The Unlimitable Gift (A Sermon for Epiphany)
Here’s a sermon I preached at CrossWalk, Sabbath, January 30. Matt Burdette asked me to post it on the Constructing Adventist Theology blog. So I decided to go ahead and cross post it here for you as well. We are currently preaching through the Revised Common Lectionary. It’s the Season of Epiphany, when the church focuses on Jesus revealing as God’s Son. I chose to preach on the Gospel reading for that week, Luke 4:21-30.
I. Surprised!
If you watched the NFL Championship games this past weekend, you may have seen the debut of a television ad that’s gone viral on the internet. The ad is for Wal-Mart. And as much as it pains me to promote their business in any form, you’ve got to see it if you haven’t already [I paused the ad just as the Dad was jumping into the air]:
Let’s pause it for a moment; I promise we’ll come back. When was the last time you were surprised? I remember the surprise birthday party my wife threw for me when I turned thirty… last year. Okay, so its been a few years. Anyways, Gina blindfolded me, put me in a car and drove me around town until I was completely disoriented, and then she took me to another house where my friends were waiting to surprise me. I knew something was up since it was my birthday, but you know what really got me? She left me blindfolded for the big “surprise;” I totally didn’t see it coming, literally.
I think planning the surprise can be more fun than being surprised. When Gina and I were engaged, my Mom’s best friend, Charlene, wanted to have a wedding shower for us. Only she wanted to host it back in New Jersey, were I grew up, so my parents’ friends could be part of the shower. She also wanted it to be a surprise for my parents. We were attending school at Andrews University in Michigan at the time. So one weekend we drove to New Jersey, and hid out at Charlene’s place until the shower.
If it sounds complicated, it was. It took lots of strategizing. But it was a blast! My parents didn’t have a clue. At times we flat out deceived them. (You know that’s okay when your trying to surprise someone, right?) My Mom made it difficult too, because she kept calling Charlene about getting together. At one point my parents actually showed up at Charlene’s house, sending us scrambling to hide. It was a close call.
Of course, the best part of any surprise is the reaction—I’ll never forget my parents that night. Classic response. You know there’s always that bewildered look, like the brain is trying to catch up to what’s happening, like their minds have just gone through an entire process of reasoning in a few seconds, and then there’s the moment of recognition—Some people laugh, others scream, and lots of them cry, especially my Mom.
II. Jesus’ Surprise
Go with me to the Gospel of Luke, Luke 4:21-30. The lectionary spends two weeks in this story. So here’s a recap: Jesus, has returned to his home town, Nazareth. It’s the Sabbath day, and he goes to the local synagogue, all the men are there, many of them old friends, playmates from his childhood. And he’s given an opportunity to read from the sacred Scriptures. He chooses to read the Prophet Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”1
Then Luke says, “Everyone in the synagogue looked at him intently.” Why? Word has gotten back to Nazareth. They say Joseph and Mary’s son has been traveling throughout Galilee, preaching in synagogues, causing quite a stir. Everyone’s talking about him. They claim he’s filled with the Spirit of God, that he’s performed miracles—the blind see, deaf hear, lame walk, the possessed are set free, even the dead raised!
And then he chooses to read from the Prophet Isaiah. And not just any passage from Isaiah, but one of THE passages–a messianic passage, a jubilee passage, a passage that is the sum of their hope as a people: the time of the Lord’s favor. They’re not dumb. They can connect the dots. Could it be true? Is it possible? And a Galilean too? But someone from Nazareth? What’s up with that?
After all, Galileans were common people, intermarried with Gentiles, religiously uneducated, and considered “unwashed” people of the land. The upper crust people of the South despised Jesus and his fellow Nazarenes, they spat on them with contempt.2
Caleb Rosado, says “no room in the inn” for Mary & Joseph, didn’t mean it was full. It was more like how a black family from the North would’ve been received at a white motel in the South during the 1950’s. That’s what being a Jew from Nazareth was like. Nothing good was expected to come from there.3
So Jesus reads from the Scriptures, he reads of time when the Lord’s favor will rest on their people. They’ve longed for this day for centuries. All of Israel and Judah have longed for this day, surrounded by nations that oppressed them, occupied them, controlled them. Now, finally, once and for all, they’ll be the one’s on top.
But these poor country folk realize another implication of this as well. They’ve always been looked down upon by their rich cousins in cities like Jerusalem. But now? Now, if it’s true, the Scriptures are going to be fulfilled in Jesus, the hometown boy. You know what that means? He is one of us! We’ll have the power, we’ll be the one’s on top, the Galileans, the people from Nazareth.
And then, with all of these thoughts very likely racing through their minds in the synagogue that Sabbath day, Jesus closes the scrolls, hands them to the attendant, sits down (I bet you could hear a pin drop), and says, vs. 21, “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” And Luke writes:
Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
Surprise!
III. Shocked!
Ok, let’s finish that Wal-Mart ad. Are you ready?
[I played the ad here in it's entirety]
I was terrified of clowns when I was a kid. I’m talking nightmares! If I’d been one of these kids at that party, I would have ended up scarred for life! I’m talking years of therapy!
So have you ever had a similar experience? Not with clowns, I mean going from surprise to shock? I think a lot of dads can relate to that. One night when I was a kid, my Dad got out an old wig, put on some tattered clothes, and snuck out of the back of the house. We’d just finished dinner, when the doorbell rang. My little sister ran to open it, and there was this creepy looking man. Her reaction? I can tell you this, it wasn’t surprise!
I’ve done it to my kids too. Not too long ago I tried to surprise my five-year-old daughter McKenna. I heard her coming into our bedroom, so I hid behind the door, and then waited for right moment. I can’t recall exactly what I did, but I jumped out and made some strange noise. She burst into tears. No, not just tears–she was waling! Gina comes running. “What’d you do to her?” “I don’t know, she just started crying!” I wanted to surprise her but only ended up shocking her.
IV. Jesus the Revisionist
A mentor in ministry told me early on: “Always surprise people, never shock them.” Well, maybe Jesus could’ve used my mentor’s advice, because in v. 23. Jesus sees their reaction to what he’s just said, and he responds:
“You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.
Then Jesus says, verse 25:
“Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”
And verse 28:
“When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.”
From surprise to shock! What happened? A couple of comments about their prophetic past? A history lesson from the time of prophets? And this is how they react? One moment they’re amazed, the next enraged?
Jesus uses two stories from their history. The first, from the days of Elijah—-there’s a famine in the land, Elijah is being hunted down by his enemies, and God comes to his aid through a widow in the land of Sidon. And the second, from the days of Elisha—when Naman, a Syrian military officer with Leprosy is healed, after Elisha tells him to bathe in the Jordan River.
But notice how Jesus prefaces each story. First one, he says, “there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time … Yet Elijah wasn’t sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner.” Second one, he says, “there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naman, a Syrian.”
Ok what’s the connection? They’re both outsiders! Enemies of Israel. Sidon and Syria are mentioned numerous times in the Scriptures—often as the oppressors and occupiers of Israel, Gentiles, considered cursed by God. And the thought that God would reveal himself to an outsider, no, that he’d actually link them together—insider and outsider, is unthinkable, and it sends them into a murderous rage. “Jesus, we don’t like how you are revising our history.”
VI. Longing for an Epiphany
In Christian time, it’s the season of Epiphany—the season begins with the coming of the Magi from the east, moves on to Jesus’ baptism—where we hear the voice of God, “This is my beloved son;” looks at claims of his divinity, tells of his miracles, and ends on a mountain with Jesus’ transfiguration, were again we hear the voice of God, “This is my son, listen to him”. In each story Jesus is more than meets the eye, more than a carpenter, more than an itinerant preacher, more than rabbi, he’s being revealed to us as Messiah, Son of God.
You may not even be aware of it, or you may be fully aware of it. Every one of us wants God be revealed in some way, shape, or form. Things haven’t changed much since this story happened, that’s what they wanted then, and that’s what we want now.
Are you ready for God to be revealed? Hang on, because when God shows up, he’ll surprise you, but he’ll also shock you! There’ll be moments when you experience an epiphany sitting in a worship service, maybe through a song or sermon. But if you open your eyes, you’ll be shocked at where God reveals himself to you. If there’s one thing we can take away from this story, it’s that we can’t tell God where he can and can’t show up. He reveals himself wherever and to whoever he wishes.
“We can’t tell God what God should do. God is not under our bidding. God won’t do a miracle here just because we want God to. God will love and bless and help whomever God wants to love and bless and help. If God decides to miraculously feed a widow in Zaraphath, that’s what God will do. If God decides to heal Naaman, the Syrian, that’s what God will do.”4
If God decides to bless an illegal immigrant, or homosexual, or an atheist, self-righteous Adventist, or even a racist Christian, that’s what God will do. If God decides to do something special for an Muslim from Iraq or a terrorist from Afghanistan, that’s what God will do.
Luke’s story in our Gospel reading this week reminds us that no one is God’s “special people” to the exclusion of others. If we worship Jesus only for what he does for us, then we’ve missed out on God’s unlimitable gift. What’s that gift? His presence. And His presence is grace. And its often through the unlikeliest of people, places, and situations (or those we consider to be the unlikeliest) that we experience his presence the most.
I think it’s interesting that the Season of Epiphany begins with the Magi coming to worship Jesus. Danielle Shroyer believes we often forget the fact that these men were very likely pagan astrologers who felt compelled to search for God though a star. She’s writes in her book, The Boundary-Breaking God:
“From the very beginning of Jesus life on earth, God makes it clear this Messiah is going to muddy the lines between who is in and who is out. The story of the astrologers is the story of God’s expanding love from the viewpoint of unexpected outsiders.”
God delights in breaking through boundaries, And there’s lots of boundaries that need breaking through! There’s boundaries in our lives, boundaries in our homes, boundaries in our neighborhoods, boundaries in our schools, and boundaries in our churches. There’s boundaries that need breaking here at CrossWalk! And you know what? There’s boundaries that need breaking in our beloved Seventh-day Adventist Church! There’s boundaries that need breaking in Christianity. And there’s boundaries that need breaking in America!
We must ask ourselves, if we have a boundary breaking God, are we willing to be boundary breaking people? At CrossWalk we talk about being a community that is learning to love well. Part of that means we are a community that is learning to breakdown walls as well. A story came to mind as I thought about what that looks like for my life. In his book, The Kingdom of God is a Party, Tony Campolo tells the story of the night he threw a birthday party for a prostitute.
[Note: During the Sermon I actually read the whole story. Campolo is such a good storyteller, there was no way I’d do it justice telling it myself.]
Camplolo was visiting Honolulu, Hawaii on a speaking engagement. He happened to stop at a coffee shop at 3 AM one night when he couldn’t sleep. While eating a donut in the shop, Campolo overheard a prostitute tell her co-workers it was her birthday the next day, and that she’d never had a birthday party in her whole life. When she left Tony and the owner of the coffee shop plotted together to surprise her the next day when she came into the shop. It was a beautiful moment. A boundary breaking moment. At the end, the owner of the coffee shop find’s out Campolo is a preacher, and asks, “What kind of a church do you belong to anyway?”
“A Church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3 AM in the morning!”
“No you don’t, there’s no church like that, if there was, I’d join it!”, the shop owner retorts.
And Campolo says, “Wouldn’t we all.” 5
VIII. In the Hands of God
I want to present a challenge for us (I am at the front of the line). In the next week or so I challenge us to look for an epiphany. We’re not going to look for it at church in a worship service, or in Bible study, or any other place we might expect God to reveal himself. Rather let’s look for God in the people, places, and situations, we least expect to find Him. Let’s open our hearts, open our eyes, let’s take some risks, even if they seem small at first. Let’s ask God to reveal himself in ways we’ve never seen him before. I can make you a promise, we’ll see him. As I look back over my life, it’s in the persons, places, and situations where I least expected to see God, where I have experienced his presence the most. And I have been changed because of it.
Thinking about the implications of following a boundary breaking God may leave us feeling like those children in the Wal-Mart ad—scared for our lives. Maybe we’re afraid God is going to make us do something we don’t want to do. Maybe he’ll send us somewhere we don’t want to go. What will we say? What will we do? e.g. Jeremiah this week: “I am only a boy!”
But did you get a chance to see the quote in the Weekly? Bruce Epperly writes: “Those of us who seek to follow God’s vision for our lives often have moments of utter panic when we realize where God’s lure forward may take us!”6
We began our service this morning with Psalm 71, which speaks to our anxiety about the boundaries God is asking us to cross. “O Lord, you alone are my hope” sings the Psalmist, “Yes, you have been with me from birth.” Bottom line: We’re in God’s hands. Epperly goes on to say: “The lure forward is always greater than our perception of our gifts. But, the God who gives us a dream is always present as our companion to bring God’s vision to fullness.”7
IX. Shock & Awe
Do you remember the tactic the U.S. Military used when they invaded Iraq in 2003? Shock and Awe. “It was a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force to paralyze an adversary’s perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight.” 8
Well God has is own form of shock and awe. We may be shocked by the places God reveal himself to us. Epiphanies will abound in the unlikeliest of people, places, and situations. But if we open our eyes, if we open our hearts, if we take the risk of being vulnerable, putting our care in God’s hands, you know what will happen? We’ll be left in awe! Not through overwhelming power, not through dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force, but by one thing … LOVE.
X. Prayer
Father, you are a boundary breaking God, we want to be your boundary breaking people, please give us the courage to follow you wherever that leads. Our prayer is the same as another boundary breaking follower of Jesus, centuries ago, Francis of Assisi:
“Our Father, each day is a little life, each night a tiny death; help us to live with faith and hope and love. Lift our duty above drudgery; let not our strength fail, or the vision fade, in the heat and burden of the day. O God, make us patient and pitiful one with another in the fret and jar of life, remembering that each fights a hard fight and walks a lonely way. Forgive us, Lord, if we hurt our fellow souls; teach us a gentler tone, a sweeter charity of words, and a more healing touch. Sustain us, O God, when we must face sorrow; give us courage for the day and hope for the morrow. Day unto day may we lay hold of thy hand and look up into thy face, whatever befall, until our work is finished and the day is done. Amen.”
_________
1 Lk. 4: 18-19, NLT
2 Kim Beckmann, “Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany/Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time”
3 Ibid. Beckhann cites Caleb Rosado, The Significance of Galilee to the Mission of the Church, http://www.rosado.net (1994, rev. 1995), 1.
4 Brian P. Stoffregen Exegetical Notes on Luke 4:21-30 at http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/luke4×21.htm
5 Tony Campolo, The Kingdom of God is a Party: God’s Radical Plan for His Family, Thomas Nelson, 1992
6 Bruce Epperly, Process & Faith Lectionary Commentary, at http://www.processandfaith.org/lectionary/YearC/2009-2010/2010-01-31.shtml
7 Ibid.
8 “Shock and Awe” Wikipedia, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_and_awe
Themocracy
One thing I find odd about this encounter is that Jesus responds rather provocatively I think to the synagogue’s initial “amazement”. It seems disproportionate to their actual expressions. It’s no wonder they got upset. Although the account itself offers a confusing portrait of the people–they are amazed and spoke well of him but also remarked about his plainness and humbleness of origin (being just like they are), or in other words, couldn’t believe he would be the messiah because of that.
But what’s more is, just a chapter or two before, we’ve read the hymn/prayer by the priest in the Temple (at Jesus’ circumcision) who states his belief that this child Jesus would inherit the throne of David, which Jesus obviously did not do. So the gospel writer himself offers a rather confusing portrait of Jesus; who he was and what he would do.
I love this stuff. If you’ve never seen Campolo in The Ordinary Radicals or Another World is Possible, you’ve gotta check them out.