Thomas J Parlette
“First Sermon”
Luke 4: 14-21
1/23/22
It’s tough to preach your first sermon at a new church. Most pastors experience at least a few jitters as they head to a new church. You wonder all sorts of things. Will the sound system work? What kind of Pulpit or podium will there be? Will the congregation stay awake? It can be nerve-wracking. Not exactly on par with the stresses faced by police officers or brain surgeons or even a middle school teacher, but nerve-wracking in it’s own way.
I like the story a pastor named John Jewell tells about his first time as a supply pastor at Good Hope Church in a small town in Missouri. A local minister gave Jewell directions to the church – this was in the days before GPS – and sent him off with the words, “They’ll be expecting you.” That made Pastor Jewell feel pretty good. He hoped the congregation would be open and welcoming to him.
But when Pastor Jewell got to the church, no one welcomed him. No one even seemed to notice he had arrived. A few minutes before the service was supposed to start, Jewell tapped the shoulder of a man sitting up front and introduced himself- “Hi, my name is John Jewell and I am preaching this morning.”
The man responded, “Nice to meet you John, but I’m the new pastor here and I thought I was preaching!”
Talk about an unwelcome surprise. But the pastor cleared up the confusion quickly when he explained that there was another church with the same name just a few miles down the road in the next town. So Pastor Jewell sped to the other Good Hope Church as fast as he could, but he arrived to see the congregation walking out the doors. They had grown tired of waiting for the guest preacher who showed up late.(1)
I don’t think Jesus ever showed up late to the synagogue on a Sabbath day. If he did, the scriptures don’t mention it. This was Jesus first sermon, given in his hometown synagogue. Unlike almost every other preacher ever – he didn’t seem nervous at all. If they had gotten an advance copy of Jesus’ first sermon – the established religious leaders may have been a little nervous though. Because Jesus wasn’t just going to interpret God’s word. He was going to fulfill it.
The passage Jesus read was a prophecy from Isaiah, who had lived about 700 years earlier. But instead of interpreting this passage for his listeners in the synagogue, Jesus simply ended his reading of the scripture by saying – “Today this scripture if fulfilled in your hearing.” Boom! Quite a “mic drop” moment as we say these days. Jesus, a local boy, a carpenter from a family of modest means, had just announced that he was the Messiah sent from God. Wow – how’s that for something to talk about over brunch?
The nation of Israel had waited around 1,000 years for God to send the Messiah, the Anointed One. They believed the Messiah would be a descendant of King David, observant of Jewish law, a righteous judge, and a great military leader. But they didn’t expect one of their own would claim that title for himself. So what was Jesus talking about? If he was the long-promised Messiah, the hope of the nation, then what was God revealing the Divine nature and plan for the world?
Well first, we learn that Christ came to bring good news to the poor. That’s a vital truth to understand about the Messiah. That tells us so much about God’s heart, God’s character and God’s priorities. And when you have good news – who do you want to tell. You want to share it with the people most affected by the news – and in this case, it is the poor.
Think about our society for a moment. How would you like to be poor in America? How would you like to have limited access to health care? How would you like to own a car that you couldn’t keep in good working order – that sometimes breaks down at the most inconvenient times? And let’s face it – is there ever a convenient time? How would you like to watch your child’s teeth rot out because you couldn’t afford a trip to the dentist? I could go on, but you get the idea. In the most affluent society in the world, there are still people for whom everyday life is a nightmare. Those are the people about whom God is most concerned.
Jesus identified with the least and lowest. It is no accident that Christ’s first bed was a manger where cattle fed. It is no accident that Jesus spent his adult life without a home of his own, without any possessions beyond what he could carry as he traveled from town to town sharing the message of God’s love with everyone he met. And listen to how author Michael Frost summed up Jesus life: “Regardless of how much many affluent pastors might love their state-of-the-art air-conditioned church sanctuaries with their coffee bars, bookshops, and valet parking lots, we cannot forget that Jesus died on the cross naked and empty-handed.”(2)
God cares about the poor. God’s love is limitless. God’s compassion knows no bounds. And God expects the same outlook from Jesus’ disciples.
Jim Wallis is the founder of the Sojouners Community and the magazine of the same name. The Sojourners Community advocates for peace and social justice based on the teachings of Jesus. Their ministries focus on meeting the needs of the poor.
When Wallis was in seminary, he and some classmates were deeply impressed by all the verses in the Bible emphasizing God’s concern for the poor. So they took a Bible and a pair of scissors, and cut out every verse that related to justice for the poor, not exploiting the poor, sharing your resources with the poor and God’s love for the poor.
As author Richard Stearns wrote about their project, “They wanted to see what a compassionless Bible looked like. By the time they finished, nearly two thousand verses lay on the floor, and a book of tattered pages remained.”(3)
They wanted to see what the Bible would like if you eliminated compassion and concern for the poor. And when they took those verses out, there was very little left. When you read the Bible, especially the words of Jesus, God in the flesh, God’s compassion and concern for the poor leap off the page. Indeed, it holds the whole Bible together. And so Jesus’ first sermon began with the words: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.”
We also learn that God’s love covers everyone who is hurting… of every station in life. Jesus’ next words in this passage are, “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Jesus meant these words literally. In his life on this earth, he set people free, he healed them, he stood up for those who were oppressed. He welcomed the rejects and looked out for the forgotten. He was a voice for the voiceless. Jesus never wavered in his mission to bring hope, healing and freedom to those who were most in need, including those whom he called the “poor in spirit.” That’s an interesting phrase. It says to me that we can be rich in things and still be poor in spirit. You can be wonderfully gifted and still be poor in spirit.
Christ came to bring a message of hope and salvation to a world desperate for the love of God. And no matter how good our life looks on the outside, many of us suffer from a poverty of spirit. Many of us are imprisoned by shame, anger, envy, fear, guilt and sorrow. No amount of money or titles or friends or accomplishments can fill that sense of emptiness or fear or hopelessness.
But in his first sermon, Jesus says, “I have been sent to proclaim freedom from all that plagues you.”
We also learn from today’s passage that God brings us hope no matter what our circumstances. And hope is freedom for those in bondage and wealth to those in poverty. Because this passage shows us we have a God who loves us and cares about our challenges, our heartbreaks, our suffering enough to endure them himself. When we understand that kind of love, we can live more joyfully and freely because we know a God who loves us that much will comfort and strengthen and provide for us in all circumstances.
Eddie Ogan is a woman of amazing faith in God, which she learned from her mother, who had to raise Eddie and her six siblings. One of Eddie’s favorite stories from her childhood involves the Easter of 1946. One month before Easter Sunday, the pastor announced that the church would be collecting a special offering for a needy family in the community.
After church, the Ogan family discussed how they could give sacrificially to the collection for the needy family. They decided to buy a large bag of potatoes and live off that for one whole month. This would allow them to save up $20. They also decided to use as little electricity as possible for that month to save money on the electric bill. The children volunteered to get yard work and baby-sitting jobs to raise extra money. They even bought yarn to weave potholders to sell in the neighborhood.
Eddie says that this month before Easter was one of the most joyful her family had ever experienced. They were so excited to see their offering money grow a little bit each day. They couldn’t wait for Easter Sunday when they could put their money in the offering plate. The idea that they could help someone in need, that they could pass along some of the blessings God had given them, gave them so much joy that the extra sacrifices and work become fun.
That Easter Sunday morning, a heavy rain poured down on the town. Eddie and her siblings put cardboard in their shoes to cover the holes and worn places, and they all walked to church. They had raised $70 dollars for the special offering, and they couldn’t contain their smiles when they placed those bills in the offering plate. After church, they sang all the way home, and celebrated with an Easter lunch of boiled eggs and potatoes.
To their shock, the pastor came knocking on their door that afternoon. He spoke briefly with Eddie’s mother, then left. When Mrs. Ogan came back into the kitchen, all the joy had drained from her face. In her hand she held an envelope that contained that morning’s special offering for a needy family. They envelope held $87. Eddie and her siblings were in shock. Suddenly they realized that they were the poor family in church. They’d never thought of themselves as poor. In fact, they felt sorry for families who didn’t have the blessings they had. They had love and faith, good friends and a safe home.
A sadness settled over the house that week. No one touched the special offering money. The children even protested when their mother woke them up for church the next Sunday. They didn’t want to go, but Mrs. Ogan insisted.
That morning there was a missionary visiting the church. He spoke about his work in Africa and the needs of the churches there. He asked the congregation to contribute to putting a solid roof on an African church. All it would cost was $100.
Mrs. Ogan looked over at her children. They looked back at her, and slowly the whole family started smiling. Without a word, Mrs. Ogan pulled out the special offering envelope from her purse and dropped it in the offering plate. The joy had returned to the Ogan family. You can just imagine the joy for the missionary when he thanked the church for raising enough money to buy a new roof for a church in Africa. As he held the offering plate in his hands, the missionary said, “Pastor, you must have some rich people in this church.”
And Eddie writes, “Suddenly it struck us… We were the rich family at church! The missionary just said so. From that day on I’ve never been poor again. I’ve always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!”(4)
The deepest question of the human heart is, “Is there a God?” And the next question is, “If so, what is God like?” In his very first sermon, Jesus answers that question. God is right here with you. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. God cares about you so much that God comes to you in the flesh. God cares about those who are hurting and in need. That was the message of Jesus’ first sermon.
And it’s a message we are called to share even today.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 1, p19.
2. Ibid… p20.
3. Ibid… p20.
4. Ibid… p20-21.
