SERMONS FROM THE HEIGHTS

Transcription

1 SERMONS FROM THE HEIGHTS by Randy L. Hyde, D. Min., APC Senior Pastor Pulaski Heights Baptist Church Little Rock, AR January 23, 2011 NOW! Isaiah 9:1-4; Matthew 4:12-23 Did you make the obvious connection between our two readings today? Not only does Matthew, in his gospel, quote Isaiah s prophecy, but Zebulun and Naphtali are mentioned in both. In order to make sense of how these passages are interrelated, and why they are mentioned as they are, we ll need to do something of a history/geology lesson. Do you mind? It ll only take a minute. Zebulun was the tenth son of Jacob, the result of his marital union with Leah. Are you familiar with the story of Jacob? He s the one who, along with his mother Rebekah, schemed to take away the birthright from his twin brother Esau. To evade Esau s wrath, Jacob has fled to his grandfather s homeland his grandfather being Abraham, of course where he encounters his extended family and is immediately smitten with Uncle Laban s beautiful daughter Rachel. Laban, however, has an older and shall we say, less attractive daughter named Leah. It is his intent that she be married first, so he tricks Jacob into marrying Leah when it is Rachel that Jacob really wants. But, trick or no trick, Jacob is saddled with Leah as his wife. So, by their customs and their laws, strange as they may seem to us, Jacob finds himself married to one he doesn t love, working years for his scheming father-in-law in order that he might also take Rachel as his wife. After all, it was a part of the culture in that day that a man could be married to more than one woman. Jacob intended to take advantage of it.

2 But just because Jacob didn t love Leah... well, that doesn t keep him from having children by her, and Zebulun is a product of their union, along with five other sons. Don t feel sorry for Jacob. He didn t limit his activities to his wife Leah. Naphtali was his sixth son, the product of his not-so-marital union with Rachel s maid Bilhah. When I said that Zebulun was the tenth son of Jacob, I didn t say he was the tenth son of Jacob and Leah. That Jacob really was something of a scoundrel, wasn t he? We know that when it came to scheming, Laban, who was a pretty good trickster on his own and proves that trickery was in the family s DNA, had nothing on his son-in-law. In all, Jacob became the father of twelve sons, from which the twelve tribes of Israel, you might know, get their names. So by the time of the prophet Isaiah, Zebulun and Naphtali were places, not people, and according to the way Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message, they served as the crossroads of the nations. I grew up in a crossroads of sorts. Paragould began as a settlement where two major railroads crisscrossed. The name of the president of one of the railroad lines was named Paramore, the other was named Gould. Paragould didn t exactly grow into a major metropolis, though it is quite bigger and certainly more crowded than when I was living there. But maybe that is because it was trains that came through town more than people. In the eighth century B.C., there were no trains, of course, but there was a lot of traffic. After all, it was a crossroads, and crossroads produced prosperity. And in those days, guess what prosperity produced? Competition. And more often than not, competition led to potential trouble in the form of political upheaval. It was in the eighth century B.C. that the powerful armies of Assyria came storming down from the north to take over Judah. Stands to reason, then, that they would come through the crossroads region of Zebulun and Naphtali. And what they did to the people there and then was an ugly sight indeed. To the people of Judah, it would be our Vietnam and world wars, not to mention our desert conflicts, all rolled into one. Terrible things happened at the hands of the Assyrians at Zebulun and Naphtali in the eighth century B.C., and it didn t stop with the Assyrians.

3 Now, some eight centuries later, the region of Zebulun and Naphtali reveals a mix of different nationalities and religious expressions. For eight hundred years, Assyrians and Babylonians, Greeks and Romans have roughshod over the people, oppressing them with their military presence and their repressive systems of taxation. The Jews were forced to live side-by-side with those they considered pagans, people who had no respect for the God of the Jews. For the Hebrews who lived there, it was a dark place indeed. So why, of all the places available to him, did Jesus choose this area for his headquarters? According to Matthew, he had just gotten word that John the Baptist had been arrested at the treacherous hands of Herod. Because his time had not yet come, Jesus decided to get away from that area and retreat to a place where Herod couldn t touch him. He made his headquarters in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. Evidently, it wasn t because he thought this would be a safe haven, that it was a vacation spot of sorts, though it was by the sea. No, Matthew says it was a deliberate choice, that Jesus went there for the express purpose of fulfilling Isaiah s prophecy, the passage we read earlier.... the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned. The people who sat in darkness. Why would Jesus choose to begin his public ministry in the darkest of places? No doubt, it is his way of announcing that he is the fulfillment of what Isaiah said centuries before. Light into darkness, salvation thrust full-bore into the midst of hopelessness and despair. It is a new beginning, not only for Jesus, but for everyone. I remind you that in the liturgical church this is the season of Epiphany. Epiphany is light. It is said that when a light bulb goes off in someone s brain that is, an idea suddenly emerges that person has an epiphany. One writer has said that Epiphany light shines from people who do the best of things in the worst of times. 1 That is why Jesus has come to the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, to 3

4 bring light into the darkest of times, to offer a new beginning, not only to his ministry, but of hope to his people. I remember when I first began, as if it was yesterday. Janet, Emily, and I had moved from Louisville, where I had been in seminary, to Bristol, Virginia- Tennessee. I would serve the next two years as the associate pastor at First Baptist Church. Our moving van had been broken into before it ever left Louisville, and we lost a great deal of our belongings, not that we had all that much. But still, it was a big loss to us. Fortunately, that did not include my books. The thieves weren t interested in books... mainly appliances and clothes. That meant we had to spend an inordinate amount of our time, when we first got there, to replacing the things we had lost. I had to buy a suit to wear to church. But finally, I got my things moved into my small office, put my books on the shelves, placed my Bible on my desk next to the pens and papers and other paraphernalia that would assist me in my work, and I thought to myself, What do I do now? Jesus apparently had no such misgivings. He just started telling everyone and anyone who would listen, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Boy, he had a lot of nerve; not only to see himself as the response to Isaiah s prophecy, but to imply that the people of that region had anything to repent for. I would imagine that what they had, more than anything else, was an inferiority complex. There s no need to repent of that, is there? I mean, they re descended from ancestors who weren t the first-born, nor the last which means they probably weren t favored by anyone in the family and whose mothers did not carry the glamour that was associated in Judah with the beautiful Rachel, the one Jacob really and truly loved. That ll cause anyone to feel inferior, don t you think? You think inferiority complexes don t last for generations? Think again. Sometimes, for centuries. I say this kindly, but honestly... there s a sense in which we Arkies have an inferiority complex. Did you know that? We bristle at our reputation outside the state. We laugh nervously, but not without a bit of anger, 4

5 when people ask us if we always wear shoes. When someone suggests we re all a bunch of hillbillies, we definitely don t appreciate that very much. And why do you think we detest Texas so much? It isn t just because we used to be fierce rivals on the football field. It s because we think those folks look down their noses at us. Actually, Texans tend to look down their noses at just about everybody, not just us Arkies. Yesterday, Janet and I drove out to Maumelle to go bowling and eat fried fish with a group from our church. At a traffic light we were behind a large SUV. An insignia on the vehicle identified the driver as a devoted Longhorns fan, but it had an Arkansas license plate. At least he has the good sense to live in Arkansas, I said to Janet. Do you remember the presidential debates of 1991? When asked where Arkansas was, George H. W. Bush said he thought it was between Texas and Oklahoma. He lost a few Arkansas votes that night, I would imagine. We don t like being overlooked. It s also why one of our pet phrases is, Thank God for Mississippi, and I don t have to tell you why we say that. Articles appeared in the local newspaper, leading up to the recent Sugar Bowl, revealing that many, if not most, of the Ohio State football players knew virtually nothing about Arkansas. Didn t know that WalMart is headquartered here, nor that Bill Clinton is a native son. Those articles appeared locally, I would imagine, to create an even stronger desire, if that was possible, on our part to win the game. Yes, we do have something of an inferiority complex. Let s admit it. I recently wrote an opinion piece for ethicsdaily.com. It s the e-newsletter of the Baptist Center for Ethics, out of Nashville, Tennessee. I received an response from a pastor in Virginia who took exception to one of the points I made in my article. That s okay. Differences of opinion are what make the world go round. But what really got my goat was when he paid me a backhanded compliment, suggesting that my church was fortunate to have me as a pastor because, for the most part, Arkansas is a backward state. He didn t use that word backward, and maybe I m a bit too sensitive about it, but that s the way I took it. He can disagree with me all he wants, but as far as I m concerned he ought to keep his condescending attitudes about my native state to himself! 5

6 You d think the residents of Zebulun and Naphtali would feel the same way when this Nazarene comes along telling them to repent. Who does he think he is, coming here and telling us we need to repent?! Maybe one reason they respond so well is that Jesus is indeed one of them. Nazareth, you see, is in Zebulun. So, they hear what this native Son has to say and respond most favorably to his message. In fact, when he decides to call his disciples, he first goes to fishermen who are from that area. I wonder why they responded to Jesus as readily and willingly as they did. Do you wonder why? Well, I have a theory. Do you mind if I share it with you? There is an advantage to having an inferiority complex, and it is this: you re never satisfied with where you are. If we ever become complacent about being just one notch above Mississippi whether it s education or income or anything else that s exactly where we ll stay. But if we want to climb up the ladder to higher levels of ability, we ll work harder at it and keep chipping away until we reach our goals of bettering the lives of our residents. James and John, Simon and Andrew, eagerly accept Jesus invitation to go with him because they too see his light and want to be a part of something new, something larger than themselves and certainly more exciting than just catching fish. They too want to be a part of his resurrection power and witness his healing touch. 2 If we re satisfied with where we are in our spiritual lives, and see no need to stretch our efforts beyond where we are now, then there is no doubt we will find ourselves getting there. What I m struck with is the immediacy of Jesus message. He doesn t want the people of Zebulun and Naphtali to repent later on. When he goes out to the seashore and calls his disciples, he doesn t tell them to think about it for awhile and then let him know if they have any interest in his proposition. He says now! Not later, now! What does that tell you and me? Are you satisfied to live out the remainder of your days as you are doing it now? If not, I encourage you to go down by the waters of the sea in Zebulun and Naphtali. There, you will hear a voice saying, Follow me. Imagine what might happen if you were to say yes. 6

7 Lord, when you call may we also follow... even if it takes us to places we ve never been, for you, the Light of the world, will dispel our darkness. Amen. Notes 1 F. Dean Leuking, The Christian Century, January 11, 2011, p George Mason, Thus We Go Down, unpublished sermon, January 23,