The Deep River of Faith
Posted on Jan 22, 2025 by Jon Brudvig
In Luke’s account of the start of Jesus’ teaching and preaching ministry, the tradition of the Hebrew prophets looms large. Filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus returns to his hometown (Nazareth), attends worship in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and reads from the scroll of Isaiah proclaiming good news to the poor, liberation for captives, sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed (Luke 4:14-18). Then, as all eyes were fixed on him, Jesus rolled up the scroll, sat down, and declared, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).
Fulfilled, completed, come to pass — even before Jesus’ ministry has started. Really? How, I wonder, can this be? I suspect many gathered for worship asked similar questions.
Or did Jesus’ affirmation of the prophetic promise connect with a persecuted and oppressed people? Life for many Jews living under Roman rule during Jesus’ time was harsh. Only a few people — mostly wealthy landowners, tax collectors, and the political and religious elites — benefited from Roman occupation and rule.
I suspect that Jesus’ words struck a chord, resonating with people hungering to be set free from the bondage of poverty, political oppression, and marginalized status. Perhaps wondering, “Is Jesus the one? The long-awaited Messiah?” The answer is Yes! — at least for those who know the trajectory and conclusion of Jesus’ earthly ministry.
We know that Luke’s Gospel includes so much more than teachable moments and prophetic preaching. Although these events frequently occur, Jesus also invites hearers — then and now — to participate in the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom of love and justice. Not only as we gather to worship and give thanks to God as we honor the Sabbath and keep it holy, but also as we participate in God’s healing, renewing, and liberating activity as a people called, equipped, and sent to be the body of Christ in the world.
The author, educator, and pastor Howard Thurman drives this reality home in his book, Jesus and the Disinherited. Thurman, whose writings and sermons provided the spiritual and theological foundation for the modern Civil Rights Movement in the United States, insisted that the Church must follow Jesus out into the world and not merely worship Christ. To follow Jesus is to move beyond the comfort and security of the familiar, to move beyond our privilege and prejudices, as we follow where Jesus goes — among the poor, the broken in spirit, people hungering for healing, and our neighbors crying out for justice.
And this biblical mandate is difficult. Many of us enjoy lives of privilege. We are wealthy, well-fed, and benefit from worldly power structures and systems. Even a cursory reading of the four gospels reveals the ways that Jesus repeatedly challenges worldly powers and principalities that oppress, dehumanize, and exploit God’s beloved children. And like it or not, it is a lived response that all the baptized are called, equipped, and sent out to follow (see “Responsibilities of Holy Baptism,” ELW 228).
What then might help us overcome our resistance and reluctance to follow the Way of Jesus? The answer is LOVE — pure, steadfast, and abundant love that Jesus embodies and pours out on the cross for the world (John 3:16-17). And it is this love that Jesus invites us to tap into and experience as we reorient our ways of being, doing, and acting in the world.
So, take heart, my fellow pilgrims travelling the Way of Jesus together. Though fear may hold us back from following Jesus or sharing generously of the gifts entrusted to our care, the good news, writes Howard Thurman, is that God’s love “is rooted in the deep river of faith … It may twist and turn, fall back on itself and start again, stumble over an infinite series of hindering rocks, but at last the river must answer the call to the sea.”
A fellow pilgrim,
Pastor Jon