Yesterday our great country swore in the 43rd president of these United States and George Walker Bush delivered the 54th Inaugural Address to the nation. You may not know this but every single Inaugural Address from George Washington to George Bush has been preserved. In these speeches presidents have laid out for the country their dreams, goals, and aspirations. I would like you to listen to some excerpts from a few and as I read them I would like you to guess the president that delivered it [When you finish each excerpt read the President as well. Also, you may wish to preach only two or three of the excerpts or shorten all five].
There are five. Here is the first:
. . . it would be . . .improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect . . . No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which [the people] have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency...
George Washington's First Inaugural Address, Thursday, April 30, 1789
*********
Here is the second: My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time . . . In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Abraham Lincoln First Inaugural Address, Monday, March 4, 1861
**********
Now the third: We face our common difficulties [that] concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. I AM certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, Saturday, March 4, 1933. These two paragraphs are in the opening of the speech but have been inverted here for effect.
**********
Here is the fourth:
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Friday, January 20, 1961
**********
The fifth:
Now, for decades, we and the Soviets have lived under the threat of mutual assured destruction; if either resorted to the use of nuclear weapons, the other could retaliate and destroy the one who had started it. Is there either logic or morality in [this]?
I have approved a research program to find, if we can, a security shield that would destroy nuclear missiles before they reach their target. It wouldn't kill people, it would destroy weapons. It wouldn't militarize space, it would help demilitarize the arsenals of Earth. It would render nuclear weapons obsolete.
Ronald Reagan, Second Inaugural Address, Monday, January 21, 1985
***********
No doubt you were able to identify several of the presidents by the historical references or by the famous lines and while all of these Inaugural Addresses are moving and inspiring and worthy of remembrance I want you now to listen to an Inaugural Address delivered not to a Nation but to Nazareth; not in America but in Synagogue; and delivered not by a man elected by the power of the people but endued with the power of the Spirit. Would you please stand as we read from the 4th Chapter of the Gospel of Luke.
[read Luke 4:14-21]
It is one thing to inaugurate a president. It is another to do as Jesus has done and inaugurate a new age. That is a difference that cannot be ignored. The presidents throughout the decades have attempted to find answers to life's perplexities. Jesus, on the other hand, when he rolls up the scroll of Isaiah, gives it to the attendant, and sits down among them and says, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing," he asserts that HE is the answer. This morning I would like to take a brief look at Jesus' Inaugural Address and the goals of his ministry.
1. First goal is to preach good news to the poor
As you well know there is not an abundance of good news in this world. Oh, I suppose for members of the optimist club there is happiness found under every leaf that is turned. But I have never been a member of that club nor do I think I ever will. Jesus said it best, “In this life you will have tribulation.” And just before his crucifixion he said, “The poor you will always have with you.” Not exactly mottos for positive thinkers.
Least I sound defeated, let me tell, I am not. I believe in an Eternal hope embodied in the life of Christ and carried out in his public ministry. If there is a well spring of good news today it comes from Nazareth where, long ago, a Nazarene stood up and preached good news to the poor.
Noelene Martin, a Franciscan monk in Australia, learned this the hard way, when he was assigned to be the guide and "gofer" to Mother Teresa when she visited New South Wales.
Thrilled and excited at the prospect of being so close to this great woman, he dreamed of how much he would learn from her and what they would talk about. But during her visit, he became frustrated. Although he was constantly near her, the friar never had the opportunity to say one word to Mother Teresa. There were always other people for her to meet.
Finally, her tour was over, and she was due to fly to New Guinea. In desperation, the Franciscan friar spoke to Mother Teresa: If I pay my own fare to New Guinea, can I sit next to you on the plane so I can talk to you and learn from you?
Mother Teresa looked at him. You have enough money to pay airfare to New Guinea? she asked.
Yes, he replied eagerly.
“Then give that money to the poor,” she said. “You'll learn more from that than anything I can tell you.”
Mother Teresa understood that Jesus’ ministry was to the poor and she made it hers as well. She knew that they more than anyone else needed good news.
2. The third goal is the recovery of sight for the Blind
I believe this to be the most daunting task of Jesus’ ministry. I remember a story about a Neurologist, Dr. Oliver Sack, who was able to give site back to a 50 year old man named Virgil. His first experiences with sight were confusing. He was able to make out colors and movements, but arranging them into a coherent picture was more difficult. Over time he learned to identify various objects, but his habits--his behaviors--remained those of a blind man.
How many times did this occur in the ministry of Jesus? Miracles are performed or a lesson is given and only one of ten returns to give thanks and only a few listen and do as they are taught. Dr. Sacks found out that having the physical capacity for sight is not the same as seeing. I believe that. And I am convinced that in his Inaugural Address, Jesus' goal is not to perform miracles on men who cannot see; but to open the mind of those who do not believe. It is the mind’s eye that he intends to open!
A young boy of 9 was sitting in his father's workshop watching his dad work on a harness. "Someday Father," said Louis, "I want to be a harness-maker, just like you." "Why not start now?" said the father. He took a piece of leather and drew a design on it. "Now" he said, "take the hole-punch and hammer out this design, but be careful that you don't hit your hand." Excited, the boy began to work, but when he hit the hole-punch, it flew out of his hand and pierced his eye! He lost his sight in that eye. Later, as fate would have it, sight in the other eye failed. Louis was now totally blind. A few years later, Louis was sitting in the family garden when a friend handed him a pine cone. As he ran his sensitive fingers over the cone, an idea came to him. He became enthusiastic and began to create an alphabet of raised dots on paper so that the blind could feel and interpret. Thus, Louis Braille in 1818 opened up a whole new world for the blind.
What is it that Jesus intends to do during his three years of ministry? It is this: To open up a whole new world for you and for me. To bring us out of our poverty that has long held us down and to recover site that you and I have long since lost.
3. And the third goal is to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and release of the oppressed.
No greater image of oppression and captivity exist today than that of World War II's Nazi concentration camps. Elie Wiesel, a teenager then, witnessed the death of many family members. He recalls the day when he, as well as the other prisoners, were finally liberated from Auschwitz by the allies. On that day powerful, strong soldiers broke down the fences of the concentration camp to release the prisoners. Frail, feeble, gaunt, and near death they were terrible victims of a horrible criminal evil.
In spite of his condition Wiesel remembers one solider, a strong black man who upon seeing the horror of human suffering was overcome with grief. He fell to his knees sobbing in a mix of disbelief and sorrow. The captives, now liberated, walked over to the soldier, put their arms around him, and offered comfort to him. I can't help but wonder what it is that Jesus saw on that day he began his ministry. Looking out at those gathered in the synagogue, just as I am looking out at you this morning, as near as I can figure, he saw the same thing that strong black soldier saw: Terrible victims of a horrible criminal evil. Now this is no complement! Listen to his words: 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. We don't like to think of ourselves as victims of sin. But evil, in a manner of speaking, has had its own way with us and when Jesus arrived on the scene ready to liberate us prisoners I am sure he was over come with grief.
The good news is that our Allie has Arrived, we prisoners have been set, and darkness is given way to the light of day! Amen.