Sirach 38
Psalm 147
2 Timothy 4:1-12
Luke 4:14-19
II would be surprised if I were the only one here this morning who has found the last few weeks to be particularly discouraging. As of last week, there are now two major wars going on in the world – one in Ukraine, and one in the Middle East. The attack on Israel last week deliberately and cruelly targeted non-combatants, including women, children, and old people. Those who did this certainly should have realized that Israel would respond in kind, and Israel’s response has already resulted in the death of over two thousand Palestinians, many of whom were themselves women, children, and old people. The United Nations estimates that 4,200 people have been killed, and over a million displaced in the last ten days. Meanwhile, here in the United States, political division is so intractable that one of the major parties cannot even agree among themselves to elect a leader, let alone work with the other party, and, at a time when strong US leadership is certainly needed, there is no functioning Congress.
Christians also experience these divisions in our own churches. A former student of mine recently posted on Facebook that his church had been able to purchase some land to build a new building after they had lost their old building in the church wars. A well-known older combatant in the church wars commented in response that this was a waste of time because when the Baby Boomers in the congregation die in the next few years, the new building would be empty, and Generation Z are all abandoning the church. There will not be any need for church buildings in the future.
Any sober description of the world today would have to acknowledge that human beings are divided from one another. Indeed, various groups hate one another. And the only solutions we seem to be able to come up with are attempts to settle disagreements through coercion. If one side wins, the other has to lose.
The lectionary readings for today are for the feast day of St. Luke the Evangelist. Commentators regard Luke 4:14-30 – the story of Jesus reading from the Isaiah scroll in the synagogue in Nazareth followed by a short sermon – as the key to Luke’s entire Gospel. The passage contains all of the themes that Luke will develop, not only in his Gospel, but also in his sequel, the Book of Acts. I am going to focus this morning not simply on this Gospel passage, but on how these themes fit together in both Luke and Acts. Since I cannot talk about everything in the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, I intend to focus on one issue, what Luke says about the role of the church within a hostile culture. To make it a sermon rather than a Bible study, my title will be “Luke’s Guide for Christians living in a divided culture.”
In many ways, Luke’s own situation was not that different from ours. We are finding ourselves more and more in a post-Christian culture. While Christians nominally might still be a majority in the United States, secularism is more and more the dominant functional world view.
In contrast, Luke lived in a pre-Christian culture, and certainly a culture in which Christians were a small minority. None of the current political or cultural alternatives of his time were an option for Luke or his fellow Christians. The Romans were in charge of things, and they were no friends of Christians. The Roman procurator Pontius Pilate crucified Jesus. At the end of Luke’s second volume, the Book of Acts, the apostle Paul is a prisoner in Rome. The Jewish people were divided into competing groups with different identities: Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots, and Essenes. Sadducees and Pharisees had joined together with the Romans to crucify Jesus, and much of the Book of Acts tells of persecutions of Christians by both Jews and pagans. The uncompromising vision of the Zealots eventually led the Romans to destroy the city of Jerusalem in 70 AD. No love lost between Jews and Romans, but neither Jews nor Romans had any use for Christians either.
Luke offers an entirely different vision from that of the Jewish and pagan leaders of his own time about how Christians as followers of Jesus could live in the midst of conflict. I would suggest that Luke’s vision speaks to us as Christians today in the midst of a culture that is just as divided as that of the first century. Luke’s vision of living in the midst of cultural conflict can be addressed by answering three questions: What, Who, How?
So first, What is Luke’s vision? The answer can be found in the way that Luke brings together two concepts: eschatology and mission. We begin with Luke’s distinct understanding of eschatology. Like all of the synoptic Gospels, Luke places the kingdom of God at the center of Jesus’ mission. In Luke 4:43, Jesus says “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” In Luke 8:1, we are told that Jesus went through cities and villages, proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom of God.
It is important to understand that the kingdom of God is a political concept. The kingdom is the future of God’s reign in the entire world. The kingdom is thus both future and universal. The kingdom of God is the future of everyone now living, whether they recognize it or not. And the kingdom is good news for some, but bad news for the world’s rulers. If God is king, then Caesar is not.
Luke adds to the proclamation of the kingdom what you have probably heard of as the tension between the “already and the not yet.” The kingdom is present in Jesus’ mission, but it is not yet fulfilled in all its glory. We see this in the lectionary reading this morning. Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus then places Isaiah’s words in his own lips. After reading “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor,” Jesus pronounces that “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Note that Jesus is not talking about some future salvation in heaven, but about a concrete reality that is taking place here and now in his mission. Jesus says that the good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, which Isaiah placed in God’s distant eschatological future, is taking place right here and now, in his own ministry.
Luke takes this notion of the presence of the kingdom in Jesus’ ministry and expands it to include the notion of mission. Scholars point out that the narrative structure of the two books of Luke and Acts is geographical. The geography of the Gospel moves from Galilee to Jerusalem, then the geography of the Book of Acts moves from Jerusalem to Samaria, to Athens and Corinth, and eventually to Rome.
Luke’s response to the hostile and divided culture of his own time is the Good News of the gospel. Luke describes Peter’s preaching of the gospel not only to Jews in Jerusalem in Acts 2, but to visitors from “every nation under heaven.” Luke describes Philip’s mission to the Samaritans (historic enemies of the Jews) in Acts chapter 8, and the conversion of the Gentile Cornelius in Acts 10. Paul begins his career in the book of Acts as a Jewish Pharisee who was a persecutor of Christians, but in Acts 9, the risen Jesus appears to Paul in a vision, and Paul becomes the great missionary to the Gentiles. Luke himself was a Gentile, who wrote not only his Gospel, but the first history of the Christian church. Throughout Luke’s Gospel and the Book of Acts, Luke neither advocates joining the culture, nor resisting it, but offering it an alternative. Luke understands the gospel to be about reconciliation between historic enemies, between Jews and Samaritans and Gentiles.
This brings us to the second question: Who? The “who” in Luke’s Gospel and the book of Acts is both Jesus and the church. Luke’s Gospel makes clear that Jesus and the kingdom of God is at the heart of Luke’s alternative. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is portrayed as the one on whom the Spirit descends at his baptism, and Jesus does his mission in the power of the Spirit. In the book of Acts, Luke portrays Jesus as the exalted Lord who now gives the Spirit, and who guides his church much as God had guided Israel in the Old Testament. Luke’s Gospel then looks forward to Jesus being the exalted Lord in Acts, but ironically, this same Jesus is portrayed in the Gospel as the Lord who is the servant, the one who comes to serve. Jesus says to his followers in Luke’s Gospel: “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.” So Jesus is the exalted Lord, but the Lord who comes as a servant.
This leads to the second “who.” For Luke, the mission of Jesus and the mission of the church are inseparable. In the Book of Acts, it is the role of the church to continue the mission that Jesus began during his earthly life. As Jesus was filled with the Spirit during his earthly ministry, so the church performs its mission in the power of the Spirit, and the church performs that work as did Jesus, not through coercion or force as do worldly rulers, but as servants.
Because the church is the dwelling place of the Spirit, the church is also the community of those people who live in anticipation of the kingdom proclaimed by Jesus. If the kingdom will be God’s universal rule over all humanity, this means that the church’s vocation must also be universal. As the Book of Acts makes clear, the gospel is good news for Jews, for Samaritans, and for Gentiles. The book of Acts begins with Pentecost, where Peter preaches the good news of the resurrection of Jesus to Jews in Jerusalem. It ends with Paul as a prisoner in Rome, where the Good News has finally reached the center of the Gentile world.
This leads to the last question of “how”? How does the church fulfill its mission in the midst of a divided and hostile culture? As with the answer to the questions “what” and “who,” Luke’s answer to the question “how” brings together two related themes: a kingdom culture and a mission of reconciliation.
What do I mean by a kingdom culture? As I just mentioned, the church is both a community that anticipates the kingdom proclaimed by Jesus, and the church is also the community that lives through the power of the Spirit. What does that mean “on the ground,” as it were?
First, the church is a community, a communion, a fellowship of people who follow Jesus by living in the presence of the kingdom. Ecclesiology is too often neglected in our understanding of salvation. For Luke, salvation is not about individual people who have a special relationship with Jesus. Salvation takes place within the church, and the church is a group of people who follow Jesus by living within the parameters of the kingdom that is already present.
This church is an alternative community to the surrounding culture. If the church has a mission to the culture, it is necessarily distinct from the culture. The church is by definition not to be identified with the world that is not the church. Practically, this means that we cannot take our message from the culture. “Wokism” may be a heresy, but so is the culture wars.
If the church’s mission is one of reconciliation of enemies, then above all, the church is composed of forgiven sinners. Luke’s Gospel includes parables that speak of God’s seeking out and forgiving sinners: the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, the parable of the Prodigal Son. Through Jesus, those who were enemies of God have been sought out by God, and reconciled to God. In this morning’s lectionary reading, liberty to the captives means freedom not only from physical bondage, but also freedom from bondage to sin. Recovery of sight to the blind means that Jesus brings not only physical sight, but enlightenment to those who were once blinded by sin.
Next, the church is to be a culture of goodness. This is shown most clearly in Luke’s account of Jesus’ sermon on the plain. In the sermon, Jesus does not preach moralism, but rather love and compassion, not only for those near to us, but for our enemies. Jesus speaks not of a goodness imposed from the outside through coercion, but of a change that works from the inside out. A tree is recognized by its fruit, and a good tree produces good fruit. Our actions proceed from the good or evil that finds its roots in our hearts.
In contrast to how things normally work, the church is not made up of the powerful and successful, but of the least, those that the surrounding culture would consider insignificant. We see this in Mary’s prayer, the Magnificat. The poor did not count in first-century culture anymore than they do today, but Mary rejoices: “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.”
Jesus proclaims in the Beatitudes at the beginning of his sermon: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” Jesus says that although no one born of women is greater than John the Baptist, the least in the kingdom of God was greater than John.
Those who played roles of political power in the ancient world certainly appear in both Luke’s Gospel and the Book of Acts: Herod the Great and Herod the Tetrarch, Pontius Pilate, the Jewish High Priests, the Governor Felix, Portius Festus, King Agrippa. But these people appear as those who exercise political power in opposition to the kingdom of God. Aside from Jesus, the key figures in the narrative plot of Luke and Acts are people who would be very minor characters in most historical accounts: Jesus’ mother Mary, John the Baptist and his parents Elizabeth and Zechariah, Jesus’ twelve apostles, women like Mary and Martha, the deacon Stephen, Philip the Evangelist, the apostle Paul, women like Lydia whose house became a meeting place for Christians.
Finally, how does the church reflect what it means to live in anticipation of the kingdom where God’s rule means salvation and reconciliation for those who were formerly enemies, for Jews and Gentiles, for men and women, for masters and servants? Because the church is composed of former enemies of God whom God has forgiven, we can forgive one another. Some variation of the word forgive appears eighteen times in Luke’s Gospel, and Jesus tells his followers: “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
In contrast to the way in which those outside the kingdom fight for power in a way that necessarily leads to winners and losers, those who follow Jesus become servants of one another. As Jesus came as one who serves, so we as the church are to serve one another. The church does not impose its message through coercion or manipulation, but shares through deeds of love and service.
Finally, the church has a primary mission not to itself, but to proclaim a message of reconciliation to those outside the church. There are many variations of a saying attributed to Archbishop William Temple: “The church exists primarily for the sake of those who are still outside it.” The church’s proclamation to those who are not yet the church is that the universal salvation of the eschaton is present now through Jesus. This means that we who are part of the church cannot simply ignore those who are outside the church. The church is not a special group of “religious” people in distinct from those outsiders who are “not religious.”
But the church’s proclamation to those outside is also primarily a positive message. If God’s kingdom is meant for all, and that kingdom has now appeared in Jesus, that means that God wills the salvation of all, that God intends everyone to be part of the kingdom, and the church’s vocation is to invite those outsiders into the kingdom.
The church’s proclamation of good news to outsiders does not mean that the church has no enemies, or that all will respond to the good news of the kingdom of God with joy and enthusiasm. It is significant, however, how both Luke and Acts deal with the church’s suffering in the midst of opposition. A key theme in both Luke and Acts is that opposition and death are not the final word, but that the Spirit overcomes death through life. The crucifixion of Jesus is followed by resurrection, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus’ gathered disciples on the day of Pentecost. The stoning of the deacon Stephen leads to the persecution and scattering of Christians from Jerusalem, and one of those scattered Christians, Philip, then preaches Jesus to Samaritans, historic enemies of Jews. Saul of Tarsus, a hostile Jewish opponent of this new Christian sect, sets out to Damascus to arrest some of these fleeing Christians, and while he is on his way, Jesus encounters him. Paul becomes the chief apostle to Gentiles (those Gentiles who crucified Jesus), and Acts concludes with Paul in Rome, “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” Proclaiming the Good news of the kingdom of God means loving enemies and sharing the good news of Jesus with them, and in the midst of resistance even to death, the presence of the kingdom means bringing life from death.
I am going to close with some final reflections. What does it mean for Christians today to live in the midst of a divided culture? First, if our message is one of reconciliation of enemies, then reconciliation must begin within the church. We must keep our accounts short. Christians are often some of the worst offenders against each other. A heightened sense of right and wrong can lead us to easily lose patience with those we think are in the wrong. But we cannot practice love of enemies if we are not willing first to forgive and love one another. Sometimes it seems harder to forgive our fellow Christians because we expect more from them.
In this light, we need to both recognize and acknowledge the church’s own failures, and confess them honestly and openly. The church is not the kingdom. The universal church is the anticipation of the kingdom, but institutional churches are provisional. It may well be that at some particular place in time and history, the institutional church may fail in its mission. Jesus’ warnings to the churches in the book of Revelation makes clear that the local church is quite capable of failing in its mission. Nonetheless, the exalted Lord Jesus Christ who came as a servant to all is faithful, and his kingdom will still prevail, even if we fail to be servants, and we don’t prevail.
As far as concerns our relationship to outsiders, the temptation in the midst of a hostile culture is to circle the wagons, to try to preserve our own identity, and to return hostility with hostility. However, I would suggest that what the church needs is not a Benedict option – what one of my online students referred to as the Jonah option – but a Dominican or Franciscan option. The period in which we live is no more hostile to Christians than was the world in which Luke lived. In the midst of hostility, the church’s mission is to proclaim and live out the Good News, not to hide from our enemies.
Finally, we should remember that the presence of the kingdom means living within the tension between the already and the not yet. The church anticipates the kingdom, but the kingdom is not here yet. In the midst of a fallen world in which conflict and evil still exist, the church will have enemies, and we live in the midst of a world in which we find ourselves surrounded by people determined to treat one another as enemies. We may find that some of these people are sitting in the pew next to us on Sunday morning. In the midst of conflict, the call of the church is to work as leaven within this hostile culture, while nonetheless remaining distinct from the culture – not responding to our enemies by becoming enemies in return, but trusting in Christ to be faithful to his church, and to the Spirit to bring about the kingdom where peace reigns in his time and at his pleasure.
Let us conclude by praying together the Second Prayer for Mission:
O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
