Category Archives: 1 Corinthians

My Sermon: Narrow-Mindedness Leads to Constricted Hearts

Posted by —

5

This sermon is based on the following scripture passages: 

Jeremiah 1:4-10
The word of the LORD came to me saying,
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations."

Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD!
Truly I do not know how to speak,
for I am only a boy."

But the LORD said to me,
"Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’;
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you,
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
says the LORD."

Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me,
"Now I have put my words in your mouth.
See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant."

1 Corinthians 13:1-13
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Luke 4:21-30
In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and began to say, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph’s son?"

He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."

When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

—–

Let me state some obvious facts that need to be restated from time to time.
One, God is not a card-carrying member of the Republican Party.
Two, Jesus does not belong to or work for the Democrats.
Three, the Holy Spirit is not a Tea-Partier, a Libertarian, or affiliated with any other political movement.
Let me go even further in stating what should be obvious:
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not citizens of these United States.
And all of these things are true even if the Republican, Democrats or other parties and movements would like to lay claim to the divine presence.
And though we may print “In God we trust” on our currency,
and though there are many who confuse the priorities of our nation with the mind and purpose of God,
God is not confined to any nationality or people.

I bring this up because I believe that people can be very parochial,
and I don’t mean Catholic school system parochial either.
You see, parochial come from the Late Latin word parochialis.
Dating back to the 14th century, it did originally refer to a church parish,
but later it defined a unit of local government,
and then, finally, it came to mean “confined or restricted as if within the borders of a parish: limited in range or scope,”
and even “a person of local or restricted interests or outlook.”
That’s what I mean when I say this morning that people can be very parochial

I remember that, when I was in High School, the state of Kentucky,
issued new license plates for cars.
They were beautiful things . . .  with an outline of the state,
the imprint of a running horse and its foal,
and the twin spires of Churchill Downs for a top border.,
There was just one problem.
For the first time in as long as people could remember,
the plates left off the county names.
You see, people in Kentucky are quite proud of where they are from,
and this includes the counties they live in.
Kentucky has 120 counties, second most of any state in the U.S.,
and its good folk like to show where they’re from on the cars they drive.

To say this caused a brouhaha would be putting it mildly.
In just a matter of days legislators were inundated with calls and letters,
and in about a week the state began issuing stickers with county names that people could apply to their licenses.
And you know what?
Everybody did just that. 
I can’t remember seeing a single car without the county name on it after the stickers were mailed out.
And while on one hand this was all about pride of place,
on the other hand it was little more than sheer parochialism.
After all, one of the reasons people liked the county name on the license plate was so they could tell where other people were from.
You knew immediately if someone was from out of the area.
You knew right away whether or not someone belonged.
In a sense, you knew if a person was one of your people or not.
All that, just by looking at their license plate as they drove down the road.

Of course, parochialism is nothing new.
Narrow mindedness and prejudice has been part of the human race ever since Cain was exiled from his homeland for killing his brother Abel.
You probably remember, for instance, that one of our readings for last week was from Nehemiah.
The passage we heard described how the people,
newly returned to their homes after years of exile in a foreign land,
listened to and took the words of the law to heart as they were read to them.
It is a beautiful passage in many ways.
In it we see the power of God’s word,
and how it can reach out and touch those who hear it.
But all was not a bed of roses for the people of Judah upon the exiles’ return.

A little study of both Ezra and Nehemiah shows us that those who returned home had more than a little bit of a superiority complex when it came to how they treated those who had been left behind for all those years.
In fact, the exiles were deeply suspicious of them,
and ultimately Ezra, their religious leader,
issued a decree that he hoped would set some things right.
You see, many of the people who had been left behind during the time of the exile had begun to mingle with people from some of the surrounding nations.
Eventually some of them actually married foreign wives from Edom or Moab or elsewhere.
This did not set well with Ezra and others who had returned home.
They saw this as a dangerous practice.
They felt that being chosen by God meant that the Jews should keep their race and nation pure,
and so, shortly after the Temple was rebuilt,
Ezra ordered all the Jews who had foreign wives to divorce them and send them back to their former homelands.

Imagine the turmoil that this decree caused.
One wonders how many families and homes were destroyed because of this narrow-minded view.
How many lives were shattered because the religious leaders believed that this was what God wanted for his people?

And is that what God wanted?
Let’s look at scriptures for today for a answer to this question.
For instance, when the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in our first reading, what did God say to him?
Did he say, “I am going to make you a prophet to Judah?”
Did he say, “Look, I want you to only prophesy to my chosen people?”
No, this is what Jeremiah records:
The word of the LORD came to me saying,
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I consecrated you;
and I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
To the nations . . . to all people. . . not just to some.

Even the idea of being chosen,
which goes all the way back to Abraham,
has, at it’s core, that the descendants of Abraham, the Jewish people,
were chosen for a purpose far greater than just their own good fortune.
As God told Abraham: 
“I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation.
You will become famous and be a blessing to others. . .
and all the families on the earth will be blessed because of you.
(Gen 12:1-3)

All the families on the earth will be blessed because of you.
What a wonderful purpose and mission!
And yet this grand purpose was often forgotten over the ensuing centuries.
This truth may be what prompts Jesus to say the things he says in the synagogue at Nazareth.
If you remember the gospel from last week,
you’ll recall that it ended on a high note.
Jesus has come to his hometown, goes to church, so to speak,
and is asked to read the scripture and preach a short sermon.
When he is finished,
everyone there is amazed at and pleased with what he has said.
As Luke records it: 
“And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.”
But then Luke adds: “And they said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’"

It’s almost as if they cannot believe that Joseph’s boy could be capable of doing and saying what Jesus did and said.
Everyone there, after all, knew all about Mary’s unexpected pregnancy before her marriage to Joseph. 
To them, Jesus was probably little more than an illegitimate son.
And we all know the word that is used to name an illegitimate boy, don’t we?
Their amazement at and pride of Jesus is mixed with more than a little prejudice,
and perhaps that explains what Jesus says next:
“Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’
And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’
Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.
But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah,
when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,
and there was a severe famine over all the land;
yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha,
and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."

What Jesus does here is to confront head-on their prejudices and narrow-mindedness.
He tells them that God has no use for their parochial attitudes,
and that God’s love and care is bigger than their tiny, constricted hearts.
He does this by picking out two foreigners, two non-Jews, from the Old Testament that received God’s favor over or instead of those who were “God’s Chosen People.”
Needless to say, this made the people in church that day very angry.
None of us like to have our prejudices exposed.
None of us like to have someone call us narrow-minded.
And yet, this is exactly what Jesus did.
It made the good church members so mad that they, in Luke’s words,
“got up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built,
so that they might hurl him off the cliff”

Now that is angry.
Thank God I have never preached such an inflammatory sermon myself.
I doubt that I could get away from an angry mob as easily as Jesus did.

But you see, don’t you, what Jesus is doing here?
He is doing something that has been described as the prophet’s and preacher’s job throughout the centuries:
comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.
Jesus is challenging them to remember why they were chosen in the first place.
He is trying to get them to see that God is bigger and better than their image of the divine.
That God is not just a reflection of what they think and believe.
God is not a Jew.  He is not Israelite. 
Further, God is not a Pharisee, nor a Sadducee . . . not even a Scribe.
God is above and beyond all those labels and human distinctions,
and God calls his children to be above them too.

And lest we think this problem of narrow minds and constricted hearts ended with the advent of the Church,
Paul shows us in his letter to Corinth that this isn’t the case.
All through Corinthians Paul has written about the things that have divided the church, divisions that threaten to destroy the very body of Christ in Corinth.
In chapter one he points out that just because a particular Christian was baptized by Apollo or Peter or some other church leader doesn’t make that person better than those who were baptized by somebody else.
As he says,
It has been reported to me that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ."
Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you?
Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1Co 1:10-13)

Paul then goes on to address the fact that some Christians in Corinth think themselves better than other Christians because of their wisdom and knowledge.           
Paul also confronts those Christian men who think themselves better than others because they have been circumcised.
Still other believers are chastised because consider themselves above the newer Christians because they have rejected the religious laws of Judaism,
In effect, they ridicule those who still follow the law,
and in their “freedom” they cause some of their weaker brothers and sisters in the faith to stumble,
Even the celebration of the Lord’s Supper has become an opportunity for those who have in the church to lord it over those who do not.
And that finally brings Paul to a discussion of spiritual gifts.
And again, some Corinthians seem to have a knack for finding a way to look down their spiritual noses at those who don’t have the same gifts they possess.
I speak in tongues and prophesy, says one Christian,
so I am better or more spiritual than you.
Another counters, “Yeah, well I can heal people, so I am better than you.”
And on and on it went.

By this time, I would be ready to wring a few necks,
but Paul is better at dealing with this type of thing than I am:
He tells the Corinthians that they are all part of the body of Christ,
that none of them are better than the others,
and that each of them have been given a gift or gifts,
not for their own good or spiritual pride,
but for the good of the body.
He then tells them that the real problem is their narrow minds have led them to have constricted hearts,
although he puts it in a different way:
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts,
and I will show you a still more excellent way. (1Co 12:27-31)

And what is that more excellent way?
And what is also the cure for narrow-mindedness and hearts that are three or four or five times too small?
It is the way of love, of course.
And this is what Paul writes about in today’s epistle reading.
I close my message with my own paraphrase of text.

If I speak with great eloquence, conviction and beauty, but do so without love, my words are little more than bombastic bellowing or a grating noise.
And though I have the power to speak for God and understand every mystery and comprehend all knowledge, and if I have all the faith that could move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

And though I give away everything I possess, and even if I offer my own body as a sacrifice to the flames of fire, but have not love, I have gained nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy, love is not arrogant or proud. It does not act unseemly; it is not self-seeking, not easily provoked, and does not dwell on evil. It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, has faith in all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

As for prophecies, they will vanish away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it too will end. For now we know in part and prophesy in part, but when all is brought to completion, then all that is partial will pass away.

When I was I child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I put away childish ways. For now we see as in a mirror darkened and distorted, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know even as I am fully known.

And so it is that faith, hope and love live and dwell within us, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Posted by —

0

Some notes on the paraphrase: 

This passage of scripture relies heavily on the repetition of two words: diversities (sometimes translated as “varieties,” and it is found three times in eleven verses) and same ( which is, at times, translated as one).  “Same” is used  You can see my preferences in the paraphrase below.

—–

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of works, but it is the same God who empowers all of them in everyone. Each person is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the good of all. To one is given, through the Spirit, the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit,  The same Spirit gives to another faith, and  to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit.  Another is given the power to work miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to discern spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who distributes to each person individually, just as the Spirit wills.

Reflections on the Lectionary – Epiphany 5B

Posted by —

0

Today in Bible study we looked at the following scriptures for this coming Sunday.

Scripture Reading:  Isaiah 40:21-31

Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23

If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

Scripture Reading: Mark 1:29-39

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

In looking for connections between the passages, we discovered the following:

  • There is a connection between Isaiah’s call to “wait upon the Lord” and Mark’s pointing out that Jesus spent much time in prayer.  Jesus “went out to a deserted placed, and there he prayed.”  All of the gospels make the point what whenever Jesus needed his spiritual batteries recharged or needed to discern the direction God wanted him to take, he would go and spend time in prayer, usually away from others.  Prayer as “waiting upon the Lord” is an essential discipline for all Christians.
  • There also appears to be a connection between Paul’s “I have become all things to all people, that I might save some” and Jesus’ desire to leave Capernaum and go into the neighboring towns and villages to proclaim the message.  The gospel message is everything, to Jesus and to Paul.  There is nothing more important than sharing the good news, and if that means Jesus leaving an area that may have been home to him for some time or Paul’s doing whatever is necessary for him in order to share the good news, then so be it. 

We also discussed the idea of boasting as Paul presents it.  Some have seen Paul’s statements about boasting as being a little self-serving, as though he has much to be proud of.  I instead see his statements throughout the book of Corinthians and his other writings and trying to downplay the place of pride and accomplishments in the Christian life.  The church at Corinth has many Christians who look down their spiritual noses at others in the community. They are making their own spiritual gifts and spiritual heritage more important than others’ gifts and heritage, and Paul wants none of that in the church.  Pride and boasting is divisive in the Christian community.  And he will use himself as an illustration of this by saying things like “If anyone has a reason to boast, well I have even more reason to do so.”  So  . . . do not think yourselves better than others because I do not think such things myself.

The first part of the Isaiah reading stresses the power and might of God.  “To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.”  The second half of the reading is often used at funeral and memorial services, and makes the point that God, in all his power and might, is willing to help and strengthen those in need.

“Love and the Prophet,” or “Killing the Messenger” – A Sermon for Epiphany 4C

Posted by —

0

Here is my offering for Sunday, January 28, 2006.  It is based on the readings from 1 Corinthians 13 and Luke 4:21-30.  My paraphrase of these scriptures is as follows:

———-

1 Corinthians 13

Though I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but have not love, I am a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have prophetic powers and understand every mystery and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I give away all I possess, and though I surrender my body to be burned,but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind. Love envies not, love is not arrogant or proud. It does not act unseemly; it is not self-seeking, not easily provoked, and does not dwell on evil. It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, has faith in all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. As for prophecies, they will vanish away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to nought. For we know in part and prophesy in part, but when the complete comes, then that which is partial will pass away.

When I was I child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I put away childish ways. For now we see in a mirror obscured, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know even as I am fully known.

And now abide faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

———-

Luke 4:21-30

And [Jesus] began speaking to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled even as you heard it read.”

And all spoke well of him and admired the gracious words that came from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”

And he said to them, “No doubt you will tell me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself.’ What we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your hometown.”

And Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet finds approval in his own country. Moreover I tell you of a truth: many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was shut three years and six months, so that a great famine was upon all the land. Yet unto none of them was Elijah sent, only to Zarephath of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was made clean, save Naaman the Syrian.

Then all who were in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with fury. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and led him to the precipice of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could cast him down headlong. But he, passing through their midst, went on his way.

———-

Sermon

 

The people of Nazareth thought they knew Jesus.
After all, he was one of them.
He had grown up in their village.
His father was Joseph the town carpenter – a good, honorable craftsman.
But recently the townsfolk had been hearing some strange things about their native son — and they were curious.
Word had spread that Jesus was a gifted teacher as well as a healer of body and soul.
And so, on this particular Sabbath day the Synagogue was filled to capacity since it was also known that Jesus would be there.
And as the time for the service to begin crept closer, everyone in the congregation waited with baited breath to see what would happen next.

Of course, no one was surprised when the leader of the synagogue took out a sacred scroll of holy Scripture,
handed it to Jesus and invited him to read a passage.
It was customary to offer a visiting Rabbi such an opportunity.
And no one was surprised when Jesus stood to his feet,
unrolled the scroll and began reading from Isaiah,
chapter 61, verses 1 and 2, saying:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Nor was anyone surprised when Jesus rolled up the scroll,
gave it back to the worship leader and sat down.
It was, after all, standard procedure for a Rabbi to teach sitting down.
No the surprise was yet to come.

By now the Synagogue was quiet – so very quiet -
and all the people fixed their eyes on Jesus,
waiting for him to speak.
And so he did,
and at first everyone was quite impressed with what he said.
As verse 22 says: “And all spoke well of him and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth.”
But then, the surprise,
for within a few short minutes,
a drastic change has occurred in the congregation’s mood and everyone there is ready to throw Jesus off a cliff outside of town.

What happened here?
How did the fair-haired hometown boy move so quickly from being a welcome celebrity to unwanted prophet?
How is that the murmurs of “That’s our boy.” turned into shouts of outrage?

Part of the problem probably lies in the fact that Jesus is in his hometown.
Now it is well-known that prophets,
even great ones, are not honored in their hometowns.
Jesus himself makes this point when he states elsewhere,
“Prophets are honored everywhere except in their own country and house.”
We should expect Jesus’ rejection in his own backyard.
People there had seen him grow up,
and because they had always known him,
they really did not respect him.
And so they cannot accept what he says.

But it is also true that what Jesus says is hard to swallow.
For the people then and for us now.
Nazareth and Pottstown are one and the same when it comes to the prophetic message of Jesus the Christ.
As long as Jesus message is positive and pleasing, fine.
And in Nazareth the words Jesus read were words of hope,
quoted directly from scripture –
proclaiming release for the captive and liberty for the oppressed -
and when we remember these folks lived in an occupied land,
oppressed by Roman soldiers,
we can easily see how pleasing they are.

And the recovering of sight for the blind. . . who could be against that?
Indeed, the people had heard of his miracles elsewhere and couldn’t wait to see some of his healing works themselves.
They were delighted to hear that God had anointed Jesus to preach good news to the poor.
After all, most of these folks were common peasants themselves,
easily poor enough to be ready to hear some good news.
And while our middle class culture could hardly be called poor,
most of us still feel the need for release from some of the things that keep us in captivity,
we are all interested in being liberated from what oppresses us,
and we could all use some good news.
So the people then were more than happy to hear that Jesus had been anointed by God to preach good news.
And most people are happy in our time to think of Jesus in the same light.

I was shopping some time ago,
and noticed that the tune being played over the speakers in the mall ceiling sounded familiar.
As I listened more closely I recognized it as a song by, of all groups,
the Doobie Brothers,
and I began to sing right along with them,
“Jesus is just alright with me. . .Jesus is just alright, Oh Yeah!”

Yes, Jesus is just alright with everybody if he comes to preach release and liberty and good news.
But go beyond that and you’ve got trouble.
Lots of people, along with those in Nazareth, wonder at the gracious words which proceed out of Jesus’ mouth,
but if those words take on flesh and we actually have to do something about what Jesus is talking about,
then Jesus’ words don’t seem so gracious anymore.
The good townspeople of Nazareth don’t
care for what Jesus is saying.
In fact, they hate the implications of what they hear so much they are ready to kill the preacher.

The people of Nazareth would rather Jesus stick to working miracles and healings and such.
In fact they seem to insist that Jesus do in his own home town the miraculous things he is said to have done over in Capernaum.
And this quickly becomes another part of the problem for Jesus.
For after having heard Jesus’ claim to be anointed by God to speak as a prophet the people immediately begin to demand that he use his special relationship with God to do things for them.

“How come you went all the way over there to Capernaum to do your miracles?
What’s the matter. . .aren’t we good enough for you?
We could use some excitement around here too, you know.
Let’s bring those crowds into our town. . . they’ll be good for business.
We understand you had quite a circus going out there,
with all those healings and miracles. . .
well, let’s see your stuff, Jesus. . .”

So one problem with people who are attracted to Jesus’ claim to be anointed by God is that they tend to become demanding of him,
for their own purposes.
A self-centered narrowness emerged quickly at Nazareth,
and it is not hard to find among church going folk in our own day.

So yes, prophets are popular as long as they claim to bring special privilege to their listeners.
But prophets quickly become unpopular when they speak of special responsibilities,
and this is what ultimately brings things to a head for Jesus at Nazareth.

Now verses 25 through 27 can be confusing to modern readers unless we understand what the references to Syria and Sidon meant to the Jews who lived at Nazareth.
You see, those places were considered pagan areas,
beyond the boundaries of Israel.
The people there were thought to be gentile nobodies,
of no importance to the God whose special concern was Israel.
God was supposed to care about his chosen people, the Jews, first.
All others were considered unworthy of the divine love.

No wonder then that things exploded when Jesus reminded them that the good news about God’s love was as much for the gentiles and the pagans as it was for them.
In response to their demands,
Jesus tells the people in the synagogue that there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah,
when there was a great famine,
but God only sent Elijah out of Israel to a widow living in pagan Sidon.
And as if this example was not enough, Jesus continues.
He tells the crowd,
“There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha,
but God chose to heal Namaaan, the Syrian, another foreigner,
and even worse, an enemy, of his leprosy.”
And by reminding them of these two pieces of scripture history,
Jesus is telling them that God’s love is not limited to those who think they are more important than others.
Indeed, the proud and demanding can actually shut themselves off from God’s love.

And so here we have the hometown boy who claims to be anointed a prophet by God.
But this prophet is not coming home to proclaim special privilege for his neighbors in Nazareth,
but rather to call them to recognize God’s love for people everywhere,
even the pagan peoples whom they despise,
even their enemies, like the Syrians of old,
or even in their own time, the hated Romans.

At it is here that the objections begin.
I mean Jesus can’t seriously be suggesting that we are to treat those different from ourselves and even our enemies the way God treats them, can he?
He can’t really want us to love them as God loves us.
I mean it is hard enough to affirm love within the family.
It is even harder to widen the circle and affirm love in our communities and nation.
But then there comes this disturbing prophet who calls for love beyond Nazareth.
There is this voice that mentions the unmentionable places and people,
the Sidons and Syrias of our own prejudices,
and love becomes a problem -
which is to say that Jesus becomes a problem – an unwanted prophet.
Jesus tells us that God loves these outsiders,
these strangers,
these needy ones.
He tells us that the good news is for them too,
and that God’s help and healing extends to those beyond the bounds of our caring.

That was the message which so disturbed the people of Jesus’ hometown.
The people of Nazareth who first greeted Jesus with “Amen!”
finally yelled, “Kill him!” because he painfully reminded them of what they knew,
namely that God is free, alive, gracious,
and way beyond any bounds we may try to set for him.
The worshipers at Nazareth knew that God had blessed an undeserving outsider through Elijah’s ministry,
and they knew that God had cured a Syrian terrorist through Elisha,
but it was a lot more than they wanted to know,
and they certainly did not come to church on that January morning to be reminded that God refused before to play by the rules and might well refuse to play by our rules again.
So what to do?
I’ll tell you what they wanted to do:
Get rid of the young rabbi and prophet, that’s what!

And though Jesus got away from the angry worshipers that first time in Nazareth, he did not escape for good.
When he’d finally let in too many outsiders,
eaten with too many sinners and blurred the boundaries once too often,
the crowds that had once shouted “Hosanna” eventually called out for Jesus’ blood.
With cross and nails they finally shut him up,
but not before he cried out,
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Like Elijah, like Elisha and like Jeremiah,
the prophet Jesus was a troubler of Israel’s ignorance
but it was not the kind of ignorance to be relieved by a trip to the local library or by earning this or that degree.
Jesus troubled the people of his hometown because he told them something they already knew,
though they would have preferred to forget it.
And this has always been true of real prophets.

Martin Luther King, Jr. did not come preaching something new,
he came shouting something we already knew,
“You have said in your own Declaration of Independence,
`We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal,
and are endowed with certain inalienable rights.’
And I insist, that you either live by what you already know -
or else be unfaithful to your own Constitution.”
And we killed him, because King told us what we already knew.

Will Willimon tells a story about one person’s reaction to a sermon of his.
He writes:
I had just preached as best I could on Matthew’s story of the Laborers in the Vineyard, you know, the parable about how some workers came early, some came mid-day, some came late,
and at the end of the day, they all were paid the same wage.
Congregation files out.
She lingered behind.
“Where do you get these stories?” she asked.
“From growing up in South Carolina, I guess,” I replied.

“Well, I was troubled by your sermon today,” she said.
“What troubled you?” I asked, in my usual non-defensive defensiveness.
“I just don’t think that’s fair.
I believe that people ought to be paid fairly for the work they do and I….”
“Wait!” I said. “That story is not original with me.
That’s from Matthew.”
“Matthew?” she asked.
“Yea, Matthew. Like in the Bible?”
“Oh, sure, the Bible.”

“You’ve never heard that story before?
What is your religious background?” I asked,
just praying to God she wouldn’t say, “Methodist.”
She had not gone to church much, a bit as a kid, that’s all.
“You know,” I said, “I almost envy you.
I have just preached a perfectly outrageous story and hundred of people have filed out and told me it was a nice sermon.
In a way, you are the only one that got it, the only one to understand.
Just for your information,
the man who told that story was killed for telling it.
Just after he told that story we got organized and killed him.
You, of all people, got it.”

As another preacher has said:
Of all the prophets ever slain in Israel, America or anywhere else,
God raised this one, this healer of gentiles and friend of sinners,
so we might know that God has forgiven everything, and continues to do so even today.
Despite everything, God is patient and kind toward us, not irritable or resentful.
God laughs not at our weaknesses, but rejoices over the truth that we are all God’s children.
For each and for all of us, God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
His love never ends.

God’s love never ends.
Not for us,
not for anyone, period.
And we are called to show that same love to everyone, everywhere, and anytime . . . regardless of who they are or what they have done.
And if this news doesn’t upset you at least a little bit,
then you probably haven’t been listening.

Lewis Pitts is a lawyer and a Christian.
Since graduating law school he has been involved in poverty law, radical law, and he goes all over the place to defend people without money or friends.
He has defended communists against the Klan,
Native Americans against the sheriff,
blacks against blacks or whites.
In an old car,
living from hand to mouth,
death threats an almost everyday occurrence.
What makes him do it?

When he was asked what had turned him into a radical lawyer with no money and very few friends,
this was what he said,
“God is love and we ought to love others.”
“That’s it?,” someone protested, “but that’s not really saying enough.”
“It’s enough to get you shot.” Lewis said, and then he added,
“Look, I’m from Bethune, SC,
and when you’re a Methodist from Bethune you don’t learn much theology except what you can pick up in Sunday school.
All I learned was God is love and we ought to love others.”

And so he does.
He loves as God loves.
He loves as Jesus loves.
And that, my friends, is enough to get you shot.
It’s enough to get you crucified.
Just ask that young preacher and prophet from Nazareth.
Ask him and see what he says.
Go ahead, ask him.
I dare you.

———

 

Technorati tags: , , , ,