The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Preached by The Very Reverend Robert Neske, Dean, at Saint Mark’s Pro-Cathedral, Hastings, January 31, 2010

As you’ve no doubt realized, the Gospel appointed for this morning is a continuation of Luke’s account of Jesus return to Nazareth and his visit to the synagogue. Up to this point in the narrative, the visit has gone pretty well; our Lord has been welcomed home by being invited to read from the prophet Isaiah. He had selected that portion of the scroll that enabled him to announce to those present that “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me” and “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

 The initial responses of the congregation to our Lord’s words are encouraging in that: “All spoke well of him, and were amazed at his gracious words.” A good sign to be sure.

 What is interesting for Bible geeks are the words: ‘All spoke well of him and were amazed…’ The word in the Greek that Luke uses for ‘amazed’ can be translated as ‘amazed’ but actually expresses both astonishment and admiration coupled with unexpected joy or pleasure. Jesus’ words are gracious, but this is a grace-filled moment as well. The word for gracious caritos reflects the fact that Luke would have us understand that Jesus’ words are more than the reflected wisdom of a righteous person; his words, Jesus words are filled with divine grace.

 Sadly divine grace is one of the things human beings have a difficult time dealing with, because it smacks of too much reality; which means that within a matter of moments the initial joy and wonder experienced by the people present in the synagogue is replaced pettiness, hostility and an impulse toward violence. Because after all who does Jesus think he is?

 “Is not this Joseph’s son” really means, “who the heck does this carpenter’s son think he is; or that that he could make such a declaration in their presence and get away with it? After all, they know who this man is (or at least they think they do), and he is no rabbi, or messiah for that matter; nor is he a prophet either! Needless to say, from this point on things pretty much go south.

 Of course there hadn’t been any real prophets in Israel (with the except of John the Baptist for some time, and everyone knew that John was somewhat strange – people don’t know what to do with guys who eat bugs. One problem was that even by Jesus’ day a veneer of romanticism had attached itself to the prophetic role. The fact is that there was nothing romantic about the reality of being a prophet as we heard in Jeremiah’s response to God’s prophetic call.

 The thing is that we see this repeated throughout the Hebrew Scriptures with the occasion exception, but many more individuals beginning with Moses declined the first offer with all manner of polite excuses and the profound desire to get the heck out of Dodge. His is the normal response of those called to the prophetic office, to decline the invitation and run away, run away, run away. After all who in their right mind wants a job where the one thing your can count on is being hated apart from any one looking to be a bishop in the Episcopal Church?

 "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown.” Oh yes, that made things much better. By using this saying Jesus identifies himself as a prophet, and then goes on to connect his actions to in other parts of the Galilee to the actions of Israel two greatest prophets, Elijah and Elisha who both saved and healed Gentiles; Elijah who saves the widow of Zaraphath from starvation and Elisha who cleanses and heals Naaman the Syrian commander of leprosy.

 Unfortunately instead of bringing clarity to the moment, these prophetic references only enflame the situation, make it worse and Jesus’ observations regarding the widow of Zaraphath and Naaman do nothing to address the discontent in the room or quell the resultant uproar. Talk about misreading an audience! What was Jesus thinking? Did he really think that mentioning these Gentiles from the prophetic past was going to smooth a rapidly deteriorating situation?

 The simple fact is that Jesus was doing the only thing he could do under the circumstances, he was proclaiming the truth of God, because he could not do otherwise; because you who he thinks he is? He thinks, no, he knows that he is the Son of God.

 It is really not surprising that the people of Nazareth turned on Jesus that day – their first reaction – speaking well of him, being filled with astonishment and admiration at his words reflect our deepest human longing; a longing easily perverted by fear. For we hate feeling spiritually empty, we want to see God at work in our lives and to feel God’s presence, to be free from fear, from anxiety and the deep longing that hold us down and oppress us. We want deliverance, we want salvation, but more to the point I think we would really like to believe that this; the Christian Church, the Christian faith really is about faith, hope, and love. That our faith will bring us communion with God; that we need not be fearful but may live in the hope of the resurrection, and both believe in, give and offer the love, Christ called us to share.

 This is what we long for, and what we forget when we allow ourselves to be so overwhelmed by the world and all of the garbage the world throws at us,; that we have been saved, we have been delivered from fear, from sin and from death itself, that Gods love for us is sure and real. Now if only we could just allow ourselves to believe this and live accordingly. But that is the tragedy of the Christian life, we live as if none of this is true, and so are stuck; mired in our fear, paralyzed by doubt and all of the attendant crud the world has thrown at us.

 Here is the challenge that is set before us, to live what we believe. To live into the responsibilities inherent in our faith, and to be faithful to the relationship established with God at our baptism. To trust in God’s love for us and to allow this same love to direct our lives that we might go forward in faith and in the strength of God’s might and the hope of the resurrection secured by the cross.