Christ is
found in the midst of the congregation. He is home. His
native land is the Scriptures, His teachers are the patriarchs
and prophets whom the Spirit guided to pen the living Word of
God. His native tongue is the Torah and the Writings. Jesus
knew the Scriptures the way we know the sounds and security of
our homes.
Nothing
foreign to him is in its pages, nothing alien to His nature.
He is God and man, and this day a scroll, also both divine and
human, is placed in his hands.
Isaiah is
the author of the lesson Jesus read in Nazareth, but God
Himself is the source. The parchment and ink are earthy, but
the Word is God's revelation of the Christ who comes
in fulfillment of all which was promised.
The man
Jesus grasps Holy Scripture. The God Jesus speaks the Word.
To
proclaim good news to the poor, He is the good news itself
among them. To proclaim liberty to the captives, He is the
redeemer come to rescue all. To proclaim the year of the
Lord's favor, He is the substance of grace itself.
All
Scripture points to Christ, and all Scripture flows with Him.
It is His portrait.
In one
sweeping declaration transcribed by Isaiah, we are told of
Christ's mission and its consequences. We are told about the
One whose effect could not be greater. The blind once unable
to see the truth of God are enlightened. Those captive to sin
are liberated from it power. The time for the announcement of
Good News and God's undeserved favor is come.
This text
proves God is neither demure nor bashful. He is provocative
and bare. He intends to be known. The world is to be given
His work, the scope of which is astounding.
God is
not provincial or tight, but comprehensive and global in His
effect because "the poor," "the captive," "the blind," and
"the oppressed" include all of us. The effect of His
appearing is world-changing and life-giving.
Christ is
breathtaking.
I have to
laugh. In our environmentally sensitive age, we are urged to
leave as small a footprint in this world as possible. Christ
came to do just the opposite. He came to alter the course of
life and death for every human being. He is the heaven-sent,
spirit-bestowed, deliverance of God Himself to the world.
No one
has ever left a more important or necessary footprint in this
world.
I was
told recently if everyone lived my lifestyle we'd need six
earths to accommodate it. Apparently my carbon footprint is
disproportionate to the resources of the world.
We've
all heard that preaching: buy only what is ecologically
friendly, use 100% recycled paper, carpool, turn off lights
and peripherals over night, and make use of e-mail as much as
possible. Think green.
I say ...
Think
red. The color of his bloodly passion.
Think
yellow. The color of sunlight to the blind.
Think
blue. The color of the heavens obtained for the oppressed.
Think
purple. The color royal of the King whose realm is real
liberty of mind, body, heart, and soul.
Think
white. The color of the robes of righteousness on those no
longer poor.
Think and
rejoice in the kaleidoscope of blessings which surge to the
world because this prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled.
God's footprint has been placed on the earth.
I'm not
against conservation. There is much of "green" thinking which
is just plain common sense. Indeed, if we should go into
really severe times, recycling will be necessary. (It used to
be called wearing hand-me-downs and using mason jars.) A few
old-timers tell stories of bathing an entire family on one
drawing of bathwater which sounds more than just ecologically
friendly.
But if
leaving no footprint means we best serve the world by leaving
nothing behind, nothing that is not degradable, nothing that
indicates we were here, what a shame. And more the shame if
our conservation somehow implies we are the saviors of the
world. We aren't! Christ is.
If the
most caring act we can do for this world is to keep from using
it and leave behind only the carbon molecules of our bodies to
fertilize the next generation, then we have missed our
Christian calling.
The aim
of believers in Christ is to leave as big a footprint as
possible in the world, not one obviously of waste dumps,
deforestation, and inveterate consumption, but of influencing
the world through the Word of Christ, to make a real
difference.
That's
why Christ came.
He didn't
leave any carbon footprint at all! He didn't even leave the
molecules of his body behind because He rose from the dead and
ascended bodily into heaven.
Yet his
body is here. It is the church. It is you and I who make the
footprint of Christ wherever we go. In the midst of the
church is Christ today just as surely as Christ was in the
midst of the congregation at Nazareth.
