A Sermon preached at
the Family Service on Epiphany III, Jan. 27, at St. Augustine’s Wiesbaden
Luke 2:22-40, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Luke 4:21-30
Because we started
today’s service with a Candlemas celebration, we are able to compare and contrast
two very different appearances of Jesus in religious houses, one in the Temple
and the other in his home synagogue! I am reminded of the Palm Sunday service.
There too we start with a celebratory event, Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem,
which is later followed by the story of his rejection, capture, and execution.
Today too we started
with a celebration. Simeon, described as righteous and devout, takes the baby
Jesus in his arms to praise and thank God for having sent him as our salvation,
and as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people
Israel." (Luke 2:32) And although her words are not recorded, the prophet
Anna joins in praising God and “speaking about the child to all who were
looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.” (2:38)
But where there is
light, there is often also shadow. Simeon warns Mary that there will be
opposition to Jesus and what he stands for, “a sign that will be opposed,” and
that she will suffer great sadness: “a sword will pierce your own soul
too." (2:34-35) We do not have to wait very long when Jesus starts his
active ministry before this prediction becomes true. It is right there in
today’s second Gospel passage about Jesus’ visit to the synagogue at Nazareth.
When Jesus tells the congregation
that, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing," (4:21)
everyone is still happy. They “spoke well of him and were amazed at the
gracious words that came from his mouth.” (4:22) Yet just a few lines later we
are told, “all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him
out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was
built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the
midst of them and went on his way.” (4:29-30) He escapes this early death, but it
looks forward to another hill, Calvary, and to the death that Jesus will have to
pass through.
So, what went wrong,
why did they turn against him? In the
version of this episode in Mark’s Gospel (6:1-6), the people of Nazareth are against
Jesus from the very beginning, because they doubt that the “carpenter,” as they
call him, has either the wisdom he claims, or the power. Immediately, “they
took offence at him.” ….. And he could do no deed of power there.” That is not the case in Luke’s account. “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the
gracious words that came from his mouth.” And it seems they are looking forward
to Jesus doing the things that they had heard
he did at Capernaum.
It can’t be
disappointment either. This is the very beginning of his ministry. Later people
do turn from Jesus out of disappointment. Because he is not the Messiah they
wanted. Not the military leader, not the one who will reward his followers with
power and wealth. Or because it all takes too long and too much effort. The
Kingdom of God does not come over night. The transformation of the world is a
gradual process, through the transformation of the individual. We see this sort
of impatience so often. Look at President Macron in France for example. He was
elected with a huge majority to implement a program of reform, at the end of
which, he promised, France would be much better off. Unfortunately, pain comes
before gain. And not only are the “gilets jaunes” unwilling to wait, but also,
according to polls, a majority of the French people are also now disappointed.
It’s best not to expect miracles from humans.
No, the reason that
the people in Nazareth turn against Jesus, is because they are motivated by the
question, “what’s in it for us?” They
want him to do the things he has done elsewhere in Capernaum, healing the sick
and the possessed, perhaps even what he did in Cana, providing them with free
wine for a party, here in Nazareth, for them, and now. When he says, “Today
this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” (4:21) the scripture promising
liberation, recovery of sight for the blind, and the forgiveness of all debts,
they think it means them first, and perhaps also greater Israel second. They
deserve it, don’t they? He’s one of them, Joseph’s boy. They helped bring him
up. And they are all good and faithful Jews who go to the synagogue every week,
study God’s word every day, and pray morning, noon, and night.
But Jesus has other
ideas, just as Simeon foretold in the Temple when he called Jesus the “savior
prepared for all the world to see, a light to enlighten all
nations.” (Luke 2:32) When Jesus reminds them that during a great famine Elijah
was sent to a foreign widow in Zarephath, although there were many widows in
Israel, and that Elisha cleansed a Syrian leper, and a general of their great
enemy, he is telling them that God’s power cannot be restricted to their little
community, or to their people. God’s power does not belong to us and God does
not belong to us. We belong to God.
As we heard, this did
not go down well, and so, metaphorically shaking the dust off his feet, he
passed through the midst of them and went on his way, continuing on his mission
to bring good news to all. The scripture was being fulfilled in their hearing, but
not the way they thought. The people of Nazareth attending their synagogue that
day wanted God to do their bidding. But it’s the other way round. God calls
peoples and individuals to do God’s bidding.
Israel was chosen to
be a light to the Gentiles, to witness to a God who cares and loves. And the
people of Nazareth, and everyone who listened to Jesus, were also chosen, if
they accepted, to be a light to others, and to use God’s power in service and
love. As St. Paul tells us in that passage that is a firm favorite at weddings,
“faith, hope, and love abide, these three and the greatest of these is love.” (1
Cor. 13:13)
The Christian Church,
as the New Israel, has the same role: to be a light to all, to bring the Good
News to all, to serve all. The God we witness to is not a God who lives only in
Israel, in this or our home countries, in the Church, in our denomination, in our
parish, or within whatever boundaries we try and set. God is not ours. Jesus is
not ours. We are his. One of the seven practices of the Way of Love, the Rule
of Life that our Presiding Bishop introduced at last year’s General Convention
is called “GO: Cross boundaries.” “As Jesus went to the highways and byways, he
sends us beyond our circles and comfort, to witness to the love, justice, and
truth of God with our lips and with our lives. We go to listen with humility
and to join God in healing a hurting world. We go to become Beloved Community,
a people reconciled in love with God and one another.”[1]
That is what Jesus is telling the people in Nazareth and us through this story.
We are to go beyond the boundaries we set just as Elijah, and Elisha did. St. Paul
also heard this message and took it to heart, crisscrossing the known world, willfully
breaking rules if he felt that they stood in the way of the Gospel.
If we want to be able
to say, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, we must not
just hear scripture, but embody it, act upon it, in one sense become it. And we
cannot keep it to ourselves, or only look after our own. Jesus, the word of
God, is ours, but ours to share. The Good News is ours, to share. Using God’s
greatest gift, the power of love, we can bring freedom from poverty, liberation,
healing, reconciliation, and forgiveness not only to our own, but to all those
who are God’s own. So, to every human being. That is what the dismissal at the end
of the service means, whether you are sent forth in the name of Christ, or in
peace, or in the power of the Spirit, it is always to love and to serve.
Amen.
[1] https://www.episcopalchurch.org/way-love-brochures
Thanks also to https://www.episcopalchurch.org/library/sermon/we-are-his-epiphany-4-c-february-3-2019 for inspiration and some of the interpretation
Thanks also to https://www.episcopalchurch.org/library/sermon/we-are-his-epiphany-4-c-february-3-2019 for inspiration and some of the interpretation
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