Ordinary Time
January 23, 2022
Scripture Reading: Luke 4:14-21
When he 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 let the oppressed go free,
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
The text for Jesus’s first sermon was Isaiah 58:6, and 61:1-2 quoted above. They outline his ministry’s purpose—bringing justice to the poor, captives, blind, and to letting the oppressed go free. These remain our goals today. We have failed repeatedly to maintain justice. We live in the richest nation in the world and yet $140 million people* live in poverty or are one crisis away from poverty. Former students remain in low-income situations because of interest rates making payback of loans a lifelong commitment. They are captives to a system designed to make the rich richer not to lift people out of poverty. It is interesting that Jesus chose the blind to highlight. Besides returning sight to the blind, It may mean he came to open all people’s eyes to disparities in our world and how we drift away from the core of God’s plan for all creation. Oppression continues in the USA, for example, Black male offenders continued to receive longer sentences than similarly situated White male offenders**. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, in 2020, women’s annual earnings were 82.3% of men’s, and the gap is even wider for women of color.
I invite you to join me in a season of prayer for our nation and our world as we seek to discern what kind of world in which we want to live, during this election year.
Prayer: Lord, Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me, Spirit divine!*** Amen.
*For more information see https://wwSeew.poorpeoplescampaign.org/140-million-maps/
** see https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/demographic-differences-sentencing
Derived from hymn Open My Eyes by Clara H. Scott see at https://hymnary.org/text/open_my_eyes_that_i_may_see
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.