Sermon Tone Analysis

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.