Our Gospel Lesson ended with Jesus telling his listeners that the reading had been fulfilled in their hearing. I wonder what you think of when I say the word, “fulfilled?” Tell me, in a word or phrase, what pops into your mind when I say the word, “fulfilled?”
[Congregation members shared their thoughts. Responses ranged from “complete” to “finished” to “satisfied” or “an obligation or contract that has been successfully completed.”]
If a promise is fulfilled, is there generally more that needs to be done after that? You would think not, right? So, why in the world would Jesus have said that the promise of literal restoration from prison, hunger, and blindness be fulfilled in his presence? Maybe it was hyperbole. Maybe it was an acknowledgment of what Dr. King meant when he popularized the saying that “the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
I'd like to think that is the case. I'd like to think that we are all participating in the slow and steady march of progress toward God’s Jubilee. Truly it is my hope that we are heading towards a greater love for one another. I don’t mean love in spite of differences in color, gender, or personal orientation. I mean loving each other because of it. I want us to lay down the baggage of social expectation and lift up the wonder of God’s creation expressed uniquely and imperfectly in each of us.
There are moments and days when I see that happening, and yet there are others when I don’t. On those days I think of the fulfillment that Jesus spoke of as less of an arc and more of a cat, more specifically Schrodinger’s Cat. That’s the thought experiment from the 1930s about the cat in the box with a vial of poison. Is the cat in the box dead or alive? The answer is, of course, “Yes.”
There’s a lot more to it that has something to do with quantum mechanics, but I’m a theologian so that’s as far as I’ll go with the science of it all. My point in bringing it up is because of the potential behind the experiment. The cat is both dead and alive because we cannot see inside the box to know. The potential is there for either outcome, so it is, and it isn’t alive.
The same is true with the promise of God’s Jubilee. The potential for it is always present, and in the presence of Jesus, it is real and vital and true. Nowhere should that be truer than in the church. Of course, I say, “should,” because obviously, it is not. I don’t necessarily mean this congregation. We have our issues here and there, but we are generally committed to loving one another as well as we can.
Even so, as King also once said, “Sunday morning at 11:00 remains the most segregated hour in our nation.” I don’t say that to beat anyone up. I say that to acknowledge that we still suffer in our own way from some of the issues that Paul wrote about to the church in Corinth.
There were divisions in that congregation. They were divided over social status, income, and even over the way that they praised God. As the letter continues, Paul essentially uses a ridiculous image to show them how silly and childish they are acting. “You are all parts of one body,” he tells them. “What if all of you were an eye, or an ear, or a foot?” Then he goes on to talk about the honor given to weaker members in order to prevent dissension.
Believe it or not, I think of this passage often in ministry. Mostly that’s because people like to say either really bad things or really good things about ministers. Mostly I feel like the inferior member, though. When I see the hard work that this congregation does; or when one of you, smiles as you introduce me as your Pastor in a public gathering; or when I sit in committees and listen to the faithful wrestling you do over God’s calling for this congregation I feel like a privileged soul in the presence of God’s fulfilled promises!
The thing that really matters, though, is that we remember the original cause for all that moves and forms us. In Luke’s gospel, it is the Spirit that directs Jesus after his time of temptation to go and teach. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, it is the Spirit of God that gives gifts and appoints people to the work of the church.
God calls us to be messengers of hope; truth tellers in the face of power; actors who do the small and mighty deeds of God; healers of physical, emotional, and spiritual wounds; helpers and leaders and speakers of grace and mercy and love!
On those days when the opportunity is clear, and our conscience compels us, we feel moral arc of the universe bending toward justice. Then on days when the world seems cruel and cold, we wonder if any progress has been made at all. Schools are just as segregated now as they were in 1968 and the gap between whites and people of color has widened in terms of home ownership and infant mortality and wealth.
Yet somehow it is still hard to have open and honest conversations about historical events that have impacted our present reality. In the midst of that, we have a government that has been holding its own employee’s paychecks hostage. Regardless of where you stand on any of these issues, they remind us how important it is to hear the words of Jesus and cling to the hope they bring.
The words that Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah were not just a promise of what is to come. They were a recognition of what has come! They were a recognition of the abundance of God’s love and grace and mercy that come to us in our times of scarcity. That sounds really nice, but I have to tell you that it is real.
I know, because I saw it the other night. I saw it when members of Science on the Bayou held a dinner and collected gift cards for their furrowed colleagues. Truly I see it all the time. I saw it yesterday when members of our presbytery traveled from Sulphur and Bayou Blue and Baton Rouge to make plans for the children of this presbytery at Camp Agape this Summer. I saw it when members gave personal time over the weekend to care for God’s property, to give Dorinda a needed break, and to get ready to host our friends from Missouri Union Presbytery.
Let me tell you if you are unsure as to whether God’s promise of freedom has been fulfilled, you need to meet these people. They are a clear and present witness that when Jesus proclaimed God’s promised restoration fulfilled, he meant that we have a lot of loving to do.
He meant that it has been fulfilled by the one who sets us on the path to fulfill it for one another! Don’t let that discourage you, though. Even though every moment bears the potential for good or for bad, there is yet a hope that goes beyond our days.
In that hope, we can trust that all shall be well in the long moral arc of the universe, but in the meantime, we must never forget that we have been called to be the Body of Christ. We’ll explore that a little more next week as our readings continue. Until then I’ll leave you with these words from Teresa of Avila, a Christian mystic and a Carmelite Nun who died in 1582. Her visions came during a time of great illness and personal trial, yet she believed fully and completely that God is physically present through those who follow Christ.
Christ Has No Body
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks [with]
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks [with]
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks [with]
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks [with]
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Amen.
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