The Reverend Canon Alyson Lamb, Prebendary of Wisborough

‘Good News for Poor People’
Luke 4.14-21, with reference to Nehemiah 8.1-3,5-6,8-10 and 1 Corinthians 12.12-31a
A sermon preached by Canon Alyson Lamb, Chichester Cathedral, Sunday 27 January 2013
Some words matter more than others. The words we used in our first love-letter, as opposed to
the notes we passed in class. The words we use to apologise, as opposed to the words used to
hurt. The words to say goodbye to a loved one for the last time, as opposed to thousands of
other goodbyes we’ve said. These are the kind of words we hear in this morning’s Gospel.
Not last words, but first words – the first of Jesus’ public ministry as recorded by St Luke.
In a sense, this is Jesus’ inaugural address 1 .
Last Monday President Barack Obama gave his second inaugural address. He set out priorities
for his second term of office, but more than policy or priorities his address was about a vision
- a vision for what the United States of America can be. As such it resonated powerfully with
other speakers and other visions; with the dream of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and his
mountaintop vision of racial equality and liberty for America’s downtrodden; and with
Abraham Lincoln who exactly a century and a half before used his second inaugural address
to do something no President had ever done. He spoke in critical terms of the American
nation, and called for an end to the terrible civil war and the abolition of its cause - human
slavery.
Inaugural addresses are important. So what do we hear in Jesus’ first public words?
The media love to give us soundbites and so perhaps if CNN had existed in the 1 st century
(and if they’d thought it newsworthy..) they would have summarised Jesus’ speech in a twoword
soundbite: Good News!
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news
to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of
sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's
favour.” (Lk 4.18)
Jesus’ listeners had been waiting a long time for good news. The scripture from Isaiah was a
prophecy they’d been yearning to see fulfilled: God’s promise of a Messiah, the Christ. (As
you know the word isn’t Jesus’ surname!) ‘Christ’ means ‘Anointed One’, the one
commissioned by God to vindicate and rescue his people and to usher in what Isaiah calls ‘the
year of the Lord’s favour’ - a time of Jubilee, such as that prescribed in God’s Law when
every 50 years debts were cancelled, land returned and slaves given their freedom.
These were live social issues in 1 st century Palestine. Life was hard under Roman occupation
with greedy landlords and punitive taxes. The average life-expectation for the poor in
Nazareth was their early-30s. For centuries the people of God had been waiting, holding on to
God’s promises of better times, strengthened by his Word - just as we heard their ancestors
were 500 years before when Ezra mounted the podium in Jerusalem and read the scriptures in
the public square. But Jesus didn’t stop at the reading of scripture. He rolled up the scroll, sat
down to teach, as was the custom, and pronounced the words that really mattered. “Today this
scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”.
It is hard for us to imagine the electrifying impact of these words on Jesus’ listeners.
Effectively he was saying – ‘The waiting is over. Your Saviour, your Messiah, the Christ – is
me. I am the One commissioned by God to bring deliverance to the world’.
1 With thanks to David J. Lose, whose reflection on Luke 4.14-21 gave the idea for this first paragraph and ‘words that
matter’.

If words like this came from the mouth of any president or a prime minister at best we’d think
it unrealistic - more likely arrogant, self-deluded hubris. But as we know, Jesus delivered on
his claim. On one hand he delivered socially, materially: he fed hungry multitudes, he healed
sick people, he raised the dead, he cared for the poor and marginalised and he commanded his
disciples to do the same. But Jesus’ concern was not just for our earthly, material condition;
he was concerned for our eternal, spiritual selves. When he speaks here of “freedom” the
word he uses is the same he uses elswhere in Luke’s gospel to mean ‘forgiveness’ – and we
all need that. The world needs that.
There’s a limit to what governments can do - as illustrated in a story I heard over Christmas,
about a note written to Santa:
Dear Santa there are 3 little boys who live in our house. Jeffery he’s 2, David he’s 4 and
Norman he’s 7. Jeffery is good some of the time, David is good some of the time, Norman is
good all of the time. I am Norman.
The truth is that none of us is Norman. None of us is good all of the time. We all need
forgiveness, we need to be set free from the penalty of the things that try as we might we can’t
help doing and thinking, the things that cause us and other people to suffer and that spoil our
world. We can’t free ourselves, only God can, and that’s why God came – and all out of his
love for us.
We know that it was love, because of the Cross. It was at the cross that the Maker of heaven
and earth, the God of a billion galaxies, spread out his arms and said ‘This is how much I love
you’. And as they drove in the nails, on one hand he took every sin and evil that has ever
been committed, and on the other he took every sin and wrong that’s ever going to be
committed, and as he hung there Jesus cried out “It is finished”. He died for you and he died
for me, for the way into God’s presence to be made clear and open, so that we could be
forgiven and have a fresh start. And it’s at the cross, deep down in our innermost being, that
we hear the whisper ‘My son, my daugher, I love you, you are forgiven, you are free.
And three days later, when God did the unimaginable and raised Jesus from the grave to new
life, he proved beyond doubt that Jesus was and is who he said he was: the Messiah, the
Christ, the only one with the power to abolish our slavery to sin, and the power to defeat
death, and the fear of death, and every fear that goes with it.
Words matter, but actions speak louder than words and supremely it is at the cross and in the
resurrection of Jesus that we see God in action; proving the depth of his love for us, proving
his power to heal our lives and remake our broken world, proving that Jesus brings good
news.
And yet, if we listen closely to Jesus’ words we find there’s a paradox. This is not just
‘general’ good news– it is good news for the poor. The paradox is that this is only good news
for me and for you IF we are willing to admit the bad news in our lives - what is lacking,
what is difficult and less than perfect, the places we find ourselves captive to habits or
addictions or fears that we long to shed. This can be hard for us because there is so much
pressure on us - externally, from our culture; and internally, from our own expectations of
ourselves – to be ‘fixed up’, not to need anything or anyone. But when we come to Jesus -
whether we come for the first time or the ten-thousandth time - when we come to him and
admit our poverty and need, then two things happen.
First, we can receive the good news personally, for ourselves - forgiveness from failure,
release from despair, a peace that passes understanding, assurance of God’s unconditional
love.... and more. I’m sure that this has been the experience of many people here today. It
was my own experience. I haven’t always been a vicar. In fact for most of my adult life I had
no interest in Christianity; I thought it was untrue and unhelpful until by God’s grace I was

able to admit my need of his help, and my eyes were opened to the reality of Jesus and the
truth that the Christian faith is not about rules it is about a relationship, a thrilling relationship
with a living God who is knowable and interested in our lives, and who has a unique purpose
for each one of us.
Which brings us to the second thing:
When we come to Jesus like this we realise that we don’t just receive the good news - God
also equips us to be good news. This is what St Paul is speaking about in his letter to the
Corinthian church. The daily miracle of the Christian faith is that every single time a person
puts their trust in Jesus, God plants his own Spirit in them. The same Holy Spirit who
anointed Jesus for his earthly ministry anoints us and gifts us – differently - in the ways we
need for where God places us. It is in this way that together we become the Body of Christ,
God’s hands and heart, carrying his good news to a world of need.
Contrary to what I used to think, Christianity isn’t a lifestyle choice for a Sunday morning.
We’re not designed to be some kind of religious social club, we’re called to be a transforming
community - a community that enacts God’s vision of transformation for his world, socially,
materially and spiritually.
When Abraham Lincoln was complimented on his second inaugural address he replied:
‘I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has
been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them’.
How should we respond to Jesus’ inaugural address?
May I suggest a place to start? A question: What good news do you need, today?
What are you struggling with? What wakes you in the middle of the night? What are your
deepest longings, for your life, your family, your country - for our world?
Some words do matter more than others. They can be life-changing, world-electrifying. Are
there words that you need to say to God, today?