|
Two phone stories that remind us of the importance of Call in Jesus’
life and in our lives: A woman meant to call a record store but dialed the
wrong number and got a private home instead. “Do you have ‘Eyes of Blue’ and
‘A Love Supreme’?” she asked. “Well, no,” answered the puzzled home-owner.
“But I have got a wife and 11 children.” “Is that a record?” she inquired.
“I don’t think so,” replied the man, “but it’s as close as I want to get.”
A college student joins a big corporate empire as a Summer Intern. On his
very first day of work, he dials the pantry and shouts into the phone,
“Get me a coffee, quickly!” The voice from the other side responded, “You
fool you’ve dialed the wrong extension! Do you know who you’re talking to,
dumbo?” “No” replied the Intern. “I’m the CEO of the company, you fool!”
The Intern shouts back, “And do YOU know who YOU are talking to, you fool?!”
“No,” replied the CEO indignantly. “Good!” replied the Intern, and puts
down the phone.
One important element of fulfilling God’s call used by Jesus was preaching.
The telling and proclaiming of the Word of God was key in Jesus’ ministry.
In all sorts of ways, in all sorts of situations,
Jesus preached. On the
highway, from a boat, picking up themes from the older Testament, using
images and stories, to groups big and small, to the disciples, among the
crowds, in the Temple, in the market-place and as we ponder again today, in
the local synagogues each Sabbath.
Our
passage
today in Luke describes Jesus’ first sermon and we can hear that
Jesus breaks all the rules for good preaching. From day one, first sermon,
Jesus goes on the attack. Instead of telling a corny joke, or offering some
personal quip to win the hearts of the hearers, or some captivating story or
pertinent piece of poetry, Jesus gets in their faces! This is the first
record of a sermon by Jesus and in it He antagonizes all of those who
listen, assaulting them all with a message from God that was hard to hear.
As we may recall from last week, things had been going pretty well for Jesus
amid the hometown crowd. Things were A-Okay
at Nazareth Synagogue, which had recently identified itself as a
purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive community.
But then Jesus opened His mouth and bedlam ensued.
What was Jesus thinking?
On this Opening Day, with all the bunting in place and a large, eager,
expectant crowd on hand day, including his own family, in His first sermon,
Jesus throws the book at the congregation, hitting them right between the
eyes. We preachers are a sorry bunch at times but no wonder. You see
sometimes, most often, your Pastors love you in
the name of Christ, believing, hoping, enduring just about everything with
you. But then, sometimes
we have to love you by throwing the Book at you, just as Jesus did.
For Jesus, and for all preachers in the Church,
proclamation of whatever style has the goal of inviting listeners
- you and me and you again - to “abandon the
script” that up to this time has given our lives purpose and meaning, and to
offer and suggest, proclaim and explain imaginatively, and gently, and
not-so-gently, a new story. A
different script, that when we adopt it, will
change our lives. Such preaching is akin to surgery. Few of us approach
surgery very willingly, even when it becomes clear that it is what we need.
But what a difference that new knee or new hip or
re-attached retina or removed cataract makes in our life.
Embracing God’s story will be a challenge.
It will involve some pain.
It will disturb our existence.
But you wouldn’t want to miss it
... that is why you are here today!
It was this act of offering the good people of Nazareth a new script, a new
story to shape and guide their lives, that turned what had been a prideful
homecoming into a riot!
The particular words of Jesus that saw this community’s pride in their
hometown boy turn so ugly so quickly were words about God, words of grace,
love, welcome, hospitality and acceptance. Jesus offered this new story very
gently, relating the truth that the news of God’s deliverance was not to be
restricted only to Israel,
but was to be extended to all people. I think we
can agree that the Nazarenes were impressed, very impressed with the way
Jesus talks, the winsome words coming from his mouth. As such,
they are fit to burst and to scream and to generally show their appreciation
for Mary’s boy, Joseph’s son, taking a smidgen of pride that they helped
raise this young un - but they are very far from receiving, accepting, and
acting on the story Jesus offers them.
Dogonit Jesus is telling fun stories, good
stories, faith stories, but not about us or His own People
- instead Jesus is
highlighting the role of non-believers.
Jesus is making heroes out of Gentiles, friends out of enemies, neighbors
outta furiners, first violinists out of banjo players, insiders out of
outsiders. In telling these stories, it is as if Jesus actually brings into
his hometown synagogue that widow from Zarephath and Namaan the Syrian.
And
that is a scandal! Jesus brings the unknown, unimaginable, unwanted,
unkempt, unwashed, untouchable into the very midst of this community, and it
is a scandal! A scandal, all the more, because it is one of their own who is
doing this to them, who is stabbing them in the back, who is exposing how
much they have not understood about their own faith, how far they have to go
to put things right. It is the boy from down the street, across the road,
round the corner who presents what they would rather avoid, it is their
neighbor’s boy who offers them a mirror in which they can see their
disfigured, diminished, dulled, debilitated faith.
This explains the great force that lies in their query: “Is not this
Joseph’s son? Jesus is no special person; he has no unusual lineage; he’s
just one of us, and since this is so, just who the *%@# does He think He is?
What entitles him to make such brash claims?" In Nazareth that day
familiarity indeed bred contempt, deep contempt, so much so that there was a
chance that this would Jesus’ first and last sermon.
It won’t be Jesus’ last sermon, but at least for a time it was a close run
thing! Nor will it be the last time Jesus extends the Good News of God’s
love to the stranger and foreigner - a very common theme in Luke’s Gospel.
Time and again, Jesus’ parables will lift up the ugly outsiders, the greedy
tax collectors, the hated Samaritans. Time and again, the image of a party
an or a celebration is used to stress and imply God’s welcome not for the
faithful but for the prodigal. The parable of the Great Dinner declares that
all those invited to the dinner, the insiders, the people of Israel, will
stay away because they think they are too busy or too preoccupied to attend.
Instead the host invites those in the streets and lanes, the poor, the
crippled, the blind, the lame, all outsiders,
and the feast of God begins and
the feast of God continues, even today.
All of us desirous of welcoming Jesus into our church, into our lives, into
our community should learn a mighty lesson from Jesus’ visit to Nazareth:
The God who is really God is not ours alone.
God does not belong to us, we
belong to God. A parochial God is not God; God’s revelation in Christ is to
everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike. If we are intolerant of others,
of different churches or different faiths, we would merely repeat the rage
of the Nazarenes in driving Jesus out of town. My friends, if we cannot
accept that God’s goodness and saving grace is offered to all, it will
become impossible for us to receive this grace for ourselves.
Why do we not accept the prophet when we see them or hear him or her? Why do
we drive the prophet from their and our home? We do so because we have
allowed the everyday story with which we are surrounded and in which we are
so immersed to control and define our lives. And even when we might seek
something different, we would rather escape through entertainment, or be
dazzled by impressions, or fads, or works of wonder, or the far out, than
consider the very simple, yet much-needed truth that is right here under our
feet: The truth that God loves the whole world in Jesus Christ, and that
God has something for each of us to do and to be in response!
Thinking we know who we are, where we are and what we need, we ignore God’s
saving presence; thinking we understand the true message of Jesus, a message
with which we have reduced to what suits us and with which we have become all
together too cozy and comfortable.
We are able to maintain our distance from
God, for God’s purposes, for our neighbors, from those in need.
Heck, we
even keep our distance from one another in the church. And then, it gets
worse because Jesus comes to us as a prophet and points out that foreigners
are more acceptable to God than we are - and we get furious. When Jesus
criticizes our own blindness and our inability to see God all around us, we get
angry. We reject the One who speaks with authority, even though we recognize
Jesus as One who tells us the truth and embodies the truth.
God, the Divine Lover, never stops seeking all of us. Remember that little
saying: If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it!
Well, its
true!
God sings an eternal love song. God keeps on coming to all of us,
offering meaning and purpose and restoration. God sends us flowers, gives us
chocolate, takes us out to dinner, listens to our moans and groans, our
worries and problems. God bears our pain
and endures our whining. God only
occasionally punches us in the back when we are snoring. God leaves signs
and messages to assure us that we are loved, God pours out the divine heart,
in love for all, for us, for you, for me.
God’s love invites us to riot, not in fear or rejection, but
in a riot of
compassion and welcome and prayer and care - hustling to show and share
God’s love as Jesus did. “Most likely …. to change the world”
Yep, that
could be Jesus. But in a
final twist that other description of Jesus that we started with last week
will also be fulfilled,
“Most likely…. to work with wood!” Amen. |
