By Pastor Norma Malfatti
Are you looking for a savior?
Many have been labeled saviors over the years, especially when it comes to politicians. For instance, then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008 joked, “Contrary to the rumors you have heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the Planet Earth.” (See the transcript of Sen. Obama’s remarks at the Alfred E. Smith Dinner.) All joking aside, President Obama was not the savior people were looking for.
Eight years later, people went to the polls thinking Donald Trump was the one who could save us and make our lives – and our country – better. Despite their hopes, President Trump has not been the savior people were looking for.
This week, Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States. To be sure, some of the 81 million people who voted for him believe that he will save us from the Coronavirus and the unemployment crisis that is crushing people. As with his predecessors, President Biden will not be the savior people are looking for.
AS MUCH AS WE might hope that a politician, tech innovator, or scientist will free us from pain and suffering, will be the force that eradicates racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and all the other injustices that plague our world, none of them are going to live up to the task or title of savior. For us, as Christians, we reserve that honor for only one. This past weekend, many congregations read in worship services one of two passages – Jesus’ inaugural address in Luke 4:14-30 or the calling of Philip and Nathanael in John 1:43-51.
Rather than recognizing Jesus as the promised Messiah the townspeople in Luke wanted to toss Jesus off a cliff after preaching what the Savior was about: bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming release to those in captivity, freeing the oppressed, and declaring the year of the Lord’s favor. Nathanael was less violent and only judgingly wondered if “anything good can come out of Nazareth.” That is not the expected reaction to the one they should recognize as the Savior they were looking for.
“The season of Epiphany has always been a time of resetting my expectations of God and our relationship.”
Even John the Baptist wondered if Jesus was the one he was waiting for. To me, this shows just how easy it is to conflate God’s ways with our own expectations for God, especially in a season of deeply longing for a savior.
More than Lent, the season of Epiphany has always been a time of resetting my expectations of God and our relationship. Perhaps it is because the Gospel readings are about revealing who Jesus is and what the way of Jesus is about. Perhaps it is simply because it coincides with a new year. More than likely it is a little bit of both.
I invite you to join me over these next few weeks in resetting your expectations of God, of reconnecting with the ways of Jesus and letting go of what you might be substituting for Jesus’ ways. However you spend the rest of this Epiphany season, I pray that the ways of the Savior are revealed in your life.