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The 4. Sunday after Epiphany, 02/03/2013
Sermon on Luke 4:21-30, by Samuel D. Zumwalt
21 And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." 22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" 23 And he said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.' What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your home town as well." 24 And he said, "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his home town. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.
UNACCEPTABLE PROPHET
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today's Gospel lesson is a bit like peeling an onion. There is more than one layer.
First of all, there's the initial problem. When you grow up in a small town, no matter how far you go, the home folks will never let you get too big for your britches. Doubtless Jesus faces the same problem in Nazareth, and He knows it. After Jesus reads the lesson from Isaiah 61 in His home synagogue, He begins to say to them: "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
The peoples' first response was probably one of internal confusion. On the one hand they really know this kid. And so you can hear them say to one another: "Didn't little Jesus, the carpenter's boy, turn out well? Isn't He a good reader? Doesn't He speak with such authority? It's quite amazing, isn't it?!" And then their body language gives their inner thoughts away: "But what's all this He is saying to us? We know who He is. We know where He came from. We've heard stories from people around Galilee that little Jesus does miracles. That can't be true, can it? "
Jesus addresses this problem head on: "Yes, you've probably heard that I did some dramatic healings down the road in Capernaum. And maybe you think there's something wrong with me. But, this is really an old story. Hometown people can never seem to accept a prophet who grew up in their midst. Think about Elijah and Elisha. Their greatest miracles weren't done to help out God's people. In fact, they brought these most amazing blessings to a Gentile woman and a Gentile man."
Jesus' first sermon is almost a killer sermon. The people literally run Him out of town. Good thing Jesus walks right through them before they can throw Him off a cliff!
NEXT
Now the second layer of the Gospel lesson is the clash of the stories by which the people live and the one by which Jesus lives. This is the layer at which we begin to be more engaged today.
Metanarrative is the fancy theological word for a grand overarching story by which people live and from which they draw meaning for their lives. If the truth be told, that's where fireworks between our neighbors and us can really get started.
You would think Jesus and His neighbors, having so much in common, would all be on the same page. Of course, we readers and hearers of Luke's Gospel know what His hometown folks don't. Little Jesus, Joseph's son, is actually God's Son born of the Virgin Mary. We're not so surprised by anything Jesus says and does, because we know He is not from Nazareth or even from His birthplace in Bethlehem. "He came down to earth from heaven who is God and Lord of all" (Cecil Frances Alexander, "Once in Royal David's City").
So the problem is a bit deeper than that Jesus wasn't respected by His hometown folks. Within the narrative itself, the deeper problem is shown by the wrathful response of His hearers. The thing that almost pushes Jesus over the edge is this business about blessings for Gentiles rather than for God's people.
For all but about a century of the past six hundred years since the Babylonian exile, all of God's people had lived under Gentile rule. To paraphrase that famous philosopher Frankie Pentangelli in "The Godfather II": God's people did business with the Gentiles. They respected the Gentiles. But they never trusted the Gentiles.
In fact, Jesus' hometown folks hated the Gentiles. And so the thought that God's blessings might fall on the Gentiles instead of God's people? Now that was a story just too hard to hear! It wasn't the story by which the Nazarenes lived.
Of course, that was where the clash took place. For the promise to Abraham and Sarah was precisely that God would make of them a great nation and by them all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3). That's what Jesus' neighbors had forgotten. They understood the part about those that cursed God's people being cursed but they forgot about Israel's vocation to be a blessing to the whole Gentile world.
The biggest clash of stories is seen in that Jesus, God's Son, always keeps His Father's good and gracious will at the center of His life even unto death on a cross. Jesus' neighbors do not keep God at the center, and that is precisely their problem. And ours!
If Jesus is just a guy from Nazareth, the carpenter's son, then a clash of our stories with his is no big deal. But if Jesus is God's Son in human flesh, then the clash of the stories by which we live with the story by which He lives means big, big trouble for us! And wasn't that exactly the problem in Nazareth? Because they were so certain they knew who Jesus was, they couldn't accept who Jesus really is! Jesus was and is a threat to everyone who doesn't live by the same story as He! That would be all of us!
AND AFTER THAT
The deepest layer in the Gospel lesson is frankly all about pride. Our pride keeps us from admitting we can be wrong. It's a huge problem in more places than Nazareth 2,000 years ago!
It's a good exercise to get down on our knees at least twice each day and to say, "There is a God, and it's not me! God is always right and never wrong. I can be wrong!"
It's like what the grandfather said to his grandson on his wedding day: "Son, you have to decide if you want to be right or to be happy."
I know too many pastors, professors, and bishops who never can admit to being wrong. I know too many spouses, parents, and children who can never admit to being wrong. Pride is a killer. Indeed the human race thought, and still thinks, we can throw God out of this world that He made and owns. God is God. We are not. We will die. We will answer for all the stupid things we have said and done and left undone in our foolish pride. And God will even let people go to hell if they keep on insisting on being right!
There is God's story which the Lord Jesus lived with perfect obedience even unto death on a cross. And there is the story of rebellion that all of us pridefully fall into when we refuse to admit that we can be wrong and often are. We are born in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. That is why God sent His Son Jesus to be born in human flesh; so that He would live the life none of us can live and die the death none of us can die. He came to save us from our sins. "For the love of God is broader than the measures of our mind; and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind. There is plentiful redemption in the blood that has been shed; there is joy for all the members in the sorrows of the head" (Frederick Faber, "There's A Wideness in God's Mercy").
Nowhere does Scripture teach that we are born in innocence until we know right from wrong. We are sinners from our mother's wombs, and if we are not baptized into Jesus' death and resurrection we remain in our sins and in need of a Savior. We are not saved by what we do. God chooses us for Christ's sake and gives us a new birth through water and the Holy Spirit, through Holy Baptism. God does the work, even bringing us to faith, or there is no redemption for us. We cannot save ourselves. His story clashes with our story again and again!
So many of the problems that occur in both the Church and the world come when we pridefully try to hang on to our own story rather than to admit we are wrong in God's eyes. Paul warned Timothy about this when he wrote: "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths" (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
On the other hand, it's really very liberating to say: "I can be wrong, but God is always right! If there is a clash between His story and mine, then I am wrong." Period!
FINALLY
Please turn to the inside front cover of the bulletin and read those words that begin "I will strive." Let's read together: "I will strive to pray daily, worship weekly, read the Bible, serve at and beyond St. Matthew's, be in relationship to encourage spiritual growth in others; give of my time, talents, and resources" (Michael Foss, Power Surge).
Following God's Son Jesus in a life of humble service does not save us. It is how we say "thank you." And it's good practice for getting out of the center that belongs to God alone! It's good practice for letting go of the old story of rebellion against God!
We come today as hungry and as empty as the widow of Zarephath and her son. We come as broken and unclean as Naaman the Syrian. We come wanting to resist the truth about ourselves that we are sinners from our mother's wombs and cannot save ourselves. We come struggling to say, "I can be wrong. I have been wrong. I am wrong." We need Jesus to meet us where we are and to take our sin and death to His cross again. We need Jesus to give us His own life and righteousness as a free gift again.
What a tragedy that Jesus was an unacceptable prophet in His hometown! As for those baptized into Jesus' death and resurrection, that is not our story. We come with empty hands to the altar. "Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to thy cross I cling. Naked, come to thee for dress; helpless, look to thee for grace. Foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me, Savior, or I die" (Augustus Toplady, "Rock of Ages").
When you have received the Lord's own body and most precious blood in the host and the cup, rise up with gratitude that you have been fed and washed and clothed today. Go into the world as children of the Light proclaiming God's love and mercy in Jesus!
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Bemerkung:
Luke 4:21-30 English Standard Version Bible, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers