‘Calling and task’

Andrew Collis
Epiphany 3, Year C
Luke 4:14-21

There are people we admire – and mimic/imitate. It’s one way that we learn – to become the kind of people we become.

I think of Father Steve Sinn, former parish priest at St Canice’s Church in Elizabeth Bay. His weekly regimen centres about the gospel – he memorises it each week during his ocean swim – and his homily begins with a recitation by heart. I’ve been thinking on this gospel from Luke during the week (following a swim at Coogee Beach on Sunday afternoon).

Fr Steve’s homilies are quite short. I admire that. To the point. Of course, not quite as short as today’s homily from Jesus, who, upon reading from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 61, verses 1-2, says simply: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

It’s bound to be comical – the more a preacher goes on to reflect on this short sentence by Jesus, the greater the potential for comedy!

Or worse – the greater the potential for self-indulgence – for missing the point … which has to do with a particular pattern of faithful mission: a calling and a task – an anointing of the Spirit, and a fiercely compassionate way of life.

“[T]o bring good news to those who are poor … to proclaim release to those who are captive, and recovery of sight to those who are blind, to let those who are oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of God’s favour [the Jubilee Year of debt cancellation – the Sabbath of Sabbaths].”

It’s as straight-forward a mission statement as one might hear. Straight from the heart of the prophetic tradition – straight from the heart of Jewish faith – straight from the heart of a God who desires justice, peace and mercy (exemplified in a recent homily by the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington).

A calling and a task – an anointing of the Spirit, and a fiercely compassionate way of life.

The mission statement of Jesus.

Makes me think about the mission statements of the churches – the fraught nature of “mission” with respect to colonisation in particular – life and death on the “Mish” … missionary paternalism and abuse.

While there’s something to be said for contextualising the gospel in various places and times – that’s important – we ought to heed today’s gospel as a firm basis for un/mission – “the mission of Christ is the un/mission of the church” … Translate the words of Jesus, yes – but do not evade or weaken them.

Faithfulness to the gospel is measured by reference to this text. Can we say, as the body of Christ, that “today this scripture is fulfilled” … or that “today this scripture is enacted … this scripture is embodied, lived out, made present”?

It’s a joyful task for me, concluding a long-term placement, to affirm what God is doing among us/you. It’s something to celebrate – that good news is shared here – that all kinds of people in South Sydney and beyond experience themselves as loved and valued, their stories worthwhile, their lives precious. It’s there in the way you speak of each other and the privilege of un/mission work (see Vision & Planning Document).

Oppression is named, too. The oppression that is colonialism, capitalism, racism, sexism, heterosexism. We’re more vigilant about the words we employ … with respect to our naivety and blindness.

I affirm the work of the Spirit here – as I recall Fr Steve’s work with fellow Jesuits and parishioners – advocacy for First Peoples, asylum seekers, victims of exploitation and addiction. The down-to-earth orthodoxy of faithful Christian worship.

Steve removes his shoes before celebrating the Eucharist. Transcendence is found in the human gestures of taking bread, giving thanks, breaking and sharing … A practice that has long defined the Way.

At the risk of comic prolixity, there are just a couple more things to mention.

Firstly, Jesus doesn’t simply quote from Isaiah 61:1-2. He makes one addition, and one omission. 

The addition comes from Isaiah 58 – “to let those who are oppressed go free”. Jesus, thus, underlines the theme of liberation and release – the Greek word is aphesis – to let those who are oppressed en aphesei (which parallels “to proclaim aphesis to those who are captive”) – almost like saying the same thing twice – for emphasis. God cares about those who are not free, not liberated, not released.

God cares about those who are captive to violence (subjected to it, intimidated or enthralled by it); captive to prejudice, to economic hardship, to ideology, to abusive relationship, to guilt, to shame. On Gadigal country, Bidjigal country, Dharawal or Wiradjuri country; in Redfern, Eveleigh, Darlington, Waterloo, Alexandria … in the world cruelly divided, torn.

We can say that the gospel shows us to think and re-think aphesis – to think and re-think release, liberation. There’s something insidious about oppression, and something urgent about releasing people from it.

And … the Earth itself oppressed … Plenty to think on there.

The omission, too, is striking. Jesus concludes his reading of Isaiah 61:1-2 with the words: “… to proclaim the year of God’s favour” … which is a reference to the Jubilee – sometimes translated “a year of acceptance”. And Jesus stops there, omitting what comes next in Isaiah: “… and the day of vengeance of our God”.

Jesus, that is, does not regard his mission as having anything to do with vengeance. He is at pains to make this clear to his followers, resorting to exasperated irony at one point, and famously denouncing the use of a sword against the servant of the high priest whose severed ear Jesus heals before being arrested and tortured. There is no vengeance in the kindom of God. Plenty to think on there.

The final comment has to do with two complementary aspects to the text. There are references to Jesus “filled with the power of the Spirit” and “anointed” by the Spirit (charismatic references we might say, or spiritual/religious references) – and there are references to political action, to social justice, ethical commitment. 

In short, modernity may be understood as affirmation of the latter at the expense of the former – ethics instead of religion, or religion recast as ethics. And our modern world is characterised by something of a stand-off between anti-modern conservatives and pro-modern liberals.

As many philosophers have said, this is a false dichotomy – a trap in which we need not be caught. Christianity is deeper than modernity. Our wisdom traditions are more ancient, and our God calls to us from beyond the horizon of the merely modern, the merely protestant, the merely western. That doesn’t entail being anti-modern – but properly catholic: discerning the love of God in the past, in the present, open to a future that is God’s future.

Again, it’s helpful for me to picture Fr Steve, presiding barefoot – willing to appear a little odd/goofy in the context of a modern industrial city – maintaining ancient practices – keeping close (in words and action) to the God he knows in water, song, bread, wine, hospitality, dialogue …

May we, too, keep close to God, whose Spirit draws us close in the act of admiring Jesus – and, more strongly, in the act of imitating Jesus who says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled …”

God of freedom, you break the seals and let the Spirit flow: make us impatient to greet the time fulfilled, the poor lifted up, the oppressed set free and your love made manifest in Jesus Christ, the Anointed Servant. Amen.

Collect by Steven Shakespeare.