Sermon on April 28th, 2024 by the Rev. Brett Gudeman

When he [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

“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 set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

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.”

• Luke 4:16-21

We are continuing our sermon series, generation to generation, looking at the sacred forms of worship that have sustained the church throughout its history, and especially First Presbyterian. Today, we are looking at preaching, how the pulpit has lifted us up, and what it means for us today. Preaching exists all throughout Scripture, from Peter the disciple’s sermons in Acts proclaiming Jesus’s resurrection to the local communities to the apostle Paul traveling throughout the Mediterranean proclaiming Christ’s love over and over again. In our passage from Luke, we find a young Jesus of Nazareth, at the beginning of his ministry, standing before the congregation of his hometown, reading Scripture and proclaiming the good news. In first-century Judaism, there would be moments in the synagogue worship when those who were literate and studied could stand before the congregation, read Holy Scripture, and expound. Jesus stands up, reads his passage from Isaiah, and then preaches. 

And what does Jesus preach? Jesus preaches the Good News, the Good News of redemption and freedom— that we are not bound in chains. That all of us who feel captive by sin and brokenness, frustration and anger, those things need not control us because we are set free. Jesus preaches justice, that the oppressed are to be set free and no longer marginalized, that the poor must be lifted up and seen and not simply pushed into a corner or another part of town. Jesus preaches grace, the year of the Lord’s favor, this is the jubilee year, laid out in the law in the Old Testament— where every 50 years debts were forgiven, slaves were released, the land was given a rest, generational poverty was to be eliminated. Though, it is believed the Israelites never practiced this law, because those who held power refused to release it. And finally, all these aspects of the sermon— grace and love and justice and fulfilled, sustained, and understood through Jesus Christ’s incarnation and resurrection. It is in Jesus Christ, the Triune God, that preaching truly means something, it is through our understanding of God that we believe the Word proclaimed, rightly preached, changes our lives. It is through God that we believe that preaching moves us closer to God and instills in us a desire to bring the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in Heaven.

So not only do we get a glimpse of what preaching does, what it is, in this passage from Luke, but we are also clued into a three-fold relationship, a three-fold partnership that happens with preaching.

First, in this relationship, there is most importantly, the Spirit of God, which is present in the preaching of the Word. The Spirit of God falls upon Jesus when he’s reading and preaching. Similarly, the Spirit of God falls upon the hearers of the Word proclaimed during Pentecost in the book of Acts, reminding us that the Spirit is present in all parts of preaching. In God’s Holy Word, we believe the Spirit of God speaks anew and afresh. Telling foundational truths through new stories. The Spirit of God is present not only in the preaching but also in the hearing. I cannot tell you church, how many times I have been told at the door of the Sanctuary or I have received an email later saying: Pastor Brett— when you said “this,” it meant the world to me. And I am a manuscript preacher, I’ll know for a fact that I never said the words that touched their heart. But that is the beauty of preaching, the spirit works not only in the preparation and proclamation but in the hearing and the receiving.

Next, there is the role of the preacher, Jesus comes to this text not blind, but having intellectually and spiritually prepared himself. He has studied Hebrew and learned to read— something only about 10 percent of the population did. And he has just come from his baptism and 40 days of fasting in the desert, praying and preparing. Jesus has prepared himself to preach, and he then makes intentional choices, he omits a line from this reading from Isaiah about the Lord’s vengeance because he is telling something new, communicating God’s good news. So, too, the preacher prepares, studying the Word of God— looking at it in its original languages, reading commentaries, speaking with other pastors or congregants, but also thinking about the congregation and what is going on in the world around us. I, personally, see your faces and hear your stories church as I prepare the sermon. I pray for you all because I love this congregation and I desire that you all know God’s grace, love, and justice in a profound way. The preacher’s role is important but minimal compared to God’s.

Finally, and you may not always think of this, but there is the role of the congregation which is crucial to hearing the Word of God. Without a community to hear, preaching cannot be preaching. Preaching is fundamentally a local moment, where the Holy Spirit moves through both the prcolaiming and the hearing. There is an active role that each of us plays in the sermon. And what we bring to the pulpit matters.

The mindset and spiritual reality you come with are so important. Fred Rodgers, or perhaps better known as Mr. Rodgers from the wonderful PBS show Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood, puts this so eloquently in a story about when he attended Pittsburg Theological Seminary as a young man. Pittsburg is a Presbyterian seminary where pastors are trained for their later calls. Fred loved to spend his weekends traveling to surrounding churches where great preachers preached. He would drive hours on a Sunday to hear someone who could really preach the Word of God. One Sunday, he drove about an hour outside of Pittsburg to hear a preacher with a fabulous reputation. Mr. Rodgers arrived, took his seat in a mostly empty pew in the back, and settled in. But as he began to read through the bulletin, he realized there was a substitute preacher that Sunday. Imagine his disappointment, it is a bit like arriving on Sunday only to find out the associate pastor is preaching that day. 

But he settled in, ready to hear whoever he had heard talented substitute preachers before. And when it came time for the sermon, he could not believe his ears. This sermon was, actually, worse than he could have imagined. The preacher made all the homiletical mistakes he learned about in his classes; it was meandering with no structure, and Fred felt himself getting more and more annoyed. When the sermon ended, he looked to his side, where there was one older woman who had tears running down her face. She leaned over and said to him, that was exactly what I needed to hear. And Mr. Rodgers realized something: he had come to judge while she had come to receive.

Every day, when we come into this Holy Place, this sanctuary of worship, we have the opportunity to give our worship to the God who so richly deserves it, and also, we have the opportunity to receive the love and grace of God through the Word proclaimed. It is here, a present, and a gift for you all to receive, the question is, are you ready to receive it? God’s grace is incomprehensible, it is scandalous. In the next part of our Scripture, the people try to throw Jesus off a cliff because it is unbelievable that God’s grace is given to us freely. Grace is scandalous, it reduces the powerful and lifts up the downtrodden. That we are forgiven, that we are known, that we are loved, this is the Good News. So, receive church, receive the gift of God’s grace. And when we have received, when we have been sustained, when our cup is overflowing, then, let us go forth and bring God’s love, grace, and justice into the world. Let us take the message of reconciliation, of grace, of Good News into the world. Receive and give, receive and give, receive without hesitation or concern, and give in freedom and hope. Thanks be to God, Amen.