Epiphany IV

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

Houston, TX

By The Rev. Martha Frances+

Year C Epiphany IV

28 January 2007

Text: Luke 4: 21-30

Other Readings:Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; I Corinthians 13: 1-13

This morning’s readings give us a wealth of material to apply to our lives today, & the readings have a lot in common. So we’ll look primarily at the Gospel to explore what God presents to us today, but we’ll also take a look or two at the other lessons.

Several points stand out as I’ve meditated this week. First, God takes the initiative in reaching out to us with the Good News, desiring to share with us & hoping that we will respond. Secondly, God’s intention is that all of humanity be included in God’s reign although we humans invariably try to limit God’s blessings to our own group or at least those of which we approve. Finally, God’s abundant gifts to us are intended not just for our own edification & comfort but for the whole community which ultimately means the global village. Let’s look at each of these premises in our scriptures.

Although we can certainly say that Jesus, God’s Son, reaches out to the neighbors in Nazareth through his reading & interpreting the Isaiah passage in the synagogue (remember we read that passage last week?), our most obvious example of God’s making the first move toward us is in the lesson from Jeremiah, God’s call to Jeremiah to the prophetic vocation. Not only does God commission Jeremiah when he is only a boy, but God also has had intentions for Jeremiah’s future even before he was born.

God tells Jeremiah that he is to be a prophet to the nations (we’ll get back to that part in a few minutes), & God doesn’t take “no” for an answer. Can’t you just hear Jeremiah whining, “Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy”? God responds that Jeremiah is to go where God sends him, to whatever people are there, & God will tell Jeremiah what to say. Just to make sure Jeremiah gets the point, God touches his mouth & then sends him on his way to all nations & kingdoms. God definitely reaches out & chooses whom God wills, equipping the saints for ministry, as Ephesians puts it. Jeremiah goes on to be a great prophet & gets himself in a lot of trouble, even getting dropped down into a well, all in response to God’s commissioning him. The call is not just to those of us who wear our collars backwards; God reaches out to each of us to spread good news to the nations & peoples, or at least those with whom we come in contact.

Secondly, God reaches out way beyond our comfort zone to people we wouldn’t even give the time of day to if we had our say in the matter. God really doesn’t discriminate as we tend to do as followers are chosen; God seems to accept everyone.

Remember last week we were told that at first the crowds were very impressed with Jesus? He returned to Nazareth with a good report preceding him, & today’s gospel tells us all spoke well of him, amazed at what he had to say. Almost immediately, however, the crowd begins to ask questions about him; “Isn’t this Joseph’s son? Who does he think he is?” And a little later, we’re told the crowd flies into a rage, drives him out of town, intending to hurl him off a cliff. How do we explain the change of attitude of people who had known Jesus all his life?

Well, you know there are privileges to being the hometown boy, but there are also obligations. Jesus is supposed to give preference to his family & village, yet he’s been preaching & performing miracles over in Capernaum & goodness knows where else. Capernaum is in Galilee, the text tells us, & is probably a city with more Gentiles than Jews. Jesus’ Jewish family & neighbors certainly don’t like the idea of Jesus’ doing for Gentiles what he hasn’t done first for them.

Not only that, but Jesus points out God’s desire for all to be included with 2 stories from their own scriptures, both of which show God’s healing touch upon Gentiles, not Jews. Elijah could certainly have healed any number of Jewish children while providing for them & their mothers’ welfare, but instead, Elijah was led to the widow at Zarephath in Sidon to take care of her & heal her son. Likewise, Elisha didn’t cure a Jewish person of leprosy but Naaman the Syrian. Now it is downright rude for Jesus to suggest that God offers healing & wholeness to foreigners before even the Jews are healed.

Does this sound anything like churches & other groups in today’s world? We are sure that we know to whom God offers love, healing, forgiveness, & the right hand of fellowship to become part of our community. We want to make sure it’s folks like us who are the privileged. Jesus comes along & emphasizes our responsibility to the poor, the hungry, the dispossessed, the captives---indeed all those people from the Isaiah passage we read last week. Just in case you think it’s only in other fancy churches where parishioners want to keep other folks out, I hear it more often than I like to admit here at Hope.

I learned at Lord of the Streets that even those who have few material resources themselves want to be sure they’re included in the “in group” & that someone else is left out. All through the gospels, we see Jesus including people whom we’d just as soon leave out. Jesus wipes away all that judgmentalism & tells & shows us that salvation is available to all. It’s a lesson we must always keep in mind, especially when we want to exclude other people. Who are the people whom we demonize in our own society & beyond? Remember that those people are just as precious in God’s sight as you or I are. We must constantly be on the watch for those prejudices in our own hearts.

Finally, God doesn’t feed the hungry or clothe the naked just for their own sakes, & God certainly doesn’t give people spiritual gifts so they can feel better about themselves & feel better than everyone else. Jesus is pretty clear in the gospel for last Sunday & today that we’re all in this together, & we’re supposed to take care of each other. Getting along together & affirming each other’s gifts are not any easier to do in a church community than anywhere else, & that was obviously true in the early church too. We know that because of all the times Paul & other epistle writers have to admonish the young Christian churches to use their spiritual gifts to strengthen the whole community, not just to act like super Christians themselves.

We’re all learning, one day at a time, to live together in love & care & to reach out to share Christ’s love with others. God has already offered it, so we’re just cooperating with God’s plan to go into the streets & nooks & crannies of Houston & invite others to come & see a Christian community in action. God offers unconditional love to all, even those we’d just as soon not be in relationship with, so we might as well start loving them instead of trying to set them apart from us. This going into all the world—even the parts of it that our lives touch most closely—is pretty exhausting, but we’re not asked to do it alone. In fact, that’s one reason why we’re supposed to be building up the church, not going it alone. During this time of Epiphany, may we show forth Christ’s light to the nations, or at least to all whom we meet. Amen.