Dr. Hugh Hamilton Trinity Presbyterian Church Pensacola, FL January 31, 2016 4 th Sunday after Epiphany, Cycle C GOD SPEAKS IN SURPRISINGLY COMMON WAYS Luke 4:14-30 Last March, Sandy and I went back to my hometown, Spartanburg, SC, for my mother s funeral. Old family friends and people from the church who had known me since I was born greeted us after the service. Though they know of my career in the ministry and my pastorate here in Pensacola, many of them still see me as the boy they taught in Sunday School, the boy who cut their grass, the teenager in the youth group, the Cub Scout and Boy Scout they knew. Many of them still see me as Bill and Nanette Hamilton s son, the little brother of Sheree and Paige, their child s classmate. I am still the young man pulling weeds in the church flower beds and flirting with the girls in youth fellowship. They still tease me about my feeble sermons I inflicted on them when I was a struggling seminary student! Oh, they were a patient and merciful congregation! When I stand in the pulpit here you know me as a grown man and you show respect for me and the pastoral office that I hold. You don t know me as little Hugh Hamilton, the boy who rode his bike through your flower bed and rang your door bell begging you to buy chocolate bars that our school was selling as a fund raiser. Overall, you recognize and respect my spiritual authority. I appreciate Jesus saying, No prophet is accepted in the prophet s hometown, because it s tough to go back home and preach to the people who watched you grow up. Your family and friends know the real you and you can t put on airs or fool anyone! The situation is this: Jesus was on a religious roll. Reports about him were going viral and he was gaining notoriety and followers. Over the last few days, Jesus had miraculously stopped a storm on Lake Galilee, miraculously healed a woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years, and then he raised a young girl who had just died and restored her to her father and mother. Three miracles in one week -- Jesus was on a roll! Jesus then came to the synagogue at his hometown. Customarily worship opened with a few songs and prayers and readings from the books of the Law, and then the guest of honor was asked to read any passage of his choice from the Old Testament prophets. The passage he chose usually revealed his core beliefs and values. Jesus chose to read this passage from Isaiah 61 that symbolized his ministry and it served as the basis for his sermon that followed. Jesus read, The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor (Isaiah 61:1-2). Jesus then closed the book. There was a l-o-o-o-n-g silence and he said, These words are fulfilled in your hearing them. Then he preached a lesson on the text, and afterwards, as Luke 4:22 says, All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They asked where he got all of this? How and where did he get so wise? But others
God Speaks In Surprisingly Common Ways, p2 murmured and grumbled, Who does he think he is? Isn t this the carpenter, the son of Mary who is sitting over there? And aren t those his bothers, James and Joses and Judas and Simon. Standing over there? And aren t those his sisters right there? (Mark 6:3-5) Who does he think he is, saying he s the Messiah? He s just a one of our kids from Nazareth. He used to cut my yard and ring my door bell selling school fund raisers. You know him, the kid who grazed our donkeys and watered our animals and hung around his dad s carpenter shop. There s nothing special or divine about him! Seeing the clash develop, Jesus said, A prophet is not accepted in his hometown, in his home church. Jesus recounted that the same was true for the prophet Isaiah and the prophet Elijah and the prophet Elisha. Elijah and Elisha could do no miracles among their home regions because the people didn t believe in them; they had to go elsewhere. Jesus then criticized the Nazareth crowd for being more interested in Jesus popularity and publicity than in helping the poor, the maimed, the blind and the lame. They were more interested in religious ceremony than in doing God s will and helping others. The Messianic age is beginning with me, Jesus explained, and the people took offense. They couldn t believe that one of their own hometown kids could be a prophet, much less the Messiah! No way! This was just the kid who used to deliver their newspapers and wash their cars for some spending money. He used to clean their yards and go swimming and fishing with them. Who does he think he is? How could God come in such a common and ordinary way as to come through the boy Jesus of Nazareth? No way! They rose up against him and ran him out of the church, ran him out of town and right up the edge of a cliff and were going to kill him. How could God come to them, speak to them, in something so common, so ordinary, so familiar to them? Are we so different from them? We can believe in the God of the universe, the creator of the stars and the planets. We have deep spiritual experiences with Jesus on the mountaintop or on the ocean, or around the campfire. We can believe in the divine moral laws of the world that even primitive tribes have and we all obey. A God of the universe, a spiritual being with who we have a mysterious and divine connection, a God of moral laws and spirituality that we can believe. But to believe that God would come to us though one of our own children that God is present here and now, somehow speaking into - or out of - our circumstances, that s hard for some people to fathom or believe. That s what offended the people of Nazareth who rejected Jesus; that God would come to them in the flesh of a man they had known since childhood, one of their own from the town of Nazareth. We too have stumbling blocks that get in our way of trusting in God. For example: Suffering. Why do good people we love get cancer, or die too young, or struggle with Dementia? If God can heal people, why doesn t he? Another stumbling block: Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, and to turn the other cheek. But does he know about ISIS and the bully at school and the arrogant person at work/school/church that churns our stomach? And what about world hunger and poverty and the lack of clean water and racism and sexism and classism..and all the other isms we can t eradicate. If God can create the universe, why can t...or doesn t God fix things for us on earth?
God Speaks In Surprisingly Common Ways, p3 We accept God in the moral law of the universe and that God created the sun and the moon and the stars, and that God comes in our spiritual experiences, but to believe that God comes in ordinary, common, everyday settings and circumstances that pushes our intellect, doesn t it? Why? Because we don t expect God to come and speak in the mundane. God doesn t come to us or speak to us in such ordinary ways does he? But let me take a different angle, and take it step further. What are some ways we don t expect it and so we are surprised to find that God does come and speak to us? A friend shares his/her problem with you and after you listen a while, you reply, It seems clear to me what God wants you to do and you tell him/her. She says, I just wish God would tell me what to do. You repeat, a second and third time, what you think God is saying she should do, and he replies each time, I just wish God would tell me what to do. You reply, Heh. I just told what you need to do, but she still persists, No, I really want God to talk to me. You say, God has been talking, it s obvious what you need to do, you just aren t listening. And she says, No, I want to hear God s voice. You just did, you say, but somehow she won t believe it. After all, God wouldn t come or speak through such a common and ordinary way as a friend, would he? Or we re offended when God chooses someone close to us our spouse, or sibling or parent to speak the word we need. We d rather God choose someone more distant, not someone who knows us so well, after all how can he/she know God s will for my life? Only thing worse than having God speak through your husband or wife is to hear God speak to you through your teenage son or daughter! Ever hear your words and advice echoed back to you when your daughter says, You re acting just like Granddaddy! I thought you said we aren t supposed to say that word or act like that? Oh please, God, don t speak to me through my children! Or God speaks to us through the faces and voice of children and adults who are starving. Or God speaks through the face or question of a resident at the nursing home, or the challenging circumstances and life needs of persons in nursing home there but for the grace of God go I! That could be me that is me that is God at work in that nurse, physical therapist, staffer helping my loved one. Cleaning him helping her... Could I honor that person by paying attention, by listening to his/her incoherent rambling and not turning away, not running away? I think God speaks to us all the time in ways so common we overlook them don t realize it is God speaking to us. Also, God speaks to us in surprising common ways that we can utilize to draw closer to God and to others. God speaks to us in the Bible. Read the Bible and you discover God guiding and correcting you, helping you to know and to do what is right. Spiritual books and devotionals help to clarify our relationship with God and what we ought to be doing. Study groups help us as we exchange ideas about the Bible and aspects of our faith. God speaks to us in the voice of friends and others who are trying to help us find our way. Don t hesitate to talk about your deepest concerns with trusted friends and family and advisors. Talking things out often clarifies it better than repeating the topic in your own circular thinking. God speaks to us through our spouses and our workmates, our small group or support group.
God Speaks In Surprisingly Common Ways, p4 God speaks to us when we pray and when we meditate. We must ask God to open our minds and hearts to what God wants of us and what God is doing in us. Sometimes while praying we get an insight that may not even be related to the subject matter about which we were praying but while our mind and heart are attuned to hear God speaks what we need to hear. Sometimes I just sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits quieting yourself may be what s needed so that ideas and impressions can come to you. Sometimes God speaks to us through our circumstances. Coincidences are God s way of remaining anonymous and often God s timing is so perfect that happenchance occurrences are not coincidences but God-incidences. So when you review your circumstances and situations ask yourself two questions: Where is God in this? What does God want me to learn from this? Putting ourselves into the places and practices in which God speaks conditions us to hear God speaking. In one of Bill Keane's "Family Circus" cartoons, the yard is filled with children playing as only children can. They are yelling and screaming, blowing horns, and crying. The dog is barking, a jet flies overhead, and two boys are beating on a drum. Inside the house, the mother of the children says to her husband, Listen. That's PJ crying!" Mother's ears were conditioned to hear the sound of her child's voice, even above the din. Condition yourself to hear God s voice in the BIG events of life as well as in the common, mundane, things of your life. Sometimes God shouts sometimes God whispers. You may hear God speaking in a dream you have just had, in the message of a preacher or teacher you have just heard, in the quiet voice you have heard inside you at the seashore, or in the words of a trusted friend Be open to God speaking in the Bible and the sacraments, and judge the things you hear by the word and by the Spirit that is within you. Examine the events around you and pray about them. May you hear and heed the voice of God, and then do as you feel or believe you have been called to do. If it is a true word, you will find confirmation in the situations and circumstances that follow, but if experiences don t confirm what you thought and expected, then reexamine what has happened and consider why, what did you miss, what might God have planned instead? Jesus revealed to the people of Nazareth that God doesn t speak only through the bold and dramatic the prophets and miracles - but God also speaks though the common and the ordinary like the little boy who cut your grass and watered your donkeys, and who took up the scroll and read and then said, Today this has been fulfilled in my reading and your hearing. Amen. Let us pray - Dear Lord - we know that you do call us - help us to listen for your call, help us to be able to recognize it and to accept it. Help us discover your personal word for us your personal demands upon us - your personal will for our lives. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
God Speaks In Surprisingly Common Ways, p5 Sources Fairchild, Richard J. HEARING GOD s CALL. www.kirshalom.com- Fairchild.doc Hamilton, Hugh. How God Speaks. Trinity Presbyterian Church Pensacola, FL. January 28, 2007. Markquart, Edward J. Offended by the Nice Little Kid From Nazareth. http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series c kidfromnazareth.htm \01-31-16 God Speaks to Us in Surpisingly Common Ways.doc