3 Epiphany

January 24, 2010

Luke 4.14-21


When I was about seventeen years I read a book that blew me away. It was A Theology of Liberation by Gustavo Gutiérrez. It opened up for me what is now called Liberation Theology. Gutiérrez is a Peruvian Dominican priest of mixed Quechua descent who published his landmark book in 1971. It was watershed book for me that jarred me out of my old way of thinking about the Gospels and forced me to look at the message of Jesus as truly a proclamation of liberation to the poor.

Liberation Theology, which originally focused on the poor in Latin America, has now spread to encompass liberation theology for women, for GLBT people, black people, for Asian people, for African people.

In our Gospel reading for today, we find this seed for all liberation theology.

But I want to stress that my view of liberation theology has not been political. I know that it’s easy to let this message of Jesus become a political statement. I once even heard a pastor preach on the fact that Jesus died as a political prisoner, not a religious one—that ultimately the message of Jesus was not religious at all but political.

As someone who daily ponders the message of Jesus, who wrestles with it, meditates on it, and who tries, more often not failing in my attempt, to live out the message of Jesus, I am solidly convinced that Jesus’ message was and remains purely religious. That doesn’t mean that this religious understanding of care for the poor and oppressed shouldn’t fire our political understanding, but I remain firmly convinced that it is ultimately religious.

There is another aspect of this reading that I think is also so beautiful. By Jesus standing and proclaiming who is and what he has come to do, he really sets the standard for us as well. We too should proclaim our faith in Jesus in the same way. Now, as I say that I don’t mean we should be obnoxious and fundamentalist in our views. I think too many Christians proclaim themselves as Christian with their lips, but don’t live it out in their lives and by example (and I am guilty of this myself). What I mean is that because the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus, and because he was appointed to bring good news to the poor, that truly becomes our mission as well because we follow Jesus. Because Jesus breathes his Spirit upon us, that same mission that the Spirit worked in Jesus is working in us as well. And we should, like Jesus, stand up and proclaim that mission to others.

Jesus has empowered us to do what he says in today’s Gospel: We are to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of the sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

What does that mean to us—to us who are here, in this place? It means that we are not to go about with blinders on regarding those with him we live and work. It means that we are surrounded by a whole range of captives—people whoa re captive to their own prisons of depression and alcohol and drugs and conforming to society or whatever. Our job in the face of that captivity it to help them in any way we can to be released.

It means that we are not to go about blind and not to ignore those who are blinded by their own selfishness and self-centeredness. I am still so amazed by how many people (especially in the Church, amazingly enough) who are so caught up in themselves. I really think self-centered is a kind of blindness. Selfishness causes us to look so strongly at ourselves (and at a false projection of ourselves) that we see nothing else but ourselves. By reaching out others, by becoming aware of what others are dealing with, by helping others, we truly open our eyes and see beyond ourselves.

When we do these things, we are essentially letting the oppressed go free. And I would add here that our job isn’t only to do this for others. It’s also to do this for ourselves. Just as people become self-centered, so conversely I think some people also deny themselves so completely that they slowly and systematically destroy themselves. They neglect themselves. Which anyone who does ministry on a regularly basis knows we simply cannot do. We cannot help others if we are not taking care of ourselves to some extent. This liberation form oppression, blindness and captivity is just as clearly proclaimed to ourselves as it is to others.

Finally, w are called to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. This is simply the icing on the cake. Once we have proclaimed liberation, we must then proclaim God’s blessings on us. God favors a liberated people. God does so , because God can only effectively work through a people who have been liberated from captivity, blindness and
oppression.

This to me is what true liberation theology is. Although I still believe that liberation theology needs to speak to the poor and oppressed of the world, I also have realized quite acutely that the poor and oppressed of our world—here and now—are not only those who are poor financially. The poor and oppressed of our world are those who are morally, spiritually and emotionally poor. The oppressed are still women and GLBT and those who don’t fit the social structures of our society. They are the elderly and the lonely. They are the criminals and those who are leading quietly desperate lives in our very midst. We, as Christians, are to proclaim freedom to all those people who are on the margins of our lives both personally and collectively. And often those poor oppressed people we need to be proclaiming this year of the Lord’s Favor to might be our own very selves.

This is the year of the Lord’s favor. I am not talking about 2010. I am not talking about this decade. I am talking about this moment and all moments in which we, anointed and filled with God’s spirit, go out to share God’s good news by word and example. When we do so, we are making that year of the Lord’s favor a reality again and again.

So, let us proclaim the good news. Let us bring sight to the blind, and hope to those who are oppressed and hopeless. Let us be liberation theologians in our deeds to those whoa re crying out (in various ways) for liberation which only Jesus and his followers can bring. And when we do, we will find the message of Jesus being fulfilled in our very midst.