‘REJOICE! FOR WE ARE ONE AND FREE!’
I’d like to suggest that there are two things that are significant about today (well there could be many others, but I’ve got two in mind particularly). Does anyone have any thoughts about what the first might be?
Australia Day! Yes! Before we go too much further, I think it’s important to recognise that for some, a day of national celebration can be deeply hurtful. For many Indigenous people Australia Day can be a painful reminder of how their life, culture and freedom as they knew it prior to colonisation was turned upside down, and Aboriginal people experienced violence, discrimination and oppression at the hands of many Europeans who came to settle here. Not everyone who arrived deliberately sought to harm Aboriginal people and some things that took place may have been with the intent of doing good and helping, but it was through white European cultural eyes of knowing better, which invariably entrenched a power imbalance. The forcible removal of children from their families that took place over several decades is just one example.
I’m not going to pretend I know how that feels for those impacted. It’s a part of our national history that we can neither condone nor can change. In recent years debate has ignited about what to do with January 26, but I do believe there are many things about Australia and being Australian that we can be proud of, thank God for, and celebrate. Backyard cricket, sausage sizzles at polling booths, seagulls nicking your chips at the beach. Remember the 1970’s commercial stating real Australians love “Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars”? I certainly love them all! I join with Dorothea Mackellar’s love for our sunburnt country. Some of God’s most amazing creative work is seen in this country. We have some of the most spectacular beaches in the world, beautiful rainforests and incredible geological formations. We are among industry leaders in technology and medicine—in 2021 Australia was ranked third in the world in the number of clinical trials initiated[1]. What we can do today is only possible because of the incredible pioneers who courageously explored those deserts and sweeping plains—who with the miners, engineers and farmers, and all those who brought industry to our shores and laboured so hard under terribly difficult conditions—set the foundation for the life we so often take for granted today. So many brought their Christian faith with them, giving Australia its Christian heritage. Then there are the brave wartime legends through whom God defended our country, like the Anzacs, and all those since, so that we can continue to enjoy our freedom today.
I think that’s the best thing about Australia—the freedom we enjoy. In the words of our national anthem: “Australians all let us rejoice/for we are one and free.” So many people have come to Australia for freedom and opportunity not found elsewhere. The fact that we are able to gather here today and worship openly in freedom without fear of persecution is testimony to that. For so many of our brothers and sisters in Africa, the Middle East and Asian countries, worship literally is a matter of life and death. It was a yearning for freedom that saw the Lutheran Church even begin in Australia, as Lutherans fled Prussia because the King, Friedrich Wilhelm III, decreed that all his subjects must follow the worship book of his making in a unified church, and whoever refused would be persecuted.
“Australians all let us rejoice, for we are one and free!”
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus also speaks of freedom. Luke tells us that Jesus went to his hometown of Nazareth, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling the scroll, Jesus found the place in Isaiah (which in our bibles is Isaiah 61) where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:18-19).
Then Jesus said: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus meant this reading was talking about himself—he was the one God had promised through Isaiah who would bring the oppressed freedom. That was an appealing message, because the people were not free but under the rule of the Romans, whom they loathed. But Jesus—and Isaiah—were not talking about freedom in the sense of an earthly kingdom; not national freedom like we sing of in our national anthem. So what freedom was Jesus speaking of?
Luke tells us that Jesus had returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. He had just come from the wilderness, where the Holy Spirit had led him, to be tempted by the devil, for 40 days. The Devil tempted Jesus to turn stones into loaves of bread to satisfy his hunger. Jesus could have, but he doesn’t just follow the parts of the bible he likes. He answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil promised all the kingdoms of the world to Jesus if Jesus would worship him. But Jesus, whose kingdom is not of this world, said: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” The devil tempted Jesus to jump from the highest point of the Temple, and quoting Psalm 91, tempted him to believe nothing would happen because God will send his angels to miraculously rescue Jesus. But Jesus knew that was taking God’s word out of context, and replied: “It is written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
In the power of the Spirit, Jesus overpowered the devil with a word—his word; his living word. Having exercised authority and power over Satan and so the whole kingdom of darkness, Jesus returns to Galilee, triumphant, having overcome the devil for all people. So the kind of freedom that Jesus was talking about was freedom from sin, death and Satan. In the power of the Spirit, Jesus brought that same freeing power to the people in the Synagogue through his preaching. He tells them: “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners…”
Did you hear that? Jesus doesn’t bring freedom through a physical fight, by using weapons, or even management strategies. He has disarmed the greatest of enemies—those that are actually invincible to us mere mortals: sin, death and the devil—by preaching his word. By his preaching, Jesus revealed himself to the people at the Synagogue in Nazareth that he was the Saviour whom God had promised through Isaiah, who had come bringing all of God’s saving help. He proclaimed freedom to those trapped in sin by preaching the good news of the forgiveness of sins to them. He preached to a people who were spiritually imprisoned, born in bondage to sin and who could not free themselves from sin, death, and the devil, and says, in effect: “You can’t do it but I have done it for you.”
I suggested at the beginning that there are two things particularly that are significant about today. The second is that it is not only Australia Day. It is Sunday—the Lord’s Day, when we gather at the feet of the risen, living Lord Jesus to listen to him again. Jesus may have hidden himself from our sight…but he has not disappeared from us. He is everywhere present. And he is present here in a special way. Peter says he is the great bishop and overseer of our souls (1 Peter 2:25)—Jesus is the great pastor of his church. He is your pastor; the best pastor you have ever had. He is unlike any pastor you have ever had. Do you know why? A pastor has a limited ministry, preaching only during the earthly duration of his life. But the risen, living eternal Jesus is still preaching today. Through his living word, in the power of the Spirit, Jesus preaches these same words to you. He proclaims: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
The word “today” makes this Jesus’ sermon to you here, now. Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing, as Jesus, proclaims good news to us who are poor in spirit; his sermon to us beggars who have no riches by which to pay for God’s favour; no power within ourselves to effect an escape. Jesus says to you today that he has brought you freedom—the forgiveness of all your sins.
On this one day of the year we celebrate all that is good about being Australian. But every Sunday is the Lord’s Day, when we celebrate the freedom we have through faith in Christ. We were once in bondage to sin and death and prisoners in the kingdom of darkness, like those Isaiah first spoke of. But your Heavenly Father so loves you and wants you to have full access to his grace, peace, favour and help that he sent his Son to triumph over Satan, once for all, when he died on the Cross. And he brought this saving help to you through water and the word, when God rescued you from kingdom of darkness and brought you into the kingdom of the Son whom he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). He has anointed you with the Holy Spirit and brought recovery of sight to you so that you have eyes to see him as the Saviour of the world.
Today, and every Lord’s Day, we can celebrate that God has freed us to belong to his kingdom through faith. Every Sunday, the pastor, who is seen, pronounces the forgiveness of sin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, the Great Pastor who is unseen, pronounces that too, bringing peace to your conscience, by his words laden with divine authority and power to do what they say. Then he takes ordinary wafers and wine, and speaks, so that ordinary wafers and wine mysteriously veil his true body and blood that he places in your hands. He says: “Take and eat; this is my body given for you. Take and drink; this is my blood shed for you.” What he gives you is more than a symbol, or a reminder of his sacrifice on the Cross, but the means by which he brings the benefits of his sacrifice to you: strengthening you with his own life, sharing with you his own holiness, giving to you peace that comes from the forgiveness of sins. Then, in the words of the benediction, Jesus our pastor blesses us, bringing divine favour from heaven to you.
In recent years there has been an increasing focus on the need for reconciliation between Australians of indigenous and European backgrounds. As children of God, we could surely affirm that is vital for all people. For we have the privilege and responsibility of participating in a reconciliation with an even greater depth than a social, civic, earthly sense. Jesus has freed us to be his peacemakers with eternal consequences—bringing the Good News of the forgiveness of sins in Christ and his precious blood to whoever we meet, so that people from all cultures might be reconciled to God and each other as his children: Indigenous and European Australians, immigrants from England, India, China, Greece and Italy, people seeking asylum from war torn nations—Israel, Palestine, Africa and Ukraine. Those from within Australia divided by their socio-economic background, life experiences, social clubs and divided families, so that whoever comes to faith in Christ are all equal with the right to be called the children of God.
A good starting place would be being peace-makers, seeking reconciliation, asking for and giving forgiveness amongst ourselves in the congregation. For this is what your Father in heaven wants and the only way hurt from sin can be dealt with in a proper and godly way. And the church is the only place it can truly happen, as the risen Lord Jesus is present wherever two or three are gathered in his name, to ask for, and grant pardon, granted by the Father in Heaven. This is the same pardon; the same forgiveness; the same grace; the same favour; the same love that we ourselves did not deserve but received freely from our Father in heaven through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the best thing to celebrate today—that although we are citizens of Australia, this country is not our true home. Together, we have been freed to be among the citizens of a heavenly homeland, through faith in Christ. He has redeemed us by his precious blood to belong to his family—his family, one and free. Amen.
[1] Source: https://www.abpi.org.uk/facts-figures-and-industry-data/clinical-trials/global-data/global-rankings-number-of-industry-clinical-trials-initiated-in-2021-by-country-by-phase/ last accessed 25/1/25 11:30pm
