February 3rd, Luke

SERMON: LUKE 4:21-30
FEBURARY 3, 2019

Here we are again, smack dab in the synagogue in Nazareth, and Jesus has just read the shortest sermon in history. “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus would have been surrounded by family, the disciples, and His neighbors.  In a small village like Nazareth, and the fact that Jesus had lived most of His 30 years there before He began His public ministry, most of those in attendance would have known Jesus as He was growing up.

Those present that day would have included men, women and children as in Jesus time the men and women were not separated into different sections in the Synagogue. The synagogues where also where other community matters were also dealt with. In Jesus day the community would have gathered there for trials, teaching, and care of the poor. Interestingly, the New Testament mentions synagogues over 60 times, largely in connection with the ministry of Jesus and the apostles.   So, Jesus presence on this particular day would have not been out of the ordinary.

In short, it was Jesus’ words that were extraordinary that day. Not only did He tell them that He was the long -awaited Messiah, but He confronted them regarding their own personal thoughts, their actions and where their hearts were, by saying, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.” These were fighting words, because Jesus had turned the table on them, and we are told that “All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.”   In fact, they rose from their seats to drive Jesus out of town and tried to throw Him over the cliff.

In short, the story doesn’t end well. But before we get to the “cliff-hanger,” there are a few details about Jesus’ words that are important to note, particularly for overall themes in Luke’s Gospel. Working our way backwards, Jesus’ references the widow at Zarephath and the leper Naaman, the Syrian, reveals for whom Jesus has come — the widows, the lepers, the outsiders. Jesus’ whole ministry will be for the least of these, over and over again. Moreover, Jesus is for everyone. This would have not sat to well with Jewish people who felt that they were favored by God, and we can guess they were not to happy that Jesus had performed miracles in towns that they considered unworthy, yet He had performed no miracles in Nazareth.

No one really likes to hear that they need to change, and we especially don’t want to be told that our heart in not in the right place. Yet, here is Jesus telling them to their faces, that they needed to change, and yes, Jesus reaches across the ages telling us that we need to check our hearts and actions and see if changes are needed. Yet, if I admit it to myself, there are things that pop up into my mind that I know are wrong! Just as the people in Nazareth had become so familiar with Jesus that He was all rolled up in a little box in their minds, and thus, could not see Jesus for what He was.

We too often sort people and things into little boxes and make assumptions without really thinking about them. This human tendency allows us as humans to move through life without having to make constant decisions. Yet, it is just this trait that can hold us back from reaching out to those around us, especially those that are not in our social or economic class, or who are unlike us in other ways. Not only do we do an injustice to them, but to ourselves also. For we miss getting to know God’s people and we miss the joy of showing Jesus love to others.

Jesus surprised those in His hometown that day. He surprised them with His words, and with His actions. The ending of the story might have been very different if they had been willing to open their hearts to Jesus and push down their old ways of thinking.

How can we open ourselves up, give Jesus a chance to surprise us? Maybe the best way to allow Christ to surprise us is to see him in more places.  In the faces of the people we meet.  Or standing right behind the person we are talking to, smiling at us.  This may not only open us up to being surprised by Christ, but it can have the added benefit of making us more attentive to the person we are supposed to be listening to.  It is harder to take someone for granted when our Lord is standing right behind them!

Hearing Jesus anew, seeing him anew, allowing him to surprise us again, may lead us to a new understanding, something that eluded us before. It may cause us to wonder whether the answer we thought we had safely filed away in our “Jesus box” is the whole story.

As we leave here this morning, still in the time of Epiphany, remember that it is a good time to re-learn the good news that we profess.  It is a time to remind ourselves that in Jesus a light has dawned that will never go out.  It is a time to reaffirm our hope in the promises of all the good things that God is always working to bring into all our lives. It’s a time to remind ourselves that the life that God has created and redeemed through Jesus Christ is something to celebrate.  It’s a time to recognize that the grace of God is emerging all around us, bringing freedom and peace and a fresh start for the least and the lost and the left out.  But it’s also a time to remember that we have received all those blessings of new life for a purpose–not to hoard them, or to think of ourselves as special, but to share them with everyone we meet. It is a time to examine and open our hearts to all of God’s people, and it is a time of change!

Amen