It's Not About You: A Short Sermon

Submitted by Ryan Dowell Baum on February 28, 2008 - 10:46pm.

Key Scripture - Luke 4:16-30

In our scripture lesson today, Jesus is just getting started. He has recently been baptized in the Jordan by John and tempted in the desert by the Devil. He has returned to his hometown of Nazareth to proclaim the start of his public ministry and with it, the coming of the Kingdom of God. As an observant Jew, Jesus enters the synagogue on the Sabbath to read and comment upon the Scriptures, as was the right of all Jewish men. The synagogue is filled with other observant Jews who have assembled this morning to study Torah and to pray. The attendant hands Jesus a scroll, and he begins to read. Whether Jesus consciously chose this particular passage or whether it was chosen for him by the Holy Spirit, we do not know, but it is a significant text indeed, one of Isaiah’s beautiful and poetic descriptions of the coming age of the Moshiach, the anointed one, who will usher in an era of eternal shalom, when the children of Israel will be rescued from their exile and their oppressive foreign rulers cowed once and for all. “Today,” Jesus tells the assembly, “this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The crowd is overjoyed. They cannot believe their ears! Is this not Joseph the carpenter’s son, who now claims to be the fulfillment of messianic prophecy? Can this young man, the one they heard say his first words and watched take his first steps, really be the one they have been waiting for?

But their merriment is short-lived. Jesus continues, "You’ll probably want to see me do all sorts of signs and wonders as you’ve heard I’ve done elsewhere. But I’m telling you the truth: no prophet is accepted in his hometown. You’re not gonna like me much when you find out what I’m really about."

The crowd starts to get nervous. What is he talking about? Why wouldn’t we accept him? After all, he’s ours, one of us, come to restore us to our rightful place as God’s covenant people. But Jesus goes on, "In Elijah’s day, there was a huge famine in Israel and there were plenty of Jewish families starving, but Elijah was sent not to the Jews, but to a Gentile, a Sidonian, and a woman at that! When Elisha was about the Lord’s business, there were scads of Jewish lepers in need of healing, but he healed not a single one of them. He went to a Gentile, a Syrian. I hate to burst your bubble folks, but the Kingdom of God isn’t all about you."

The crowd is infuriated. Doesn’t this arrogant kid recognize the anguish and suffering the Jewish people have experienced over these long, lonely years of exile? Has he no respect? How dare he imply that Moshiach will care more about foreigners than He will for His own people? Enraged, they attempt to kill him.

In many ways, Jesus’ time was much like our own. It was characterized by conflict and oppression, cultural and religious differences, serious infighting even within God’s covenant community. In religion, in politics, even in our own beloved church, we too are plagued by myriad voices attempting to prove some right and others wrong. How sure we become of our own viewpoints, our own theologies, our own cultural biases to the point that we begin to despise others for their otherness.

Perhaps one of the clearest signs of this contempt for others can be seen in the context of today’s debate over immigration. Along our country’s southern border and in cities all over the U.S., millions of people driven out of their homes by economic hardships caused by "free-trade" agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA risk their lives to make ends meet. Rather than compassion and neighborliness, these struggling souls are met with racism, xenophobia and violence. Citizens groups like the Minutemen use fear and intimidation to keep Mexican and Central American people from seeking a living in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials separate mothers from babies and fathers from sons, leaving trails of broken families in their wake.

Meanwhile, brazen pundits and politicians use the plight of these suffering human beings as fodder for campaign speeches and boosts to ratings. Talk radio personalities engage in rhetorical acrobatics, provoking and insulting their opponents for the pleasure of the angry and polarized American public.

And the rest of us wonder, "Can this really be the 'year of the Lord’s favor' that Jesus came to proclaim?"

As he comments on the Holy Scripture in the synagogue, Jesus reminds his fellow children of Israel of the promise God made to Abraham: "I will bless you," God told the patriarch, "by using you to bless all nations. Your blessing will be in blessing others." The Reign of God Jesus proclaims is not reserved for one nation, one people, or one sect. Jesus, whose name literally means Salvation, has come for everyone. He proclaims a heavenly kingdom that includes all creation, pushing us out of our comfort zones and into a beloved community that is less about us and our histories and our issues, than it is about our joyful service to people other than us. Yes, it encompasses us and our histories and our issues, but it is so much bigger!

It is perhaps for this reason that, though the News of the gospel may be good, it is not always comfortable. Speaking from deep personal experience, I can testify that it is hard to be told that you are not the center of the universe.

It may be hard for our country to accept that if we really want to do something about illegal immigration, we’re going to have to give up the unfair advantages in trade that cause people to have to risk their lives crossing the border to feed their families. It may be hard for us as individuals to accept that if we are to truly live as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are going to have to do it in community with real live human beings with flaws and foibles and imperfections.

Look around. See the faces of the people you love, the people you care about, the people with whom you are in conflict, the people who are getting on your nerves, the people who you just don’t much like. These are the people, for better or for worse, that you’re gonna have to get saved with. Salvation, my friends, is no social club. It includes the weird, the annoying, the mistaken, the lost, the confused, the just plain wrong – and it includes you.

We, the church, are called to be a sign of God’s reign to a suffering creation. The Living God has given us the gift of common life, that we might lean on one another, bear each other’s burdens, and share in one another’s sorrows and joys. Christ has called us to be born again into a new community of mutual support and encouragement. And through God’s sanctifying grace, we are empowered to grow beyond our pettiness and narrow-mindedness to live in love with those who are different from us in every conceivable way.

And so we pray: Living, Loving God, God of our creation and God of our salvation, we gather before you in grateful praise. We praise you that in Jesus, you have shown us the way toward true love. We praise you that in Christ’s glorious death, burial and resurrection, you enable us to become of one body with you. And we praise you that in eternal and unconditional love, you call us to direct outward the grace we find in you, journeying with you toward a Heavenly Kingdom where all are welcomed as your children and rightful heirs of your promise, that we will bless all peoples, all nations, and all of creation. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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