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The Rev. Laura Matarazzo
January 21, 2007 -  Third Sunday after the Epiphany

“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” Jesus declared to his listeners. Faithful Jews were gathered in the synagogue to hear the teachings of their faith. The words Jesus read were from the great prophet Isaiah, who had lived some 500 years before that moment; words that called out from a time of exile and oppression; words that promised healing and restoration. Jesus reached back into the long story of his people to define himself and his mission: he set himself squarely in line with God’s loving intention for creation and named himself the fulfillment of that loving intention. 

And here we are, faithful Christians gathered in this church to hear the teachings of our faith, hearing some 2000 years later the same words…that Jesus came, God walked among us to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives, to give sight to the blind and to free the oppressed. 

On the face of it, these are conditions with which few of us are familiar—we are not poor, oppressed, or held captive--but before I talk about Christ’s call to address the deep needs of others, let me suggest that we ALL are needy and Jesus came to save whomever turns to him.

We may not be poor in material wealth, but many of us are impoverished in spirit. Not one of us is in prison this morning…at least not any prison we can see. But there are a thousand ways we are held captive and you know what your own cell looks like. Sight to the blind reminds me of what I cannot see because I will not, because I do not want to see a reality that calls me to account for my participation in injustice and injury. . 

I raise this dimension of our reading to remind us of our own need for Jesus Christ and of his longing to fulfill our needs. And it is true: Christ will feed your spirit, release you from captivity, give you wisdom and insight, and free you from your particular blindness. All you have to do is acknowledge your need and open yourself to his healing grace. 

Now for the deep needs of others and our membership in the body Paul describes so eloquently:  “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” We are one in Christ—rich and poor, black and white, yellow, red and brown, male and female, young and old, healthy and ailing, Republican and Democrat, liberal and conservative—and we cannot live without each other. Last week, we heard from Paul about the gifts we receive from God, particular gifts to particular individuals, which he described as “manifestation(s) of the Spirit for the common good.” We are created, uniquely, to serve one another, each part of infinite value in the life of the body. When one member of the body suffers, then all suffer. If there are any among us in need, we all are in need. As members of one body, it is required of us that we address the needs in our body as we are able. 

This image of the body puts me in mind of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, whose life we celebrated last weekend. There was a man who had a vision of the body…all the interdependent parts working together to bring in the kingdom…to raise up the lowly and bring release to those held captive by a racist society….a vision of the body healed by the power of God as manifest in the love of humankind for its own. His dream “that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood” is a picture of Christ’s body, healed. His dream “that one day, down in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers” is a picture of Christ’s body, made whole. “When the poor and the oppressed are free,” he declared, “then we ALL are free.” We are the body of Christ and individually members of it. We are one. We cannot live without each other. 

Christ came for ALL people. Today, ours is a global body, the parts of which seem increasingly disparate, discordant, and unrelated. And yet, we are still called to make peace, to heal and to restore, to actively work for the health and wellbeing of all. 

If we truly are followers of Jesus, then we had better be doing what he came for: ACTING IN EVERY WAY WE CAN TO RESTORE, RENEW, AND HEAL those around us who are poor, imprisoned, blind, oppressed and otherwise deprived of the benefits we so comfortably enjoy. 

Our Presiding Bishop is aggressively promoting the Millenium Goals of the Episcopal Church which some of you have been reading about in our bulletin inserts. She is calling us to give our energies to 8 primary goals for this new millennium, including (but not limited to) eradicating poverty and hunger, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and creating global partnerships for development. Yesterday, at our Convention, the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark acted upon a variety of resolutions to address some of the needs of the body locally: we voted on equal rights and benefits for same-sex couples in New Jersey; for improved care of children with Diabetes and chronic allergies, and for the just treatment of immigrants in our midst. Here at Calvary, our Vestry will make Outreach the focus of their annual retreat next month. We will explore ways to carry the good news beyond the walls of this house and to build up the body of Christ in the world. 

These are BIG visions—and these are lifelong tasks. But I would have you pay attention, as well, to even the smallest opportunities you have for healing God’s creation. It is all about relationships and about being connected to one another. That is how a body works—every part connected and functioning for the health of the whole body. Every time you get close to someone in need, acknowledge that need and offer what you have to relieve it, you reflect the image of Christ. Reaching out, crossing barriers, honoring difference, sharing your wealth, receiving untold wisdom from unexpected people and grace in the most surprising places, seeking to be in relationship with others and sharing the God-given gifts of our lives…this is partnering with the one who came to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah. This is bringing in the kingdom. This is making God’s dream come true. 

Earlier in our Collect of the day we prayed, “Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works…” Jesus answered the call of God, he came proclaiming the Good News that God is faithful, that the broken will be healed, that justice will be done and that love will prevail. Let us follow the same call and be what our Bishop-elect Mark Beckwith called us in his sermon on the same text yesterday: he called us to be “bearers of Christ’s hope and keepers of God’s promise.” God is faithful and, by God’s grace, we can be as well. Amen.

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