take this opportunity to congratulate each and every member of this beloved community on this day, as I deliver the good news that we have won the lottery! We have the great pleasure of living in NZ. Ranked as one of the safest countries in the world. What a privilege it is to be us! Apparently, we don’t have the best job market, and the most stable and affordable economy in the world! Be we live in a safest country on the whole planet!
What a privilege it is to be us! Good News!
Today, in our hearing, the Good News is that we enjoy the great privilege of living in a place. From where we sit, this good news is often drowned out by the sound of our belly-aching. Oh, woe is me, woe is me, woe is me. There is so very much to complain about. If only we could escape this or that. If only we could free ourselves from this or that. If only there was less of this or less of that. If only we could have more of this or more of that. Woe is me, woe is me, woe is me. Is it any wonder that our response to the gospel, to the Good News that Jesus proclaims can be so very muted?
We listen to the gospel account of Jesus proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to those who are held captive, recovery of sight to those who are blind, and release to those in prison and we tend to think one of two things. Either we identify ourselves as one of the categories of people Jesus is setting free, or we wonder what that kind of freedom might mean to our position of privilege. All too often, we see ourselves as the ones who need liberating. We are enslaved to the system. Set us free from the day to day grind! Release us from our debts!
Rarely do we see ourselves as the oppressors. The system that is in place, the system that guarantees our privilege exacts a huge cost from the places that don’t enjoy such quality of life. We all know that the rich are rich at the cost of the poor. So, today, who needs liberating from who?
Luke deals with the theme of poverty far more than the other gospel storytellers. Luke’s Jesus identifies himself as the one of who Isaiah spoke. From that day in the synagogue, Jesus went out to do what the prophet had foretold.
And Luke’s Jesus further imagines his ministry to be one shaped by the Jubilee Year tradition of Israel. Israel was not to farm the land in the Jubilee year. Debts were forgiven. Land was returned.
Israel was to remember in this way that the land belonged to G-o-d and they were always sojourners in G-o-d’s land. (How different is the situation now.)
But it was this vision which Luke has shaping Jesus’ ministry. An enlarged vision of life in obedience to God; an enlarged imagination of life which offers
- release to the captives
- good news to the poor
- sight to the blind
- liberty to the oppressed.
How quickly we move from release the captives to: wait a minute those captives need to stay exactly where they are. Those prisoners are far too dangerous to the status quo. Freedom isn’t worth it, not if I have to lose my stuff, not if I have to give up my privilege. Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose and I’ve got plenty to lose.
Slow down Jesus, wait just a minute. After all is said and done, our security, our status, our quality of life depends on maintaining the status quo. No wonder Jesus’ homies tried to toss him off a cliff.
I suspect that we, like everyone who has ever lived find it easier to see ourselves as the poor, the blind or the captive. Humans by our very nature always want more than we have; always looking for some kind of saviour who can make things better for us.
Today we hear Jesus deliver good news not to privileged people like us. Jesus marches into the synagogue at a time with his people are suffering terribly under the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire and speaks words from the sacred scriptures that encapsulate their longings to be free and has the audacity to say: “TODAY!!” Today you are free!
Jesus challenges the way in which his people see themselves. Today, you already have it all. Today, you are rich. Today, you can see. Today, you are free. Today, your debts are cleared. TODAY! You don’t need a saviour! You don’t need a messiah! TODAY! You have it all. TODAY, it is time to stop looking back at the problems of yesterday or looking forward in fear of tomorrow. All that you have is Today and today is all you need to be free. By virtue of being alive you are already blessed beyond belief. If Jesus can proclaim this gospel to a suffering people, what might this good news mean for you and I, who are enjoying a quality of life that is second to none? Today, by virtue of being alive, we are blessed beyond belief. Today, we can see if we but open our eyes to see – there’s no need to be blinded by our past, or to let our fear of the future obscure our view of the fullness of life that surrounds us. Today we are free. We don’t need a saviour. Today the burdens that have been laid upon us by the systems of the past are declared null and void and we are free – that’s what jubilee is all about: freedom. Freedom to live in the moment. No longer in debt to the past or held captive to our insecurities, or blind to reality, for we are free today! No longer searching for a saviour, or a religious system to save us. Free to live and love today.
The Good News that Jesus is declaring is not the creation of yet another religious system, but the amazing reality that we are free Today, to live and to love. Free to embrace the richness of life. Freedom from all that blinds us to the beauty that surrounds us. Freedom from our fear of the future. Freedom from the captivity of the systems which entrap us and hold us prisoners. Freedom to forge new pathways. Freedom to embody all that we are, freedom to be reflections of the One who made us. Freedom to imagine justice. Freedom to dare to create peace. Freedom to give it all away. Freedom to set the captives free and release the debts of those whose indebtedness assures our privilege.
Free to be a beacon of hope for all those who seek freedom. For if we cannot see our way clear to respond to the incredible reality of our great privilege by freeing others, then it is we who are enslaving ourselves. The truth is we can be held captive by our privilege, or we can use our privilege to free those who are being held captive for the sake of our privilege.
Our rankings in the world are important to help us build our sense of pride and achievement, but it is how a nation treats its poor, weak, animals, disadvantaged that we are judged on, by the rest of the world and by the next generation.”
As a nation, as a church, as a gathered community, we may only come to new birth, new life and resurrection after we have lamented the loss and the pain which is happening within our world, within our society, within our city and within ourselves.
Until we take courage to do this, to live the Jubilee Year of the Lord as Luke’s Jesus envisioned it, many cannot expect to do much more than exist.