Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Starting tomorrow, I am going to do change the way I do some things around here. Well, come to think of it, I am not usually here on Mondays, so I think I will hold off until Tuesday. But on Tuesday there is clergy text study in the morning and a staff meeting in the afternoon. I think I can work these changes in on Wednesday, but you know I want to do some visitation on Wednesday and we have confirmation that evening. Maybe Thursday will work better. Upon reflection, I do want to make some changes but, well, I will have to see what happens.

Jesus, "...as was his custom" went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. As was his custom, the Son of God went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. As was his custom, the Messiah, the Christ went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. As was his custom. As is perhaps your custom, you are here on the Sabbath day. Somehow Jesus managed to fit going to the synagogue on Sabbath into his week. Is it not amazing how such a routine practice, a familiar practice is the prelude to an absolutely fabulous revelation of the Gospel? This "custom" of Jesus reminds me of another "custom," mentioned in the Gospel of John. It is a custom that connects Jesus customer with ours. It is the custom where Pilate says to the angry mob, "But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?" The crowd, led by the chief priests, respond with "crucify him!" Jesus custom -- worshipping and teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath, condemned to death in spite of another custom and here we are worshipping, as per our custom, the one called the "King of the Jews."

Filled with the power of the Spirit, remember how following his baptism by John, the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove. Remember how he has spent time in the wilderness being faced with hunger and temptation, but able to resist because he is full of the Spirit. Filled with the Spirit, Jesus teaches in the synagogues in Galilee and news about Jesus begins to "spread through all the surrounding country." I wonder if it is our custom, that is we who have received the Spirit in baptism, if it our custom to continue to spread news about Jesus through all the surrounding country.

There is some good news, some really good news that we should be sharing. Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah -- "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me..." Is it not the case that we who are baptized believers, who have received the Spirit, the same Spirit that continues to grow us in our development as disciples, is it not the case that we are called and sent? Called to what? Sent to what? Are we not called and sent to preach good news to the poor? We are indeed, and here is some food for thought. The word "poor" in Jesus time might indicate a "lack of subsistence," but it also might mean lack of education, family heritage, religious purity, vocation, and economics -- in other words it means a "diminished status." The "poor" in Jesus time were "those who for a number of socio-reasons were relegated to positions outside the boundaries of Gods people." The shepherd to whom the angels appeared that first Christmas Eve would have been considered "poor."

Jesus crossed and crosses boundaries; Jesus reached out and reaches out to all people. The Good News has to do with that "custom" when the crowd rejected Jesus. Because of that rejection, because Jesus died on a cross and rose again, because he gives us grace through faith, because he has sent the Spirit to us in our baptisms, because of all these circumstances we are saved and we are called to share that Good News of salvation with others that they too, the "poor" among them, may be saved.

The Good News is that Jesus does proclaim release to the captives, captives to sin, to this world, to the insatiable demands of this world, captives the "need" of keeping up with the rest of the crowd. The Good News is recovery of sight to the blind, sometimes literally in a physical sense, but also when the blind, the poor, the captives suddenly can see with the eyes of faith, see what is really important in this life. Recovery of sight that enables us to see Jesus and his sacrifice for us, to see him as he walks beside us, behind us, in front of us, on this path that he sends us, and calls us to trod. The Good News lets the oppressed go free from fear, fear of death, fear of sin, fear of temptation, fear of failure, fear of falling.

And today, not tomorrow, today Jesus says, the scripture from Isaiah has been filled. And as a pastor I knew in Northern California, Brian Stoffregen, reminds us, there is one of those key words -- "today." Think of how often you have heard it said by Jesus, or in one case, about Jesus, when the angels came to the shepherds and said for unto you today is born in the City of David the Messiah. Think of Jesus telling Zacchaeus that he was going to stay with him "today," how after Zacchaeus repented Jesus said "today salvation has come to this house." Think of Jesus saying to the thief on the cross "today you will be with me in paradise."

Today the Good News has been fulfilled in your hearing. It is not being put off until Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday, or even Thursday -- it is today! And it is today that you should begin sharing the Good News. Today is the day to start walking more completely as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Today is the day to start working on your stewardship, growing your spirituality, walking with Jesus! Today is the day!

AMEN