Epiphany IV

By The Rev. Martha Frances+

Year C Epiphany IV

31 January 20010

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 we will respond.  Secondly, God's intention is that all of humanity be included in God's reign even when we humans try to limit God's blessings to our own group or at least those with which we are comfortable.  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 his neighbors in Nazareth as he reads & interprets the Isaiah passage in the synagogue (the passage we read last week), our most obvious example of God's making the first move toward us is in God's call of Jeremiah to the prophetic vocation.  Not only does God commission the boy Jeremiah, but God has had intentions for Jeremiah's future from before he was born. 

      God tells Jeremiah that 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.  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.  Further, God's call is not just to those of us who wear our collars backwards; God reaches out to each Christian, so I encourage you to recognize your own call to be an epiphany of God;  we're each to be a manifestation of the divine.

      Secondly, God has us reach 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 accepts everyone. 

      Last week we were saw at first the crowds were very impressed with Jesus? His neighbors in Nazareth had heard good things about 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: "Isn't this Joseph's son?  Who does he think he is?"  And a little later, the crowd flies into a rage & drives him out of town, intending to hurl him off a cliff.  This rejection by his own friends in Nazareth is his first taste of crucifixion.  How do we explain this change of attitude of people who had known Jesus all his life?   

      Well, there are privileges to being the hometown boy, but there are also obligations.  Jesus is supposed to give preference to his family & village—you've heard of family discounts—yet he's been preaching & performing miracles over in Capernaum & goodness knows where else.  Capernaum is in Galilee & probably has 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.  After all, they've known all their lives that they are God's special people.

      Further, Jesus points out God's inclusion of all with 2 stories from their own Hebrew 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 any Jewish people who had leprosy but rather 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 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.  We at Hope are eager to attract younger people to the community, but they are supposed to believe & behave just like us; we are nervous about being challenged with new ideas.  Jesus comes along & emphasizes our responsibility to the poor, the hungry, the dispossessed, the captives---indeed all those people mentioned in the Isaiah passage last week.  Just in case you think it's only in fancy big churches where parishioners want to keep other folks out, I hear it more often than I like to admit here at Hope. 

      All through the gospels, Jesus includes people 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 are tempted to exclude other people.  Who are the people whom we demonize in our own society & beyond?  Remember, those people are just as precious in God's sight as you or I are.  We must constantly be on the watch when those prejudices arise 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 & believe they are better than everyone else.  Jesus is pretty clear in last Sunday's & today's gospel 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.  Paul & other epistle writers have to admonish the young Christian churches repeatedly to use their spiritual gifts to strengthen the whole community, not just to act like super Christians themselves.  In the Love Chapter which we read today in 1^st Corinthians, the pinnacle of Paul's letter to this most challenging young community, he tells us that it is appropriate for a child to speak, think, & reason like a child, but we adults must be willing to give up selfish childish ways & celebrate the gifts of our differences as adults.

      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 to invite others to come & see a Christian community in action.  It's important when others come, of course, that we are a Christian community in action & that we truly open ourselves to welcome others.  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.  As you begin this new phase of your life together after I begin my medical leave, this can be an exciting time of learning better to live out of the qualities of love which Paul describes in his "Love" chapter we read today.  The Greek word for the self-giving love Paul describes is "agape."  This is not the romantic love which is turned inward connecting  two people but rather an unselfish love which can indeed bear, believe, hope, & endure all things for it begins with God, & we can return it to God through other people, sort of like paying it forward.  With such love, we can begin to see others as God sees them, the beloved.  

      During this time of Epiphany, may we show forth Christ's light to the nations, or at least to all whom we meet.  Please join me in a prayer which our Diocesan Bishop +Andy Doyle includes in his meditation upon today's scriptures:

      "God of the prophets, your love reaches far beyond the boundaries of covenant and command.  Redeemed by a love so patient and king, may we offer that same love to others & so proclaim you to the world by the witness of our lives.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever & ever. Amen."