On A Mission

Epiphany 4C

January 31, 2010

Luke 4.21-30

“On a Mission”

Here’s my favorite definition of family: those who knew you before you became the person you are now—and they don’t let you forget it. It’s hard to go back into your family, especially if you’ve changed. That may be one reason I hesitate going to high school or college reunions. I’m different now and so, I suspect, are the rest of my former classmates. I think Jesus experienced a similar reaction, though not from his biological family but from his hometown “family.” If you feel as if you are missing something from today’s gospel reading from Luke, you’re right. It’s the second half of last week’s text when Jesus reads and preaches in the synagogue of his hometown of Nazareth.

Jesus has just read from the text of the prophet Isaiah which proclaims God’s wonderful promises of good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom for the oppressed. He then preaches the shortest sermon ever: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” This is indeed good news to the Jewish people under the heel of Roman occupation, but the glow fades quickly and the crowd turns ugly. After hearing them say, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Jesus launches a homiletic pre-emptive strike. The crowd—being reminded of their history ignoring God’s prophets—want to give him a prophet’s reward: death.

The problem is they want to think of Jesus as who he was while growing up with them: Joseph’s son. In doing so they also make some assumptions about who he is and what he came to do. Jesus nips those flowering thoughts in the bud by telling them that he is now God’s Son, not Joseph’s. As such, Jesus is not defined by their ideas about him but by God, who has a specific mission for Jesus. Jesus is not the mellow, go-with-the-flow, “whatever, Dude” kind of person they think he is. He’s on a mission. Nothing will deter him from that which God sent him to accomplish, not even his death.

Soren Kierkegaard, the 19th c. philosopher and theologian, decided he didn’t want to make peoples’ lives easier like so many of his contemporaries wanted to do. He wanted to make peoples’ lives harder, so he became a preacher. It seems that Jesus the preacher-prophet wants to make our lives harder when challenges our assumptions about who he is and what he came to do. But he came that we might have abundant life, and what we think is life-giving is really life-draining. So, we’re challenged by him to ask ourselves how it is that we resist his message of life. That’s not easy to admit to ourselves and it makes our lives much harder. You know, it’s ironic but I think I’d be willing to die for someone just like Jesus did, yet I don’t know about the rest of the stuff he asks us to do. Stuff like serving others and bearing their burdens. One of my biggest shortcomings is that I don’t always remember that everyone I meet is a child of God like me, especially when they cut me off in traffic.

This challenge Jesus puts before us today is both personal and corporate; it’s for us as individuals and it’s for us as a congregation. When Jesus says “today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” he reminds us that God’s good future promised to all of us in Isaiah breaks into the present, today, and in doing so is transforming us, our lives and the world. God is active in the world, on a mission to bless the world through us, a mission of his choosing, not ours. However, we can discover that call on us when we do it together; that’s one reason we’re gathering this weekend for our semi-annual meeting.

When we gather we must hear Jesus’ hard questions. Where are we being presumptuous and resisting his call? Who has Jesus come for that we’re ignoring? Where are we being asked to step out of our comfort zones? Would we take a risk and worship in an uncomfortable style for the sake of the other? Could we sit down and talk with that person who is so different from us and truly enter their world, not trying to convince them but to understand them? I don’t presume to know the answers to these and other questions but I know we can figure it out together. And I also know what Jesus’ hometown folk didn’t know. The same anointing Spirit poured out on him has been poured out on us, and through God’s powerful Spirit we can do whatever God calls us to do. Amen.

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