Doubtless you will quote me this proverb (Luke 4:14-30)

Luke 4:14-30 (NRSV)

14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” 24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 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. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

January 14, 2017

Dr. Martin Luther King Day Sermon Notes

This week’s sermon picked up where the Christ the King Sermon of November 20, 2016 left off. In his first public appearance since his baptism in Luke 3, he returned to his home village of Nazareth and participated in the Sabbath service in the local synagogue. The text for the morning was Isaiah 61, the text that we read two months ago. It is a text that talks about the chosen one of God proclaiming release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.

Needless to say, the people of Nazareth were quite happy to see that a local boy had begun to make his way in the world. They had seen him grow up and were pleased to see that he had seemingly overcome the difficulty of his apparent illegitimate birth. Finally, here he was reading with confidence a piece of Scripture that was very familiar to all of them. They were pleased with who he had become and were even more excited when they heard him declare the passage had been fulfilled in their hearing.

Perhaps this meant that time for freedom for their nation had come and they would at last be able to throw off the Roman Empire. They did not think that Jesus was going to be the person to do it, but anything was possible. Why not give him a chance?

Unfortunately, Jesus did not respond the way that they wanted him to. He went on to proclaim that the purposes of his ministry were not focused on the people and village who had raised him. He told two more familiar stories, one regarding a widow and her son, the involving a foreign general, that pointed to the fact that God’s kingdom did not apply just to the people of Israel. Others were just as much made in the image of God and they were loved as well. This truth caused a near riot and Jesus was almost thrown off the cliff to his death. Fortunately, he managed to avoid the crowd and was able to slip away at the last minute.

In many ways this is often how we approach our faith today. We like the fact that Jesus is seemingly on our side. We like the fact that he is familiar and that we know the stories he tells. We enjoy the familiarity have and savor the promises that he has made on our behalf. He has promised us that the kingdom of heaven is at hand and that we have been promised eternal life.

All of these things are true, and we should be excited by the fact that Jesus has made these things real to us. Unfortunately, we sometimes get bent out of shape when we realize that the kingdom of God is not ours to control. Jesus is not our private property. His love has been offered to the people we do not like, and has called us to recognize that all people are made in the image of God. The real world implications of this are seen when suddenly we have to recognize that both the refugee and the native born, the poor and the rich, the Democrat and the Republican, the man and the woman, not to mention people of every ethnicity, are all worthy of respect, equality and love.

This inevitably requires us to live differently. Depending on how much we have bought into the system of the world, our very place in the hierarchy may be at risk. It is no wonder that the people of Nazareth tried to throw him off the cliff. Fortunately, Jesus proved God’s kingdom was able to overcome their resistance then, and that kingdom is able to overcome our resistance today. The key question is whether we want to be able to be a part of what Jesus is doing or not.