From the Pastor |
Luke 4:21-30
In his 1960 memoir telling of his experiences during the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel (El ee Vee ZEL) tells of an unwelcome prophet named Moishe (moy sheh) the Beadle. In 1942, they both lived in a village in Hungary. One day, all of the foreign Jews were rounded up to be deported. Rumors were spread through town that they were safe and content in their now location. However, months later, Moishe returned… and he told a much different story. According to Moishe, they had been sent by train to Poland, and there all the Jews were taken by the Gestapo out into the forest. “They were forced to dig huge trenches. When they had finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one… Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for the machine guns.” Wiesel, Elie. Night p.6 Moishe was injured but survived by pretending to be dead. He slowly made his way back to the village warning all the Jews he encountered along the way. He said “I wanted to return… to describe to you my death so that you might ready yourselves while there is still time.” “But people not only refused to believe his tales, they refused to listen.” Wiesel, Elie. Night p.7 It was easier for the townspeople to dismiss Moishe as being crazy than it was to acknowledge the very real evil that was about to descend upon them… and they suffered greatly as a result. There is definitely truth to the saying “familiarity breeds contempt” … or as Jesus put it, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown…” [Luke 4:24] That was certainly the case for Jesus in today’s reading. He had left home some time ago… he was baptized by both John and the Holy Spirit… he spent 40 days in the desert… he has received a vision of a new world… of God’s Holy Kingdom and now he has found his way back to his hometown of Nazareth. On the Sabbath, he enters the synagogue and stands up to read from the scroll of Isaiah. Then he sits down and announces “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” [Luke 4:21] The message was a simple message of Good News… the time had come… The new age of God’s reign was beginning and Jesus was there to kick things off… The people are amazed… if not a bit patronizing. After all… they knew him. This was Joseph’s boy. One of their own. And he offered some good news for them. If only Jesus had stopped there… they probably would have accepted him… After all… They wanted to hear that they were blessed… they wanted to witness miracles like they heard he had performed in other towns… His reputation had preceded him and they were looking for a performance. But Jesus refused. He knew they hadn’t really listened. They felt that as God’s Chosen People… they were entitled to all the blessings God could offer, but Jesus decided to challenge them instead… Instead of leaving them with a feel good message he demanded they take responsibility for their lives and to change. Jesus lets them know that their status does not ensure their prosperity… that the Good News… fulfilled in their hearing was not solely for them. He uses the scriptures to remind them that throughout Israel’s history, God’s goodness and mercy often went to those who were on the outside… like the non-Jewish widow and a commander of the Syrian army… not to the Chosen… the privileged… NOT to those who felt they has a special claim on God’s favor. But even with scripture backing up his statements… this was not the message they wanted to hear. So they got angry and drove him out of the synagogue… and out of town. Wow… things certainly changed quickly, didn’t they? Like I said… there is truth to the saying that familiarity breeds contempt. You see, they thought they knew Jesus… who he was… what he was all about. They were wrong! It makes me wonder, though… what about us? We… Christians… Those of us who faithfully worship Our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. What do we think about this man named Jesus? In fact, I have often wondered what would happen if Jesus showed up one day… physically… here where we are? What if he showed up to preach in our churches on a Sunday morning? What kind of response would he receive? Sadly, I often imagine him being driven out of town by an angry mob calling him a heretic or something because he would most likely be delivering a message we simply do not want to hear or accept… an unwelcome prophet in his own hometown. After all… We are now the “hometown crowd.” We are very familiar with Jesus… we have come to know him… and maybe that thought alone should give us pause: What assumptions do we make about Jesus? Do we think we have him figured out when we say “We know Jesus”? If so… we need to be careful because there is far more to Jesus than we can ever know. Like the people of Nazareth, Christians tend to think we “know” Jesus… That we know who he is and what he is all about… what he wants and what HE can do for us. Too many in our society and our churches have actually edited his message to fit their own narrative… taming the Gospel and making it easy… cheap… able to serve their own wants and desires… to fit their agendas. Too often we feel entitled simply because we claim the name of Christian… feeling this gives us a special place in the world… a place solely of Good News and prosperity. The truth is… too many times throughout history to this very day… Christians have tried to control Jesus… to make him their own. Nations have used him to as a justification for war. Political parties invoke his name to attempt to rally people to their cause. Even churches have failed to follow him, instead they excluded others… denied and persecuted those who are different… deciding who is worthy and who is not… ignoring the marginalized whom Jesus came to serve… all in the name of Jesus. Even in our personal lives, we have the tendency to try and bend Jesus to our control… to make him fit the mold we think he belongs in; often being disappointed when we find we cannot do so. But Jesus will not be used, tamed or pigeon holed. He will not water down his message to make it palatable for us. He speaks the truth of his mission and of God even if we do not want to hear it... even if it convicts us and tells us we are wrong. We need to be careful, whenever we catch ourselves claiming to know Jesus… thinking we know his heart and his mind… Because Jesus knows more than we do… his vision is bigger… greater… more glorious that anything we could ever imagine… and nothing we can do will alter that vision. Too often… especially here in America… the church seems to want to act like we are special and privileged… and it tries to maintain that privilege for itself. Its business is to nurture its own life… Its own special interests. We see this time and time again. Our wants… Our needs come first. The suggestion that those on the outside are important in God’s sight is pushed aside and met with anger. But Jesus made it very clear to the people in Nazareth that he had not come to make them feel good as the chosen and privileged people… He came… “to bring Good News to the poor.” [Luke 4:18] Not simply to the economically destitute, but those who lived on the margins of society… those excluded from the social and religious circles… whether by nationality, gender, age, economics, illness or injury or even religious impurity… and that includes those on the outside. Jesus clearly reminds us that God's love extends to those who are most vulnerable, the outsiders, those who are most in need. He declares that the people of Nazareth… and we ourselves, do not have a lock on God’s love and favor. God loves us… this is a fact… but God also loves those we deem unworthy and our enemies as well. Salvation is by God’s grace alone… not by who we are and what we are doing… not even by which denomination or church we belong to. But today’s scripture also offers us a gracious invitation. We are invited to go beyond a superficial knowledge of Jesus, and come to know him as he really is… not simply as we want him to be. How do we do this? By opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit AND to one another. Studying God’s word… Listening, learning… especially from those we least expect to serve as prophets of the Lord. By not allowing our familiarity with them to cause us to dismiss what they might say. They are the ones who will speak hard words we need to hear and show us the way we need to follow. We need to strive to make our communities inclusive… Welcoming friend and stranger alike… refusing to shut the door on anyone… serving those on the margins of society to the best of our abilities. It is too easy to remain silent when Jesus is used to justify injustice, abuse, greed, or hatred. But, Jesus calls us to speak out against these things… fighting against all that would hurt or destroy. We also need to pray. To take the time to be with Christ and truly get to know him. Discerning how to distinguish his voice from our own, and from the voices of our society, which is not easy. And we accept Christ’s invitation to truly know him through love… by opening our hearts and allowing God’s love to fill us… teaching us how to truly love. To love God and our neighbor… and all of creation. For it is love that will end injustice and hostility… that will allow the poor to receive good news… the captives to be set free... that will let the blind see, and it is love that will make it so that God’s favor will ring out for all people. Amen.
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Ephesians 1:3-14 & John 1: 10-18
It is easy for us to get caught up in the cynicism, negativity, and despair that is commonly reflected in the world around us. It is just as easy to embrace a faith has us looking only to some distant future when the end will come and a small remnant of believers will live forever in heaven. But, neither of these attitudes world for us if we take our scripture readings this week to heart. I mean… here we are… at the 2nd and last Sunday of the Christmas season… and we are being reminded of why our God deemed to enter this world in the form of a baby… why we celebrate Christmas… Why this is considered a time of joy and hope. The Gospel of John boldly proclaims the incarnation. Jesus… the very Word of God… entered the world… became flesh and blood and loved among us… as one of us. He came to reveal God’s heart to the people… revealing the full extent of the love God has for all of creation… bringing the fullness of God’s grace and truth into our world that the world might be reconciled back to the Lord… to reestablish the relationship human beings once had with God. This is the whole reason for the incarnation… for the coming of Jesus…who also came offering the greatest gift possible: “…to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” [John 1: 12b] “In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ…” [Ephesians 1:5] For all who believe… all who accept the grace and truth freely offered by Christ… are adopted and called God’s own children. Through this “adoption” we are brought back into relationship with God… a relationship we did not know before. The ultimate goal is to bring unity to all of creation. We know this to be true because as Paul and John both point out… Jesus came, first to God’s Chosen People… to His own… and then to the rest of the world… looking to reconcile ALL people… Jew and Gentile alike… to God… to one another… and to all of creation. It is through the birth of a tiny baby in a small, fairly insignificant town that God entered out world bringing redemption and forgiveness… revealing knowledge of God… of God’s amazing love and God’s will… adopting us all into ONE family of faith and sealing us with the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what we celebrate during these holidays… In this world of great division, suffering, injustice, corruption, poverty, violence, and inequality it may seem difficult to even think about celebration. Some might even consider us delusional for talking about peace, security, and abundance for God’s people when we know that even our faith is no guarantee of these things. But we have to remember that Christmas is not simply a birthday celebration… not only a celebration of the birth of a king… or even the coming of our savior. It is a celebration of a dream… a vision for a world-made-whole in Christ… of our being united by the never-ending, never-failing love of God. We celebrate not just God’s incarnation in the baby Jesus, but also the grace and truth that, even though we are undeserving of mercy… we all are offered forgiveness and reconciliation with the Lord our God… who continuously works to bring us all back into a good and right relationship with God and one another. We celebrate our adoption as daughters and sons of God… of becoming God’s own children… not simply by virtue of being human beings… but adopted by faith… being born anew in the Spirit. Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus because he had heard of their faith and their love for God’s people. What do people hear about us? Can they see our faith? Is it visible? Do others notice our love for one another or does it seem to be kept on the “down-low”? When we look at the church… especially in our society… it is almost impossible to recognize that we are in any way “united”. I mean… one of the goals of the incarnation of Jesus was to bring unity to heaven and earth… yet even Christians… believers… those adopted as God’s children… cannot seem to get along. We argue and fight amongst ourselves to the point that we seem like the most dysfunctional family on the planet. As God’s children… adopted into God’s family by our faith… we are called to live… united as people of hope… as people who have come to know and experience the presence and wisdom of God in our daily lives… people who know that our strength, hope, and joy come from the Spirit of God that is always with us. To remember the hope we find in Christ… keeping it alive in our hearts. This means that we are called to replace cynicism with optimism, negativity with possibility, and despair with joy and hope. To allow our experience of God to keep us connected to the vision of restoration and hope… not just in the future… but as a lived reality in the world here and now… a reality we seek to embody in our own lives on a daily basis. It means that we live in the faith that God’s Reign is at work within and among us each and every day… that in every interaction, every moment, and every situation we are to be bearers of God’s joy, peace, love, and hope and in so doing be the embodiment of God’s light in the world today. What all this means is that … as God’s children… we must act like it. It is our faith… AND our love… working together that will bring unity. We can disagree with one another, but if we keep our focus on loving and caring for one another… we can break down the walls that divide us and reclaim our unity. The message that stands out this week is one of great joy and celebration for God’s provision and love for us, and for God’s gracious adoption of us as God’s own children who receive great blessing in Christ through the Holy Spirit. But if we cannot begin to work together… striving for justice, love and compassion… if we cannot find the joy in our unity as a global family of faith… we will never find the strength, faith, hope and love to sustain us We need more than a proclamation of faith… we need to embody that love, joy, hope and peace that we preach during the advent and Christmas seasons… bringing the kingdom of God into our reality by sharing God’s light and love with all of creation. |
Yeon Shin
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