The Manifesto Launch - Epiphany 3

LUKE 4, 14-21

Yesterday, Hilary Clinton launched her bid to be the next President of the USA. Scanning the papers, I found no clue as to what exactly is the vision that she offers to the USA and indeed the world which will be affected by the outcome of the next Presidential election. Of course, she is not George W Bush which I guess is something which depending on your point of view, may well be or not be good news. Still, she has said, “Let’s talk. Let’s chat.” Call me a cynic if you will but I am one of those who feels that politicians asking for a two way chat before announcing policies is about as sincere as Attila the Hun turning up at a conference on pacifism.

With Jesus, the launch is much more dramatic. There is no biding of time. Certainly Jesus would be something of a spin doctor’s nightmare. For today, when later we will be looking at Christian Unity and seeking to build bridges with other Christians, we may well be shocked that Jesus seems happy to bring division to the max. Oh sure at the end of our reading, he seems to have somewhat mesmorised his Nazareth audience and had our reading gone on, we would have heard that they spoke well of him. But in the moment of seeming triumph, it is clear to Jesus that they have failed to understand the wideness of God’s love and mercy, and so in the dialogue that follows, those who had thought well of the local boy made good become incensed. So incensed that not only do they drive him out of the synagogue but seek to throw him over their equivalent of Abbotsham Cliffs. Clearly, Jesus is not a good example to follow if you want to be a popular preacher!

So what is the offensive message of Jesus? After all, he has begun by simply quoting Scripture, the venerable book of Isaiah no less. And yet in his reading and in the discussion that follows, it becomes clear that the good news of Isaiah is to be seen as much wider and much more encompassing than the compatriots of Jesus wished it to be. You see, they saw God as being for them and their likes but now God is revealed as being as much for the foreigner and the leper as for them. And in this, we see a challenge to the temptation to localise or tribalism God. For the message of Jesus is that God is for “them” just as much as God is for “us.” And sadly, all too often, religious people of all faiths have been tempted to put limits on the love of God and to erect great walls to keep those who are other, outside the love of God.

Luke’s portrayal of the ministry of Jesus is radically inclusive. As we remembered only a few weeks ago, Luke tells us of the baby Jesus being first visited by those rank outsiders, the stinking shepherds. Throughout his Gospel, he will show us Jesus dismantling barriers and going to outsiders be they lepers, foreigners, the poor or the morally flawed. He presents a picture of Jesus as truly being for all people with a special emphasis on those who are abused by the world and who accordingly need him all the more. His presentation of Jesus is a million miles removed from the hateful self righteous religion that existed then as now, which dares to tell people that they are not good enough for the love, the mercy and the acceptance of God. For in this new order, the first will be last and the last will be first.

And as Jesus declares the nature of his ministry, he gives a challenge to us to be drawn into it. For we who seek to follow Jesus, are called into his work of changing the world. Of course, dating back to the takeover of Christianity by Emperor Constantine, too often the Church has been incorporated into saving the existing order rather than being God’s agent of change. Even that great Protestant reformer Martin Luther, dependant on the patronage of Princes, responded to the revolt of a peasantry who now able to read the Gospel saw God as a friend of the poor, by intemperately, suggesting that their heads be filled with musket balls. Too often Karl Marx’s suggestion that religion as been used as the opium of the masses has been proven to be true.

And yet, it is by no means always true. Think back to some of the people of faith we thought about during the Autumn - Dietrich Bonhoeffer standing against tyranny an daring to suggest that the Nazi treatment of Jews was tantamount to the expulsion of Christ from Germany, or Oscar Romero standing for the poor in the face of the death squads of El Salvador. And the list goes on for I could speak of Martin Luther King standing for the dignity of all people in a time of segregation or even a slightly eccentric Lord Longford holding that no prisoner could be beyond God’s love and regularly taking those inmates he had befriended on the inside to dine with him at the House of Lords on their release. Do you get it? At times the witness of the church has been shocking but still there are the times when the light of Christ’s Gospel has shone through.

In our home, at 6pm, pressure mounts for the television to be turned to Channel 4. It’s that time when the most dysfunctional of families, “The Simpsons” comes on. Now I know that the show isn’t to everyone’s taste. It’s a touch crazy and I often think that there is a unique fusion of childrens’ and adult humour going on. And yet, it has a capacity to be thought provoking. I have a book at home which I occasionally look at. It’s by Mark Pinsky and is entitled, “The Gospel according to the Simpsons.” Within it we find how episodes contribute to our understanding of some of the issues which should matter to us as Christians. One chapter is entitled, “Does Lisa speak for Jesus?” Now Lisa is a bit of a shrimp who is much more thoughtful than her annoying brother, Bart. And what is so Christlike about Lisa is that she has the courage to question conventional wisdom, to care for the planet and to support the poor and downtrodden regardless of whether she is in a minority of one. As Tony Campolo puts it in the introduction;

“True religion for her is in the prophetic tradition that declares “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Yes, amidst the anarchy of the Simpsons, Lisa Simpson stands before us as one who sees the Manifesto of Jesus and lives it whatever the consequences.

Today, we see Christ beginning his ministry by declaring what it is to be all about. The signs of unlimited Divine grace are made visible. Human lives are to be valued and cruelty rolled back. And that cause goes on for darkness is still a far too common reality. And yet Jesus makes a difference.

Let me finish with a very contemporary example. In the past week, the news has been overtaken by events in the Celebrity Big Brother House. The unpleasant treatment of Shilpa Shetty the Bollywood actress, inspired by racism or more probably other factors such as ignorance, jealousy and cultural misunderstandings, has been in the news just about every day. Politicians have even jumped onto the bandwagon although at a time when we are as a nation deporting people to face great danger as a result of their failed asylum claims, such self righteousness frankly nauseates me. Now that she has been in my opinion rightly evicted, Jade Goody has become something of a hate figure. Search the newspapers, listen to talk radio or surf the internet and you will find that no abuse about her or even her appearance is deemed too great. The feeling is that she must be ground into the dust.

But wait! “What would Jesus do” bracelets were popular a while ago so what would Jesus do? Well of course, Jesus would have no truck with bullying or racism - such is clear from his life. But I put it to you that Jesus who went to those deemed sinners because their need of healing is greatest, would not ground Jade Goody into the dust. The Christ response would be to go to her, to help her to grow from the behaviour of the past week and to find the self worth which enables her not to need to engage in such antics.

Perhaps, the outworking of this story, will tell us whether our nation’s claim to be Christian is a fictionalised deception. Are we proud to make stars of people for no good reason and then destroy them? Or will we be seen to take Christ’s manifesto seriously and lift all people up to the value that Christ accords them?

Preached at Bideford on January 21st 2006