Sermon on Luke 4:21-30 Epiphany 4 February 2 nd /3 rd, 2013 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Last week I left you to think and pray and ponder about that one question (a cliffhanger): How big is your God? And this week we see Jesus say something similar to his home congregation in Nazareth. And also this week, we see how Jesus friends and neighbors respond to Jesus first they love him and the gracious words that came from his mouth and soon after they are so upset and incensed with him that they try to throw him off a cliff. So that makes me wonder: Maybe I m not doing my job of preaching well enough because no one has tried to run me out of town or throw me over the Gladstone cliff! So what in the world is going on here? Why do Jesus words make everyone angry and why did Jesus say what he did in the first place? Or maybe we can think about this other question: What would Jesus say to you and me, to this congregation if he personally came to preach to us? Would it be words of congratulations, or would his words be words of challenge that were meant to shake us to our very core? So why do Jesus words make everyone angry and why did he say what he did in the first place? There s a lot going on here so let me unpack this a bit. After Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah and tells everyone that God has chosen him to bring good news to the poor to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord s favor, everyone is happy about these promises because this is what they ve been waiting hundreds of years for. But where Jesus gets in trouble is how he applies this message to his hometown people. And Jesus gets in trouble because he lets his hometown know that first of all, he s a prophet, the prophet, the prophet of all the prophets. And by saying this, Jesus is telling basically telling them this: You hem and haw now and are so pleased with me, 1
but just wait you re going to hate me; you re going want to kill me. That is, after all, what you people have always done to God s prophets. And that s exactly what those people try to do; unsuccessfully this time, but they do the deed of killing him eventually by letting this innocent man get crucified. To add to things, Jesus tells them what happens when God s own people reject God s own prophets they go to someone else. We see the two Old Testament examples Jesus mentions God using Elijah s words to feed the starving pagan widow and her son of Zarephath, and God using Elisha s words to heal the pagan Naaman. So what Jesus is doing here is telling his home congregation what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear. What they want to hear is that God s Messiah is going to wipe out all of Israel s enemies. What they want to hear is that God s Messiah is going to bring prosperity back to land that is being sucked dry by the Romans. What they want to hear is that all God cares about and worries about is them, them, them. Now, I wonder what Jesus would say to us? But maybe we don t want to know what he would say to us. Maybe we know what Jesus would say to us and it absolutely terrifies us. God is God after all; his words are true and his judgments are just. There s an old adage: The truth hurts. But maybe our pride needs to be cut down. Maybe our laziness and complacency needs to be shaken up. Or to use the words God speaks to Jeremiah maybe something about us as a church or ourselves as individuals needs to be destroyed and overthrown so that God can build and plant something new. Maybe Jesus would say something like this to us: You all think that you are so special because you were born in this congregation or you grew up in this congregation or you re a member of this congregation so what? Is this place a social 2
club where you pay your dues in order to get spiritual benefits? Or is this a place where you come to be fed, forgiven, and unleashed into the world that I have come to save from sin, death, and the jaws of Satan? What do you value the most, what s most important to you? What does this congregation value the most, what s most important here? You have nice new windows for this building, that s all well and good, but how is this building being used to serve this community. On your bulletins it says All are welcome, that s all well and good too, but who have you personally welcomed and shown hospitality to? There s something about being told the truth about who we are or who we might think we are by God himself that can be a bit unsettling. Maybe you ve had an experience kind of like that at work or at home where you were sloughing off on your duties and in comes someone to tell you how lazy you ve been, or how sketchy you ve been acting. Everyone s first response to something like that is usually to defend ourselves and make up some kind of excuse. We ll say, Well, I was going to this or that but you know what, the time got away from me and I kind of forgot about it. Another way we can respond to someone calling us out by speaking a word of truth to us is by trying to rip them to shreds with our words; because someone else is always the problem, right? I m never part of the problem? Or so we like to tell ourselves. We might respond to someone telling the uncomfortable truth to us by saying something like: Well, that s might fine of you to notice that. By the way, what have YOU been doing? I haven t seen you do this or that. In fact, I heard from so-and-so what kind of person you are. Or, if we re feeling particularly religious at that time, we might say: How dare you judge me! Doesn t the Bible say, Judge not lest you be judged yourself? So back off before I get really angry! And so what happens when stuff like this happens? Nothing. Nobody wants to take the blame for anything. No one wants to be held responsible. 3
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said these words: The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. And so people of God where do you stand if God sends someone your way to challenge you personally? Where does this congregation stand if God sends someone like me to challenge you s guys. Here are some challenges the Lord has shown to us; many of them you probably already know about, maybe some of them you don t. 1. For the last 20 years, probably even longer, fewer and fewer people attend worship services. 3500-4000 churches close their doors each year in America. 2. For the last 20-30 years, Christians in America have increasingly become more and more insulated. Why try to reach out to others, that can cost money. We ve got bills to pay! 3. For the last 40 years or so, Christians have increasingly become indistinguishable from unbelievers in how they talk and act. 4. For the last 50 years, Christians have increasingly become unfamiliar with the Sacred stories of God in the Bible. There s a lot of back story to those challenges that I won t go into here. But all of those challenges to the churches and Christians of America are challenges this congregation and you Christian men and women need to take seriously. If we don t want to listen to these challenges God has shown to us, there is a very real possibility that 30 or 50 years down the road or even sooner, this church could no longer exist. So how will you react to these challenges? Some of you might be thinking, Well, I ll let the next generation worry about this stuff. In 30 years I won t be around anymore, so what do I care? That s why they said 30 years ago too, when people started noticing all these challenges. Where to start? Take note of Jesus: Stop being so concerned about ourselves and more concerned about others. 4
Like last week, I ll leave you again this little question: What would Jesus say to you, what would he say to this congregation, if he was going to challenge you? And how will you joyfully respond in light of God s grace and mercy? HOD: ELW # 836 Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee 5