Fourth Sunday after Epiphany – 28 January 2007

St. Paul Lutheran Church ABQ NM – The Rev. P. L. Holman

Jeremiah 1:4-10, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Luke 4:21-30

“Today!”

It seems like wherever there’s a prophet, there’s a problem.  Sure is the message we get today from Luke’s gospel.  Jesus the prophetic messiah is reading in the synagogue.  And his message is this: remember Isaiah’s prophecy?  Today you’ve heard it and today it is fulfilled.  That’s nice – seems reasonable, it’s what they have been waiting for all this time and Jesus’ presence and eloquence certainly qualify him as a leader to be followed.  But wait – isn’t he the son of the carpenter Joseph?  By what authority does he make this claim?  He doesn’t fit in the box of our expectations.  As if he could read their minds, according to Luke’s gospel, Jesus addresses these questions before they are asked.  You want healing?  It’s yours for the following, but not yours alone – from the time of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, God has been working outside the boundaries of the Jewish community, and God will continue to do so.  From the hope-filled vision of the prophet Isaiah comes a problem they hadn’t expected.  Jesus is the one who embodies it: the fulfillment is blessing for all people, even those outside the box.  Get over it.

The words of Jesus cause offense: now here’s the prophet creating a problem. At least, that’s how the folks in the synagogue see it.  They are enraged, ready to throw Jesus off the cliff.  Then passing through the midst of the angered worshippers Jesus goes on his way.  He walks on, never (again according to Luke) to return to Nazareth, walking on eventually to Jerusalem and the cross.  The prophet names the problem of line-drawing and limiting God’s love and takes it all the way to the cross; by self-giving love Christ transforms it.  The Anointed One comes not to create problems but to name the world’s problems and to transform them to possibility -- bringing light to the darkness and life in the midst of death.

Luke’s words remind us this day that following Jesus is not as neat and pretty as our pious pictures want to paint.  For all the downside elements in recent Jesus films, one of the grippingly vivid images is that of a very anguished and disheveled Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.  Not at all the fresh out of the spa look of those wonderful old Sunday school pictures.  Jesus confronts us in our comfort zones and rattles our tired assumptions, time and again calling us to open up to new ways of seeing the world and being the church – ways that can be very messy and not without pain.

As we receive new members today we are reminded of the promises woven into the living out of our baptismal calling, among them to “strive for justice and peace in all the earth.”  With the escalating conflict in Iraq and the violence in other parts of the Middle East, that is no simple task.  And it is a responsibility we as people of faith cannot ignore.  In a recent letter to ELCA congregations entitled “A Call to Conversation on Iraq,” Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson reminds us of this responsibility.  Reminding us of the call to work for peace, Bishop Hanson urges us all to engage publicly in civil and moral deliberation, and to do it now.  The conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and that between Israel and Palestine, affect us all in various ways.  We all can put a face or a place on them.  Some have children or grandchildren serving, and others know folks living in these areas or have visited the cities that are now being destroyed; some watch and pray for the healing of loved ones injured in the conflicts, and tens of thousands grieve the loss of lives and livelihood.  We cannot afford to ignore these conflicts as though they don’t affect us.  We have the resources to seek reconciliation and life-giving choices in these times – faithful stewardship demands our response.

Now, a conversation I had after first service indicated it might be good for me to pause here and clarify something: I am not speaking “against the war.” I don’t begin to know enough about military strategies and international politics to do that, and wouldn’t do it from the pulpit anyway.  For us humans dialog is essential.  The Gospel, however, does speak against war, all war, and against all violence against human beings and against hate in all its forms.  The Gospel speaks against all these and through our Baptism into Christ we are called by the Gospel to live faithfully in the midst of the brokenness, even today in the midst of these conflicts often called war.

As we engage in intentional conversation, Bishop Hanson suggests we focus on several questions, including these:

• How do we respond to the reality of terrorism without letting terrorism become the all-consuming reality?  The policies of Homeland Security impact us all, with things like mandatory passports placing a disproportionate burden on those with limited economic resources.
• How can we stay informed about the cost and casualties of this conflict for all affected, including the Iraqis, while continuing our strong and prayerful support for US military, civilian personnel, and their families?  Recent bombings, abductions and murders indicate an increasingly sophisticated determination to destroy that is escalating in death-dealing directions for all.
• How has our involvement in this conflict affected how the US government and we, its citizens, are perceived globally?  What have we learned about … ourselves as a country and about how our country lives out its responsibilities in the global arena?  We do well to listen to the perceptions of the global neighbors in our midst.  And to the apostle Paul who reminds us in his letters to the conflicted community of Corinth that we need one another – the body and all its parts – to build community and bring about God’s purposes.  God’s way is the “agape” way – the way of love manifest in respect, humility, and right relationships.  Together we can find that way again.

Bishop Hanson calls upon us to talk and to listen, and to respect the views of others. The church offers resources for such dialog – to begin with, copies of the Bishop’s letter are available at the Welcome Center.  We are resources to one another as well.  “At a time when this country’s public discourse has become contentious and people often feel powerless, it is a sign of hope for congregations and communities to engage publicly in civil and moral deliberation…As members of the ELCA we can model our civic responsibility and offer another way to come together with our varied perspectives to discern what we can contribute to the common good and a lasting peace.” 

Adult class on Sunday mornings is a good place to practice “going public” -- in the Conference Room, 9:15 AM.  No matter the topic, these sessions offer opportunity to practice listening and speaking on matters of faith and daily life – good warm-ups for the tough task of finding common ground in matters of war, in the search for international and well as personal reconciliation and peace.  Another option is to form dialog groups with folks you’ve met in Friendship Circles or other ministries, and invite others to join you.  The dinner table is a very Lutheran place to dialog as well: engage the family in table talk – young people, now is your time to take the lead!  Resources are readily available on the ELCA website – if you want, we can print them for you in the church office.  You can get started without these for you are your own best resources– your thoughts, feelings, perceptions and experiences; your caring concern for one another and for this world God created.  Then use what you learn to inform your elected officials, your daily choices, your prayers – or all the above.

The call narrative from the book of the prophet Jeremiah is not just some soft psychological experience.  It is, as Walter Brueggemann suggests, very real and very public: it is the transcendent authorization – the Power form on High -- that emboldens the prophet to shatter and form worlds by his speech.     When Jesus reads the words of the prophet Isaiah and proclaims their fulfillment “today,” he reminds his hearers – and us – that the long promised radical newness is fulfilled by our God in unexpected ways.  Through Gentiles and Jewish folks, through the young and the old and everyone in between, through insiders and outsiders -- through sinners like you and me whose God-given character is not brokenness but grace, whose claim to fame is not anything we can do or know but everything we are: claimed, named and sent for the sake of making Christ known.  Not “some day” – today.

The pastor of a Baptist church in Texas tells the story seventh grade track team member whose meet was postponed one week setting up a schedule conflict with the church weekend mission trip for which she was also registered.  When she told her track coach about the conflict he reminded her that her teammates were counting on her. “I expect you here for the meet.”  As you can imagine the girl went home in tears.  The next day she approached the coach again and who this time was more direct: show up for the meet or turn in your uniform.  More tears.  The third day she turned in her uniform.  Here is a seventh grader who took a stand, making a very tough choice.  There are probably lots of things going on in your mind right now – ways you or I can imagine responding to the coach, or rationalizing the situation with the student to help her make a different choice.  As I parent I know I would have had a hard time just going along with her decision.  After all, there would be other mission trips.  Her parents and youth leaders were all quite surprised when the girl explained her thinking: “This is about God.”  This teen was choosing God and church over her track team, the pastor said, “and we were surprised even though that was the way we raised her.”  “I know,” he concluded his story; “the track team is not like … standing up against the war, [or standing up for peace,] or ending up on a cross.  But prophets all start somewhere.” 

Prophets all start somewhere, they all start sometime naming the problem with life as it is and speaking the way to Life fully lived.  They all start somewhere, sometime – even here, even today.