January 28, 2007 Sermon
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Epiphany 4 - C
Luke 4:21-30
Emmanuel, San Angelo
January 28, 2007 Allan Conkling
It’s hard to imagine the mixture of feelings that were behind this, the second of a 2-part reading. Last week, Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue…that the Scripture was being fulfilled in their hearing. The men of the temple we are told were delighted and elated, until he went on…“Now what did he say again? The widow of Zarephath? Naaman the Syrian?”
From the lips of the hometown boy, Jesus’ words at fires sounded like guarantee; a promise of perpetual entitlement: God is ours. But what happened? “What did he say?” God in the Old Testament used an outcast? God used an outsider?? “Surely he’s not saying he favors them over us...Yes I believe that he is.”
This was like a car careening out of control, a double punch, a 95-mile-an-hour fast ball coming right for your face: God is not limited to Nazareth nor to the Jews; nor to time, nor to spa…God is a God for all people, and not just of some—and you are going to have to share! (That’s what I used to tell my kids).
So different were the words of Jesus that we can scarcely understand their impact to the people gathered. It breached their sense of propriety. Here was one of their own, as much as saying to the holiest of the holy men, that they were not the chosen people any more…that the rules for heaven had been changed. Everyone had a chance.
In these words today, Jesus sets a standard by which all the things they understood about God was judged. Standards that challenged them to think again their and consider that perhaps their “God” was too small; that the real God is not limited to human boundaries.
Well what does this have to do with us? Today is our annual parish meeting. I am reminded again that we are living in a fast paced world, and this is—in spite of the way it appears at times—a fast paced church. I have now been in the ministry 21 years. Some of you have been here since Moses was a boy. Look at all the changes! I am reminded that this church is God’s house, and the doorway both to the community and beyond this earth. It exists for more than just itself. BUT IT IS NOT MINE. Outside the walls of this church is a world full of strangers and friends; of such diversity and uniqueness that it boggles the mind. It is a world clamoring for meaning and purpose. A world thirsting and hungering for the Good News of God. And yet here we are. Who will go if you don’t?
God has used and will continue use this place, if we will let him. And people will come—if they are welcomed, and invited. There will never be a time when we have grown too much. Or learned too much, or given too much. There will never be a time when we will not have the two parts to the Gospel: “Come unto me…and “Go into all the world.”
Is there hope in this passage? Yes! It is a message of hope. But it can also be a message of bad news—depending on our perspective: Jesus was rejected—and this was the beginning of things to come. God doesn’t always work within our limits our boundaries—You can’t put God in a box.
Fortunately God’s horizons are broader, and God’s vision is better than mine. Those things that I cannot fully understand about my faith I don’t have to worry about. The question is always, “But what can I do?” Even that answer is given to us already. Live life to its fullest. Love abundantly and obediently. Be open to the spirit as it works here. And be all you can be in Gods sight. Strive to excel in your spiritual gifts for building up the church, as Paul says. And love God with all your heart.
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Revised: 02/07/07