Sermon

Even Jesus Couldn't Go Home Again

by The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean

The Rev. Edward Markquart has written a homily on today’s Gospel lesson entitled Offended by the nice little kid from Nazareth. Pastor Markquart writes:

This summer I went back to Jackson, Minnesota, for my family reunion. My immediate family did the “Jackson thing;” that is, we drove by my childhood home, the car dealership, and the new church in Jackson which was built by a rich farmer who gave his land. We went to the cemetery and saw my parents’ graves. It was a very emotional moment as we gathered in a circle around the gravestone to think, remember and pray.

While in Jackson, I remembered preaching in my home church on the occasion of my parent’s fiftieth wedding anniversary. All my relatives showed up for church that day and I had my family stand, which they proudly did, and then I simply said, “You have never seen such large group of sinners standing together in your whole life.”

I didn’t have much religious authority among those who were present that day. They remembered me as “little Eddie Markquart” who gassed their cars, lubricated and washed their vehicles, swam in the swimming pool, fished in the river, played on the basketball or football teams. They knew me as the little boy of Edie and Ed Markquart, and “whoever thought he would turn out to be a pastor?”

And I didn’t have much religious authority with my family, including my parents, who would often say, “We’re gonna ride your coattails into heaven.” It was a joke, but not a joke. I also had little religious authority with my brother and sisters. They knew me too well as their kid brother to have much religious authority in their lives.

Pastor Markquart continues: With these experiences I approached today’s Gospel. By the time Jesus comes to the synagogue in Nazareth his reputation as a miracle-worker had preceded him. The service that night was jammed. There wasn’t room to park all the donkeys outside. They ran out of bulletins. It was crowded, because the hometown boy now “local-rabbi-made-good” was back to town.

As guest of honor Jesus was invited to read from any passage in the prophets which proclaimed his core values. He read from Isaiah: “The Lord God has appointed me to preach good news to poor people, to heal the blind and sick, to set free those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He sat down. There was a long silence, all the crowd awaited the word of the Lord that would be told them and he said: “These words are fulfilled in your hearing.” Then he preached a sermon which Luke describes as being well received, all spoke well of him. Until . . .

…Jesus spoke words that did not meet their approval. Using examples from the prophets, Jesus tells his hometown crowd that in the Kingdom of God there is no riding of coattails, it isn’t who you know. Citizenship in the kingdom of God is dependent on faith, receiving the gift of faith which God offers, and living thankfully. To make his point, Jesus quotes examples where the prophets could only work miracles in places far away from the religious crowd, far away from those who know them best – prophets are honored among pagan strangers.

On hearing this, Luke says that the hometown crowd was scandalized, which literally means they considered Jesus to be a stumbling block that had to be removed. They drove him to the edge of a cliff, death was at hand, but passed through them unhurt.

The conflict here is both utterly confusing, and astonishingly familiar. Jesus has unequivocally revealed that the Messianic-age has dawned. Isaiah’s promise of the One who brings healing and release is fulfilled. Good news! Blessed news! And with integrity Jesus says that this news will not be well-received. In fact, to people outside of the covenant, to sinners, to the marginalized and rejected, this news is more likely to be accepted than in his hometown.

If you are willing to entertain this train of thought up to this point – first of all – thank you very much – but from this point quite a few paths can be followed. I’d like to offer one possibility

The reaction of the home-town congregation is an example of humanity’s unwillingness and inability to accept God’s Good News, God’s Grace, God’s Salvation. It is the same struggle we face as individuals and as the Body of Christ, to thoroughly embrace unmerited Grace. God truly loves us, as Paul writes, God knows us intimately, as Jeremiah says, and desires to be known intimately.

I believe it was GK Chesterton who wrote that humankind must not look a gift universe in the mouth. Why is the gift of love so difficult to accept? And why does such a lavish gift cause extreme reactions?

The home-town crowd’s response to Jesus’ proclamation that the scripture is fulfilled in their hearing should have brought about intense awe and adoration – silence before such a holy moment – or intense celebration, the singing of joyous psalms and shouts of “hosanna to the Son of David.” But the crowd quickly moved to anger, and nearly committed murder, on the Sabbath no less. The possibility of breaking these commandments illustrates how extreme the reaction was.

This account is pivotal in Luke’s Gospel, as the coming weeks of readings will explain. And to us today, this Gospel speaks powerfully. The Lord Jesus is among us whenever two or three are gathered in his name, as we break open the scriptures, and Break the Bread of Life. The Messianic age has long dawned upon us. This morning, Jesus asks us to open our lives so that the messianic age can dawn within us. We are invited into an intimate relationship with God, creating a life characterized by love, by self-sacrificing love, which Paul says is the greatest.

The people of Nazareth chose to react poorly that day. I know in my life, I have reacted poorly to the Lord’s invitation to live with messianic hope and zeal. But our most gracious God does not give up on us. He seeks us and pursues us until we are able, willing, and ready, to participate in building God’s reign. This morning, we are being sought again, and the Lord Christ awaits our response.

Knowing God is the creator of all things including humor, and given this morning’s Gospel, I wonder how many clergy will soon be getting an invitation to preach in their home parish? Those who come from parishes near cliffs might think twice about accepting! [And isn’t it quite a reading on the day of annual meeting???]

But as a final thought: we should all rethink the temptation to preach in the home-town synagogue, to preach to those we know best. Or at the very least, we should whole-heartedly commit to practicing what we preach, and follow Paul’s admonition to love. To empty ourselves for the sake of others, to give generously of ourselves without counting the cost, that God’s own divine love might transform us into the living embodiment of the Lord Jesus.

Today, the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. When all is said and done, three things remain: faith, hope, and love. To be a great cathedral, we must love.

© Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral