the Word of the Lord

from my sermon on 1/24/10 from Luke 4:14-21

Have you ever read a story that was so good that you couldn't put it down? My English teacher wife gave me a novel entitled The Book Thief. The protaganist is a little girl named Liesl who becomes an orphan and is taken in by a foster family. The first book that she steals is The Gravedigger's Handbook taken from the funeral for her brother. Another main characther is Max, a Jewish man that the family also takes in and hides in their basement. Oh, you must understand that the setting is Hitler's Germany at the beginning of WW II. Plus the story is told from the viewpoint of the angel of death. Piqued your interest. I finished the 550 pages on Friday night. I couldn't put it down.

I have been gripped by another story that I cannot put down. First heard the story at church when I was a little boy. My grandparents gave me a copy of the story, my very own Bible when I was 7 yrs. old. AS I grew up and went to Texas A & M, I read the story for myself for the first time. I went on to seminary where I learned to read the NT in its original language Greek, and the OT in Hebrew. Now for going on 32 years I have been teaching and preaching from this story. It is so good I just can't put it down.

Jesus too had been steeped in the story. The passage that we find only in Luke says that Jesus normal pattern was to be in worship on the sabbath. It took 10 men to form a synagogue. The order of worship included several readings from the holy book. Anyone of the men might be called upon to read the scripture and then to comment upon it. So Jesus stood to read from Isaiah 61:1-2, a passage about the servant who would become a model for the Messiah. It is about setting people free from prison and blindness and oppression and sin. Then he preaches one of the shortest sermons. "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

I like that Jesus says the story is fulfilled right here and now, not in some pie in the sky in the sweet by and by. It is realized in him, and maybe in us. Have you been gripped by this story that is so good that you cannot put it down?

One in our midst has....Clint Rabb, a pastor who was a member of the SWTX Conf., and high up in the leadership of the United Methodist Committee on Relief. I went to his funeral yesterday. Among the procession of bishops, district superintendents, UMCOR staff, family, and choir, was one man who came into the chancel area with a band aid on his head and hand. He was Jim Gulley, who told about Clint. They were going to supper, walking across the hotel lobby, when the earthquake hit in Haiti. Several of them were trapped by falling concrete. A space of 5' x 8' x 3' had enough air movement that they wouldn't suffocate. Using cell phones for flashlights, they found the extent of their injuries. Sam Dixon, head of UMCOR, and Clint had their legs underneath huge concrete beams. The pain was tremendous. Now here's the part of the story I like best. In that situation they prayed and sang and comforted one another. Clint though trapped helped Sam by moving backpacks and such to make him more comfortable. At one point, Clint said, "When I get out, i am going to line up a string of Zero Cokes, ice cold, and then I am going to drink them slowly one by one." After a little while, he said, "No, Real Coke." For 55 hours they were trapped, until they heard the voices of French firement. The group sang the Doxology. That's the kind of story that I want to be part of.....that sings the Doxology when freed. Clint died of his injuries about 15 hours later in a Florida hospital. Oh, we preachers sang yesterday, O For a 1,000 tongues to sing. We sang like we meant it...like we believed it. The story is so good I just can't put it down. Even in the midst of death we sing about life.

Maybe you have been gripped by this same story. I see you going out on the Mobile Loaves and Fishes trucks and saying to people who live on the street, "What kind of sandwich do you want? PB & J or ham & cheese." We have come to bring good news to the poor. Some of you go to the women's prison in Gatesville where you help the women inmates read Good Night Moon to their children back home. We proclaim release to the captives.

I have inviting this congregation to write a new vision statement. I am here to tell you that it needs to have something to do with this story of people being set free.

I recently came to a new understanding. All of us live our lives oriented around a story. It could be that life is chaos and has no meaning, so do whatever you want. That's a story. It could be do unto others before they do it unto you. That's a story. The one who dies with the most toys at the end wins. That's a story. Around what story do you orient your life?

I have been gripped by this story that says God sets people free and invites us to be part of that process today. It is so good I can't put it down.

You expect a word today. I am a preacher after all. You don't want it to be a Saturday night special or just how I am feeling today. I feel so inadequate...how dare I? ....yet I say The Word of the Lord....thanks be to God.