We’ll Live It Best We Can Anyway

Brad Sullivan

2 Lent, Year C

February 21, 2016

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

Luke 13:31-35

We’ll Live It Best We Can Anyway

            I think we could classify today’s reading as an epic faith by the Pharisees, and a pretty darn good win by Jesus.  The Pharisees were trying to get rid of Jesus, trying to make it look like they were on his side.  “Herod’s trying to kill you, Jesus, you’ve got to get out of here.  We’ve got your best interests at heart, and we need you to go so you don’t die.” 

Of course they were lying.  We know from Chapter Nine, that Herod was not trying to kill Jesus.  He was actually pretty interested in who Jesus was.  People were saying he was John the Baptist, and Herod was thinking, “I’m pretty darn sure I had John the Baptist beheaded not too long ago,” and he was curious about who Jesus was.  Herod wasn’t a good guy, but he wasn’t trying to kill Jesus.  Even when Jesus was going to be crucified, Herod didn’t have any burning desire to have Jesus killed.  He said, “send him back to Pilate.”  Again, Herod wasn’t a good guy, but he wasn’t trying to kill Jesus. 

The Pharisees were lying because they wanted to get rid of Jesus.  They were trying to frighten him away.  Like the Devil before him, they were trying to deter Jesus from his mission.  And Jesus had to have been thinking, “guys, I’m going to be crucified before too much longer, and your little death threat is supposed to frighten me?  I’m going to be killed; it’s supposed to happen, just wait a little longer.”

So Jesus turns their failure into a chance for teaching once again.  Jerusalem was supposed to be center stage for God’s glory in the world, not the place known for killing the prophets.  The Temple was in Jerusalem.  When Solomon dedicated the Temple, he said it was to be a place where all of Israel could look to and remember God’s glory, his love, his forgiveness and mercy.  Nations were supposed to flock to Jerusalem, drawn there by the light of God lived out in Israel, and yet, Jesus told the Pharisees that Jerusalem was the place where the prophets were killed; he told his disciples that the Temple would not stand and all would be thrown down because of the ways it had been misused.

Despite the Pharisees scare tactics, Jesus remained undeterred from his mission.  He named the truth, the darkness and said, “I will overcome it.”

We also have lots of opportunities to be overcome by darkness, to give in to fear or discouragement.  I was giving into discouragement not long ago, and Bill Bullard sent me a text with words he had seen earlier which read:

We profess a faith in God through whom all things are possible.  When we apathetically accept the status quo, we implicitly demonstrate a lack of faith that tomorrow might be better than today.  God should not be mocked in this way.  Our faith should be much more steadfast.

Those words cut me to the heart, and they also gave me hope, reminding me to trust in God through whom all things are possible. We had our vestry meeting yesterday, and we were talking about challenges facing the church and challenges in our lives, and we prayed together about these things, and then Debra said, “You know what, we also need to give thanks for all of the wonderful things in our lives and in our church.  There is so much negativity out there that we need to remember and give thanks for our blessings.  We need to be filled with that light and see that light, that we can be light bearers for others.”  So we prayed together thanks for all of the light and the blessings in our lives and church as well.

It is easy to be overcome by the craziness of the world, to be deterred from God’s mission of reconciliation, from living as the light in our lives and in the life of the church.  Bishop Doyle points out in his book, A Generous Community, that we live in a VUCA world.  VUCA means “Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, & Ambiguous. 

That pretty well sums up much of today’s world.  There is so much change happening so quickly, that many places where we used to find sure footing are no longer places of certainty, or those places are no longer even here.  We live in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and uncertain world, and it is easy for us to be discouraged by such a world.  It is easy to listen to the lies of the Pharisees that all is going badly.  The lies of the Pharisees saying things like “the church is dying,” or “things aren’t going to get any better.” 

For the record, the church is not dying, and while there certainly is darkness in the world, there is also an immense amount of light.  There are difficult times.  There is uncertainty, and sometimes, things do go badly, but we are not to be discouraged by those difficulties.  We are to trust in God, continue living his mission, and have faith that through him all things are possible.

That’s how Jesus lived when he taught his disciples when he told them not to worry, not to fear.  When the Devil tried to get him to quit, when the Pharisees tried to frighten Jesus, he lived and taught that there are times of discouragement, and when they come, “we’ll live it best we can anyway.”

In teaching his disciples not to worry, he told them that for one thing, worrying isn’t going to do you any darn good.  For another thing, worrying demonstrates a lack of faith in God.  So, “do not be afraid little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”  In a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, “do not be afraid little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”  That’s what we’re striving for in our lives and in the church.  We’re striving for God’s Kingdom, to fulfill God’s mission of reconciliation, and when we’re discouraged, we trust that God will fulfill our needs as we live out his mission.

At St. Mark’s right now, we’ve got a group that is gathering called, “New Wineskins.”  We’re seeking to discover new ways that we will live out God’s mission both within the community of St. Mark’s and beyond.  I again offer an open invitation to come on Sundays at noon.  Come dream with us, pray with us, study God’s Word with us, and discern together the ways God would have us live out his mission in our lives and in our live together as Jesus’ Body at St. Mark’s. 

Some of these new ways are already happening with our Friday morning breakfasts at church.  There are many people who won’t come to church, feeling sometimes like they can’t because of their sinfulness, feeling at other times like they won’t because of negative associations with the “institution” of the church.  Folks will come, however, to breakfast here on Friday.  While not part of the worshipping community, they are part of the community of people who meet weekly for a shared meal and fellowship in our parish hall.

New relationships and connections are being formed as we gather together, and divisions are ending.  I have been invited to attend a Roman Catholic baptism next weekend at Our Lady of Guadalupe.  There is no assumption that the Episcopal priest is going to become a Roman Catholic, nor is the family of the young man being baptized going to become Episcopalians.  We’ve simply gotten to know each other, and we’ve prayed together, so that they’d like me to be there, to be a part of this young man’s baptism.  You bet I’m going to be there.

There are plenty of ways to be discouraged in our volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, but there is plenty of light out there and in here too.  As a modern day prophet and singer/songwriter, Terri Hendrix, wrote in the song, Hey Now:

Kiss the evening sky and say bye, bye, bye.

Tomorrow knows no sorrow like today.

And should it come to pass today’s no better than the last,

We’ll live it best we can anyway.

We’ve all had highs, we’ve all had lows.

It’s a fact of life that everybody knows.

And should it come to pass today’s no better than the last,

We’ll live it best we can anyway.

http://www.terrihendrix.com/

            Despite all of the fear mongering of the Pharisees, the light of Jesus is thriving. The church is thriving.  Despite times of discouragement, we’re going to continue on believing in Jesus.  We’re going to continue on living out his mission.  We’re going to continue on trusting in Jesus’ words, “Do not be afraid little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom,” “and should it come to pass today’s no better than the last, we’ll live it best we can anyway.”  Amen.

Endure, Master Wayne

Brad Sullivan

1 Lent, Year C

February 17, 2016

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

Luke 4:1-13

Endure, Master Wayne

  

            In The Dark Night, the second in the most recent trilogy of Batman movies, Bruce Wayne was considering giving up being Batman.  The Joker had the city of Gotham pretty well under siege, and he promised to stop if Batman would simply give up fighting and turn himself in to the authorities.  As he was wondering what he should do, he had a conversation with Alfred who had raised him since he was a little boy.  He said:

Bruce Wayne:             People are dying, Alfred. What would you have me do?

Alfred Pennyworth:    Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They'll hate you for it, but that's the point of Batman, he can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make, the right choice.

I have a feeling that fatherly, sage advice was similar to what God the Father might have been whispering to Jesus when he was in the wilderness being tempted by the Devil.  In the second temptation of the Devil, Jesus was being given the opportunity to give up all that he was doing in order to fix everything.  The Devil was offering to Jesus the glory and authority over all the kingdoms of the world.  That had to be a tempting offer, and not just because Jesus wanted glory.  Jesus had glory.  He talked about returning in glory and the glory he had in the presence of God before the world existed.  Jesus had glory coming out of every part of himself in the transfiguration.  

What Jesus didn’t have was obedience from everyone.  Jesus didn’t have the ability to force his perfect will onto people.  Jesus loved people and wanted them to believe in God and to live the ways of God’s kingdom.  He wanted that so much that he died for it.  He wanted that so much that when the Devil offered it to him, you know it had to be a tempting offer. 

You’ve got a long, hard mission ahead of you, Jesus.  Preaching, teaching, healing, people loving you, using you, hating you; hypocrites, dust, beating, scorn, blood, pain, death, and all for what?  So that people will still often choose not to live God’s kingdom?  No, bow down to me, and I’ll give you the authority you need to complete your mission.  No one else will even have to do anything.  It’ll be done, here and now.  Bow down to me and accomplish your sole purpose. 

That was tempting.  Avoid pain and suffering, claim here on Earth the glory that is yours from the foundation of the world, and force people to obey you.  Have power over people to make everything go the way you want it to go.  No more getting frustrated at people’s poor choices.  No more having to put up with others in authority choosing the wrong thing.  No more enduring the short-sighted, wrong-thinking of well-intentioned idiots.  You can be in charge and make every decision be the right decision.

And Jesus said, “Thanks Devil guy.  The offer is tempting, but I can’t force everyone to love God and each other by turning my back to God.  As much as I’d like to make everyone do the right thing, that’s not the way the Father and I work.  I have to suffer the pain of watching the ones I love make terrible choice after terrible choice.  I have to love them enough to let them.  I have to endure.  I have to take it.  I have to lead and teach and love even when I’m outcast and hated for it.  I have to make the choice that no one else can make, the right choice. 

For us in the church recently, I’ve seen our church leaders more and more making the right choice.  Looking at our politics and general way of society nowadays, division is the name of the game.  We’re so afraid that the wrong people will end up getting their way, that we have become incredibly divided in our nation.  I would argue that we have bowed down to the Devil, to Satan, the Adversary, the bringer of division.  The polarized ends of our society have wanted to force the decisions go how they want them to, and to Hell with those wrong-minded people.  While seeking to do good, the polarizing, demonizing, divisions in our society are bowing down to the Devil and bringing about so much harm.  It is a temptation all of us fall prey to.  All of us want to at some point bow down to the Devil that gives power so that we can have our way.

That was the temptation of the Bishops of the Anglican Communion meeting in London about a month ago.  They were meeting to determine, among other things, how the Anglican Communion could remain united amidst deep differences around issues of human sexuality, marriage, Biblical interpretation.  Division was knocking at the door.  The Devil was offering power to those threatened by the actions of the Episcopal Church.  Kick them out.  Excommunicate them.  Make them leave the communion, and no longer be bothered by them. 

Well, contrary to what is printed in a lot of main stream papers, the Bishops did not choose to follow that offer made by the Devil.  The Episcopal Church was not excommunicated.  For three years, the Episcopal Church will likely have a diminished role in the councils of the Anglican Communion, but the Communion held.  The bonds of affection which united us in Jesus held over the temptations of the Devil.  We are still one in mission.  We are still one in Jesus.

The clergy and lay leaders of our diocese have faced a similar temptation as we have struggled together for the last four years over the same issues.  Like the Bishops of the Anglican Communion, when we have met at diocesan council as we did this weekend, our diocese has chosen not to give in to the temptation of the Devil, but to remain united.  We have chosen to remain united in mission, and we have chosen to remain united in Jesus.  As we addressed issues which brought up our differences even yesterday, leaders gave heartfelt pleas for folks to vote their way, and they also said that whatever the outcome, we would remain united. 

In both cases, the bishops of the Anglican Communion and the clergy and lay leaders of our diocese have chosen to resist the temptations of the Devil and chosen instead to follow Jesus.  They have chosen to endure all the well-intentioned, wrong-minded people.  They have chosen to see them as wrong-minded, yes, but as well-intentioned and wrong-minded.  They have chosen to see them as brothers and sisters.  They have chosen to give up the power of division and to take on instead the weakness of unity, the weakness of reconciliation, the weakness of striving together, the weakness of Jesus, who gave up his power for the sake of love and chose to be hated, to be an outcast, to be mocked, to be condemned and killed, for the sake of us, his beloved. 

Each of us faces the same challenge within the church, within our daily lives and relationships.  When we fight with those we love, we are often tempted to choose the power of being right and trying to force our rightness onto others.  We’re tempted to choose the power of ending relationships so we don’t have to endure or strive together, so we can be right and make life go the way we want it to.  When strife and crime start happening close to home, we’re tempted to build higher walls, have more security, and to retreat away.  Yet, as Jesus’ disciples, we are guided to follow Jesus, to take on his yoke, to take on the weakness of unity, the weakness of reconciliation, the weakness of striving together, the weakness of stepping out together in into the areas of our lives and the areas of our city that frighten us. 

Resisting the power of the Devil and his division which serves only ourselves, we take on God’s mission of reconciliation together, as one church.  We endure for the sake of Jesus’ beloved.  We endure for the sake of his love, and we leave the wilderness of striving together in our differences strengthened to live God’s mission of reconciliation.  Amen.

Feasting On Reconciliation

Brad Sullivan

Ash Wednesday, Year C

February 10, 2016

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Feasting On Reconciliation

19^th century Anglican priest and famous preacher, Phillips Brooks, gave a sermon entitled, Nature and Circumstance, in which he preached about Jesus’ teachings on greatness and the two worlds in which we find ourselves:  the world of men, and the world of the kingdom of God.  In this sermon, he wrote about Nicodemus questioning Jesus’ teaching that men must be born again to enter the kingdom of God.  Father Brooks said:

“Nicodemus wanted Christ to meet him in a lower world, a world of moral precepts and Hebrew traditions, where the Pharisee was thoroughly at home.  But Christ said, ‘No, there is a higher world; you must go up there; you must enter into that; you must have a new birth and live in a new life,-in a life where God is loved and known and trusted and communed with.”

-          Phillips Brooks, Sermons:  Nature and Circumstance

Jesus brought to his followers a realization of these two worlds in which we live, and he continually encouraged his followers not to be satisfied with the things of the world of men, but continually to strive for greater things of the kingdom of God.  Jesus taught in our Gospel reading today, “Beware of practicing your piety before others,” and instead “pray in secret so that your heavenly Father who sees in secret will reward you.”  Through the prophet Isaiah, God taught that he does not desire the religious fasts of the kingdom of men, but desires fasts from human strife and discord.  Fast from the ways you harm each other and feast on justice, mercy, reconciliation, and love.  Feast on Jesus and the ways of the kingdom of God.

We see in Jesus’ teachings about fasting and prayer, a collision of worlds.  The people were living in the world of their religion, a good world, in which they were seeking to fulfill their religious duty and to be good men.  Jesus was, however, trying to pull his people up to a higher world, to his kingdom in which they deeply encounter God and therefore deeply love each other.

In the lower world of religious practice, much of what was done made little difference in the world or even in the self.  Much of religious practice in Jesus’ day dealt with ritual purity.  Follow a set of religious rules, and you’ll be righteous before God.  In the higher realm of God’s kingdom, those practices don’t matter.  As Jesus taught concerning ritual hand-washing before eating a meal, ritual cleanliness before God doesn’t really matter in the kingdom of God.  The cleanliness of our heats is what matters in God’s kingdom. 

In our context of Lent, ritual fasting can be a very helpful tool toward opening our hearts to God’s way for our life.  The fasting itself, however, does not make one righteous before God.  In the higher realm of God’s kingdom, Jesus makes us righteous before God.  In the higher realm of God’s kingdom drawing near to God through Jesus is the way of life.  In the higher realm of God’s kingdom, believing in Jesus, his teachings and ways, and faithfully seeking to love others as he loves them is our way of life and the feast he would choose for us.

In the higher realm of God’s kingdom, then, our fasting would be to fast from whatever hinders us from drawing near to God, to fast from whatever hinders us from believing in Jesus, to fast from whatever hinders us from following in Jesus’ ways, and to fast from whatever hinders us from loving others as he loves us.  

Fast from whatever is keeping you from reconciling with another.  Fast from whatever keeps you from prayer.  Fast from whatever keeps you from seeking justice, loving mercy, and respecting the dignity of every human being. 

In the kingdom of men, we get to judge one another and proclaim our righteousness by comparing ourselves to those we see as less righteous around us.  That was the trap of the Pharisees.  In the kingdom of God, however, we are freed from this trap.  As Bishop Doyle writes, “Christians are free to follow their conscience and are free from the burden of judging or changing others.  Christians are prohibited from indicting and sentencing those who are different because of the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.”  Jesus frees us from making ourselves righteous by noticing the speck in someone else’s eye.  Instead, Jesus loves us, even with the log in our eye, makes us righteous through him, and frees us, thereby, not to judge the other but to love and serve the other.  Jesus frees us from the trap of the world of men and allows us to live in the kingdom of God.

I invite you all, therefore into a holy Lent.  I invite you to seek the higher world of Jesus’ kingdom.  I invite you to fast during this season, to fast from anything that keeps you from reconciliation and love.  I invite you to repent of the ways that keep you from living Jesus’ kingdom.  Finally, I invite you to feast on Jesus during this season of Lent.  Feast on his forgiveness and love.  Feast on his reconciliation and healing.  Feast on his ways and his presence.  God bless you.  God loves you.  Amen.

Leaving the Locker Room

Brad Sullivan

5 Epiphany, Year C

February 7, 2016

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

Luke 9:28-36, [37-43a]

Leaving the Locker Room

I was at a men’s retreat this weekend with the men of St. Mark’s in Richmond.  Kristin is their go to supply clergy when their rector is away, and she supplied for him last summer when he was on sabbatical.  So, the congregation knows and loves her and our kids, and the rector, Bert, thought it would be nice if they got to know me to, so I was invited on the retreat.  They actually call is a “gathering of men” because “retreat” is just not something men do.  So we gathered for great food, fellowship, games, various beverages, Bible study, skeet shooting, fishing, Eucharist, etc., and I contacted the men on our vestry yesterday afternoon and said, “this thing has been great; we have to do one here.”

So on Friday night, one of the men who leads a weekly Sunday Bible study, led us all in Bible study.  It was a thematic study of sports and sport analogies in the Bible (of which there are many), and we looked at these passages, what these sports analogies teach us about our faith, and how the Super Bowl can relate to our faith.  Admittedly, I was kinda skeptical at first, but it worked. 

From Philippians 3:12-14, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal.”  There are four quarters of football, and the team lays aside their previous touchdowns and their previous mistakes, that’s the team that’s gonna win.  For us too, we cannot live in the past, forever grasping on to that one glorious moment, or forever haunted by the sins of our past.  We have to let our past go, give that to Jesus and follow him.  From 1 Corinthians 12:12-20, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”  Special teams doesn’t win the game; offense doesn’t win the game; defense doesn’t win the game.  It takes the whole team playing together to win.  Within the body of Christ, no one person or group fulfills God’s mission of reconciliation.  The whole church, working together fulfills God’s mission of reconciliation.

So, can we get some Gospel truth from the Super Bowl?  Yeah, we actually can.  When we’re watching the Super Bowl this afternoon, we can think of Jesus and the church a little bit. 

Looking then at today’s Gospel story from Luke, we heard the story of Jesus’ transfiguration.  Jesus’ glory was revealed.  The glory of the Lord was shining out of and through Jesus, and the glory of Jesus full and true humanity was shining.  Here is a true human, guys, fully reconciled and connected to God.  Whenever Moses was near to God up on the mountain, when he came down, his face was glowing.  The nearer we are to God, it seems that the glory of God, in whose image we were made, radiates through us.  Jesus revealed this truth of himself and this truth of humanity to Peter and James and John on the mountain.  He showed them his glory as if to say, “Here’s who I am guys, and here’s who I am leading you all to be.  I am the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.  Follow me, and fear not, for I am restoring all things to God.” 

Then, once the excitement and joy of the moment was over, Jesus basically said, “ok, back to work.”  Why did Jesus take those three disciples up the mountain with him?  Perhaps just to pray.  That’s why Jesus went up there; maybe he didn’t know the transfiguration was about to happen.  We don’t really, know, but in any case, once it did, they didn’t stay there in that moment, stuck forever in the past.  They moved on into the future or into the always present moment, continuing God’s mission of reconciliation. 

Prior to this, the twelve had been sent out by Jesus to begin their work on God’s mission.  They’d done great, preaching and healing, and then, after they all came back, Jesus was curious what people had been saying about him and asked, “who do people say that I am,” and the people had been saying that Jesus was John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the prophets.  Then, Jesus asked the disciples, “who do you say that I am?”  Peter nailed it, declaring Jesus to be “the Christ of God.”  Jesus went on to teach them more about that, about how he will be killed and be raised on the third day.  He taught them that as his disciples, they too needed to take up their cross and follow him, telling them, “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” 

So the disciples had been doing great.  They started their ministry living out God’s mission.  They declared and began to understand who Jesus is.  They were a little perplexed by the “if you lose your life for my sake, you will save it” part, but they were working through that, and then, Jesus takes Peter and James and John up the mountain to pray. 

It was like halftime, and Jesus was in the locker room with the team giving them some instruction, a pep talk and then showing them, the game plan.  “Here’s where we’re going guys:  restoration, reunion with God.  We’re going toward reconciliation and true humanity.  I know it’s tough and scary, but when I told you not to fear losing your life, I meant it.  Look here are Moses and Elijah, alive and well.  Here’s the glory of God and the glory of true humanity shining through me.  Trust me guys, I really am restoring all things, and living out God’s mission of reconciliation, it’s leading somewhere great!  Now let’s get out there and let’s play some ball.” 

So they got this great halftime talk and they got to rest in the locker room for a bit, and then Coldplay and Beyonce stopped singing, halftime was over, and it was time to get back in the game. 

The very next day, there was a boy who needed healing.  There was gospel work to be done, and for some reason, the disciples couldn’t do it.  They’d done great at preaching and healing before.  Perhaps they were daunted by what they had heard and seen on the mountain.  Jesus had been talking about his coming death on the cross which disturbed the disciples.  Perhaps they were still stuck in that moment and just not ready to face the world again.  In any case, Jesus showed them that as his disciples, they really did get to keep doing the work he had given them to do.  The encounter they had on the mountain with Jesus’ transfiguration gave them strength and encouragement, nearness to God, but it was not a place they were going to stay. 

I think of our worship in a similar way.  We have an encounter with Jesus in the words of Scripture and in the Sacrament.  We get instruction and encouragement.  We also have a model for our lives with the liturgy.  Our liturgy teaches us to give thanks to God first in everything we do.  Our liturgy teaches us to read and study scripture.  Our liturgy teaches us to pray for ourselves and for others, to examine our lives, offer our sins to God, and to ask his forgiveness that we may be freed from the past and press on toward to goal.  Our liturgy teaches us to encounter Jesus in the ordinary things of life, and then our liturgy gives us an encounter with Jesus in the bread and wine. 

Our worship is a place where we are meant to return, but like the mountaintop of Jesus’ transfiguration, our worship is not a place where we are meant to stay.  In what our liturgy teaches us, it is like practice or a halftime speech.  We get to rest.  We gain strength, support, and instruction for our lives from an encounter with Jesus.  Afterwards, we give thanks that we get to go forth from here to continue as Jesus’ disciples, living out God’s mission of reconciliation.  At the end of each service, halftime’s over, and we get to go out there and play ball.  Amen. 

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.