Jeremiah 1: 4–10; Psalm
71: 1-6; I
Corinthians 13: 1–13; Luke
4: 21–30
This is a homily by Fr. Gene
Tucker, given at St.
John’s Church, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, January 31, 2016.
“IF GOD CAN’T WORK WITH US, HE’LL WORK AROUND US”
(Homily text: Luke 4: 21-30)
I
once served under a wonderful Bishop whom I once characterized him as being an
“Armchair Theologian”. His insights and wisdom were of the very practical,
everyday sort.
One
day, he said this: If God can’t work
with us, He’ll work around us.”
As
I think about today’s gospel, that’s the essence of what’s going on in Jesus’
interaction with the villagers who were residents of Nazareth, where He had
grown up….Jesus is telling these villagers who had known Him since His
childhood that their attitudes make it impossible for God to work with them.
Let’s
unpack our gospel text a little.
Remember
from last week that Jesus had been asked or appointed to read from the prophet
Isaiah in the synagogue in His hometown, Nazareth. He read from two different
parts of Isaiah, from Isaiah 61: 1 – 2 and Isaiah 58: 6. The text He read began
this way: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring
good news to the poor….”. Then, Jesus sat down and began His homily, which
began with this statement: “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your
hearing.”
Initially,
Luke tells us, the reaction of those who had gone to the synagogue that day was
very favorable. Luke tells us that “all spoke well of him (the Lord).”
But
then, the mood, as we remarked last week, turned ugly. We don’t know exactly
what happened, and Luke doesn’t narrate those events for us, but apparently
those in attendance began to question Jesus and His authority, for they ask
themselves, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” Then, a little later, Jesus says,
“Truly, I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.” Somehow, what Jesus had to say rubbed His
listeners the wrong way. His remarks rubbed them the wrong way so deeply that,
Luke tells us, they took Jesus to the cliff (which is south of town) in order
to throw Him over it.
Some
of what Jesus said in the exchange with the residents of Nazareth needs some
clarification:
First,
He mentions the widow of Zarephath, to whom the prophet Elijah was sent (see I
Kings 17: 8 – 24). Jesus’ hearers would
have known this story quite well, for it is a story in which a Gentile woman
was obedient to God at a time when God’s chosen people in Israel weren’t being
obedient. Jesus reminds those hearing Him that God’s prophet, Elijah, was sent
to her specifically, and not to any of the widows in Israel.
Then,
Jesus mentions another incident, this one is of the healing of the Syrian
General Naaman, who was a leper. Naaman’s obedience to God’s command (made
through the prophet Elisha) to wash in the Jordan River stood in contrast to
others in Israel who did not receive God’s healing. (See II Kings 5: 1 – 19.)
Jesus’
hearers on that occasion were no dummies. They all knew the Hebrew Scriptures
and they surely knew (very well) these two stories that Jesus cited.
They
also knew the meaning of those two stories, for they were both accounts of the
favor that Gentiles had received from God.
Now
we come to the nub of these two stories, and of the reaction of Jesus’
hearers: The prevailing attitude among
many of God’s chosen people in that day isn’t a very favorable one, for many of
them thought that they – by virtue of being children of Abraham – were automatically
entitled to God’s special favor. It’s also quite possible that many of them
also thought that God’s favor was reserved especially for Jews, and for no one
else.
But
Jesus’ message is a stark wakeup call to these hearers. It is also a stark
wakeup call to you and me, for none of us, then or now, can claim a special
place in God’s plans, unless we are willing to follow and do God’s will. The
problem with God’s people 2,000 years ago was pride, the sort of pride that got
in the way of being able to hear God’s voice and to follow God’s will.
The
point of Jesus’ two stories is summed up in the words of my former Bishop’s bit
of wisdom:
If God can’t work
with us, He’ll work around us.
The
Scriptures are full of accounts in which those who – by human estimations at
least – do not seem capable of receiving God’s favor. Oftentimes, these are the
very ones whom God chooses to advance His will in the world. Why might this be
so? The reason is that, oftentimes, people who have the least to lose are
precisely those who are most willing to give up what little they have
(possessions, social status, etc.) in order to take on God’s agenda.
The
Jews of Jesus’ day had an agenda, and it involved invoking as often as possible
the fact that they had some of Abraham’s blood running through their veins. The
conclusion for them was that that was all that God required in order to find
favor with Him. Their insistence on their inherited status blinded them to the
heart and soul of the requirements of the Law of Moses, which required the
loving of God with all their hearts and minds, and their neighbors as
themselves (see Deuteronomy 6: 5 and Leviticus 19: 18). So, in that day and
time, many pious Jews regarded the poor, the lame, the blind, and the captives
as victims of their own sin, people for whom there was no love from God and no
love from them, either.
But
Jesus’ message stands in opposition to these attitudes, for it is to such as
these (the poor, the lame, the captives, the outcasts) that He had been
anointed to bring the Good News, that God’s love knows no bounds, that God’s
love crosses all boundaries, that there is no one who is outside of the
possibility of finding favor with God. For God seeks to bring each and every
one of us into a lasting and loving embrace, into a relationship in which God’s
holiness becomes our holiness. In truth, another of my former Bishop’s earthy
statements rings true in this context:
He said: “God never leaves us where He finds us.”
Only
when we are willing to set aside our notions of who’s found favor with God, a
process that means becoming “poor in spirit”, will we realize that God will
choose to work with just such persons as these, will we be enabled to do God’s
will, thereby finding favor with Him.
AMEN.
