[Propertalk] PREACHING RESOURCES FOR JANUARY 31 - Luke 4:21-30 - Part 5

[Joe Parrish]

SERMON REVIEWS: Luke 4:21-30

Robert F. Browning quotes a Flannnery O’Conner short story entitled “Revelation,” about Ruby Turpin, a woman with an attitude. Sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, she judged everyone around her, including a very poor and unkempt teenager named Mary Grace. Ruby wondered aloud about the girl’s looks and manners until Mary Grace could stand it no longer and hurled the book she was reading, hitting Ruby in the head causing her to fall to the floor. “Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog!” Mary Grace called out to her. This violent action awoke Ruby’s better self and in that moment began an attitude adjustment.

“In the synagogue that day, Jesus threw the book, or should I say scroll, at his childhood neighbors and friends.” Jesus declared that he was the fulfillment of the Isaiah prophecy. He then spoke of Elijah and Elisha as people of God who eventually bypassed the Jews and ministered instead to Gentiles. Through them, God became more loving and inclusive than God’s listeners had ever considered being. Jesus believed it was time that these listeners changed to “reflect God’s heart.” This made the listeners furious and anxious to kill Jesus.

Browning asks whether Jesus was surprised by or expecting this reaction. Most likely Jesus was trying to open their minds and hearts “to new ways of thinking, “seeking to help them build bridges and not barriers.” This approach was incomprehensible to them. They became extremely agitated.

Has the gospel ever offended us? We cannot sit idly by. The gospel demands change in our “beliefs, attitudes, values, priorities, relationships and behavior” and calls us to move beyond our own well-being and desires. Gospel compassion presses us to consider the starving widow and the sickly outsider. The gospel is a bridge building word urging us to move away from our comfort zones and into the arms and hearts of folks worse off than ourselves. Jesus encourages his listeners “to declare hope instead of condemnation, to promote freedom in place of slavery and to heal wounds rather than inflict them.” He challenged them to become trendsetters, “courageous, humble and inclusive,” even confrontational when necessary.

Browning illustrates this with President Jimmy Carter’s 1978 Camp David talks when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat refused to negotiate a second longer. His bags were packed, and he had called for a driver. Carter went immediately into a nearby room and prayed, asking God for wisdom and guidance. Then he assertively asked Sadat not to leave. If he left, he would betray his own people and betray Carter’s friendship as well. With tears in his eyes, Carter shared that Sadat walked off for a few moments and then came back informing Carter that he was staying. A peace agreement followed.

“Sometimes the gospel is assertive and offensive“ throwing a book in our face. “It’s called tough love.”1

Father John Dear emphasizes the audience’s hostility as they cry out against Jesus’ criticism. Bringing the passage into our century, Jesus would be saying that we Americans think we are holy, and God should consistently bless us. Instead, God is not paying any attention to us for God is helping a widow in Baghdad whose families were killed by our fire, and a child in Afghanistan killed by our military, and a family in Palestine who lost their home due to American military aid to Israel. Dear believes we too would have been hostile hearing Jesus speak openly and frankly to us with such advice. In our day, Jesus, would be trying to shock us into a new awareness, which should lead us to humbly accept his judgments, leading us to repentance and obedience. “We need Jesus to tell us the truth, to call us to justice and liberation, [and] to summon us to his way of loving nonviolence.”2

Russell Campbell stresses Jesus’ prophetic role of calling people into accountability and away from their selfishness and faithlessness. Jesus’ integrity moved him to call the people of Nazareth to become servants of light. Instead, their narrowness led them to miss a great opportunity “to participate in a new future.” The listeners were only “willing to settle for a God just small enough to meet [their] own needs.” Likewise, we too, are often so preoccupied with our perception of mission that we become “limited to maintenance rather than mission.” We become so enamored with security that we fail to move forward in the power of the Holy Spirit to places and callings that leave our comfort zones behind.3

Christopher Davis Carlisle 

Notes
1. Dr. Robert F. Browning, “Can the Gospel be Offensive?” January 28, 2007.
2. Father John Dear, “A Prophet Is Not Welcome,” February 1, 2004,.
3. Rev. Russell Campbell, Luke 4:21-30,“Me Too!,“ January 28, 2007.









-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20100125/c488e7b3/attachment.htm>