TODAY!
Nehemiah 8:2-4A, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-30; Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21
There’s a story about a certain man, very late in years, who was a devout Christian. More than anything, he longed for the Lord to come again. He wanted so much to be reunited with his wife Katherine who had died the year before. She had been the love of his life for 60-something years. He was also anxious to move beyond all the aches and pains of his own old age, and to be young and strong again. And he wanted the world to be made right. Each day when he sat alone at the kitchen table, dipping bread into his soup for lunch, he would pray the Lord’s Prayer and linger over the part that says, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Then, he would take his prayer journal and write in flowing letters, “Perhaps tomorrow!”
The man’s son, who loved him very much and came by the house to visit his dad every afternoon after work, would sometimes leaf through the pages of his dad’s journal. There, before his eyes, was the story of his father’s life – page after page of the day’s experiences contained in a stack of journals covering many years. Stories about his marriage…the birth of children…career experiences…his life as a Christian. And at the end of every day’s entry was written, in flowing letters, “Perhaps tomorrow!”
One afternoon in the late autumn, the son came by his father’s house and immediately knew something was different. There was a kind of empty silence unlike anything he had ever heard before. And then he saw his dad, lying silently on the old sofa. He had died as he took his afternoon nap.
Well, the son took care of all the things you need to take care of in times like these – made all the phone calls, retrieved all the necessary paperwork, talked quietly with the people from the funeral home who came to get the body.
And then he was left alone in the old house, full of his parents’ humble treasures – the figurines, and furniture and fine things gathered over a lifetime…and, the journal on the kitchen table. The son sat down, sweeping away the few crumbs of bread left from the last noontime meal his father had eaten. He opened the journal, page after page completed with his father’s handwritten hope: “Perhaps tomorrow!” The son smiled. And then he turned to the last page. It was dated that very day. Surprisingly, there was only one word written there, penned in his father’s beautiful handwritten scroll. It simply said, “TODAY!”
One day, in the town of Nazareth, a group of people just like you and me went to the synagogue. Like us – and like the old man in the story – they were looking for the coming of God’s kingdom. – the day their lives, their nation, and their world would be made right – the day they’d be rescued from their frail humanity, set free from all the oppressive powers of the world, and gathered under the protective and life-giving presence of God Himself. These citizens of Nazareth gathered every Sabbath to pray and to hear read the promise of God to bring them a new day of Jubilee. And they would leave the synagogue afterwards renewed in hope and thinking, “Perhaps tomorrow!”
But then, one Sabbath something amazing happened. A man named Jesus returned home to Nazareth where he had been raised, and he joined the crowd in the synagogue. As was the custom, he was invited to read the lectionary for the day, which happened to be a portion of Isaiah 61 that refers to this great Day of Jubilee:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to set free the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
It was a passage the people had heard many times over. It was one of their favorites because it spoke of the day the Lord’s Messiah would come and inaugurate God’s kingdom on earth. Oh, what a day it will be! Perhaps tomorrow!
And then Jesus rolled up the scroll and gave it to the attendant. Then he sat down to teach. And this is what Jesus said: “TODAY!” . . . TODAY! Not tomorrow, out there in the future. Not yesterday, back there in the past. But TODAY! “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!”
“Today” is the first word of Jesus’ public teaching. He neither reminisces about the past nor forecasts the future. He comes to his people in the very circumstances of their lives. It’s not about what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow. It’s about today. It’s not about nostalgia for the past, nor a fantasy of the future. It’s not centered in memory or anticipation: next year I’ll do this; in the old days we did that, someday God will set things right. “TODAY this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” Today he brings good news to the poor. Today he proclaims release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. Today he lets the oppressed go free. Today he proclaims the year of the Lord’s favor. TODAY!
But TODAY is a dangerous place when you live your life with one foot in the past and one foot in the future because today insists that you lay aside both the comfort of your memories and the hope of your dreams to embrace fully the moment of now. And so the people reject both the messenger and the message. Their one foot is firmly planted in the past: They know this man Jesus! They saw him grow up! They visited his carpenter show! He - the Messiah? The Chosen One? The Anointed One? The Holy One of Israel? Impossible! And their other foot . . . that’s dug deeply into the sands of the future. Because if it is today, that puts responsibility and accountability on them. And they weren’t ready to accept either.
What about us? Are we like those neighbors of Nazareth? With one foot in the past and one in the future, do we straddle and completely miss the present. Do we become captive to what was, fearful of what might be, and blind to what is? Are we stuck in the past and blind to the power of God in the here and now, oblivious to the God-moments in our lives? Do we obsess on the future and chalk up to coincidence or pure luck the miracles that are happening all around us?
The bible is the LIVING Word of God, which means that it is never out of date; its lessons are still applicable; and the words Jesus speaks, he speaks not just to an individual or a community of antiquity, he speaks to us and to the situations of our lives. Poverty might be about money or material needs such as food, clothing, or housing. It might also be poverty of love, hope, or meaning. Regardless, our world is empty. The captive might be a prisoner. It might also be an addicted person, a cancer patient, or one overcome by anger and resentment. Regardless, our world is small and closing in. Blindness can be physical. But it can also be emotional or spiritual. Regardless, our world is dark. Oppression happens in hundreds of ways from physical or emotional violence, to racism, to fear, to profound sorrow. Regardless, our world is not safe.
In the midst of these circumstances, when life gets really difficult, it’s easy and tempting to run away, to get stuck in the past, or fixate on the future. Yet, Jesus comes to us today, here, now. He’s not lost in our past or hidden in an unknown future. The only place we can meet Jesus is today, in this present moment, in whatever the circumstances of our life might be.
But here’s the irony. We too often miss today fretting over yesterday and worrying about tomorrow. And yet the presence of Christ today somehow heals our past and prepares us for the future. Good news, release, sight, freedom, the Lord’s favor. All these are made real and present today, in the current context and circumstances of our lives.
This morning's Gospel is fulfilled in our hearing . . . TODAY!
