Sermon January 28, 2007

Epiphany 4, Year C

Luke 4: 21-30

Last week Fletcher mentioned that this week I would explain the second half of this particular passage in Luke to you! I feel a little like Paul Harvey: "And now...the rest of the story...!"

You'll remember Jesus arrived in his hometown of Nazareth - a village of probably 40 dwellings - went to the local meeting hall, and was invited to preach. Preachers got to choose their own texts, and Jesus chose Isaiah. He read it, and then sat down. That's what preachers did - they sat to preach.

I once did that - hauled out a chair, and sat down to preach. As far as I could tell, everyone was so shocked they never heard a word of the sermon! But I heard more than a word for years afterward! Sometimes 'props' can get in the way!

So Jesus preached. His fellow Nazarenes loved it - at first.

This is where Luke added some material to the story - doesn't really matter too much for us on this day what he added, but basically Luke used this story as the foundation for his gospel and the Book of Acts. This story, for Luke, explains why the Gospel is ultimately carried by Paul to Gentiles and not to Jews - because, Luke says, the Jews rejected Jesus - tried to kill him.

That grand theme is certainly worth exploring - but not here, and not now! More important for us, I think, is to get below Luke's added layers of interpretation and proclamation and ask what was really going on.

The parallel stories in Matthew and Mark also tell of Jesus' return to his hometown. Their stories aren't as long, but there are clear overlaps - all three have Jesus teaching in the Synagogue, all three describe the people as been awe-struck, and all three ask the same question: "Is this not Joseph's son?"

"Is this not Joseph's son?"

As far as we know Jesus had lived his entire life in the Galilee - this verdant, rich, hilly country about 100 miles north of Jerusalem. In his time it might as well have been light-years away. Since we have no record of what happened in his first 30 years of life we don't know exactly what he did - but the absence of a record still tells us something: it was an unremarkable time for him. He almost certainly worked with his father learning a trade - Carpenter, some say, though "tekton" the word frequently mistranslated as "carpenter" actually means "artisan". And anyway, there would have been little work for a carpenter - most of the buildings were mud or stone.

When you build things you're in demand - and during Jesus' time there was a lot of building going on. Sepphoris known today as Zippori, and only four miles from Nazareth was just such a place. Sepphoris was the capital city of Galilee throughout many periods. In 6 B.C. the Romans destroyed it after an uprising. Throughout the Jesus life it was being re-built by Herod Antipas, and artisans from throughout the region worked there.

We know what it's like when there's a building boom! Have you tried to find a builder on the island in the last few years?

Yes, the villagers in Nazareth knew who Jesus was, all right. We know from the archaeological evidence that Mary lived in Nazareth her whole life, so she certainly would still have been there, living among them. So would many of Jesus' relatives.

Just close your eyes and think about what it must have been like. Jesus would still know who the best cooks were, where he could charm a snack from any of the indulging surrogate mothers in the village. And the fathers would remember how he'd learned his trade from Joseph, and would be more than willing to tell those stories about the time he nearly broke his thumb when he hit it with the hammer because he wasn't paying attention!

Joseph was dead by now, of course. But his fingerprints - and those of Jesus - must have been all over Nazareth.

And there'd be other men present in the Synagogue that day - the ones who grew up with Jesus, maybe even shared his trade. And other women, too, who also grew up with him, knew about him. And all of these men and women - Jesus' contemporaries - had settled down and were raising families of their own. No doubt they wondered why Jesus hadn't done the same thing why he'd taken such a different path. And those old matrons - they must have been feeling a little sorry for Mary - no grand-kids for her!

There must have been stories going around about what Jesus was now doing. He hadn't left the area, after all just a few miles this way, few miles the other way. Rumors of him preaching must have reached Nazareth. Preaching and changing peoples lives!

And here he is now, in Nazareth. No surprise there. He was visiting his mother! No surprise that he was in the Synagogue, either. Any man from the age of 13 was expected to take part in the discussion of the scriptures while the women and children listened and learned.

And then he spoke. Wow! In today's vernacular, "Who IS this dude?! Isn't this Joseph's boy? This is really impressive!"

This is a crucial moment for Jesus' listeners because they have a remarkable opportunity. With opened hears and minds they could have accepted that God was at work. If they listened to Mary at all, heard her talk of the words of the angel, they would have understood. Remember those words? "Nothing shall be impossible with God"

But, instead they all began to wonder and to question and to doubt. "It must be some sort of trick!" some were saying. Builders don't spout scripture and interpret it that way!

The response of the people in this story is, to my mind, accompanied by a sound - it's the sound of doors slamming shut. They closed their minds and their hearts. They fell into the all-too-common negativity of those who are at the bottom of the pile; they allowed their fears and doubts to keep them from believing their own eyes and ears.

"Who the heck does he think he is?!"

And how must Jesus have felt? Deeply disappointed. Very sad. And very alone. These were his people his friends, his mentors. A relationship takes two - and they weren't willing to open up enough to allow a relationship to happen.

I remember when I was in seminary in England that one vacation my mother asked me for some insight into something that had been troubling her. Yet she was also unwilling to be completely open or to trust my response. In the end she said: "Just think - all that training and you still can't help me!"

At that moment I was comforted by Mark's comment about Jesus in Nazareth: "And he could do no deed of power there".

Today we're faced with the same choice as that which confronted Jesus' friends and family in that Synagogue in Nazareth we, too, are called to open our minds and our hearts. Jesus asks us to believe that "nothing will be impossible with God," not in our lives, not in our towns, not in our churches, no matter what the obstacles may seem to be. It's all too easy for us to fall into the trap of negativism, just as they did in Nazareth. It's all too easy to say about so many things, "That couldn't happen here. We're too small, too old, too young, too poor, or too busy. That might happen somewhere else, but not here."

And, I suppose, if we let ourselves fall into that trap, it could well be written of us that "Jesus do no deed of power here, either." Not because God doesn't have the power, but because our own fear can prevent us from believing in it, from accepting it, in our lives and in our common life together. How sad it would be if it were said of us, too, that Jesus "was amazed at our unbelief."

We do have a choice. What would happen if we chose to open our minds and our hearts, to banish those negative thoughts, to look at what we can do rather than what we think we can't? What would happen if we prayed, as did the father of an afflicted child as recorded elsewhere in Mark's gospel (9:24), "Lord, we believe; help our unbelief?" What would happen if our faith opened the way for God's power to be at work through us, here, now? I'll bet that there would, again, be the amazement. But this time it would be born of joy.
AMEN.