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February 2, 2025 "Gospel that Comfort and Provokes"

pastoremily5

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Psalm 71:1-6

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Luke 4:21-30


Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

 grace and peace to you from the Word of God

which comforts and provokes. Amen

 

Today, we continue through our season of epiphanies

 where each Sunday we have scripture

 that reveals something about Jesus

 

So far we have seen Jesus revealed as a human baby

As the King of the Jews as shown in the stars,

and as the spirit filled beloved chosen child of God after his baptism

 

the glory of God was revealed

 as joyful abundance in community

through Jesus’ act of turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana

 

And last week in his hometown synagogue

 Jesus was revealed as the fulfillment of scripture

As he read from the scroll of Isaiah

 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

  because he has anointed me

   to bring good news to the poor.

 He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

  and recovery of sight to the blind,

   to let the oppressed go free,

 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 

And then he taught saying

 “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

 

This week we get the continuation of that story

where it is revealed how Jesus will apply the word of God

which comforts even as it provokes

 those who hear it.

 

And we see how the world will respond to Jesus

as the fulfillment of scripture in this way.

 

 We see this in the reaction of those present in the synagogue.

 They hear Jesus announce that he is the fulfillment of God’s good news,

of freedom from oppression,

the jubilee year where debts are forgiven and financial equality restored.

 

 And this sounds good to them,

they who are under Roman rule and oppressed

 who struggle economically,

this is all good news,

 and they are amazed at the gracious words that come from Jesus’ mouth

 

Then they consider the source

and say “Is not this Joseph’s son?”

 

Now the tone of this question is left ambiguous.

 It could be read “hey, look at this hometown kid and what he’s become,

 we’re proud to have a part in that,

we watched him grow up!

 This is so cool we now have an inside connection to God’s good news!”

 

Or it could be read

“wait a minute,

we know this guy,

 this is Joseph’s kid,

the snotty one we watched grow up

who was always talking back to the priests in the temple,

where does he get off saying he’s the fulfillment of scripture?”

 

Either way, Jesus, sensing the shift in their reception

 and knowing that next will come the request to prove it

 through doing deeds of power

 cuts them off and refuses to do any of the things

 they’ve heard about him doing

citing the precedent of prophets failing to be accepted in their hometowns

 

and then he goes further

 and reminds them that God has a habit

of sending of not only sending prophets away from their hometowns

 but also away from their own people,

 like God sending Elijah to the widow at Zarephath during famine,

or healing Naaman the Syrian.

  

And this reminder of the expansiveness of God,

 who does not stop at the boundaries of the chosen people,

 enrage those listening to such an extent

that they get up- in the middle of the sabbath service-

and they drive him out of the synagogue

and herd him toward the edge of a cliff

 with the intent to throw him off of it. 

 

Now we are told Jesus gets away from them before they do

 (a neat trick not fully explained)

and continues on his way

 having revealed how the word of God,

comforts us

 but in its expansiveness also provokes us

 out of our assumptions and comfortable self-interest. 

 

The hometown crowd is gracious and excited

when Jesus proclaims the good news to them,

they become enraged when he includes others

 in that same promise,

 

perhaps out of fear that they will be passed over or left out,

perhaps out of fear that there is not enough to go around

- fears which lie in stark contrast to the good news

that Jesus has just proclaimed to them-

the good news that in God’s way of life,

 in God’s vision for the world

 there is enough to go around

and everyone has access to what they need.

It’s almost as if having lived with inequity for so long

equality feels unfair.

 

It’s like an older sibling

being told that they would receive an allowance of $5 a week

and being excited about it

 until they hear the parents tell the younger sibling

 that they will also receive and allowance of $5 a week,

 and immediately cries of ‘that’s not fair,

I’m older so I deserve more’

 rend the air

even though just a moment ago they thought the amount was sufficient.

  

Jesus’ good news, challenges that way of life,

 that order of the world,

and this message is in no way new or original.

 

This was the lesson God taught the people in the wilderness

 after freeing them from slavery in Egypt

by giving them manna daily.

 

 Enough for each day

and any extra collected rotted and smelled foul

 because hoarding stinks,

 this was the lesson the people were to live out in the promised land

and it is the lesson repeated over and over by the prophets

to the people living with the consequences of failing to live God’s way. 

 

We hear God’s call and charge to Jeremiah in our first reading this morning

 how Jeremiah is to be a prophet to the nations

 and with the word of God in his mouth

 he is to pluck up and pull down,

 destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.

 

And we hear Jeremiah’s reluctance,

protesting ‘but I am only a boy’

nonsense God says,

you are precisely who I need at this time

and I will go with you, do not be afraid

- how often are those words are used when there is something to fear.

 People do not like to be challenged to examine their way of life,

even, especially if it is the word of God that challenges them.

 

Jesus knows this,

 and he knows what happens to prophets who proclaim God’s truth

and as the fulfillment of scripture

he does it anyway,

 and he invites others to proclaim it with him,

because as provoking as it is,

 it is good news,

 good news conveyed out of love.

 

As those whom God has called to follow Jesus,

we too are called to proclaim and live out the good news

 even as it provokes us to examine our own lives in light of it.

 

 Luke is the gospel where the lawyer asks Jesus

what he must do to inherit eternal life,

 and Jesus asks him what does the scripture say?

and the response is love God and neighbor,

 

 and when the lawyer asks but who is my neighbor?

 Jesus tells the story about the man beaten by bandits and left for dead,

who is passed by a priest and a religious person without them stopping,

but when one of those people,

 one who is supposed to be outside of God comes along,

he is the one who stops and helps the man,

he is the one who acts as a neighbor

who we are to emulate in our lives.

 

The priest and the religious person

 may have been technically religiously correct in their actions

but they were without mercy

 and therefore they became the wrong actions.

 

and the good news is that who we are

 or who are parents were

doesn’t matter when it comes to living God’s way of mercy and love-

 it is a way of life open for all,

 and that in itself is provoking in it’s expansiveness.

 

The good news does not provoke without cause,

because what makes it good

 is the love for all creation that underlies it.

 

This is Paul’s point to the Corinthians,

 that if they are using the gifts that God gave them without love as a motivation,

or for selfish reasons,

they don’t gain anything from that.

 

To lead mature faithful lives

 is to live in love that turns us toward others

even when it doesn’t seem to benefit us,

and this is hard because it goes against our natural inclinations

 

but love, Love (that) is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

This is what is going to change the world for everyone.

 

Love sent Jesus to be the fulfillment of scripture,

 love sent Jesus to comfort and provoke,

 to proclaim the good news,

to be the good news,

 for all.

 

Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Amen

 

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