A Powerful Vision

"A POWERFUL VISION"

a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens

Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.

July 20, 2025

Luke 4:14-21 NRSV

¹⁴ Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵ He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. ¹⁶ When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ¹⁸ “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, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” ²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

How many of you have had your eyes “worked” on? I have worn glasses or contacts since the 6^th grade.  Got my first contacts in college and wore them up until this past January when I got those “cataract implants.”  Expensive, but I don’t have to mess with contacts anymore.  Bad part is I still kind of need “cheaters” for reading, so what are you going to do?  I have to say I really don’t have as powerful vision as I would like to have.

Speaking of vision, I’ve been talking about how we “see” Jesus.  There are many ways to see him: Lord, Savior, Son of God, a prophet.  We’ve been looking at the unique ways each of the Gospels portray Jesus.  And they do each have their uniqueness.  But that makes sense, otherwise, why have more than one?  So when some Christians demand that there is only one way to see Jesus, or believe in Jesus, I have to decline to agree.  I don’t think we have to see Jesus “one way” to be faithful.  I think we can even learn from each other’s different understandings, experiences, and perspectives.

This morning we read from the Gospel according to Luke.  Luke, like Matthew, includes a lot of the same material as Mark, but also like Matthew, it includes many things Mark doesn’t.  It leaves some things out and changes details on some of the same material.  Each Gospel gives us a unique view of Jesus in some ways.  Is one wrong and the other right?  Or does the diversity of them give us a richer, more complete understanding?  Or maybe even one way speaks to someone and the other speaks to someone that the other one didn’t?  WOW!  Who knew diversity could be a good thing?  Next you’ll tell me equity and inclusion are not from the Devil? Whooooweee!

What about this story we , read this morning?  This offers one way to asnwer the question to “how do you see Jesus?” This episode is a powerful vision of who Jesus is.  He comes to his own hometown riding a wave of good vibes. His poll numbers are at the top.  He goes to church on the Sabbath and he is the “preacher of the day.”  Everything starts out peachy.  Jesus reads from the book of Isaiah.  It is the prophet’s vision from God for Isaiah’s ministry.  And Jesus claims it as his own.  He finishes reading it then announces he is there to fulfill the prophet’s vision.  Now Jesus’ “homies” response at first is pretty good.  They saw him as “one of their own.” But the part that follows what I read out loud? Not so good.  Like most preachers, maybe Jesus should’ve stopped sooner [ ahem! ]. But he goes on talking about how prophets get no respect from their hometown crowd. Then he points out the times in Israel’s history when they rejected God’s vision and so God went and poured out blessings on outsiders, and foreigners.  The hometown crowd starts to squirm, then gets downright murderous.  In fact, they grab him by the neck, carry him out to the cliff at the edge of town, ready to throw his smarty pants self right off!  Luke tells us Jesus simply “passed through them and went on his way.”  They liked what Jesus’ vision at first. But by the end they couldn’t see Jesus’ vision of God, of their world, of themselves, or of Jesus.

Let me point out a couple of things about Jesus’ vision. He says he came to “bring good news to the poor, … 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.”  If you claim to be a Christian and you are outraged about DEI – diversity, equity, and inclusion I have bad news.  You are wrong.  Maybe actually read the Bible before your Project 2025.  Your hostility to anyone not white, male, rich and privileged may be blinding you to God’s vision.  Let me suggest your “America First,” won’t fit too well with God’s vision.  Uh, oh!  Ya’ll ready to haul me off to the nearest cliff yet?  Am I speaking too plainly?  Well, here, let me try harder.

Did you notice that nice sounding phrase at the end about “the year of the Lord’s favor?”  Do you really understand what that means?  If you think private property is a Christian concept, let me upset your view a bit.  The year of the Lord’s favor is what the Hebrew Scriptures call the Jubilee year.  Every 7 years the land was to lay fallow to give it a Sabbath. No crops were to be harvested. And every 49th year began a Jubilee year.

During the Jubilee, land was to be returned to its original owners (or their heirs). Essentially, land was available for 49-year lease, not eternal ownership.  Those who were enslaved to pay off debts—were to be released from their enslavement. It was designed to be an economic equalizer.  Go ahead, you can call it wealth-sharing!

Now, I’ll admit history is unclear.  The Jubilee may never have been truly observed throughout Israel. It was certainly in the Scriptures from God.  But the land returning? Indentured people receiving their freedom? I’m not certain even back then many people were buying into that vision. One thing is certain. It was God’s vision.

Let me go back to the beginning of this passage.  Did you hear that?  “Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit,” came back to his hometown Nazareth.  What’s your view of “power?”  How do you see it?  What comes to mind? Tallahassee? Washington, D.C.?  Or maybe the Miami Dolphins offensive line?  Political power, physical power, what about the “power of the Spirit?”  Just a religious fantasy?

David Lose, [ “A Peculiar Power,” davidlose.net/2016/01, January 18, 2016. ] a minister, and seminary professor, says “the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God – is demonstrated not by … [anything] one claims for one’s own self but only through what it accomplishes for others. Power is power only when it sets others free, only when it builds up others, only when used for the betterment of those around you.”

He goes on to give us a different way to see power.  “One of the chief powers of Jesus is to declare that God sees all of us – not just those the world sees, but everyone…. God’s power is different.” To see all, to see that all people have holy, infinite value, is a powerful vision.

As I aged, my physical sight, my human vision became weaker, I longed for greater power in my glasses or contacts. More importantly I pray I can see the powerful vision Jesus gave us.  I pray to see ways to work for it. We may see ourselves as “powerless.” Maybe we need to see where real power comes from.  Spirit power gives us the ability to see others, to see how we have power to help others.  We have Holy Spirit power to claim! We have Holy Spirit power to work to empower others.  When we claim our Holy Spirit power and use that power for blessing others, we will truly have power to bless the Lord.

You have power!  And when you see your power, you will see that we have thousands of reasons to “bless the Lord, oh, my soul, bless the Lord.”  Jesus has shown us a powerful vision of a better world.  I tell you we have ten thousand times ten thousand reasons to bless the Lord! Oh, my soul, bless the Lord!  AMEN.