Saint Luke's Lutheran Church

This week many of us listened as President Bush gave his annual State of the Union address. No sooner did he close with his trademark slogan, "God bless America," than the commentators began to analyze what he said and what he didn't say. They looked at every statement and nuance in an effort to discern where the President planned to lead this nation and the world in the year ahead. His speech received mixed reviews - some people liked what they heard; others did not.

Today in our Gospel lesson, we read the first part of Jesus' State of the Kingdom address. It came at the beginning of his term of office. It was not his first sermon - because he had been preaching and teaching in other Galilean synagogues, where he had gained a good reputation. But this is his first sermon recorded in the Gospels and it was the first sermon he preached in his own hometown. There Jesus also got mixed reviews - not that some liked what he had to say and others did not, but rather that they liked the first part of his sermon but not the second.

A young Baptist pastor came back to his home congregation to preach. In vintage Baptist style, he started out with hellfire and brimstone. First he talked about demon rum and called those who drank alcohol to repentance. And a little old lady in the front pew responded with a hearty, "Amen." Then he talked about sexual sins and called those who committed fornication and adultery to repentance, and the little old lady responded with a loud, "Preach it, brother." Then he talked about gossiping and, he called those who talked about others to repentance, and the little old lady stood up and declared, "Hold it right there, young fella'. Now you've stopped preachin' and gone to meddlin'."

Well, that's what Jesus did. In the eyes of these hometown folks, Jesus had stopped preachin' and gone to meddlin' when said how God not only blesses the Israelites, but also other people and other nations. That made them angry and things got pretty ugly. So ugly in fact that they dragged Jesus out of town and tried to throw him off a cliff. Not being Israelites, we might take a more dispassionate look at Jesus' sermon.

In this inaugural sermon, Jesus does two things: 1) he identifies who he is, and 2) he lays out what he came to do. Reading from the prophet Isaiah, Jesus begins by identifying himself as a prophet. Unlike his cousin John the Baptist, Jesus did not dress like a prophet, with camel hair clothes and a leather belt. Nor did Jesus eat like a prophet, with a diet of locust and wild honey. What made Jesus a prophet was that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. It was this Spirit of the Lord that enabled Jesus to do what prophets do - to proclaim the Word of God.

So Jesus says that he came to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, the year of the Lord's favor. There is no small irony in this episode. Jesus came proclaiming good news and the people were glad to hear it when they thought that it was just for them. But when Jesus said that God's favor was also for those who were different from them, for those they did not like, they wanted to silence him. Their reaction is a foreshadowing of what will come at the end of Jesus' ministry - when he will be taken out to another hill and nailed to a cross. Jesus' death and resurrection was not just for the Jews - it was for all people. The only reason Jesus was able to proclaim good news and God's favor to anyone was because his death and resurrection made God's forgiveness available to everyone.

Today is Celebration Sunday here at St. Luke's and during the Christian Education hour we had our annual meeting. This is a good time for me as your pastor to do what Jesus did - to give a "State of the Church" sermon (and I trust that things will not get as ugly here as they did in Nazareth). This is also a good time for us as a congregation to do what Jesus did - to look at who we are and what we are to do. That is where I'd like to begin.

With Jesus and Isaiah, we can say that the Spirit of the Lord is upon us. Two weeks ago when we celebrated the Baptism of Our Lord, we also remembered our own baptism. Just as God poured out the Spirit on Jesus in the waters of the Jordan River, so God washed us with that same Spirit and filled us with that same presence. That means that we also are prophets - anointed to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, and the year of the Lord's favor.

This is precisely what our mission statement says. We say that the mission for this congregation and for every one who belongs here is To know Christ and to make Christ known! To know Christ is to know that we are loved and forgiven, that we are children of God, that we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is what we have been doing at St. Luke's this past year. In worship and in Christian education we have been celebrating our baptisms and getting to know Christ better. Thanks to all of you who helped to make worship possible during this past year - to those Sunday servants who share their gift of music, who prepare the bread and wine, who pass out bulletins, who read and pray and greet, and work in the nursery. Thanks to all who helped to make learning possible during this past year -- to those who taught Worship Center and Sunday School, who helped with VBS, who were guides and mentors for our Confirmation students, who lead Bible study groups. Because of you, I have seen people come to love God more deeply, trust God more firmly, understand God more clearly, and worship God more intently.

But it is not enough simply to know Christ. We also need to make Christ known. Jesus is not someone we can keep to ourselves. He wants us to introduce him to others. The good news is not something that we can keep to ourselves. We are supposed to proclaim it to others. And this is what we have been doing this past year - making Christ known not only to the 24 people who were baptized here and the 48 people who became members here in 2003, but making Christ known through our outreach to others. Thanks to all who helped to make us a Missionary Covenant Congregation with Tim and Annie Reynolds, who participation in the Hunger Walk and the City Wide Food Drive, who helped gather clothes and load box cars for Lutheran World Relief, who worked at Degage Ministries, Leonard Terrace, and In the Image. These are ways that you brought good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed.

God has richly blessed us here at St. Luke's in this past year, and God has made us a blessing to others. But that was last year. Today is a new year. Jesus said, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." The Spirit of the Lord is upon us today - and today we are anointed to bring good news to the poor and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. So, today we think about how we can know Christ and make Christ known in this coming year. We think about how we can utilize the Four Keys of Child in Our Hands to encourage more caring conversations, to enrich family devotional life, to increase cross-generational service, and to develop meaningful rituals and traditions. We think about how we can make our worship more dynamic and how we can reach out and visit more in our community. We think about how we can make Christ and his church more visible.

Jesus' sermon still gets mixed reviews today. Not everyone who hears the good news responds positively. Some get upset by what they hear and reject it. Some are indifferent to what they hear and do not take it to heart. But some are touched by the love of God so powerfully displayed in Jesus' words and actions, and especially in his suffering and death. They are excited to have the Spirit of the Lord upon them and eager to bring the good news others. What about you? How will you hear this sermon? Will you allow the good news to come alive in your life? Will you seek to know Christ better and to make him known to others? Will you be a part of this ministry? Amen.