Outsiders Luke 4:21-30 Sunday, February 3, 2013 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching

Transcription

1 Scripture. Prayer. Outsiders Luke 4:21-30 Sunday, February 3, 2013 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching Opening. In his book, Praying for a Whole New World, William G. Carter writes: When I began my work as a preacher, I spent a lot of time poking around the pages of Scripture for something unusual. My only objective was to find something that would prompt me to say, This will get them. I would find something in the book of Obadiah and preach on it, murmuring, I'll bet they have never heard this before. I was right; they had never heard it before. As a result, it had no power. No authority. No sense of importance or urgency. Once in a while, I would give in and turn to a text that everybody had heard before. At coffee hour, folks would say, Whew! You really gave it to us today! Little by little, it began to dawn on me: The power of the prophetic word does not come from roaming a far country where no one has gone before. The real power of the gospel comes from reminding the people of God of what they already know. Jesus reminds the crowd in Nazareth of what they should already know; but in this case they don t want to be reminded. They end up trying to hurl him off the cliff. Today we continue wrestling with Jesus inaugural sermon in Nazareth. Last week we reflected on his statement, that today the jubilee year promises of Isaiah are fulfilled. Today the poor hear good news and the captives are set free. This week, we continue to hear more of Jesus sermon. His teaching in a synagogue in Nazareth, on a Saturday morning, sets forth the agenda for his ministry. And, by extrapolation, the agenda for our ministry, as well. 1

2 Today we take a look at his major theme, which addresses the status of outsiders in the Jewish community of faith. I. Outsiders in Jesus time. In telling the stories of the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian, Jesus angers his synagogue audience. He suggests that God chose to come to the aid of outsiders, and that God continues to prefer outsiders over them. William Willimon writes, in an article for The Christian Century : A friend of mine returned from an audience with His Holiness the Dali Lama. When his Holiness speaks, my friend said, everyone in the room becomes quiet, serene and peaceful. Not so with Jesus. Things were fine in Nazareth until Jesus opened his mouth and all hell broke loose. And this was only his first sermon! One might have thought that Jesus would have used a more effective rhetorical strategy, would have saved inflammatory speech until he had taken the time to build trust, to win people s affection, to contextualize his message -- as we are urged to do in homiletics classes. No, instead he threw the book at them, hit them right between the eyes with Isaiah, and jabbed them with First Kings, right to the jaw, left hook. Beaten, but not bowed, the congregation struggled to its feet, regrouped and attempted to throw the preacher off a cliff. And Jesus went on his way. God acts to heal and to provide for the particular needs of the widow of Zarephath. Once again, he acts to heal Naaman the Syrian of leprosy. He chooses to reveal his presence and his power outside the traditional boundaries of the religion and the nation of Israel. God further acts in the particularity of Jesus Christ, an insider of the Jewish faith; now, 2

3 by choice, Jesus joins the outsiders and thereby angers the hometown crowd in a Nazareth synagogue. God s good news is continually new. It is continually outside the status quo, pushing the envelope, breaking down the barriers, disrupting the quiet comfort of our established ways, turning our worlds upside down. I like to think I m on God s side against the world, if need be. But so often I am on my own side, stuck in my comfortable, established patterns, content to continue on in the deep ruts I have carved out for myself from years of habit. Jesus blows that plan out of the water. None of us can be ready for it. We just have to pray and hold on for dear life as Jesus rushes on, in his own timing, following his own agenda. We are either with him, or we are left on the sidelines. On that Saturday in Nazareth, Jesus invites his listeners to make a choice. Today! Are you with me, or are you against me? If you re with me, step outside your old, calcified ways, and follow me into new life! Remember, God chose the widow at Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian, though many in Israel were in need of help. God sides with the outsiders. Whose side are you on? II. Outsiders in our times. If you were here last week you may remember that I quoted from the inaugural addresses of a number of our presidents. We all recognized the famous words of Abraham Lincoln bind up the nation's wounds, and Franklin D. Roosevelt the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, and John F. Kennedy ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country. None of us felt sure enough to guess Barak Obama, who spoke these words: let us 3

4 answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom. I am sure I would not have known them, either, except that I googled them in preparation for the sermon. We can all forgive ourselves; Obama s inaugural speech is too recent to have made it into the history textbooks yet. But if I had chosen the following quote from Obama s speech, I suspect more folks would have been able to make a guess. This excerpt is much more controversial than the generalized, patriotic piece I chose for last week. President Obama said, on January 21, 2013, these words: We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths that all of us are created equal is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth. I d like to talk about this section of the speech for a few moments. It lifts up some of the outsiders of our times. President Obama names three historic moments in our American drama. The first is Seneca Falls. Seneca Falls, New York, was the site of a convention, July 19-20, in This was an early and influential women s rights convention. Lucretia Mott was the featured speaker. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a primary organizer of the event. Frederick Douglass was an eloquent speaker in support of a resolution that came out of the convention: a resolution in favor of women s right to vote. (Wikipedia, Seneca Falls Convention ). Women today especially young women in America have grown accustomed to having 4

5 the same rights and opportunities as men. Just this past week a controversial decision to recognize and compensate women soldiers on the frontlines has extended those rights and opportunities to our women in combat. It is good, that young women and men take equality for granted. It is good, that we also remember and recite the history, from time to time, that has won for them these precious freedoms. Selma, Alabama, was the starting point for three civil rights marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the civil rights movement. Civil rights groups sought to march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery, in peaceful protest of voter suppression and other wrongs against black citizens (Wikipedia, Selma to Montgomery marches ). Prior to these historic marches in Selma, The March on Washington took place, August 28, At this gathering, Dr. King gave his now iconic I Have a Dream speech. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King was assasinated in Memphis, Tennessee, as he was planning for The Poor People s Campaign, to occupy Washington, D.C. (Wikipedia, Martin Luther King, Jr. ). Today we have a black man as President of the United States. Black and white children are accustomed to attending school alongside Asian and Hispanic and Islander children, and the list goes on in terms of the racial-ethnic diversity we now enjoy; we now take for granted. It is good that children today are accustomed to looking beyond skin color to the content of a person s character. It is good that children now take for granted the hard won rights of racial equality. It is good, that we also remember and recite the history, from time to time, that has won for them these precious freedoms. The Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, is known for a police raid on June 28, 1969, which led to rioting and ultimately to the greater organization 5

6 of the gay rights movement. This movement, in part, began as an endeavor to secure the rights of GLBT folks to gather. In the 1950 s and 60 s, few establishments welcomed openly gay people. Police raids were frequent and often brutal. (Wikipedia, Stonewall riots ). Today it is no longer unusual for openly gay folks to be present in all segments of society politics, religion, business, entertainment. Much has been won; there is more to be done. It is good, that we remember and recite the history, from time to time, that has won for them these precious freedoms. There is a history of women, blacks and gays being outsiders, kept outside the gates of power and freedom. We can be encouraged that, here in America, much has improved during our lifetimes. We can take pride in the fact that Methodists have been a part of movements for change and freedom, even as we confess that we have also been on the wrong side of history at times. Out of fear, and a desire for the status quo, we have often resisted change. Jesus, in his inaugural Nazareth sermon, reminds us that God is uniquely present in the lives of outsiders. God is passionately preferential towards the poor and the outcast towards those who are rejected by the halls of power and the chambers of polite society. This reality the Jesus reality can be reassuring to us. It can also be disturbing. III. Outsiders in the Yucaipa United Methodist Church. Bill Bouknight writes: We despise people who challenge our cherished myths and kick us out of our comfort zones. The truth is that when Jesus sets about the task of saving us, he has to heal us of any myth or prejudice that is contrary to the spirit of Christ. Billy Sunday was the Billy Graham of a previous generation. He was conducting a crusade in a particular city. In one of his sermons he said something critical of the labor conditions for workers in that area. After the service, several 6

7 prominent businessmen sent a message to him by one of the local pastors. The message was this Billy, leave labor matters alone. Concentrate on getting people saved. Stay away from political issues. You re rubbing the fur the wrong way. Billy Sunday sent this message back to them: If I m rubbing the fur the wrong way, tell the cats to turn around. What rubs your fur the wrong way? Where do you draw the line in terms of what s acceptable in our church? Who are truly outsiders, not welcome here? To be honest, I find it challenging to think of who the outsiders are here. Our church works hard at being friendly and loving and accepting of everyone who crosses our threshold. Maybe our challenge is to think about the folks who never cross our threshold. What is it about our image or our way of doing ministry that tells some folks, You don t belong here, even before they give us a try? Closing. Newspaper columnist and minister George Crane tells of a woman, who came into his office full of hatred toward her husband. I do not only want to get rid of him, I want to get even. Before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has me. Dr. Crane suggested an ingenious plan. Go home and act as if you really love your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Praise him for every decent trait. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible. Spare no efforts to please him, to enjoy him. Make him believe you love him. After you've convinced him of your undying love and that you cannot live without him, then drop the bomb. Tell him that you're getting a divorce. That will really hurt him. With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, Beautiful, beautiful. Will he ever be surprised! And she did it with enthusiasm. Acting as if. For two months she showed love, kindness, listening, giving, reinforcing, sharing. When she didn't 7

8 return, Crane called. Are you ready now to go through with the divorce? Divorce? she exclaimed. Never! I discovered I really do love him. Her actions had changed her feelings. Motion resulted in emotion. The ability to love is established not so much by fervent promise as often repeated deeds. (J. Allan Petersen). In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, Do not waste your time bothering whether you love your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less. If we treat our enemies as though we love them, our motion may result in emotion, as happened to the woman in Petersen s story. If we treat outsiders like insiders, our welcoming actions may eventually help us to love them as we love our dearest, closest friends. May we be a church family that treats everyone like family. May we be a church family that goes outside these four walls and beats the bushes in search of lost family members. Because everyone belongs in God s family. God s preference is for the outsiders, the lost family members. Following Christ s example, may we always align ourselves with the outsiders in our community. Even when or especially when! to do so is unpopular or uncomfortable. Amen. 8