The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for Sunday, January 23, 2022, was preached as a response to Luke 4.14-21 based on the manuscript below.
In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Although Jesus has been ministering since his baptism,
we don’t know what he’s been saying.
If you remember last year,
Mark makes it very clear that
the good news that Jesus preaches
is that the kingdom of God has come near
and to repent and believe in the gospel.
What Luke tells us is that Jesus
is filled with the power of the Spirit.
That’s Luke’s emphasis through this passage,
that Jesus’ filling with the Spirit
is what causes reports of Jesus
to spread throughout Galilee.
As a good Jewish boy who has grown into manhood,
Jesus goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath
when he gets back to his hometown of Nazareth.
As an adult man, he’s welcome to read from the Hebrew Scriptures
and offer commentary on the passage that he’s read.
Jesus chooses today to read from Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The passage Jesus reads
was written to a Hebrew people in exile,
people who longed to be brought home
and to have their lives restored.
Fred Craddock says about this Isaiah passage,
“When understood literally,
the passage says the Christ is God’s servant
who will bring to reality the longing
and the hope of the poor, the oppressed, and the imprisoned.”[1]
This passage from Isaiah would now be understood,
as the Jewish people were not in exile,
but occupied by the Romans,
to be a promise made in the fullness of time
when all things are made right.
As a shock to those in attendance,
Jesus says that his presence is a fulfillment
of this passage.
Fulfilling these words of hope from Isaiah,
Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives…
to let the oppressed go free…
Over a decade before Joe Biden called the erosion of voting rights
Jim Crow 2.0
Michelle Alexander wrote The New Jim Crow:
Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
Throughout the book
Alexander analyzes and show the way that intentional choices
have led to
“More African American adults [being] under correctional control today—
in prison or jail, on probation or parole—
than were enslaved in 1850,
a decade before the Civil War began.”[2]
Alexander continues,
“Today a criminal freed from prison has scarcely more rights,
and arguably less respect, than a freed slave or a black person
living ‘free; in Mississippi at the height of Jim Crow.
Those released from prison on parole
can be stopped and searched by the police for any reason—
or no reason at all—
and returned to prison for the most minor of infractions…
Lynch mobs may be long gone,
but the threat of police violence is ever present…
A criminal record today authorizes precisely the forms of discrimination
we supposedly left behind—
discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits, and jury service.”[3]
None of these outcomes or situations
is necessary, nor are they accidental.
The realities of systemic racism disproportionately impact Black and Brown people
in ways that haunt them and keep them down and back
for the rest of their lives.
Alexander notes,
“The absence of black fathers from families across America
is not simply a function of laziness, immaturity,
or too much time watching Sports Center.
Thousands of black men have disappeared into prisons and jails,
locked away for drug crimes that are largely ignored
when committed by whites.”[4]
In Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson repeatedly emphasizes
that regardless of the severity of their offenses
youthful offenders are youth.
Their brains are not matured enough to make good decisions,
even when their decisions have terrible impacts
they’re not adults making adult decisions.
One mistake can lead to their imprisonment for the rest of their lives
and the oppression when and if they’re released:
limited access to housing, education, and work
based on the word “felon.”
Fulfilling these words of hope from Isaiah,
Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives…
to let the oppressed go free…”
“And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.
The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Then he began to say to them,
‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’
In Jesus the Christ, God’s annointed,
God has brought release to then captives
and is letting the oppressed go free.
Jesus’ words today are active language.
Luke is writing about what God has already done,
like in the Magnificat
and like when God speaks at creation.
Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
About this today, Fred Craddock says,
“The time of God is today,
and the ministries of Jesus and of the church
according to Luke-Acts
demonstrate that today continued.
Throughout these two volumes, [God’s] today
never is allowed to become “yesterday”
or to slip again into a vague “someday.”[5]
In fulfilling the words from ISaiah,
Jesus assures those who are oppressed that God is on their side
and that they will be set free.
Also in pronouncing that he is the fulfillment of of these words from Isaiah,
Jesus sets the agenda for his church —
his ministers and body in the world today.
Fred Craddock is quick to remind us that
“The history of the church does not…
bear unbroken testimony to Jesus’ announcement,
‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled.’”[6]
Every time we gather we have the opportunity to
adjust our focus back to Jesus
and back to being his ministers in the world.
After three antiracism book study groups —
with one for Lent planned
followed by a work book in Easter —
we’re moving to active, antiracist actions
here at St. Hilda St. Patrick.
There is legislation pending in our own legislature
that would make a huge difference in remedying mass incarceration —
and there’s still work to go.
These bills that we’re starting to organize in support of
would change sentencing guidelines so that juvenile offenses
aren’t part of the calculus for sentencing for adult offenses;
they would allow for resentencing to reduce overall expected time
by fractions after state minimums;
they would make youthfulness, as I referenced above,
a consideration for sentencing.
Beyond these bills,
there is Second Look legislation elsewhere
that allows anyone who has served 15 years
and was sentenced before they were 25
or are now over 55,
to petition for resentencing
or release.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives…
to let the oppressed go free…”
The Good News Jesus brings isn’t about punishment or escaping it.
It’s about God’s cosmic justice
and God’s infinite grace.
I understand the hesitation to changing the prison system,
but history and evidence demonstrate
that our criminal legal system
is not a criminal justice system.
May the Spirit of the Lord be upon us
to proclaim release to the captives
and to help the oppressed go free. Amen.
[1]Craddock, Fred B.. Luke: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (p. 62). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.
[2]Alexander, Michelle; Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow (p. 224). The New Press. Kindle Edition.
[3]Alexander, Michelle; Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow (p. 176). The New Press. Kindle Edition.
[4]Alexander, Michelle; Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow (p. 224). The New Press. Kindle Edition.
[5]Craddock, Fred B.. Luke: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (p. 62). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.
[6]Craddock, Fred B.. Luke: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (p. 62). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.