Giving God Away

Brad Sullivan

4 Epiphany, Year C

January 31, 2016

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

Luke 4:12-30

Giving God Away

So, the people of Nazareth weren’t all that taken with Jesus, were they?  In Matthew and Mark’s gospels they were scandalized by Jesus as soon as he started preaching to them.  He was from Nazareth and they didn’t think the hometown kid could really make it so good; who was he, preaching to them?  In Luke’s gospel, however, we get a very different picture of what happened.  The people of Nazareth were awed and amazed at what Jesus had taught them, and by the works he had performed in Capernaum.  They note that Jesus was Joseph’s son, and they seem to be especially proud that a hometown boy was there, proclaiming fulfillment of Isaiah’s words of God’s grace.  “This is fantastic!”  They thought.  “We’ve always been a kind of nothing little town, and now we’ve got one of our own who’s already done great things and will do even greater things for us.  He’s one of us.  Now we’re gonna be great!”

Then, Jesus kind of let them down with what he said next.  “Yes, I’m from here, but my mission, and God’s grace is not just for you.  Heck, it’s not even primarily for you.  Just like Elijah and Elisha, I’m going to bring God’s grace to everyone, Jew and Gentile.”  As if that wasn’t bad enough, he was basically telling the people, that while it was the year of the Lord’s favor, it wasn’t necessarily going to be too terribly favorable for them. 

See, the stories he told of Elijah and Elisha were about both of those prophets preaching and healing folks who weren’t Israelites, folks who were Gentiles, and Elijah and Elisha were preaching to and healing Gentiles because they had been rejected by Israel.  Israel at the time was under the rule of some pretty bad kings, and they were no longer faithful to God, so God was taking his salvation elsewhere.  “Like Israel of old,” Jesus was saying, “y’all aren’t really as faithful to God as you’ve led yourselves to believe, and the good news is going to reach the Gentiles with much greater effectiveness than y’all.  Essentially, you’ve squandered God’s grace, so it’s moving on.”

So at that point, yeah, they got pretty upset at the hometown kid telling them that the year of the Lord’s favor had come, that they were basically going to ignore and reject it, and that the year of the Lord’s favor was going to be accepted by Gentiles rather than by them.  He was telling them, “y’all seem to want this all for yourself, for your own benefit only, and that’s not the way God’s kingdom works.  Y’all are supposed to be introducing God to the nations, not despising the nations because they don’t have God.”  They’d shut God up in a box, and God was springing out of it.  God was already there with the Gentiles, and Israel was supposed to let them know that.

So, Jesus was going to let the nations know that.  This fact apparently didn’t sit well with the people of Nazareth.  “We want you all for ourselves.  We want to control the outcome of this new prophet.  God is supposed to behave the way we want him to, the way our religion tells us he will.”  So they became angry enough to try to kill Jesus.  Their anger may have stemmed from the fact that deep inside, they knew Jesus was correct.  When we’re shamed, we often react with anger, and we’re only shamed by something if we believe there is truth to it.  The people of Nazareth seemed to know the truth of Jesus’ words, that they hadn’t been living as a light to the nations.  They hadn’t been bringing good news to the poor, release to the captive, freedom for the oppressed, and recovery of sight to the blind (even if that sight was given by another persons’ eyes, taking the blind alongside with them).  They hadn’t been living they ways that Isaiah prophesied, and then they expected Jesus to be good news primarily for them.

To be fair, that’s not an uncommon trap that people who experience grace and good news fall into.  Even Jesus’ first disciples fell into the same trap.  As Bishop Doyle points out in his book, A Generous Community, Peter and James and John wanted to build booths when they saw Jesus transfigured.  They wanted to keep control over that event and, then they could bring others there.  They would have control over that moment of grace.  Additionally, at one point when little children were trying to see Jesus, they disciples didn’t want the little children coming to Jesus.  They wanted to control access to him and to keep their places of power and authority, but Jesus wasn’t having it with them any more than the people of Nazareth.  “Let the little children come to me,” Jesus said, “For it is to such as them that the Kingdom of God belongs.” 

Jesus and the Kingdom of God were never meant to be kept as a prize for one’s own benefit.  Jesus and the Kingdom of God were always meant to be given away.  As former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, famously said, "The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members."  Now he didn’t say only.  The church doesn’t only exist for the benefit of those who are not its members.  The church exists for both its members and for those who are not its members, but do we sometimes find ourselves in the same trap as the disciples and the people of Nazareth, wanting Jesus primarily for ourselves, working first and foremost for us? 

If you’re anything like me, there are times when the answer is yes.  I’m guessing all of us have times when we primarily want Jesus for ourselves, and the thought of giving Jesus and the Kingdom of God away doesn’t seem right, especially if we’re giving it away to people who seem undeserving in our eyes.  Further, giving Jesus and his kingdom away raises fears that there won’t be enough for us.  If we as a church do too much work for those outside, will there still be enough Jesus left for us?  The truth is, Jesus, his kingdom, and his grace have no limits.  There is always enough Jesus to go around.  I asked last week when the good news or release from captivity has happened to us, and who was Jesus for us when that happened.  Jesus has ministered to us in all kinds of ways and through all kinds of people, and Jesus is out there too, ministering to all kinds of people in all kinds of ways and places, and he is using all kinds of people to do his ministry.  Sometimes people know that Jesus is ministering to them, and sometimes they don’t.  Sometimes people believe in Jesus when he is ministering to them and through them, and sometimes they don’t.

We heard in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians this morning, “Faith, hope, and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love.”  If you have faith enough to move mountains but do not have love, you are nothing.  Hearts of love are even more beautiful and important to God than are hearts of faith.  “When did we see you naked and hungry and we clothed and fed you, Jesus?”  “Whenever you did so to the least people,” Jesus responded, “whenever your hearts were full of love and compassion for others.”

We are called as the church, as Jesus disciples to be people of love, people who give our love to other people.  If you listen to much Christian media lately, there seems to be a divide between people of faith, and the bad people who don’t believe.  That may work for our polarized society, but it is not what Jesus was about.  Jesus loved people, whether Jew or Gentile.  He brought faith to those who didn’t have it.  He brought hope to those who were without it.  He loved extravagantly. 

Our joy is that we too, as Jesus’ disciples get to love extravagantly, to bring hope with our love to people of faith and to people without faith.  We get to invite people to be here with us, and we get to be out there where Jesus already is, sharing love, faith, and hope, serving others as Jesus’ disciples.

In looking at the church, who we are and who we will become, Bishop Doyle writes:

The God that we choose to follow is a God who is out and among the people.  The God we follow bids us to make a Church that is…out and among the people…This God cannot be contained.  God’s mission cannot be contained…We must become a generation of church-makers who play in the waters of baptism and in the Scriptures and around God’s altar.  This is sacred and holy play through which we reenact – inside and outside church building, and in our lives – the great story of God’s creation.

We are to be about making the world into a different place…with all the tools at our disposal.  Most especially we are to make it new with God’s love, grace, forgiveness, and mercy.  We are to share and open up our church and walk out into the sweet-smelling and lush garden of creation.  We are to invite, welcome, and connect with others.  We are to share the message that God says to all people – “Come unto me all you who travail and are heave laden and I will refresh you.”…Don’t keep the little children away.  Don’t keep away those who have tried to follow Jesus and believe they have failed.  Don’t keep [from God] those who have drifted away from church…Give God away.  By all means let them all come.  And let us go.  And let us make the church together. 

Amen.