Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year C

In filmmaking there is a technique known as the Hitchcock effect, in which the camera zooms out on a subject at the same time that it moves closer on a rail. The visual effect is that the subject always remains in focus, while the background changes. The story-telling effect is that it forces the audience's attention onto a particular plot point or realisation.

At the beginning of Luke's account of the Gospel we hear the story of Jesus' nativity, in which he is acclaimed by heaven as the saviour of the world.

Next we hear the account of Jesus' presentation in the Temple in Jerusalem - to the Jewish community the dwelling place of God on earth. In this story the prophet Simeon again acclaims Jesus as the consolation and salvation of Israel.

And then in this Sunday's Gospel we see Jesus the man stand up in the synagogue in Nazareth, among His own community, and announce Himself. "He has sent me to bring the Good News!"

From the hosts of heaven, to the prophet and the Temple of Israel, to His own voice and hometown crowd. Long before Hitchcock, Luke is forcing our attention from big idea of the salvation of the world, to the person of Jesus. And having selected the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, Jesus puts the exclamation point on the story

I have been anointed and God's promise is being fulfilled.

It's real. And it's now!

The longer version of the story tells how the people of Nazareth are disturbed by how bold Jesus is being - referring to himself as the fulfilment of the scriptures. It tells us that they reacted viscerally, violently and ultimately, ineffectually, as they herded Jesus out of the synagogue and out of town and tried to cast him from a cliff.

But in this Sunday's reading of the story we stop at the point where Jesus sits down and tells them 'this text is being fulfilled today, even as you hear it.'

We are left to form our own response. And as I hear the Gospel again this time around it is the immediacy of this last line that stands out to me. The Good News is not a plan to be implemented over time. It is meant to happen today.

One of my favourite songs of the last 25 years is Heather Small's Proud. It's lyrics ask, 'What have you done today to make you feel proud?' And hearing Jesus words again, that refrain rings out in my mind.

What have I done today to proclaim the favour of the Lord - to make God's love real and present to others today?

I'll be honest, there are days when I don't know if I could answer that question. But in the song the words 'What have you done today to make you feel proud?' are followed by the words 'It's never too late to try.'

Maybe that's why we hear the Gospel being proclaimed over and over again, year after year. So that we can hear again the call and the challenge of our baptism, and try, try again.

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