More than One Place
RCL Year C • Sermon • Submitted
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I want to start off today by pointing out that our story today is the second half of last weeks story. Last week we heard from what Jesus read from Isaiah, but this week we hear more of what Jesus has to say and the reaction from the people in the synagogue. The reaction that we get from the people in the synagogue seems to have several different factors involved. First they are amazed at his words but then they realize that this person speaking is the same little boy that used to run through town and used to help his dad, Joseph, make tables and chairs and other assorted carpentry items for people who needed them. And this is Nazareth, can anything really good come from Nazareth?
We see Jesus’ humble beginnings like whom he was being born to, where he was born, where he lived and grew up and all of it as a sign of the incredible nature of God and God’s plan for the world. People, though, had a hard time connecting this man with the prophecies of old. They had a hard time seeing him as this prophet-king, this messiah we just heard him essentially declare himself last week when he read from Isaiah. We again get that confirmation from the overlap of Luke 4:21 when he says that it has been fulfilled today. Sure they were amazed at what he said but still, there is no way this man is anything more than the son of Joseph, the carpenter.
Perhaps as a contradiction or maybe even a test by the people, Jesus seems to know before they actually ask that they want him to do the things that they have heard him do elsewhere and specifically in Capernaum. If you really are this guy we’ve heard about, if the stories are true and what you say is true then do here what you’ve done there. Prove to us it’s true. Or maybe it’s even a coercive comment in getting Jesus to stay with them in Nazareth instead of going to the rest of Israel. Perhaps it’s all of these ideas coming from different people that day and Jesus is attempting to get to the bottom of all of it and move past all of this doubt, skepticism, confusion, and proof-seeking. What Jesus does seem to know is that amidst all this questioning there is no way that Jesus will be accepted fully in his hometown the way that he has been in the surrounding area.
If we remember from last week, it’s just a passing comment, but Luke tells us that Jesus was teaching in the synagogues in all the surrounding area and he was both praised by everyone and report began to spread about him throughout the whole area. So there is a major shift between everywhere else he has preached and his own hometown. Something was different about being home. I remember preaching in my own home congregation growing up. I was a senior in high school. It’s actually my call story which we can save for another day, but amidst the eventually realization that was my call, I distinctly remember standing in the narthex of my congregation and hearing people remind me that they taught me in Sunday School. They remember when I was knee high. They remember me running around the grounds of the church and goofing off with my brothers or even being disruptive as an acolyte with the other acolytes I sat with during worship. I also preached right before I took my first call and even then there was both a sense of pride in people and others who still could only remember me as that little boy. At least that was my experience of preaching back at home and how I understood their comments.
Jesus tries to help his own home town, his own home congregation, to understand the purpose of his ministry by using the examples of two of the greatest prophets in Israel. Both these prophets had times in their ministry when they were not well received in Israel and spent time outside of it. It was during that time that their miracles and their focus was on people and places that were obviously not a part of Israel. Elijah stays with a widow and her son during famine and miraculously their oil and meal do not run out even though it was supposed to last for one last meal. Elisha cares for the leper Naaman who was a Syrian. Elijah and Elisha were not really any people of special note until God called them to be prophets. It was their calling by God that set them apart for the work they did. We could say the exact same thing about Moses and King David. It was God calling them that set them apart not that they were royalty or from a prominent family or city.
Sometimes, we too, in our own ways, try to restrict or limit God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit to what we want or expect from them. We try to limit them to a place or a time or a building. We might not do it intentionally just like I don’t think the people in the synagogue really mean to either. But if we are honest we have at times in our lives tried to limit the scope of God’s work when we know that God’s scope is limitless. God’s love and grace extends to people, times, and places that we don’t expect or sometimes don’t want it to go. But when has God ever been stopped by what we think or what we want?
I believe that is what is at the bottom of this text. It is both what frustrates the congregation in Nazareth and is so freeing about Jesus’ message to the world. God’s love, grace, and scope is so much greater than we can possibly imagine. God’s message has always been inclusive. That is why Jesus points out these stories about Elijah and Elisha. God has always been inclusive of people and to people. God has always sent people and prophets to anyone and everyone. Honestly that is the entire story of Jonah, going to share God’s forgiveness to people that Jonah, a prophet, felt God shouldn’t be going to see.
Perhaps that is the symbology of the last sentence of the story. You can’t get in the way, truly of God’s mission. Jesus just passed through the crowds and went on his way. God’s message is going to happen and not even an angry group of people is going to stop it or slow it down. And it’s not about God saying no to one group and yes to another, which may be how the people in the synagogue heard it, but it’s about saying there’s room for more. And boy would it be a lost easier if we got on board and helped share that message of the expansiveness of God’s love and inclusion. If God loves me, and forgives me, I bet, I bet you that God has enough love and forgiveness for someone else too, even if that someone else isn’t someone I would expect. God’s message through Christ Jesus is meant for all. It is a message for all people for all time. And that message is going to go on it’s way for the whole world to hear. Amen.