Christ to Liberate is Our Mission, Too

Introduction: Inaugural Addresses, the Beginning

Last week’s inaugural address reminded me of a conversation I had with a history buff who told me that every single Inaugural Address From George Washington to Barack Obama has been preserved in written and now recorded forms. And in every one of these speeches, most of which were over an hour in length, Presidents have laid out the dreams and goals and aspirations of their presidencies—they have set forth their mission for the next four years, words they intend to live by, words they intend to lead by, words to measure the effectiveness of their presidency.

George Washington spoke of the power of that Almighty Being who rules over the universe that would guide his hand and advance the character of an independent nation, and expressed his goal for a nation independent, but under God.

Abraham Lincoln, in a more difficult time in the history of our country, challenged those who would destroy the nation through secession saying “You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.”

And so he did, even to the point of conducting a war to preserve the Union.

Franklin Roosevelt, addressing the crisis of a nation and a world in the throes of a deep economic depression, promised to endure and work to revive the nation reminding us that the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.

And, notably, as America reached the status of the world’s great power, John Kennedy invited us to take on the role of leadership in defending freedom, challenging us to ask not what your country can do for us, but what we can do for our country. And to the world, ask not what America can do for you but what together we can do for the freedom of mankind.

At every turn in the progress of this democratic republic presidents have sought to lay out a mission in their inaugural addresses so that we may have some idea where we may be going and what is expected of us.

The Book of Proverbs states that “without a vision, the people will perish," so having some kind of vision is important for leading a good and effective life. Presidents and people, businesses and social groups, families and churches need words to live by, an inaugural address to set forth their goals and to measure their work along the path to meeting those goals in a hope-filled, persistent manner.

We have something like an inaugural address in this morning’s Gospel. No, Jesus hasn’t been elected president of Israel, but the people gathered in Nazareth are expecting something from Jesus. They know that something different has been happening in the lives of the surrounding communities and there was a buzz about who Jesus was and whether He might be the Messiah. Reports about Jesus had spread throughout the region of the Galilee. Reports about His baptism and the voice from heaven; reports about his teaching in other synagogues and other towns; perhaps reports about the wedding feast in Cana just down the road from Nazareth. Could Jesus be the Messiah that they had been expecting for so long? Could Jesus be God’s chosen now that he was all grown up, the one who would free them?

You see the Hebrews had been expecting a Savior for as long as they’d been a people they longed for God to save them and restore them and Nazareth was a community, according to scholars, where there was a special emphasis paid to waiting, praying for the Messiah to come. And there seemed to be two forms of this expectation; One, would be that the Messiah would be a great king who would throw out the foreign powers, in this case Rome, who would restore the fortunes of Israel; and would establish justice and peace throughout a physical kingdom. The other expectation was that the Messiah would restore the people to God, would live life in direct contact with God, sinless, in God’s will at all times,

and would show the people the ways of God and the way to God, whether there was a physical kingdom or not. Jesus has the power to become either one of these Messiahs and it’s in today’s Gospel, that He reveals what kind of Messiah He has grown up to be, what we might expect from His Lordship in our lives, and the kinds of lives He may be calling us to live.

In some sense, Jesus gives an inaugural address in the synagogue at Nazareth, outlining His platform

and telling the people what they can expect from His administration. Jesus stands and takes the Isaiah scroll and reads,  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; sent me to proclaim release to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus will not be the great king who wields a sword to establish a kingdom on earth, but will be the one who uses the knowledge of God’s love for Him and all the power in the universe in order to liberate all who are in physical and spiritual bondage. He will be the one who shows the way of God and the way to God. Jesus will be a liberator

and all the miracles He performs to heal and restore and bring people back from the dead, all the teachings and stories provide a pathway for people to wake up to our lives and to God’s presence, as well as to be free so that we may become the persons God made us to be.

Jesus is a liberator and at the end of his earthly ministry, as He hangs on the cross Jesus liberates us from our sins and the power they hold over us by taking them on Himself.  And when He rises again on Easter morning, He frees us from the bonds and the fear of death so that we are free indeed, to grow up to become who God made us to be.

Unlike so many of our presidents and other leaders over the course of time, Jesus’ inaugural address is one that He actually fulfills by the way He lived, by the life He gives, and His purposes change lives like ours and call us to take up His purposes in our own day.

Taking Up Jesus’ Goals

Some time ago, I had a conversation with a friend about the fact that for all that Mother Teresa did and worked for all her life, when she died, there were still poor people and sick people, still people without hope in Calcutta and around the world. And that it was the same when Jesus ascended into heaven.

For all the good news Jesus brought to the poor snd all the captives that He released snd all the healings of the blind and the lame and the sick snd all the prisoners who were freed there was much more to do, there was much more to be done.

It doesn’t mean that Jesus’ life and ministry or the Mother Teresa’s life and ministry were failures in any sense; they were world changing, but it does mean that there’s more to be done. And that’s where you and I come in.  For we are called today to take up Jesus’ ministry inaugurated in Nazareth, the work he began that day and renews in you and me this day. For we, too, are loved by God and we, too, have been anointed through our Baptisms with the Holy Spirit and in that love and with that power we can be and do anything. But what God calls you and I to do and to be, what God calls us to become as we grow up, are Jesus’ hands and heart and feet, so that the work He inaugurated in Nazareth will continue today and people will be freed from their captivity.

Accept the liberation Christ offers you and each one of us. Receive the forgiveness, the healing, and the freedom from being less than God made us to be and then look around your life to find a way to use the love and the power of God working in you to free people in your own family, in our community, and in the world from the spiritual and physical struggles they face. Each of us can make a difference in Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit and that is who we can become when we are willing to grow up in the love and in the power of God and follow our Lord and His purposes.  

                             

WFA