This sermon was preached on January 31st at my friend Travis's church, St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church. You can find them on the web at scabc.org. I was more than a little intimidated not only by the very educated congregations which included a number of M.Div's and PhD's, not to mention the fact that the pulpit has held such eminent preachers as Barbara Brown Taylor and Gardner Taylor. Some of the quotes are actually cited, but all of them are attributed. Here goes
Lk 4:16-30
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.
23 Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'"
24 "I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed — only Naaman the Syrian."
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
NIV
Today’s gospel offers us a fascinating scene for in seven verses, a few dozen words, just a matter of seconds of monologue, Jesus goes from:
All spoke well of him
To
Throw him off a cliff
We could take time to conjecture as to why Jesus went from favorite native son to pariah. But I’m not sure the exercise would take us much farther than just that… conjecture…
Frankly what piqued my curiosity about this sudden shift is the fact that Luke introduces two plot points to us so early in the gospel. Jesus has come to offer both a message and a program of liberation to the poor, and Luke is the most concerned with poverty of any of the gospels. Luke has the most to say about those held in bondage by poverty and its political, physical and spiritual effect on humanity.
But the other point that Luke includes is the anger, the discomfort, the tension that Jesus would not only inspire, but provoke.
Consider this. In Matthew we get the sermon on the Mount… blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness… etc, etc.
But Luke in his version, the sermon on the plain, gives us both blessings; Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who hunger, blessed are those who weep…
But then Jesus drops some Woes on us…
Woe to you who are rich
Woe to you who are well fed now
Woe to you who laugh now
Woe to you when all men speak well of you…
The message Jesus proclaims throughout Luke is both a blessing and a woe… or as Finley Peter Dunne once wrote about journalism…
Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Luke tells us early on, in the reaction of the crowd to Jesus sermon that the comfortable will be afflicted.
Sallie McFague, reflecting on this theme of liberation for the impoverished and oppressed has shocking words to say to North American Christians when she writes…
We must, if we are Christians, liberate others from our domination…expressing and embodying a way of life that will be liberating to others.
My preaching style is personal. I won’t stand here and challenge you without being challenged myself. And so, for a few moments this morning I’m going to rehearse a few brief examples of those times where the Gospel, the Word of God has challenged me… convicted me of my participation in the bondage of others and shocked me into seeking a more liberating way of life. I’m not the hero of these stories… but like you, I stand under the weight of Jesus words…
Or in the case of my first example, the Hewbrew Scriptures
In Genesis 2:15 we read
Ge 2:15
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
In Hebrew the words we read work and take care of are abad and shamar. So I did a little reading and discovered that those words could also be translated; serve and protect.
Do you hear it.
God created humanity , you and I, to serve and protect the rest of creation. Creation care is why we are here.
And this challenged me to consider my carbon footprint.
It challenged me to think about the amount of trash I create and the lazy non-effort to recycle… to recall the lilies of the field and the sparrow, both of which the word of God highlight as being watched and cared for by God… crowded out by my trash.
It challenged my wife and I to turn in our SUV and buy a Prius and learn to live with one vehicle.
I’m no environmental hero. We still have much to learn and much to change in order to accept the challenge to serve and protect creation. My point being, I am not living up to the image of God that God created me to be unless I accept the challenge and face the offensive idea that my lifestyle is oppressive to the earth.
Liberating the Poor
Jesus proclaimed good news for the poor.
In luke we are inundated with Jesus challenge to his disciples to be good news for the impoverished. Jesus tells the rich young man to sell all he owns and give to the poor.
Luke tells us the story of Zachaeus who is challenged by the mere presence of Jesus to liquidate half of his own wealth and give it to the poor.
Luke tells us the story of the wealthy man who ends up in Sheol, punished because of his ignorance in life of the beggar lazarus who lived outside his gate.
And I am challenged, when I hear these words… challenged as I think that I too could be this rich man, I am when compared to so many around the world, and I fear that I am ignorant of the poor…
in my unthinking devotion to the idol of the shopping mall and my worship of that god through consumer therapy…
Shocked by the question, how many of the worlds impoverished could be fed on what North American’s spend on Ice Cream… which is $20 billion dollars annually. Shocked at the thought of the working conditions, the long hours and the low pay, of those who make the cheap plastic crap or the teddy bears that I can buy for my children at WalMart… shocked at what I am teaching my children by participating in this whole system…
Am I too, headed to Hell because of my ignorance and my consumerism?
Henri Nouwen once wrote; Faith in God does not consist in asserting God’s existence, but rather in acting on [God’s] behalf.
Am I acting on God’s behalf, proclaiming Christ’s message to the poor? To suggest that we, the church in North America, are failing miserably in this endeavor might be offensive… but could it also be true?
Liberating the Enslaved?
The most recent challenge for me has come in the simple phrase… ‘release for the captives…’
Currently I am working on a Statement of Concern for the American Baptist Churches of RI about Human Trafficking. Perhaps you have heard this polite phrase. Like the phrase ‘collateral damage’ it belies a much more sinister practice… collateral damage is nice wrapping for murder… human trafficking sounds much better than slavery or rape
According to Siddharth Kara, approx 1.8 million women and children are trafficked annually around the world. Some for sweat shop labor, agricultural labor, begging, organ harvesting (there is another interesting phrase) and perhaps most shocking for prostitution… 600,000 women and children for the sex industry…
Surely, I thought, this will not apply to me. I admit my complicity in the abuse of creation and repent of my ignorance of the poor. I know theoretically, theoretically mind you, that massage parlors exist in Providence RI, but I have no direct personal knowledge.
Then I discovered the Cocoa Protocol. Have you heard of this? This is going to sting more than the Ice Cream, I’m afraid. Apparently a great deal of the chocolate that we eat, that I love, the brownies and chocolate chip cookies and cake… is harvest by slave labor. So even the comfort of a brownie is actually an offense to what Christ proclaimed, ‘release for the captives..’ I can’t even get a brownie without also getting a challenging message from Christ.
Convictions, wrote James Wm. McClendon, are not just beliefs or opinions, … for our convictions show themselves not merely in our professions or belief or disbelief, but in all our attitudes and actions…
And if that were not challenging enough, McClendon goes on to say of the church…no mere collections of the curious will count.
James William McClendon, Jr.
Doctrine p 29
John Howard Yoder wrote similarly contrasting two choices for the church… ‘run-of-the-mill’ devotion or a ‘heroic’ level of devotion.
J.H. Yoder; The Priestly Kingdom
The Kingdom as Social Ethic, p. 83
These are serious times my sister’s and brothers. This is not the time for casual or curious Christianity. There are wars and violence in our nation, around the world… and we must first hear and then proclaim the shocking and perhaps offensive word’s of Jesus… Turn the other cheek… this is the way Disciples meet violence, with forgiveness…
In my little home town of Burrillville in RI mothers diaper their babies in paper towels and heat their homes with a gas oven… and the challenge that Jesus uttered 2000 yrs ago still echoes… do not refuse one who asks… and the challenge of the early church that we read in Acts, they held all things in common and the wealthy willfully sacrificed their material goods to offer support to the impoverished, rings In our ears… We must hear and then proclaim a unique way of thinking about economics… which is generosity, radical generosity… and simplicity, radical simplicity.
These are serious time and mere curiosity not only offends Christ, but the poor, in whom, he said in Matt 24, we would find him… These are serious times and run of the mill spirituality just will not do. The time has come to be reminded that it does no good to come to church… for we are called to be the church… to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. The time has come for the taking up of a cross and that will require from us a heroic effort.
Which reminds me of a song from my youth
Are ye able, said the Master, to be crucified with me, the hymn-writer, long ago asked
That question still lingers today… Are we able to accept the challenging words of Christ,
The blessings and the woes,
willing to be shocked by the gospel?
Are you able to relinquish
Purple dreams of power and fame,
To go down into the Garden,
Or to die a death of shame?
But I am glad this morning to be at St Charles Ave Baptist Church…
Because down through your history you have answer the question, Are ye Able to be crucified with me…with a strong and courageous… Lord we are able. Our spirits are thine.
When so many churches in this nation willfully espoused segregation, this church proclaimed welcome and hospitality to all God’s children, regardless of the color of their skin… You responded, Lord we are able…
When so many churches in the past and still today, denied that the spirit could call a woman to ministry, You have historically supported and affirmed women in pastoral leadership… you responded to the challenge and sang… Lord we are able…
You have not hidden from controversy or quailed to popular opinion making this sanctuary safe and welcoming for Gays and Lesbians and you have sung for all to hear…
Lord, we are able. Our spirits are Thine.
Remold them, make us, like Thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance above us shall be
A beacon to God, to love and loyalty.
So my final word for you this morning is the final word of our gospel reading
He went on his way…
Stay on your way St. Charles ave.
Walk on through casual curiosity and run of the mill faith
Stay on your way pursuing a heroic level of discipleship…
Stay on the way even when Christ’s words shock, offend or convict you…
Stay on the way even when other’s attempt to hinder your path…
Continue to walk through injustice in jesus name with your heroic efforts
Continue to sing Lord we are able
Continue on your way… a beacon of love and loyalty in New Orleans
And May God Richly Bless You!!!
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