Patrick Comerford
The 40-day season of Christmas continues for another week until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation next Sunday (2 February 2025). Today is the Third Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany III, 26 January 2025), and the Gospel reading recalls the beginning of Christ’s public ministry when Jesus reads and teaches in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4: 14-21).
Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. In afternoon, I plan to attend the Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations in Milton Keynes. The ceremony, which has been moved to the Church of Christ the Cornerstone due to the adverse weather conditions this weekend, will include readings, songs, silence and the use of candles to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27 January 1945.
But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Luke 4: 14-21 (NRSVA):
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 favour.’
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.’
Jesus in the Synagogue, as imagined by the Northern Ireland-born artist Greg OlsenToday’s Reflection:
Today is the Third Sunday Epiphany (Epiphany III, 26 January 2025). The Gospel reading today (Luke 4: 14-21) is set in in an in-between time in the Church Calendar, between the Christmas and Epiphany stories and the beginning of Christ’s public ministry in Galilee.
The Epiphany stories over the last three weeks or so were telling us who Christ is, as priest, prophet and king. Those Epiphany moments are brought together in today’s Gospel reading.
Instead of succumbing to the temptations of a dramatic but false start to his ministry (Luke 4: 1-14), Christ begins his ministry in a very slow, thoughtful and considerate way. We are told that it was habit in the first stage of his ministry for Jesus to attend the synagogue on a Saturday, and we are told too that he taught in the synagogues regularly (verse 15).
Regular worship, scripture reading and teaching are the foundations of this ministry and for all his actions.
In the synagogue in those days, there were two readings in Hebrew, with a running translation into the vernacular, perhaps in Aramaic or in Greek.
In accordance with Jewish practice, on this particular Saturday, Jesus may have been the third person called on to read, after the priests and the Levites. Indeed, he may even have been further down the list.
The scroll of Isaiah was given to him to read and he returns the scroll when he is finished reading (verse 20).
The portion Christ reads from (verse 18-19) is actually three verses, and they do not come in sequence (Isaiah 61: 1, part of Isaiah 61: 2 and a portion of Isaiah 58: 6). So, even if he had been handed a pre-selected portion of Scripture to read – perhaps following in sequence from two or more previous readers – he makes a deliberate choice to roll back the scroll and to insert a portion of an earlier, extra verse (Isaiah 58: 6).
Christ tells the congregation in the synagogue that morning that the Scripture has been fulfilled in their hearing. Scripture has not been read that morning just to comply with part of the ritual; it actually has immediate meaning, significance and relevance that day. Christ is not merely reading the words, he is promising to see them put into action, to transform hope into reality.
It is as though these verses become his inauguration address or his campaign promises. He sets out his priorities, his hopes, his expectations. He tells those who are listening what is at the heart of everything he does and everything he asks us to do:
• to bring good news to the poor
• to proclaim release to the captives
• to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind
• to let the oppressed go free
• to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
These are the core values of Christ’s ministry and these are the core values shared by the Church, no matter what our differences are today.
We need to respond to the challenge Christ poses in his choice of reading this morning. Who are the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed in our midst today? Compassion for them is at the heart of Christ’s ministry and mission, and is at the very core of why we should be actively working for ecumenism and the unity of the Church.
Those values and those priorities were not reflected in one single sentence in Donald Trump’s inauguration address last Monday, but informed every point in Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s homily in Washington the following day.
The next four years are going to be difficult in the US and throughout the world, for the world’s economy, for the world’s climate, for the world’s poor, marginalised, violated and war-weary. Will they know we are Christians by our love? Who will show them that the priorities of Christians are supposed to be:
• to bring good news to the poor
• to proclaim release to the captives
• to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind
• to let the oppressed go free
• to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 26 January 2025, Epiphany III):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘A Reflection on 2 Timothy’. This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update by the Revd Canon Dr Nicky Chater, Chair of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Friendly Churches and Chaplain for these communities in the Diocese of Durham:
Read 2 Timothy 1: 7
Monday 27 January is the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. We particularly remember the six million Jews deliberately killed. Less well known, at least 500,000 Gypsies and Roma lost their lives; 2-3 August is commemorated as the night the remaining Gypsy and Roma people, over 4,000, were killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Genocide requires fear of people who we identify as different, belief that such people threaten us, and encouragement to unthinkingly act on our beliefs.
We know that God does not want us to act unthinkingly from fear. For example, from 2 Timothy 1:7 ‘God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline’. Gypsy, Roma and Traveller peoples stay marginalised and disadvantaged in all countries and many are Christians with a living faith. In the UK Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Friendly Churches works to challenge negative stereotypes and help church congregations welcome, support and learn from people of these communities.
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Friendly Churches seek to challenge prejudice and work for harmony, understanding and co-operation between communities, churches and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people. There is a wide network of ministers and volunteers working with these communities worldwide.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 26 January 2025, Epiphany III) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:
‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer’ (Psalm 19: 14).
The Collect:
Almighty God,
whose Son revealed in signs and miracles
the wonder of your saving presence:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your mighty power;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Almighty Father,
whose Son our Saviour Jesus Christ is the light of the world:
may your people,
illumined by your word and sacraments,
shine with the radiance of his glory,
that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed
to the ends of the earth;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
God of all mercy,
your Son proclaimed good news to the poor,
release to the captives,
and freedom to the oppressed:
anoint us with your Holy Spirit
and set all your people free
to praise you in Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Jesus Unrolls the Book in the Synagogue (Jésus dans la synagogue déroule le livre), James Tissot (1831-1902), Brooklyn Museum (see Luke 4: 14-21)Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
