Trapped in Captivity (Covid)

Trapped. Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

And Jesus said to the people in the synagogue, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Captivity: Olsons

Just over three weeks ago I woke up with a sore throat and a fever of 103.5. A day later, Luke, Daniel, and Gabriel also were all showing signs of being sick with something. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t like taking time to be sick. I have too much that I want to get done to be down and out. Even on vacation, which we were on when we started having symptoms, I didn’t want to take time to be sick. We had plans to spend more time with family. To play board games together. To watch movies together. But there we were. Sick. Right on the cusp of our plans that we had been looking forward to… and yet not able to go anywhere or do anything because we didn’t want to pass along whatever it was that we had to someone else.

A couple days later, when I tested positive for Covid, our plans were completely shattered. We said our goodbyes. Got in the car. And we went home. In the days that followed, the boys and I continued to show symptoms, but they were, by all accounts, mild. Not fun, but mild. Ashley, on the other hand, managed to avoid it. When we went low on groceries, it was Ashley who could go and collect our pickup order from Walmart. The rest of us stayed home. And I remember very vividly one day when Ashley was preparing to go, our sweet little 3 year old Gabriel broken down because he wanted to go somewhere too. But he couldn’t. At least, he shouldn’t have. Not if we were going to do our part of trying to keep others from getting sick.

Gabriel felt trapped. We all felt trapped. We were captives in our own home. Captives of a disease. Captives: All of Us

I know the Olsons are not the only family to have felt like captives at some point or another over the last two years. Prior to the vaccine coming out in particular, I remember speaking to many people who were struggling with the change in how we as a society were living. Some spoke of a sense of being extraordinarily isolated as they took measures to stay safe at home and distanced from others. Age and ailments adding to the threat of Covid-19… the word “comorbidities” becoming all too common a question as we considered whether or not it was wise to step into a bustling society. Then there were those were afraid of testing positive with Covid-19 not because of medical concerns… but because of the social stigma they were afraid would come with it. People whom they loved kept their distance. They understood why… but it still hurt. And when they returned to work, even after being given the all clear, others looked at them differently. Almost as if their mere presence was a threat.

And we likely all know the feeling of being in a public place over the last two years and feeling the need to cough coming up. Even if you are confident that you didn’t have Covid-19, you knew that if you coughed people would look your way.

We have lived, for the last two years, with a shared sense of being in captivity. This is one of the rare unifying truths that I believe we can claim together as a people. Whether an individual took Covid-19 seriously or completely dismissed it, I am confident that we all have shared this sense of captivity and isolation at one point or another.

We don’t like that feeling of captivity. Our instinct is not to live in captivity, but to do all that we can to break out of it. It’s no wonder that our stress as a society is at such a high level right now. It’s no wonder that our patience with one another is so low. And it’s no surprise that we want to point the finger at one another as to why we have experienced this sense of captivity that we would prefer not to experience.

Captives: In Prison

I remember as a teenager going with my dad to visit those held in captivity. More specifically, Baxter County Jailhouse in Mountain Home, Arkansas. My home congregation took turns with other congregations in town to provide a service at the local jail. The ladies would bake cookies. And then my dad along with two to three others would bring simple folded bulletins with no staples as well as several plastic bags full of cookies and some lemonade… and we would make our way through the security checks to the big common room where inmates were allowed to gather under guard.

When we would come sometimes there would be 3-4 men that would show up. Other times we would have 20-30. Being a jail and not a prison, it tended to be different faces every time. Some of them had never been to church until they were placed in jail. And there reasons for coming always varied. Some of them wrestled with questions about their own life choices and hoped to glean wisdom toward a new start through the words proclaimed. Others simply wanted a chance to stretch their legs outside of the jail cell.

What was universally appreciated, however, were the homemade cookies. Sometimes, if the guards were particularly concerned about one of the prisoners and wanted to encourage them to come to the worship service… they would tell them that we brought cookies. Real life homemade cookies… straight from someone’s warm oven.

And so they would come. And they would sit. And yes, some of them would listen. Some of them would try to pretend not to listen. But as they heard the very Lutheran understanding of God who extends extraordinary grace and forgiveness and gives the opportunity of new life and fresh starts… there would be on occasion a tear or two that would slip down the cheek of someone who supposedly was not paying attention. And, very quickly, that tear would be wiped away all the same for fear of what others might think. But you could tell the message was getting through.

The Word of God’s Grace realized to those whom are incarcerated is a powerful thing. It is a needed thing. It can change the course of someone’s life. And to think, sometimes all it took was a WELCA-made cookie to open that door. The promise of a taste of something sweet when life seemed to be so very bitter. Talk about law and gospel for those living in captivity. That message of grace in a place where there seemed to be so little hope was such an important thing. For God to be made known as being present among those whose guilt had been confirmed… and to still hear words of forgiveness… that was powerful.

And Jesus said to the people in the synagogue, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Captives: Babylon

In our Gospel lesson today we hear this message from Jesus in the local synagogue as he quotes from the book of Isaiah to those gathered on that Sabbath for worship. And I think we should note that Jesus indeed is not at the Temple in Jerusalem here… but he is at a synagogue in Nazareth. This isn’t the place where Mary and Joseph had lost Jesus as a 12 year old when he stuck around the priests and scribes while his parents were on their way home. This synagogue in Nazareth is where he grew up. This House of Worship was his stomping ground as a youngster.

This, we know from our text. It tells us that Nazareth was his home town. And it tells us that he went to the Synagogue on the Sabbath because it was his custom… it’s what he was used to doing.

What we might miss, however, is that even as Jesus reads this passage from Isaiah that speaks about releasing the captives… that the very existence of this Synagogue would have been a reminder of a time of captivity. Synagogues, you see, were not part of the faith of Israel when the Kingdom was first being settled. There were no local synagogues… there was only the Temple in Jerusalem… the Temple that Jesus stayed behind in as a 12 year old.

Synagogues were not formed until the Babylonians had invaded Israel. The people had been taken out of their homeland, pulled away from the Temple that was the center of their faith life… and locked away in the city of Babylon. The people could no longer go to the Temple to worship. They couldn’t make their pilgrimages. They couldn’t offer their sacrifices. They couldn’t lift up their prayers to God in a way that they trusted God would hear them… because their connecting point to God through the Temple was gone from them.

Their culture and faith were being intentionally stripped from them as the people of Israel lived in captivity within Babylon. Their plans, their goals, their aspirations… all of it... taken away and shattered in a moment. And all they wanted to do was to pack up. Get back in their caravans… and go home. But they couldn’t.

Scholars believe that it was in this time that of exile that synagogues were formed. When the Temple was put beyond the reach of the people, Synagogues sprung up among them even in exile. And realize, this is not just a simple practical solution… this was a flipping on its head of their identity of what made them the people of Israel. They were unified as God’s people through worship at the Temple. It was at the Temple that were connected to God. It was at the Temple that they could commune with God.

The creation of the Synagogue was a new understanding of God’s activity in the world. That as the people found themselves in Captivity that God moved into those places of captivity with them. God did not abandon them as they sat alone and isolated… but instead God fostered something new in that moment that the people might still know that they belonged to the Great I Am. It did not replace the Temple… but it added to their understanding of God’s reach beyond the temple. Of God’s care for them beyond those great walls.

And it is in a Synagogue that Jesus proclaims these words from Isaiah… words that were written for those living during the Babylonian Captivity:

And Jesus said to the people in the synagogue, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Freedom: The Year of the Lord’s Favor

In Jesus’ time, the people yearned for this Year of the Lord’s favor when indeed they would be released from the captivity that they experienced. I think that’s why they looked to Jesus with such anticipation in this moment as he spoke these words of hoped for freedom.

They wanted freedom from the Roman government, yes. They wanted freedom from the pains of old age. They wanted freedom from sickness. They wanted freedom from hunger and poverty. They yearned for these things just as the people during the Babylonian Exile yearned for freedom… just as the prisoners I remember as a child yearned for freedom… just as we all have yearned for freedom beyond the captivity of covid.

And next week, we’ll hear of Jesus’ response. His response will challenge what the people wanted of him. He provides… but not as they were expecting. A taste… a hope… a reminder of presence… a promise of grace and forgiveness. A hint of things yet to come.

What Jesus offers in this moment to his friends and family of Nazareth is a voice that God is doing something new. As their ancestors experienced in the days of old, there was still the reality of the Babylonian Exile persisting for years. And yet, Synagogues sprung up. For the prisoners who were still stuck behind the bars… their sentences continued… and yet they had a taste of homemade cookies and heard the word of Good News from Christ that offered grace beyond law. And for us who dwell in our moments of feeling captive… those times may yet continue. But that does not mean that God fails to be at work in our lives.

No. As we look back throughout history, we see God being very present in the lives of those who feel trapped with shattered plans. And what we see is that God is always making a new thing in such moments. God creates new pathways to reach us… to remind us of God’s everlasting presence and care and love and grace and forgiveness…. even as we wrestle in captivity and find ourselves frustrated.

I hope that the epidemiologists are right and that at the end of Omicron we may see a shift toward the end of Covid as we know it. I hope that as we face challenges in life and find ourselves feeling captive to moments we would prefer to be free of… that we could indeed be free of those tribulations. I hope for that.

But beyond that hope, I know that God is at work in such moments. I know that while the sense of captivity might persist… that the freedom in Christ is true. I know that while at times we may feel isolated and alone… the presence of God’s company is sure and certain. I know that while our plans can become shattered… that God finds opportunity to create something new beyond what we imagined.

So have hope, dear flock. Have hope in these times. But more than hope, have the knowledge of who God is and what God has done. You are not alone in this walk, not even in the dark of night. And while you may feel that darkness longer than you wish at times, Christ is with you. And the light will dawn anew. Know this. Proclaim this. And be at peace. God be with you.