Freedom and Restoration — Sermon by Rev. Bryan Biba

let us

pray Lord just as Ezra and

Nehemiah

heard the cries of the people longing to

hear your word longing to listen to your

law May our hearts Lord long for your

word long to receive your gospel your

good news give us ears to hear hearts

and mind ready to Proclaim and to

receive the good news that you've given

to us and may my speech and message not

be plausible words of wisdom but a

demonstration of the spirit and of power

so that indeed we would receive this

gospel not based on human wisdom but on

the power of

God

Amen may be

seated today in Our Gospel reading Luke

recounts Jesus's first

sermon he has been

baptized uh in the River Jordan by John

he has spent time in the wilderness and

driven by the spirit of God Jesus

returns to his hometown to Nazareth

returns to his home synagogue and

preaches his first sermon of his

ministry reading this text this week

week reminded me of my first sermon 12

years ago believe it or not in a small

tiny Church in uh Western North

Carolina I remember I was so

afraid of saying something

stupid or saying something wrong and so

I tried to be as conventional as

possible to not ruffle any

feathers that is not what Jesus

does Jesus goes into his home synagogue

of Nazareth filled with the spirit and

he speaks with power with authority he

takes the scroll of the prophet Isaiah

he opens it up and he reads it and then

he

declares something

unbelievable that

today this scripture has been fulfilled

in your hearing can you

imagine put yourself in that

synagogue you saw the little boy Jesus

grow up come up to the front go

downstairs to little church this little

boy the son of Joseph and

Mary is now saying he is the Fulfillment

of the

Prophet I would have been shocked I

wouldn't have believed

him so what does it mean how can Jesus

say this what does this mean for us

today in order to

understand the shocking nature the truth

revealed in Jesus's first sermon we have

to spend some time in the prophet Isaiah

Isaiah 61 open your Bibles with me to

Isaiah chapter 61 this was Jesus's

Isaiah 61 · chapter mention

preaching

text let's put it in context the book of

Isaiah is the largest book of Prophecy

in

Scripture it was written uh during the

fall of uh Judah of God's people uh

being hauled off uh into Exile Isaiah is

witnessing the last days of the

Kingdom immediately before uh chapter 61

we have a number of famous servant songs

where Isaiah speaks about the suffering

servant set apart um to suffer on behalf

of God's people we know of course that

this uh prophecy points us to Jesus in

chapter 60 though Isaiah shifts his

vision and looks towards the Fulfillment

the return of God's people their

Redemption from

Exile Isaiah foresees a day when Israel

will be restored they will return from

Babylon and they will shine with the

glory of God and Isaiah 61 explains how

look with me at verse one it begins

the spirit of the Lord is upon me

because he has anointed me to bring good

news to the

poor Israel's restoration will come

about through the Lord's anointed

through the Messiah that's the word

that's used here God will place his

Spirit upon his chosen one and he will

commission him to bring about a mission

and his mission is to bring good news to

the poor to the pressed to those who

suffer the messiah's mission is one of

Liberation and that has two aspects on

one hand it is freedom for those who are

enslaved by the World the Flesh and the

Devil by the powers and principalities

at work in our world but it's not just

Freedom it's also

restoration the Messiah will restore

what has been lost by sin and

death he goes first to those in greatest

need to the poor but this freedom and

restoration will extend to the whole

earth to everyone who is oppressed in

every

way verse two continues that this

Messiah will proclaim the year of the

Lord's favor and the day of Vengeance of

our God this phrase year of the Lord's

favor it's a technical term Isaiah is

signaling to Israel to look back to the

law specifically to look back to

Leviticus CH

25 there Israel was commanded to observe

Jubilee Jubilee was the Sabbath year you

all know the Sabbath the Commandment of

the Lord to rest on the seventh day

mirroring his own

creation but it wasn't just a weekly

phenomenon and Leviticus 20 uh 25 the

Lord commands that every seventh year

would be a jubilee year and every seven

times seven years would be a great

Jubilee year and every Jubilee

year it would

be debt

forgiveness all indebtedness economic

social familial would be forgiven can

you imagine that'd be

nice and also emancipation slaves

everyone who is enslaved would be set

free every seven years this was part of

Israel's

law this kind of radical debt

forgiveness and emancipation is not

unheard of in the ancient world we know

that the Babylonian Kings often began

their reign with debt forgiveness and

emancipation but this was entirely based

on the will and the whims of the king it

was dependent on his Mercy his

generosity

a bit like presidents who are coming

into office and leaving office granting

pardons it's the same kind of idea

here but Israel's King the true king of

the whole world the lord he mandated in

his law that every seventh year there

would be Jubilee every seventh year

there would be freedom and restoration

to the indebted and to the

enslaved because the Lord the god of

Israel is a god of

Mercy he Longs and loves to show Mercy

to those who are oppressed and he

commanded his people to do

likewise but that's not all here in

Isaiah 61 there's

a future oriented Eternal component to

Isaiah's prophecy it's not just

foreseeing the messiah's coming in time

it's also fores seeeing his final coming

his eternal coming

Isaiah foresees a day of Eternal

Jubilee a time when for all eternity all

debts are forgiven all slaves

emancipated for all for good

finally eternally free from the powers

that oppress US economic social

political the World the Flesh and the

devil that true Freedom true restoration

that's what Isaiah

foresees and now we can understand the

shocking claim of Jesus's first sermon

here in Luke

4 Jesus Takes the scroll he reads Isaiah

61 he rolls it back I love Luke's

account of this he hands it back to the

attendant and All Eyes Are Fixed On

Jesus what is he going to say about this

text today this scripture has been

fulfilled in your

hearing not was fulfilled a long time

ago not will be fulfilled one day right

now here in my presence in my preaching

is

Jubilee He is claiming to be the Lord's

anointed the one who will usher in the

final Eternal Jubilee that through his

presence all debts are forgiven all

slaves are free

now as we can understand this was

difficult for the people in the

synagogue to hear uh Luke continues that

in fact they reject him because what he

was saying seemed demonstrably untrue I

mean there were still people enslaved

there were still people oppressed

the Romans were still there oppressing

God's

people so is Jesus a

liar or is he speaking about something

different a spiritual reality that we

cannot see that has impact on the

material world that we do

see Jesus is rejected here friends

because his listeners were hearing and

seeing him from a worldly perspective

Jesus is not simply focused on material

realities economic political social he's

talking about a spiritual Kingdom a

kingdom of heaven that is not of this

world a kingdom that is within us as

Luke will later

say humans can only find true material

economic and social Freedom when they

experience the spiritual freedom and

restoration that comes in the kingdom of

God and this Eternal Eternal Jubilee it

comes through the presence of Jesus so

indeed in their hearing the possibility

for material Freedom was there but Jesus

begins not with what we can see but what

God sees he begins with the heart he

begins with the transformation the

freedom the restoration that must happen

within us if the world is to be changed

and this friends is good news

because all of us are oppressed in a

variety of ways we're materially

oppressed by the wealthy socially

oppressed by the powerful our lives are

deeply affected by the corruption and

failure of our leaders and this is just

scratching the surface remember Jesus is

really talking about here the Unseen

realities that we are all mentally and

emotionally

oppressed haunted by the failures of our

past our fears of the future by our

destructive and unhealthy habits and

attitudes but worse of all we are all

spiritually

oppressed by a enemy that is not of This

World by our sinful thoughts and vicious

behaviors by the lies and temptations of

the Devil by our own

shame all of us need freedom and

restoration and Jesus comes to set us

free to give us Eternal Jubilee now

freeing us from everything that

oppresses

us there's aspects of this freedom and

restoration that are instantaneous maybe

some of you can attest to that in your

life most of it though is gradual it

happens over time as the holy spirit is

at work in us sanctifying

us as Paul writes in Colossians

1 he has delivered us from the domain of

Darkness and transferred us to the

kingdom of his beloved

Son life in the kingdom of God is

Jubilee life it's life of freedom and

restoration because life in the kingdom

is life in the presence of

Jesus and this friends is why we need

the

church if you want Eternal Jubilee the

only place to find it is in the presence

of Jesus and where did Jesus promise to

be where two or three are gathered in

his word preached in his sacraments

administered Jesus is present now

bringing forth Jubilee in his body and

that's indeed what Paul is talking about

in our reading from 1 Corinthians 12

turn with me in your Bibles to that

passage the lectionary today is

brilliant pairing 1 Corinthians 12 with

Luke

4 as Paul explains here the church is

the body of Christ on Earth it's the

temple where the Holy Spirit dwells in

the hearts of his people the church is

the place where we encounter the

presence of Jesus

now verse 13 for in one Spirit we were

all baptized into one body Jews or

Greeks slaves or free all were made to

drink of the one spirit

it is through baptism we are made

members of this body we're given a share

of the spirit of God and as Paul writes

in second Corinthians where the spirit

of the Lord is there is

freedom but Paul goes on to explain very

practically what freedom in Christ looks

like verse

14 for the body does not consist in one

member but of

many the if the foot should say because

I'm not a hand I do not belong to the

body that would not make it any less

part of the body and if the ear should

say because I am not the eye I do not

belong to the body that would not make

it any less part of the body if the

whole body were an eye where would the

sense of hearing be if the whole body

were an ear where would be the sense of

smell but as it is God arranged the

members in the body each one of them as

he

chose so what Paul is doing here he's

comparing the church Community to the

body of Christ that each of us play a

different role in that body because we

are all members of that body as he

explains earlier on Christ is the head

he's the one commanding giving

Life Giving freedom and restoration to

all of us this kind of language was not

unique in the ancient world the Romans

used it all the time in fact Livy the

great Roman Roman historian recounts a

Roman Senator uh during a Revolt

explaining that what was happening was

that the stomach was revolting against

the rest of the

body Rome understood itself as a body

politic in that way the difference is

how the language is used the Romans they

always use the body metaphor to

subjugate to oppress you are the feet

you are the stomach I am the head the

elites the emperor you need to obey me

that's what true order looks like but

Paul Paul's doing something very

different here he's using that metaphor

turning it around verse

21 the eye cannot say to the hand I have

no need of you nor again the head of the

feet I have no need of you on the

contrary the parts of the body that seem

to be weaker are indispensable

pagans never say that uh and on those

parts of the body that we think less

honorable we bestow greater honor in our

unpresentable parts are treated with

greater

modesty so unlike Pagan Society the

society the church the body of Christ is

a society of

interdependence of

mutuality of us relying on each other

supporting one another needing one

another each part of the body has its

own function to play none are

interchangeable or

replaceable this

vision of freedom freedom in the

body it's so different than the way we

Americans think about

freedom because for Americans right

freedom is

Independence it's freedom from other

people right we don't want to be

dependent on other people we want to be

independent that's not the vision of

Christian Freedom here Paul offers

us in the presence of Christ true

freedom and restoration is

interdependence not Independence it's

relying on one another belonging to each

other Paul continues in verse

25 that there may be no division in the

body but that the members May have the

same care for one another if one member

suffers all suffer together if one

member is honored all Rejoice

together to be free in the body of

Christ is a freedom for it's a freedom

with it's a freedom to care a freedom to

suffer not a freedom from not

independent of one another that's the

part of us that needs to be healed

that independent selfish streak that

thinks we're better than everyone

else and God heals that in his presence

in his body as we care for one another

as we depend on each

other life in the body of Christ friends

is eternal

Jubilee it's where we find Freedom and

restoration now but it's only there if

we care for one another depend on each

other

other or at least it should

be the sad truth is that for many of us

this is not our personal experience of

the church it's not a place of care but

a place of

pain at its best the church is called to

be a place where the presence of Jesus

brings about freedom and restoration to

the

members but we must

remember that each one of us is also a

sinner

each one of us is in a struggle Against

the World the Flesh and the devil and

from time to time we will

fail spoiler alert Christians hurt each

other people in the church hurt each

other and this should not be a surprise

to us the good news friends is that God

chooses to use the church to use our

relationships with one another to use

our pain and our hurt to bring bring

about freedom and restoration he uses

the church despite our

failures for it's within the church that

the messiah's Eternal Jubilee is

embodied I believe friends this is what

we are called to be here at Christ

Church anglian an interdependent

community that cares for one another and

suffers together but before we can do

this we must first receive the Lord's

freedom and restor ation for

ourselves God wants you to be free of

whatever is oppressing

you do you know that he's already set

you free do you believe that restoration

is possible today not your sins in

general but whatever you're going

through right

now the assaults of the world flesh the

devil the thoughts that plague us shame

condemnation anxiety fear I am not

worthy I am

unlovable I am not good enough I'm a

failure but the most dangerous thought

of all the thought that destroys the

church that is the cause of every

Scandal is the thought of

self-sufficiency the thought of

Independence that I can do this on my

own that I don't need

you that all of my my successes are my

own I care for who I want to care for I

choose I don't

obey listen again to the words of Jesus

to his first sermon the spirit of the

Lord is upon me he's anointed me to

Proclaim good news to the poor to

Proclaim Liberty to the captives the

recovery of the sight of the blind to

set at Liberty those who are oppressed

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor

friends we must reject the lies of this

world the lies in our own head the

condemnation and instead embrace the

truth that in the presence of Christ

here in this body Freedom

restoration is possible

amen and only when we receive that for

ourselves can we become a people who

care for one another who love God and

neighbor who can participate in the

freeing and restoration of all

things I would love us to be a place to

be known in this town as a place where

there is eternal Jubilee now for anyone

who's

struggling all we need to do is believe

and ask Jesus free me restore

me that is a dangerous prayer

because in order for him to do that he

has to Route out all that is Unholy

within us he has to cleanse us and

purify

us if you're struggling to experience

this Freedom or Restoration in your life

I would encourage you to reach out to to

Father Craig or to myself we would love

to pray for you to help you understand

what Christ has done for you in a deeper

way all of us are on this journey of

Faith whereby we're experiencing more

and more

Jubilee but all of us from time to time

need prayer and counsel and Direction so

please reach

out the good news though is that when

all of us are walking and living in

God's Jubilee the spirit will give us

the grace to care for one

another he will make us a light for the

world and agent of freedom and

restoration

today in the name of the father and the

son son and the holy spirit amen