WELCOME HOME, JESUS
A sermon preached by
Rev. Dr. Randle R. (Rick) Mixon
First Baptist Church, Palo Alto, CA
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Text: Luke 4:14-30
I have probably told this story before, but, way, way back in the early 1970s, just before and during the time I worked in this church as a mid-twenties seminarian, I served on the American Baptists’ National Planning Committee for Key ’73. Key ’73 was a movement, organized by the so-called “new evangelicals” of the period, to “Call our Continent to Christ.” American Baptists, with one foot in the mainstream and the other in conservative evangelicalism, signed on. It was my role to represent on this committee the constituency we called, in those days, American Baptist young churchmen. It was an exciting and fulfilling experience for me to learn from and work with such fine figures as Jitsuo Morikawa, Dick Jones, Larry Jansen and other leaders from the denomination’s division of evangelism. Though Key ’73 was conceived in a traditional evangelistic format, focused on personal salvation, in American Baptist life, evangelism was very much defined by the “social gospel.” It wasn’t just what you preached but how you lived your life that mattered. Salvation wasn’t just for lost souls. It was for misguided institutions and unjust social structures as well. The American Baptist Key ’73 program was about developing an “Evangelistic Life Style,” about how we could live good news, as well as proclaim it.
At that time in my life I had not preached many sermons, so I was flattered when the pastor of my grandparents’ little tin-roofed church in DeRidder, Louisiana, invited me to preach at the evening service one summer Sunday when my mother and I were down South visiting. As you might imagine, I was quite full of myself, bursting with eagerness to proclaim the real gospel to this little Southern Baptist congregation, including my grandparents, mother and several visiting uncles, aunts and cousins. Now for those of you who already think my sermons are too long, I will confess that that one was a full 45 minutes. I laid out the entire “Evangelistic Lifestyle” program and probably several other tangentially related ideas that I had learned in seminary. Oh, I was out to make an impression, and I’m sure I did, though perhaps not the one I intended. The pastor acknowledged afterwards that I had given him enough ideas for a year’s worth of sermons. I believe most of my relatives remained awake. At least they were politely affirming. Of course, it’s always a risk that a young preacher, who rarely gets the opportunity, will cram everything she or he can think of into that one sermon, in case it’s the only one s/he’s ever asked to preach.
Preaching in DeRidder wasn’t exactly a homecoming for me. I never lived there and only attended that church on family vacations. It is probably true that I will never be invited to preach in the church of my growing up. My sexual orientation and liberal theology preclude that happening, though I consider myself an evangelical to this day, in the mold of those heroes who led me into seeing and embracing an evangelistic life style. Perhaps Jesus is correct in observing that the prophet or preacher is not likely to find honor or an audience in his or her own backyard. Often that’s because they know you too well. They’ve seen the best and the worst of you growing up. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son? Mary’s boy? The preacher’s kid, who used to….?”
I came to DeRidder full of the brash confidence of the young and the arrogance of a Northern boy out to school his misguided southern relatives. By contrast, Jesus came to Nazareth “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Where had he been prior to today’s text? He had been down in the wilderness, east of Jerusalem, hanging with his cousin John, listening to John’s fiery preaching stir the crowds, wading into the muddy Jordan to be baptized by the Baptist, then wandering that same wilderness alone for 40 days listening to God in response to God’s affirmation and call. No wonder he was full of the Spirit. He had put himself squarely in the Spirit’s path. He had opened his mind, his heart, his very life to the Spirit’s power and he was filled to overflowing. You could see it in his eyes, hear it in voice, observe it in his walk.
Before he arrived back home, the text says he spent time working the familiar territory of Galilee, apparently centering his operations in the fishing town of Capernaum on the northwest shore of the lake. Though we have not yet been told by Luke exactly what the remarkable things were that he did in Capernaum and throughout Galilee, by the time he returned to his hometown, he seemed to have had something of a reputation. At the time, Nazareth was a farming community of two to four hundred people, many of whom were Jesus’ extended family. The synagogue may have been an actual structure, it may have been the largest house in town or it may just have been the gathering of the people. Since exilic times, people in Jewish communities all over the world had gathered on the Sabbath to hear the Holy Word read and interpreted.
Given Jesus’ growing reputation, don’t you imagine they were happy and excited to welcome him home? “Local boy makes good” read the headlines in the village newspaper. “Imagine our own Jesus, filled with God’s spirit, teaching and working wonders in God’s name.” Maybe Mary or one of Jesus’ sisters or brothers had come back from the wedding in Cana and told the tale of the water turned to wine. “Well, yes, he had been a bright and sensitive boy growing up.” “But he could still do a full day’s work with Joseph and the boys.” “He was always so good to Mary after Joseph died, helping her with the younger children.” “Yes, indeed, he was a good boy. No wonder he has turned out well.” They were all there to see and hear him. Don’t you imagine they had prepared a special Sabbath feast immediately following the service, everyone invited to stay for dinner on the grounds in celebration of one of their own?
And he didn’t disappoint. He had them unroll the scroll of Isaiah. He read so clearly and eloquently that favorite passage about how it’s going to be when the Messiah comes, bringing justice to the earth and lifting his people to the heights of heaven. They were all well impressed. He followed the customs precisely. He stood to read and then he sat down to teach. “‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” They liked what they heard, though they clearly did not understand it at first. Caught up in the excitement of the occasion, they must have let their minds skip over or drift past his word about what was happening “today.”
“It’s not in some far off future, folks. It’s today that the poor receive good news. It’s today that the blind see. It’s today that captives are released. It’s today the oppressed go free. It’s today that God’s Jubilee begins for real. Today, friends, today!” What if Clara or Oscar or Omar or one of the Daniels grew up believing these very words we’ve been teaching them all their lives; then, came home as a young adult, full of the Spirit, proclaiming that the time was now for radical transformation in our lives, our church, our society, that it was time to release captives, free the oppressed, give vision to those who see none, bring justice and equity to the earth and its inhabitants? I wonder how readily we would embrace them. Once the initial excitement of welcoming them home was over, would we begin to feel uncomfortable by such a word, to bridle under such proclamation, to resist such a fulfillment of prophecy?
The word is lovely on the printed page, beautiful all rolled up in a scroll, even moving when read with eloquence and passion. Maybe we’ll even stay around to chat about it for a while, but then let’s put it away where it belongs on the table or the shelf. We’re quite comfortable to let it lie until next week. Please, don’t let it become a living word, one that might inhabit our lives and bring about changes we’ve so carefully avoided all these years. It’s well and good to talk about justice, equity, liberation, healing and peace now and then. But don’t expect us to embrace it as our way of life. We don’t really need some evangelistic lifestyle in which we’re expected to live the good news, rather than just chat about it when it’s convenient.
I think something like that is the conflict Jesus encountered with his old friends and family in Nazareth. As long as they believed he was working within the familiar and comfortable framework of their village live, they were happy to celebrate his presence among them. But when, as the old story tells it, he went “from preaching to meddling,” they got upset. In fact, they got so angry they ran him out of his own home town. Welcome home, Jesus! As long as he was willing to read some nice text; then wax eloquent for a short while about how it will come true in the sweet by and by, they were quite content to listen to him, praise him, applaud him. As long as he adhered to the party line about special blessings for the chosen people, they could feel secure in their self-righteousness. But when he challenged their smug security, talking about how the living word has come not only to them but the whole world, gentiles included, applause turned to angry shouts and praise to condemnation. They chased him away, hanging a “Do not disturb” sign on the city limits as he disappeared over the hill.
God’s living word is a disturbing prospect. It challenges us to get up and get busy making the good news a reality, here and now, in Palo Alto, today. Look around. Where are there poor who need good news? And we’re not just talking talk here, we’re talking good news that really makes a difference in human lives. Clearly the people of Haiti need such good news. How about the students being taught at Balasore Technical School, or those served by the Opportunity Center and the Ecumenical Hunger Program, or refugees, or the working poor the world over? Are there prisoners of conscience like Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, among others, or many poor people of color in our own jails and prisons, or political prisoners in places like Guantanamo whose release we need to work for? Where in our world are there people who are oppressed by political, social and economic conditions that need to be transformed so that they might know real liberation? Does this include those oppressed by materialism and consumerism? Where do we find people who cannot see a future with any hope, who cannot hear good news, either because they will not open their eyes and ears or because there is no one who comes to them with any spirit-filled vision or living word of hope and healing?
This text from Luke may be an ancient word, but it is also as contemporary as you and I want to make it. It is as lively as you and I can make it in our own embrace. If we want to say a real welcome home to Jesus, then we need to be prepared that he will come among us proclaiming a word that challenges our comfort levels and sends us to out to live that word in every aspect of our daily lives. This is the cost and the reward, the challenge and the joy of discipleship. Jesus expects nothing less. Will we follow him or will we run him out of town? Amen.
14Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18“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, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” 24And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.