I doubt that they would ever have the courage, but Christian fundamentalists, Biblical literalists, should say that Jesus closed the book too soon, that morning in that synagogue. He cut off Isaiah. He edited him. I am thrilled that he did. And grateful beyond description. What Jesus read out, as Isaiah Chapter 61, verse 2, is not Isaiah, Chapter 61, verse 2, but only part of it. He read verse 2 as "He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Isaiah wrote verse 2 as "He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. ... and the day of vengeance of our God." That last bit, that threatening bit, that nasty bit, Jesus, plain and simple, ignored. That was no accident. Yes, Jesus was without sin, and without error. When he corrects Isaiah, Isaiah is corrected, when he changes Isaiah, Isaiah is forever changed for all Christians. Jesus eliminated the reference to the vengeance of God, and let the prophetic quotation, that ancient prediction of Jesus' own ministry, and Jesus' announcement then and there of that ministry that he now begins as being sent to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, to proclaim release, recovery, liberty, acceptance. Vengeance is no more. Not for those in the synagogue that morning, not for us in this church today. There is still and always an "acceptable year" there is no longer or ever again a "day of vengeance". Jesus, without sin or error, declares that the vengeance of God is the worry of old, and the assumption of humans, even great prophets. It is not the truth and the message of the Messiah. What a relief. What a release. What a recovery. We have all been set at liberty. The "blessed liberty of the children of God", the "freedom with which Christ has set us free", in St. Paul's ringing words. Every Sunday we celebrate this, count on this, base our worship on this, as we base our hope and trust and faith and lives on this. But today, this Sunday, we also share together the further celebration of one specific day of favor and grace in the unfolding acceptable years of our Lord. This is the anniversary, the 30th anniversary of Fr. DeRijk's ordination. Those of us who were here five years ago, remember the 25th, the silver anniversary. This is now, can you believe it, the 30th, the Pearl Anniversary. Pearls don't have the shining splendor and glitter of silver, but a rich lovely luster, and even greater worth--as with that "pearl of great price" that the Gospel merchant sought endlessly. A special day and anniversary shining with its own quiet luster. It does, we all hope, bring to Fr D happy and grateful memories of that day in the past that has so shaped and defined his present and all those years in between. It cannot help but put us all in mind of how anniversaries, dates of importance and significance recall us to moments of our histories individually or together, in families or in churches. Dates of lasting significance and undimmed importance, despite the passage of years and years. All of those acceptable years of the Lord, when we may have rejoiced in release and recovery or perhaps were saddened by fears about an apparent Day of Vengeance of our own imagining. I hope I have not gotten so trendy that I quote sayings printed on Starbucks coffee-cups too often, or maybe it's just that I had one latte too many this week, but I did notice, and noticed enough to memorize, one paper-cup-quote this past week--Jazz musician David Grusin (you see it gets even worse, even trendier) was quoted on my cup as saying: "In my career, I've found that thinking outside the box works best if I know what's inside the box. In music, as in life we need to understand our pertinent history ... moving forward is so much easier if we know just where we've been." Kidding aside, that is a wise and wonderful insight, and well-put. I believe that in the Church, in our faith, we too, need to understand our pertinent history in order to move forward. We must never lose or forget what's inside the box the precious box of that repository of our faith, once delivered to the saints. This is a special Sunday, on which we commemorate and give thanks for Fr. DeRijk's priesthood on this the 30th anniversary of his ordination and we do this all in this our 50th year as a parish. And yet each and every Sunday we call members of our parish family forward to acknowledge their birthdays and anniversaries and pray for them and with them as they commemorate their own pertinent history. The eagle-eyed will see that in the Prayer Book, the Canon the Mass, that Prayer of Consecration which Fr. D will soon offer on our behalf, by virtue of his priesthood, is titled The Great Thanksgiving. Less well known doubtless, is the ancient Greek word and concept describing this prayer--the Anamnesis, the Great Remembering, if you will. The opposite of amnesia--the great forgetting. We remember and recall, and Fr D will actually recite on our behalf, the very words Jesus himself said on that night nearly 2000 years ago when he ate his Last Supper with his disciples and began our first Mass. This is anamnesis of our pertinent history. That history must be remembered, recalled, well known if we are to move forward in faith and courage in hope and confidence, in sure and certain knowledge of the Resurrection, and in the reasonable and holy hope of everlasting life. More immediately, and more locally, we need to remember and treasure and safeguard this pertinent history if we are to continue on faithfully beyond the fifty years we have fulfilled here at St. Mary's and add to that great witness and share that vision with a world so out of the box that they remember little and can depend on nothing. Thinking outside the box may be what we must do without fear or embarrassment if we are to present the vision and the invitation and offer it anew and in compelling ways for a new generation much different from ours or the ones before us, those who so faithfully and wonderfully brought us to this place. But we must do all of this remembering and honoring what is inside the box, our pertinent history. Days like this when we openly and deliberately and intentionally celebrate a moment of anniversary, an intentional recollection of a past day or time, and all in this on-going Jubilee Year of celebration and re-dedication, let us take our Bibles and Prayer Books in hand and recommit ourselves to re-connect with the great treasure inside the box, the heritage of our faith. Birthdays, baptisms, confirmations, ordinations, weddings, foundations of parishes--all important days in the acceptable years of the Lord, in our pertinent history and in our own lives, lived in our Lord's faith and favor, free of the fear of vengeance.