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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Yeon Shin
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