Prayer of Illumination
Guide us, O God,
by your Word and Spirit,
that in your light we may see light,
in your truth find freedom,
and in following your way discover your peace,
through Jesus the Christ.
Amine/Amen
Introduction to Jeremiah 1: 4-10 and Luke 4:21-30
Both readings record the beginning of two people’s ministry.
Jeremiah records that first call of God, his doubt and God’s response. Jeremiah became God’s prophet in a divided land. He worked under three kings of Judah until Jerusalem was invaded. From his writings it is clear this was not an easy job and he is honest with his criticism of God for this. But, despite all his difficulties, he is still a prophet until he disappears into exile at the end of his life.
Ponder how this moment with God fueled this dedicated response.
The Luke reading details the second half of the story of Jesus’ announcement about his ministry. (We explored the first half last Sunday). This focusses on the people’s response.
Imagine, if you will, being in that crowd that day. Would you have been part of the “everyone” or a silent protestor, un-noticed in the mob.
Ponder what we can do when we are faced with “everyone’s” anger.
Bible Reading 1 Jeremiah 1: 4-10 (English Standard Version)
4 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 7 But the Lord said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8 Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the Lord.”
9 Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”
Bible Reading 2 Luke 4: 21-30 (English Standard Version)
21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘“Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” 24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers[a] in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.
Sermon “Responding to Revelation”
And so we come to Part 2 of the story we heard from Luke last week. Let’s recap; Jesus has been baptised by John. He goes into the desert and emerges forty days later, we are told, after successfully resisting the temptations of the devil. He then returns to Galilee and starts his official ministry by preaching in the various synagogues. Apparently he’s a huge hit because it says “he was praised by everyone.”
Now, he has come to his home town and after reading from the passage from Isaiah that starts; “The Spirit of the Lord” he starts to preach. And that’s where our reading today begins.
Last week I suggested you think about your reaction to someone you had known since their birth coming back here, here to St Ninian’s, to preach. If we had a chance to take a poll I dare say there would have been a variety of responses.
In the same way the effect on these friends, acquaintances and relatives of Jesus seems to have been varied. And in this variety of responses we can learn something of how we too can respond to God’s word.
First we are told “all spoke well of him”. Now this seems a promising start; at least some people seem to be positive about his message, but perhaps it is not the actual content that they are actually talking about. Sometimes when people say “What a good preacher” they are meaning they like that person’s voice, or they can hear them clearly, or they look like a preacher should, or any number of attributes the person has that has nothing to do with the actual message.
Thus one response to hearing God’s word is to be totally influenced by the messenger. If they do not fit a particular concept of who should share God’s Word; for example; they are too young, or wear strange clothes, or they have a poor reputation. Therefore such people can be ignored and so can the message they are trying to bring.
We are told angels come in many disguises. Another name for angels is God’s messengers and so God may well be trying to speak to us using the most surprising avenues and we disregard them at our peril.
Secondly we hear that the people “were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth”. Aah, people who were actually listening. But why were they amazed?
This response too can be based on appearances rather than on the content. People can be so caught up in the use or absence of certain words or phrases they miss the message. Or they may expect a particularly religious way of giving sermons. Or only be comfortable with a certain style of preaching; whether dryly intellectual or off-the cuff and emotional. And these underlying expectations may detract from their ability to actually hear the meaning of the words spoken.
Then Luke tells us the people say, “’Is this not Joseph’s son?’”. From Jesus’ reaction this was a very negative question. These people are responding to who they thought this man was. They are questioning how God could speak through someone they had known from childhood. How could he be any different from his father, or any other members of his family?
We too can respond negatively to God’s message if it comes from someone we think we know well. After all, we may say, “they were never good at school, and then there was that scandal with the sister a few years back. How can this person who is so ordinary, whose family has lived such a sinful life talk to me about God? They are not good enough.” etc, etc So again we shut ourselves off from the word of God, because of how we perceive the messenger
And then there is the final reaction to Jesus’ preaching when we are told that the people were filled with rage. In fact, they are so angry they chase him to the edge of a cliff intending to throw him off. Now that is a pretty strong response.
Now to be fair, Jesus has been rather provocative. He has basically claimed he is the Messiah. And yet the promises he had just read from Isaiah are generic enough that they may also belong to non-Jews, heathen, those who were unclean. They are forced to contemplate the idea that the Messiah – their Messiah – may have come not just for the deliverance of their oppressed nation but for their oppressors too.
Perhaps their desire to kill Jesus is not so strange when we realise how different he, and his message, was, to the one they wanted and expected. And this is the lesson for us too; sometimes the message God is trying to get through to us is so shocking, so contrary to our current thinking, that we too will respond with anger. While this is not always the case by any means, it is worth considering why a person’s comment, a prayer, a story, produces such a heated response in us.
Sometimes our anger is because of fear, a defense against the truth that we have just heard. And if that is the cause we need to be courageous enough to face what God’s word is exposing in us that we would rather hide from.
In fact when doing lectio devina exercises our emotional, gut, response can alert us to something we need to focus on. We need to spend time meditating on why those particular words made us tear-up, or shiver, or clench our fists.
The reading from Jeremiah gives us some other examples of how we can respond to God speaking to us. Here Jeremiah is told God has appointed him to be a prophet. And Jeremiah leaps in and says, “Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.”
Sound familiar? Yes, the well-honed art of excuse-making. “Yes Lord, I’d love to do whatever you ask of me but…”
I don’t know about you but this is a favourite with me. And that’s when God’s message finally manages to get through all the other barriers we have mentioned earlier.
When I was first hearing a call to ministry I became an expert at excuses. I first tried the “Great idea but I’ve had no training” excuse. Then the “Great idea but I live in Kaitaia”. (Frightening similar to the ”can anything good come from Nazareth’ excuse) The “Great idea but I’m married to someone who doesn’t believe in women preachers” excuse worked for a while. And then I tried the “Great idea but I’m divorced” reply. I can also remember using the “but, I’m too old” one in desperate moments. As you might of guessed by my presence here today none of these excuses worked. And the reason they didn’t work was because they were not true.
There is a fine line to walk here, as discerning whether it is God’s call or our own egos, or other people’s needs that we are hearing is often difficult. I do not want to advocate doing everything we ‘think’ God might be asking us to do, and becoming a workaholic. Requests on our time need to be carefully considered. It is perfectly valid to say we cannot fill a preaching slot, or a gap in the roster, due to our busy lifestyle, health concerns, etc, if this is true. But if this is only an excuse to cover up our fear or our feelings of inadequacy, we need to spend some time working out whether we are actually ignoring something God wants us to do. This can be done through prayer, talking to someone wise in the faith or perhaps trying out the activity we are trying to avoid.
Jeremiah gave in to God’s demand and was a prophet all his life. He didn’t always enjoy it, in fact there are some very honest conversations recorded between the two of them, but somehow he always knew that that first word of God had been true and he was doing what God wanted him to do.
Let us consider what we have heard so far from these two bible readings.
God is always speaking to us and the message always requires a response.
However there are a number of ways that we can respond;
– We can focus on the messenger so much we miss the message
– We can focus on the way the message is delivered so much we miss the actual content
– We can respond with fear and anger which means we ignore the message or react against it
– We make excuses so we don’t have to allow the message to change us.
All these reactions are pretty negative aren’t they, but before we become completely despondent remember that that sermon at Nazareth was not the end. Jesus continued his ministry and gathered many people who believed his words. And those people managed to get even more people to hear and understand the good news. Our presence today is a witness to the fact that through the generations at least a few people actually listen and act on the messages God is constantly trying share with all humanity.
I also read a possible new interpretation of the Luke story that backs this positive slant. They suggested that the term “all used – “they all were amazed”, “they were all filled with rage” is similar to the “Everyone” that children particularly use when wanted a new outfit/phone/etc. Ie. “Everyone has one” (whine)
They further suggest that the reason Jesus managed to move through that murderous mob to safety was because there were people who did support him, who didn’t agree with the loud majority. And they silently made a path for him to escape.
Here is another response to God’s word – a quiet strength, a subversive courage that causes them to stand up and places themselves between the oppressor and the victim.
As our world seems to be breaking into furious factions such a calm response is, I believe, becoming increasingly difficult. To face down hatred, the misinformed, bullies with dignity is the essence of passive resistance. The people of Parihaka led the world in this technique based on their understanding of scripture. But it is hard, and as its supporters find, it can be very costly. Like Jeremiah, and Jesus, found, following God is not easy. The challenge as I/we hear these words is whether I/we have the courage to answer the call.
I leave you with this truth; God was/is/will be revealed today; through the wonders of creation, the words of the bible, the life of Jesus, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the experiences of people in history, and those we meet daily. And we will respond to this revelation; in anger or fear, with apathy or rejection, in ignorance or pride, or, occasionally, in obedience and faith. The choice is ours.
(Let us ponder what God is saying to us, individually and as a community)