Homily: Yr C Proper 4, Feb 3 2013, St. Albans
Readings: Jer 1.4-10;Ps 71.1-6; 1Cor 13.1-13;Lk 4.21-30
Suppose someone asked
you to write your autobiography. Where would
you begin? What’s the first story you
would tell?
Isaac Stern, the
great concert violinist, begins his autobiography as follows:
Early one October morning in
1937 I boarded a double-decker bus at 72nd Street in Manhattan and
disappeared. I was 17 years old.
For the next six hours, no one knew
where I was . . . I sat on the top deck, gazing out at the streets but not
taking in what my eyes were seeing. I
had to face a critical moment in my life, and I needed to be alone. My head was filled with the reviews of my
debut performance at Town Hall on the evening of October 10. The reviews, I thought, were disastrous.
Isaac Stern’s
autobiography begins not with his birth, but with a transformative,
life-changing event. He had hoped that
his first solo concert in New York City would be the launch of his career as a solo
violinist, but instead he was handed the hard truth that he wasn’t good enough
yet. It was a moment of decision for
him. Would he give up his dream of being
a concert violinist and take a job with a symphony orchestra, or would he go
back home and put in many, many hours of practice in the hope of improving his
technique?
The prophet Jeremiah
also begins his autobiography with a transformative, life changing event: He writes
“The
word of Lord came to me.”
In the Hebrew
scriptures, God’s word, dabar in the Hebrew language, is a dynamic and vital
force. In English we are more accustomed
to think of “word” as something static, a collection of letters which conveys
information. But in the Hebrew tradition,
dabar is a force to be reckoned with. It
makes things happen. It is the word that
summons the heavens and the earth into being at creation, the word that calls the
prophets, the word that became flesh, the word that changes lives.
The encounter with
the word of God is meant to be something that rocks your world, a powerful
life-changing experience. In our first
reading we hear that the coming of the word of God to Jeremiah will change him
from a boy that does not know how to speak, to a prophet who is appointed over
nations and kingdoms, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. The encounter with the word will transform
Jeremiah into the man that God created him to be when he first formed him in his
mother’s womb.
Today’s gospel
reading further illustrates the dynamic power of the word of God. The encounter with Jesus produces some
extreme reactions in that little synagogue in Nazareth. Recall from last week that Jesus has
proclaimed in the reading from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” Then, in today’s reading he tells them,
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The initial reaction of his listeners is
praise and amazement. All spoke well of
him!
But then, just a few
verses later we’re told that these same people “were filled with rage”, and
they take Jesus to the top of a hill, so that they can throw him off the cliff. What the heck happened that led to such
extreme reactions, and such a stunning reversal?
Well, let me ask you,
what happens to you when something rocks your world? When you’re confronted with a hard truth that
either you weren’t expecting or didn’t want to hear? I think that often when this happens, the
first thing we try to do is ignore it, or gloss over it so that we don’t have
to deal with it. But what if that truth
persists, what if events continue to rock your world in a way that can’t be
ignored. Then I think one of two things
tends to happen. Either it changes us
and our lives are transformed as a result, or we resist that transformation and
instead put our energy into re-establishing the status quo.
I think we see this
same dynamic happening in the synagogue in Nazareth. At first, people speak well of Jesus. They ignore the life-changing, world-changing
implications of his message, and instead marvel at how well he speaks, and how
wonderful it is that one of their own, Joseph’s son, has become so learned and
well-respected. The people speak well of
Jesus, but they don’t really get it. In
the presence of God’s word become flesh, they hear the word of God, but they
aren’t transformed. Instead of being
changed by God’s word, they try to make it conform to their expectations.
But God’s word will
not be ignored. It will not be tamed, it
will not be domesticated to suit someone else’s agenda. It is a powerful, dynamic force that seeks to
transform all that it encounters. And so
Jesus, the word become flesh, God’s agent of change, Jesus provokes these same
people that are speaking well of him, and challenges their core beliefs. And he does it by hitting them where it
hurts, by speaking the truth about their own prejudices towards non-Jews. Jesus’ mission will not be just to his blood
relatives, but to all peoples. Just as
Elijah and Elisha did in Old Testament days, Jesus will bring good news and
healing to foreigners, to Syrians and northerners, to the enemies of his blood
relatives. God’s promises are offered to
all nations, not just the nation of Israel.
And this throws them
into a rage. It is too great a challenge
to their core beliefs and assumptions.
The change demanded by God’s word is too great. The extension of God’s promises to their
enemies enrages them. And rather than
allowing themselves to be transformed by this truth that is rocking their world,
instead they reject Jesus in a desperate attempt to re-establish their own
comfort and security. It is after all,
sometimes easier to shoot the messenger. And so they march Jesus up the hill.
But Jesus, the word
of God, will not be ignored, nor will he be pushed off a cliff. And even later, when those who refuse to deal
with his truth finally succeed in putting him to death, even then, death cannot
contain him.
The encounter with
God’s word is meant to be a powerful, life-changing experience. Some will reject this experience. Others will allow themselves to be changed,
to be transformed into the people that God created them to be.
The reason that we’re
here, the reason we come to church each Sunday is to encounter God’s word. It is meant to be a life-changing experience
for us. It is meant to challenge our
core beliefs, to examine and correct our unspoken and unexamined assumptions
and habits that hinder us from being the people that we were created to be when
God formed us in our mother’s womb.
Our faith is meant to
be a dynamic, not static. It’s meant to
be active, not passive. Jesus thought
that is was better to provoke his listeners to rage than to leave them comfortably
where they were. Jesus posed a profound
challenge to his community. The word of
God that we encounter in our worship should pose a profound challenge to our
community. Their challenge was to accept
foreigners as God’s children. What is
the challenge being posed to us today?
Well let’s go back to
that mission statement.
“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, to
proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then Jesus says, “This
scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Or, to translate it a slightly different way, “The
fulfillment of this scripture will happen when you hear it.” You see, you and I are being invited to
participate in bringing good news to the poor, in giving sight to the blind, in
releasing the captives and in making the year 2013 the year of God’s favour.
Does anyone hear a
challenge in these words?
The encounter with
God’s word, our worship together week by week is not meant to entertain us or
amuse us. It’s not meant to inform
us. It’s not meant to make us feel good
or to elicit praise. No, it’s meant to
change lives. Week by week, day by day,
our encounter with God’s word is meant to transform us into the people that God
created us to be.
Is it happening in
this place? Do we allow God’s word to be
a dynamic, powerful force in our midst, or do we seek to tame it and to make it
conform to our expectations? Our faith,
our relationship with God, should be dynamic.
After all, as Christians, as the Church, we are in the business of
changing lives, starting with our own.
Amen.
Excerpt from My First 79 Years, by Isaac Stern and Chaim Potok, De Capo Press 1999.
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