Luke 4:21-30

Not Just for the People in the Club

We pray:

Kindle us, kindle us now.
Lord, we believe, we accept, we adore.
Less than the least though we be.
Fire of Love, burn in us, burn evermore.
Till we burn out for thee.  Amen.
–Amy Carmichael from The Hodder Book of Christian Prayers, Hodder & Stoughton,
1986

Ever hear of a „Ruby Begonia“?  I am sure that some of
you know what I am talking about.  Can you imagine that a Ruby Begonia
is what a city is proud of and for which it is noted?  Well, there
is one here in Texas.  The city is Cuero.  The Ruby Begonia
is, catch this, a turkey!  Yes, a bird, a variety of turkey!  Every
year Cuero proudly has Ruby Begonia races with some neighboring town
to see which „turkey“ is the fastest!  Every town, village,
hamlet, burg wants something, somebody, anything to make it stand out.

I notice when I come into this town (Kerrville, TX) that there are no
signs, stating Kerrville, the home of…. .  Of course, the local
school system does have the years of the high school being the regional
and state champions of football, well displayed on one of its building
for all passing by to see.  Didn’t see any recent years displayed,
however.

There was this burg, village called Nazareth in the hills of Galilee.  15
miles from the Sea of Galilee, 20 miles from the Mediterranean–in the
middle of nowhere- passed by the Interstates of its day.  It had
a moderate climate, good for growing vegetables, but it had only one
spring for water.  So you had to drink rain water some of the time,
and rain water soon tastes brackish.  So the place was a place you
didn’t stay if you had another place to go. You didn’t say: „I live
in Nazareth.“   That was like saying you lived in Hell, Michigan;
Bobo, Mississippi; or Boring, Maryland.

But, and this is a big, „but“ they had their „Ruby Begonia.“  They
were at long last going to have someone of whom to be proud. They were
ready to get the city signs repainted (if they had city signs) to read: „Hometown
of the Famous Prophet, Jesus.“ They may have been slightly wrong
about that, but what is that among so many small lies we hear in these
days?  They were no longer going to be the buffoons of the rest
of the region.  The derisive „What good can come out of Nazareth?“ would
forever be banished.  Jesus was their boy, their hero.  They
had produced him.

He had come home.  Jesus, the person always loyal to tradition,
a person of great piety, spends the sabbath studying Jewish law and custom
in the synagogue.  (Now I wish all of you would at least follow
that pious example of Jesus, even if you can’t follow much else.) He
is in the church, we would say, of his small hometown.  He is given
the privilege, that was given to visiting teachers, of reading from the
Holy Scriptures and giving a short explanation of its meaning.  Jesus
had done that.

The Scripture was from the book written by Isaiah, a famous man of God
from long ago, about 700 ago.  Those words were: „The Spirit
of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news
to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of the sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to
proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.“ The Good News of God appointed
for today begins after Jesus had handed back the scroll of Scripture
and sat down.

„Today this is happening right here and now.“ Jesus says.  This
calls for an immediate response from the people hearing him.  They
were to respond not with some kind of tinkering with their ideas, not
with some small tweaking of how they did things.  They were to become
people of action.

There were two responses to Jesus.  One was „Wow! Isn’t he
the best, the wisest you have ever heard?“ and the other: „Who’s
fulfilling what around here?  Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?  He’s
Joseph’s son.“ They didn’t want action they wanted Jesus to do something
for them, not for them to change and get moving.

The rest of the story seems like Jesus just intentionally irritated
them, egged them on, tried to get them upset with him.  For all
practical purpose he says, „You want me to do miracles like I did
down there in the town of Capernaum.  No way!  I am not here
to make you famous.  I am like the great Old Testament man of God,  Elijah
who didn’t get fed during a sustained period of drought in his homeland
of Israel, but went outside to Sidon.“ The people of Nazareth knew
Sidon all right.  It was in the neighboring country.  Elisha,
Elijah’s successor didn’t cure anybody locally but a man, a sworn enemy
of Israel, from the country of Syria.

What’s going on here?  Where is the great love that our New Testament
Lesson for today speaks about: love is kind, gentle, and all the rest
of those things?  This is shocking.
Jesus is shocking and loving in an amazing way.  Shocking in the
way he seems to treat his hometown people!  Amazing that he wants
us to be free, he wants us to see, he wants us to see him for what he
is: God’s one and only Son born as a man for us and for our salvation–to
free us, given correct insight into life, get rid of those things that
oppress us, that burden us!

Had Jesus decided to make Nazareth famous by staying there, making it
a shrine for himself, we would never be sitting where we are today.  Jesus
is not a hometown person; he is for all people.  His message is
for the people of Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

His message of freedom from guilt, from shame, from sin, from addiction,
from the thought process that either you are the hottest person who ever
lived, or from believing you are nothing–that no one cares, no one is
concerned about you.  He give us eyes to see that it is not the
end of your nose that is important, but the view of eternity, of life
always and forever which he gives us through his cross, through his death,
and through his resurrection.  His message to you is that we suffer
from a poverty of righteousness which cannot be purchased, earned or
produced by us and that poverty turns into „riches“ when he
gives us the perfection that only God can possess and that we have by
faith in this Jesus.

But why the anger in the people, if that was Jesus‘ message?  They
wanted him for themselves.  They wanted the exclusive rights to
whatever he was or would become.  His message said, „there
is no exclusive club for my message. I am for all people everywhere.“

Now I notice as I come into this wonderful town, roadside signs telling
us about three other Lutheran churches, several other churches, and then
coming into the city itself, I can see other churches of several denominations.  Now
my question is: are they brothers and sisters in Christ, competition,
or perhaps even the enemy?

And what is this congregation about?  Are we exclusive?  Do
we have fences so high that only people remarkably like us would find
this place as the place of God in their life?  Are we proud of being
Lutheran or do we boast only in the cross of Jesus Christ?  Because
you have been baptized, confirmed, and are regular, what do they say? „A
member in good standing,“ are you better than others?

Are we open or do we want to be closed?  I know most of the people
that surround you here today are your friends, and that is wonderful,
but Jesus is a friend to all, because he laid down his life for all.  All
people need to hear the wonderful message of Jesus and his forgiving
love.  All need it just as you continue to constantly need it.

You can convince people of anything, but if you don’t love them by giving
yourself in service for them, you are a gong that people can hear, but
calls them to nothing.  You can tell it like it is and understand
people and life really well, you can accomplish the impossible in life,
but if you are not willing to accept them and serve them with the Good
News of Jesus and in their other needs, you are nothing.  You can
give everything to others, and die for your faith, but you will have
gained nothing if love was not present in those actions.  Your example
will prove nothing to anybody.

When people are young, like children, we want exclusive rights.  Children
say, „This is mine.  You can’t play with it.“ Sometimes
we are shocked when our friend has other friends we don’t even know about.
We wonder if that person is really our friend.  We want to be exclusive.  We
have clubs to keep some others out.  We are better, finer, whatever
than others.

God loved the whole world, the whole world, that all you have to do
is believe in him as your Lord and Savior, you have eternal life.  Which
means, you will be taken care of always.  Jesus says, Believe God
loved the whole world.  Believe he loves everybody in Kerrville,
TX.   Believe God wants everyone to hear of Jesus and make them
as you are into his beloved children.

No exclusive rights.  No sign to say, „Jesus is only here.“ No
boasting of who we are, save in the cross of Christ our Lord.

Are we here today sitting in the synagogue of Nazareth listening to
Jesus say: „Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,“ and
saying: „This is God’s Son our Savior.  Let’s get others to
hear what he has to say?  Or are you saying, „I’ve had enough
of this Jesus stuff.“  Where are you today?

Walter W. Harms, retired pastor
Austin, TX, USA
Comments? waltpast@AOL.com