The importance of the word “Because.” A sermon for Epiphany 3B

The sermon this morning is about one little word:
Because.

Jesus says “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me BECAUSE.”  The Spirit is upon him for a REASON, there is a purpose, there is a BECAUSE.
“Because The Spirit has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
The Spirit 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.

Jesus does not say “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me AND the Spirit has anointed me.  That would just be a sequence of events.  Jesus says, BECAUSE.  The relationship between the Spirit’s anointing and good news for the poor is not casual but causal, because.  The reason, the purpose of the Spirit is named.  This is the Mission Statement of the Spirit’s anointing, the Because.  Jesus has just returned from the wilderness (We’ll hear the story of Jesus in the Wilderness with the Devil in a couple weeks at the start of Lent), but he is driven into the wilderness BY the Spirit, after the Spirit came down, swooped down on him at his baptism in the Jordan.  The Spirit has been the driving force for the past chapter of Luke.
So now Jesus explains why the Spirit of the Lord is upon him, why the Spirit came down. “Because, Jesus says, Because.”  There is a reason, a purpose, a because.

Luis used the same word, “because,” this last week in his benediction to close the inauguration of the President.  He’s going to hate that I’m including a bit about him in the sermon, so I will keep it brief.  I have to say we were proud of Luis this last week.  Many of our parishioners who watched expressed that they were amazed that on National TV how Luis seemed “exactly like himself.”  I agree, I think Luis Leon pulled off the best Luis Leon impression I’ve ever seen.  We were proud.  The Luis that the world saw is the Luis Leon we hear preaching here.  He even said, “We pray for your blessing because…with it we can see each other created in your image, a unit of God’s grace, unprecedented, unrepeatable and irreplaceable.”  The same message of love and grace we hear from this pulpit was heard on the National stage.
Unfortunately I can’t get Luis to comment on whether or not Beyonce was lip synching.  He says he was too far away to tell…

Back to the point.  In Luis’ blessing he used the word “because.”  “We pray for your blessing BECAUSE with it, we can see each other created in your image.” BECAUSE.  It’s almost like Luis is riffing on Jesus…adapting Jesus’ words for today.  Luis is in good company: Jesus was riffing on Isaiah.  Jesus knew his Haftarah.  In the theology of Luis’ benediction, in the theology of Jesus’ words today, the theology of the prophet Isaiah’s words there is a BECAUSE for blessing, there is a reason for the Spirit’s presence, there is a purpose to faith, a because.
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 and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
You know, modest goals for a thirty year old preacher.

That’s just it, there is nothing modest about this “because.”  There is nothing small about Jesus’ sense about what the life of the Spirit is about, about what he is about.  Jesus wants to see the world work differently.  Jesus says, “today this passage has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  Because the poor need good news, I am amongst you.  Because captives need to be released, I’m asking you to follow me.  Because the oppressed need to go free, you need to have faith.  Because we need to declare jubilee, we need to open the eyes of the blind, the Spirit is upon me.  Because.  There is nothing modest about Jesus’ sense of the Spirit’s anointing, nothing small about the faith of Jesus.

Notice what Jesus does not say.  Jesus does not say: “The Spirit of the Lord is Upon me because you all need a lesson in sexual morality.”  Jesus does not say: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because I want to make sure you go to heaven when you die.”  Jesus does not say: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to encourage you to give money to the synagogue.”  Jesus does not say: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to support Sarah’s side in this family argument, her sister Gina really needs to get it together.”  Our faith can get very small sometimes.  Our sense of the Spirit, our sense of “Because” can get us into Spiritual trouble.  When our mission, our because is too small, spirituality can seem trite.  The church can become nothing more than a social club.

There is a video that has been released by the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts, and the video features Bishop Tom Shaw.  Bishop Shaw, in addition to being a bishop, happens to be a monk, an Episcopalian monk.  His day to day clothes are a long black robe, the habit of his order of monks.  In the video Bishop Shaw tells the story of coming out of the Boston Metro, the “T,” and hearing two guys call to him from across the street, “Hey are you a Father?”  The Bishop said yes and they said, “Come here we’ve got a question for ya.”  The other guy said, “So, is it a sin to smoke dope?”  So the Bishop in his robes looked at him and said, “well…how much?”  He said, “just a couple of joints a week.”  So the Bishop said, “no that’s not a sin.  Sin is about the tremendous gap between rich and poor and the poverty in this country.  Sin’s about racism or homophobia and sin’s about war and violence, but it’s not about smoking a couple of joints a week.”  And the other guy said to him, “We want to join your church.”

The questioners in Bishop Shaw’s story have a very small sense of Spirituality.  It’s not surprising that they don’t go to church.  I would be bored of church if I thought that God’s biggest concern was whether or not someone was smoking pot.  But I go to a church where people think Jesus came into the world for bigger reasons than that.  The Jesus I know, the Jesus we know began a public ministry BECAUSE the Spirit of the Lord was upon him BECAUSE he had anointed him to bring good news to the poor, to set the oppressed free.

We live in a city with a lot of poor people. Washington DC expects to announce Tuesday  a $400 million budget surplus, but we can’t find the money to keep homeless shelters open, the homeless have been told there is a multi-million dollar budget deficit for shelters.  There are over 2000 homeless people in Washington waiting for Permanent Supportive housing.  There are waiting lists every night for the few shelter beds we have for homeless youth, and in the past months the funding for the youth homeless has been slashed, which means there are fewer beds.  We need to bring good news to the poor in this city.  We need the Spirit of the Lord and people who are willing to be engaged, anointed.

If you’re feeling down in the Spiritual life, if you’re searching for a connection to God, if you don’t feel like God is paying much attention, I think Jesus might have a word for you this morning.  The Spirit of the Lord can be found in bringing good news to the poor, release to the captives.  If you’re looking for God, probably the best advice I have is to seek God where God wills to be found, among the poor, among the oppressed, among the captives.

I’ve heard the stories from people in this parish who have spent time with our partners at the Kwasa Center in South Africa, with the Bishop Walker School in Anacostia.  I’ve heard stories of how God’s presence was so keenly felt as people reached out to bring good news to the poor.  I lived Honduras as a volunteer for the church for awhile and I watched doctors performing cataract surgery for rural villagers, literally bringing sight to the blind.  Those doctors would say that their eyes were opened as well, to God’s presence in the world, to the work God is doing even now to let the oppressed go free.  If you’re looking for God, a good way to start is to listen to Jesus quote the prophet this morning, his mission is located among the lost, the least, and the left out in our society.  Jesus, seeking to express his purpose, looks to the ancient tradition.  He reads in scripture that Spirit of the Lord has a reason, a because, and it has to do with bringing good news to the poor.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me 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.”  These are the unexpected words of Isaiah the prophet, the words of Jesus, and they can be our words.  We can bring good news.  We can bring sight to the blind.  We can bring hope to a world that needs hope.  We can let the oppressed go free. Because we have a God who walks with us.  Because we have a God who sends God’s Spirit to be with us.  Because we have a God who sends God’s blessing so that we might “see one another made in God’s image, a unit of God’s grace, unprecedented, unrepeatable and irreplaceable.”  Because. Amen.