Called to Speak the Truth, Epiphany 4C, 1/30/22

Grace and peace to you from God who calls us all beloved children, and from our Savior Jesus, who is our Christ. Amen

When I was growing up, my hometown country radio station had a feature every Monday through Saturday after the noon news. Some of you probably remember Paul Harvey’s News and Comment radio shows that ran for decades on ABC radio. Paul Harvey added another segment to his shows in 1976 called “The Rest of the Story.” This show’s lead in was “You know what the news is; in a minute you’re going to hear The Rest of the Story.”

The way today’s Gospel follows last week’s text from Luke, I feel like today’s message is The Rest of the Story – a real cliff-hanger, so to speak.

How could Jesus go from “well-spoken hometown hero” to “public enemy No. 1” in seven verses? Let’s go back to the beginning of his visit to Nazareth. Luke writes that Jesus had started teaching in the synagogues throughout Galilee, and his reception there was quite favorable.

 

Apparently the word made it back to his hometown and Jesus was invited to teach there. Or maybe Jesus was in town for a home-cooked dinner. However it happened, Jesus was in the synagogue on the sabbath and rose to read. The attendant handed him a scroll to read from Isaiah, and Jesus found his place, the prophecy of the Messiah in Isaiah 61:

“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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And after this truncated reading, as was the custom, Jesus sat down to teach. And the words that came out of his mouth are the starting point for today’s Gospel. “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

And those sitting in the synagogue marveled at the gracious words, the eloquent wisdom that Jesus was teaching them. So, what turned their admiration for Jesus to a mob scene just moments later? There were three things that happened next that turned their raves into rage:

 

The first was that Jesus had changed. While this was Mary and Joseph’s son, he no longer acted like the young man they thought they knew. He had a different presence and a different calling. He saw through their expectations that he would remain in Nazareth and heal there: Jesus said, “And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” Jesus knew he was being called to share the good news to other people in other places.

Second, Jesus wasn’t acting like one of them. While Jesus reading from Isaiah 61 and telling them that the prophecy about the Messiah was being fulfilled in their presence didn’t sink in immediately, the community was getting it by the time he called himself a prophet: Jesus said: “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.” And then Jesus launches into examples of prophets who left home to do their work. Not a couple of minor-league prophets either – no, Jesus goes big. His examples were Elijah and Elisha. Other than Moses, Jesus couldn’t have picked two bigger names to throw out to his community and the Jewish leaders. Can you imagine the temperature starting to rise in that synagogue?

And third, Jesus was asking then to step out of their comfort zone. Jesus explained that during the 3 ½ year famine, there were multitudes of widows Elijah could have fed right there at home, but did Elijah stay there? No, Jesus reminded them. Elijah went to Zarephath in Gentile territory, north of Tyre. And how about Elisha? Did he heal lepers just among his neighbors? Nope, he healed Naaman the Syrian – again, a Gentile. 

In short, that Spirit of the Lord that filled him was sending him to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and a proclamation of God’s favor, not just at home, but everywhere he could carry it. He was called to bring the truth of God’s favor, God’s grace, God’s love, to God’s people everywhere. His call was even bigger than Jesus understood that day. And it was too big for Nazareth.

As the truth of what Jesus was saying sunk in, the collective group of listeners in that synagogue turned on Jesus, interrupting his proclamation, driving him out of the synagogue, out of town, and nearly over a cliff before Jesus somehow “passed through the midst of them.” Perhaps during their walk, in their collective rage, they turned on each other. Or somehow Jesus gave them the slip. Luke doesn’t go into detail – he just says Jesus managed to get out alive that day, to continue to ignite other folks with the good news, and inflame others with that same truth.

In a commentary on this passage, Lutheran pastor Roy Harrisville III said “Preachers who try to preach only messages of conciliation are merely preaching half a gospel. The other half is an attack on all fronts against human presumption.” He goes on to say, “Christ’s epiphany is not two-dimensional and easy to take. His disciples are charged with preaching the full and complete word, the hard word, the saving word”

 

Imagine if Jesus walked into this building today, picked up Isaiah 61, and preached that sermon here. I wonder how that would sound? “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor – so many poor folks here. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor right now in 2022.”

• I wonder: Would Jesus stretch us to bring good news to the poor – beyond our interfaith meals and monthly food drive– to find ways for Emmanuel to bring lasting change to the hungry and homeless in our community? 
• I wonder: Would Jesus provoke us to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind by reaching out to people with various disabilities in our community and offering to work with them to create programs and worship that would meet their needs?
• I wonder: Would Jesus challenge us to let the oppressed go free– beyond providing assistance to people in temporary financial trouble – by advocating for refugees, helping people who have served their prison sentences find meaningful work and community, and mentoring people caught in generational poverty so they and their children can have better lives?
• And I wonder: And would Jesus task us to proclaim the Year of the Lord’s Favor – especially on this fifth anniversary of our decision to become a Reconciling in Christ congregation? Beyond the welcome statement and the RIC logo on our website, would Jesus challenge us to reach out to the LGBTQIA+ community in the Quad City area, from questioning teens to gay and trans elders who have been deserted by their families, to find out how we can really love our neighbors with various sexual orientations and gender expressions?

If Jesus walked in on our joint service and congregational meeting today, how seriously would we take his call to find new ways to be the Church? Or would we run Jesus out of town and over a cliff when we realize that what he is asking us to do today is the same thing he preached to his hometown on that sabbath day two centuries ago?

 

Jesus asked them, and is asking us now, to break down our walls and keep finding ways to spread Love further, to challenge our ideas of who are the people we are to serve, the people who deserve God’s favor.

 

Amen.