"The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me"

 

The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde preaching at the Washington National Cathedral.

What a strange...sobering...and utterly horrible week it has been. 

The inauguration of the 47th president was on Monday...which coincided with the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Given the former's attitudes and campaign rhetoric...that just seemed like the cruelest of ironies.

And it didn't take long for the new old president and his cronies to begin his shock and awe campaign on the nation. They immediately took down the Spanish language translations of the White House website, have stopped processing passports of transgender individuals who refused to identify as either male or female, begun raids in certain cities to arrest and detain people who are immigrants, and have announced that churches and schools are no longer protected spaces for people seeking sanctuary.

Oh, and he pardoned all of the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the government and prevent the certification of the 2020 votes confirming that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had won that election. Five police officers who defended the Capitol died from that incident. Another 140 officers were badly injured.

Suddenly now, the Fraternal Order of Police is upset with the president. A little late folks.

On Tuesday, January 21st, the Washington National Cathedral held its traditional Prayer Service for the Nation. The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, diocesan bishop of Washington, DC, was the preacher. And Bishop Budde took that opportunity, preaching on a text from the Gospel of Matthew, to speak of unity and the pieces that are needed to be in place for us to heal and become a more unified nation. One of those keys was that vulnerable people need to feel that they are protected, something that they are not feeling right now because....well...please see all of what I have already written. Bishop Budde looked at the president and vice president as she made her plea for him to have compassion and show mercy. It was bold, and it was on point. 

And, as one might imagine, the backlash against her has been intense. Some Republican members of Congress have demanded that she, born in New Jersey, be deported. The president called her a "so-called bishop" and that her message was "nasty." He demanded an apology. She refused.

Because Jesus' teachings are good...and require no apology.

The uproar from this service filtered down to all of us who work in the vineyards of The Episcopal Church. There was concern about what might happen on Sunday: will we see new people who want to be in a church based on compassion, mercy, and justice? Or were we going to have some troublemakers come in to disrupt our worship?

And what were we going to preach in the wake of all of this and as we enter into these times?

Here's what I had to say. See what you think.  

Text: Luke 4:14-21; 1 Cor. 12:12-31a

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“The spirit of the Lord is upon me…”

All this week…as I have been preparing this sermon…this phrase that has been lingering in my head.

Morning, noon, and night…this phrase has been on repeat.

I have a vivid memory of when I encountered this passage in Luke’s Gospel.

It was on a sunny October morning in Washington DC.

I was sitting quietly in the nave of St. Monica and St. James-Capitol Hill…the place where I was assigned to do my field ed.

The light was streaming in through the windows casting purple and yellow shadows over the baptismal font.

I opened my Bible to the Gospel of Luke…and began reading through this portion.

And as I did…I remember being overcome with a deep and profound understanding not only of my own call to be a priest…but what this passage means for all of us who claim the mantle of Christ.

Because this passage is basically the crux of the Jesus movement…his mission statement…the bass note of Jesus’s call.

We’re going to be hearing a lot of “call” stories during this season of Epiphany.

Epiphany is really all about being called….having that great “A-ha!” or “Eureaka!” moment…when we realize what we’re meant to be doing with this one precious life we all have.

Epiphany is a time for considering those gifts of the Spirit Paul has been talking about…and what and how we use those skill sets we have to making this a better church and a society where we can all breathe free.

In this case…we’re witnessing the crystallization and Jesus’ public testimony of his call…his purpose.

How the Spirit that is upon him is moving in him…through him…and out of him to accomplish God’s purpose in the world.

It all began with his baptism at the Jordan River…when the Holy Spirit descended upon him as a dove.

From that point forward…the Spirit becomes the life blood pumping through his veins.

It’s the Spirit that drives him from the Jordan out into the wilderness for forty days.

That time…alone in the dessert…helps to shape and refine him….and the Spirit is there…giving him the power to resist the tempter as he tries to steer Jesus away from his life’s purpose.

The Spirit then guides him home…back to his hometown… to the synagogue where he grew up.

He’s now a young man. A very faithful…and faith-filled young man.

But in this space…this synagogue…he is with the people who remember him as a little boy.

I think we all might relate to what that’s like…when you go back to some place…your hometown…where they knew you when you were young…and maybe even a little stupid?

They know your mama and your papa and your siblings.

It can be so hard to break free of the preconceived ideas of who you are and what you’re all about in those situations…and it’s no different for Jesus here.

Still…he’s the hometown boy.

So when he comes into the synagogue…the community honors him by calling upon him to read from the scroll of the prophets.

He unfurls the scroll…and finds in this passage in the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah:

The spirit of the Lord is upon me…

I wonder how that must have felt coming out of his mouth.

Indeed…the spirit of the Lord is upon him.

It’s in him…

It’s on fire in his heart.

This spirit is upon him to bring good news to the poor.

Yes indeed.

It’s on him to heal…teach…and touch people who are the powerless and those feeling hopeless under the iron fist of the Roman Empire.

The spirit has sent him to proclaim release to the captives.

All those same weary people who are feeling hemmed in and cut off…including cut off from their own hearts. Jesus has come to release them and regather them.

The spirit is giving him power to give recovery of sight to the blind.

We’re not just talking about physical blindness.

The spirit is giving him the power to open the eyes of those whose status have kept them comfortable enough that they fail to see the suffering around them.

He’s here to open the eyes of everyone…to see each other more clearly as children of God.

Everyone is of equal importance and value to God.

The spirit of the Lord is upon him to liberate the oppressed…those on society’s margins…those being “othered”…and bring them out from the edges and into the center.

With this Holy Spirit-inspired mission…Jesus is accepting this assignment…and when he accomplishes all of this…it will truly be the Jubilee Year of the Lord’s favor.

He takes his seat.

Now all these folks who’ve known the little boy Jesus are looking at him for a word.

A message.

The synagogue didn’t have a clergy person…so they want to hear from Jesus.

“Tell us, O wise one, what shall we make of this passage?”

And…in this moment of his own Epiphany…sitting in his childhood synagogue…Jesus looks around the room at all of them:

“This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Full stop.

This is Jesus’ mission.

The mission will be accomplished when those who have heard these words of the prophet Isaiah accept that this is their mission, too.

They have the power to make these things happen.

They can help bring about a truly peaceful and prosperous world by reaching out to one another…treating each other with respect and dignity…refusing to treat people as “others”…as objects of scorn and derision…and helping to free people from the devils that plague them…those internal and external forces that belittle them and tell them they don’t matter.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon them.

It’s also upon us in this hearing.

The mission statement of Jesus is also the mission statement of anyone who says they are a follower of Jesus.

We are all called to be a friend to those who are living in fear for their financial security…their healthcare…their safety.

We are all called to help free people from captivity…whether that’s encouraging the addict to get help in recovering from an addiction…or aiding a person escaping some kind of abusive and dangerous situation.

And we are all called to recognize our own prejudices and to do our best to see Christ in all people…and not just the people who look like us or talk like us or worship like us.

These ARE the core values of our faith…and our following of Jesus.

If we have been baptized into his life…death…and resurrection…then we are bound to the basic principles of having compassion for those who are scared…showing mercy for those who are vulnerable…and seeking a world where everyone is treated with fairness and equity.

These principles don’t make us popular.

They never have.

But they will always put us on the path toward God.

Jesus didn’t read those prophetic words of Isaiah out loud to just let them evaporate into the ether.

And we shouldn’t let them fade away or refuse to hear them either.

To be a Christian in this time…and in our country today…is to remember that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was not one of the powerful rulers of this world.

And he didn’t want to be.  

He was one of the disenfranchised…living and moving and having his being among the outcasts of society.

In this time that we’re in…we need to read…mark…learn…and inwardly digest this message.

Take these scriptures home and read them again and again.

And then…with those gifts that we’ve each been given by the Spirit that is in us…whether we are teachers…listeners…healers…or helpers…use those gifts to give back love into this world to those who need it most.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.