Fourth Sunday after Epiphany - Lectionary 4, Sunday January 30, 2022

Prayer

God of the prophets your love reaches far beyond the boundaries of covenant and command. Redeemed by a love so patient and kind, may we offer that same love to others and so proclaim you to the world by the witness of our lives. We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Luke 4:21-30

"Do we really want a gracious God? Certainly we do -- for ourselves; but can we have a gracious God if we don't believe that the same grace is given to those sinners outside our church doors, outside our faith, outside our boundaries of acceptability?"

Exegetical Notes by Brian Stoffregen at CrossMarks Christian Resources.

"You see, it really is all Jesus’ fault – he goes and does the one thing you’re never supposed to do, even to strangers, let alone to friends and neighbors: He tells them the truth, the truth about their pettiness and prejudice, their fear and shame, their willingness, even eagerness, to get ahead at any cost, even at the expense of another. And so they want him gone in the most permanent of ways."

"Three Questions and a Promise," David Lose, WorkingPreacher, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

As the radio storyteller Paul Harvey says, “Now for the rest of the story.”  This week we continue with the story of Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue at Nazareth.  We might recall the passage describes the kind of Messiah Jesus is to be, the kind of work he will undertake, and the people to whom he has come.  The reign of God in the Gospel of Luke is well underway and change, transformation, and restoration are coming.
The parallels to this passage in the other Gospels are: Matthew 13:53-58 and Mark 6:1-6.

Then Jesus sits down and begins to preach and teach, “Today this scripture which you have heard is being brought to fulfillment.”  We certainly understand this as we think over the life and work of Jesus.  What I love though is that the Greek literally means that the prophecy was “in your ears.”  The idea that the prophetic message of Isaiah is being embodied in their midst and the words are inside them, in their ear, in their head, where they could not get rid of it.  The proclamation was so powerful that the message was in them and with them and they could not think of anything else. 

The people at first receive the words with grace, even commenting on the wisdom this son of Nazareth offers.  There does seem in their words to be some discrepancy between the child they knew and the grown prophet who stands before them.  Luke Timothy Johnson points out that this is quite minor compared to the scandal it creates in the other two Gospel narratives.

We might remember that we, like the first readers of Luke’s Gospel are surprised by this reaction of the people.  We know this Jesus as the Son of the most high (1:32), the holy one, the Son of God (3:21-22).  While no scholar I read picked up on the subtlety of this question in the minds of Jesus’ neighbors, I have frequently wondered if it is not possible that this is Luke’s answer to the skeptic new believer seeking to understand and reconcile Jesus’ earthly and homely beginnings verses the claims of his followers.
Jesus then offers the reality that a prophet is not often accepted in his own home town.  Jesus is pulling a very ancient tradition into his teaching, recalling Israel’s treatment of the prophets.

Specifically you can go to 1 Kings 17:1, 8-16; 18:1 (the widow of Zarephath); 2 Kings 5:1-14 (the healing of Naaman). Luke universalizes Isaiah 61:1-2 (part of Jesus’ reading in vv. 18-19). For the rejected prophet, see also 6:22-23; 11:49-51; 13:34-35; Acts 7:35, 51-52. The pattern of the rejected prophet theme is found in Nehemiah 9:26-31. The stages are:

• The people rebel, and kill a prophet
• God punishes the perpetrators
• God shows mercy through sending a new prophet
• The people sin and reject the prophet. [see Chris Haslam’s web page for more on this]

What is revealed here is the beginning of Jesus’ preparation for the mission to the Gentiles. What binds these stories together is that Elijah and Elisha are sent outside Israel to the Gentiles; Jesus will do the same. We already know from Simeon and from the Isaiah passage quoted earlier in the Gospel that the ministry of Jesus will extend to all nations. Here Jesus himself offers a prophetic vision of God’s reign. The people in the narrative are hearing this for the very first time.

Jesus is not accepted in his hometown because his mission extends beyond his hometown.

If Jesus was to enter our congregation today who would be the Gentiles? We understand of course as that as followers of Jesus you and I have become inheritors of the promise of Abraham and the great ancestral faith of the Jews. But I can’t get away from the idea that today we are more like the people in Jesus’ hometown. He is our boy. We know him. Can he really be calling us to go out into the world? Is it possible that Jesus’ mission lies beyond the church today? Is Jesus already working outside of the Church to bring in the reign of God? Certainly as the church we acknowledge and believe that we are filled with God’s Spirit and are the living Body of Christ in the world. That being said, I don’t want to be caught at home.

Some Thoughts on I Corinthians 13:1-13

"The highest gift of all is agape, he says. Without it even faith, almsgiving, martyrdom are mere busyness and even great wisdom doesn't amount to a hill of beans."
"Agape," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.


"More importantly, the triad of faith, hope, and love are an important unspoken reminder of the Trinity and that all of this grand conception belongs to the Spirit’s gifts to the one body in a caring community of mutual responsibility."
Commentary, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, James Boyce, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.


"Above the clouds of conflict and stress, we imagine the beauty, the simplicity, of loving each other despite our conflicts and differences."
"The Aerial View," Melissa Bane Sevier, Contemplative Viewfinder, 2013.


"...no matter where we go or who we are, there is and will be disagreement and division. The answer is not to erase, pretend it doesn't exist, or think it will eventually go away, but to embrace more fully how to live into it, among it, and with it in love -- because God is love."
"Love Never Ends," Karoline Lewis, Dear Working Preacher, 2016.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Clergymen with brooms fight in Bethlehem Shrine:
Not a lot of love here.

Paul has been teaching the Corinthians that God expects a different kind of community for his followers.  It reminds me of his term used in his letter to Galatians, "the law of Christ."  The law of Christ is essentially the bedrock of Paul's faith, nurtured in his Jewish upbringing. The law of Christ is: love God, and love neighbor.  The Holy Spirit enables us to do this work. And, we might remember that the Holy Spirit itself is God's perfect love.  So it is that we see Paul's deep theology throughout our passages over the last few weeks.

The Corinthians are inpatient with one another, jealous of other people's gifts, boasting that they have it right and others have it wrong, they are arrogant, rude, insistent they have it right, irritable, resentful, highlighting and gossiping about what is wrong with their fellow members, hopeless, and they easily give up on one another, their community, and God.  In other words the Corinthians are exactly like us today.  The very characteristics of the Corinthian church also Characterize the modern Western way of being Church.  The culture wars which have divided our church are an epidemic of Corinithianitis.

This is not the law of Christ.  Paul lives in a time when the lifespan for most people was 20 years at birth; if they survived the first years, it might grow to 40.  Children ran a very high risk of malarial infection, some estimate 50%.  Regarding society: 5% enjoyed wealth and 95% lived in appalling conditions.  Life was hard - period.  And yet, here Paul is speaking about love.  His message is radical.

I can imagine these Corinthians thinking, "Our problems are much more serious.  Love, what a ridiculous notion.  How will love help anything?"  Yet it is Paul's law of love which pervades his message to the Corinthians.  More importantly he reverses the nature of doing and receiving   In other words Paul doesn't say to the impatient Corinthians, if you have patience then there is love.  This is essential to understanding this law of Love.

Love is the primary gift of the Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit is itself love.  Paul says to the Corinthians and to those with Corinthianitis today: God's love pours out and our response is love; love to God and love to one another.  Paul says, if you love then patience comes. If you love jealousy and boasting fall away.  If you love you will not be arrogant.  If you love you will not be rude.  If you love you will be a partner for the kingdom of God and not insist on your own way.  If you love you will not be irritable.  If you love you will not be resentful.  If you love you will not rejoice in the failings of others but you will rejoice in their best nature and their successes.  If you love you will be strong and have forbearance   If you love belief will come, hope will happen, and you will endure.

Hmmm. That is hard medicine because the key ailment of Corinthianitis is that I don't want to love the ones that are hard to love. I only really want to love the ones that are easy to love.  Deep beneath this is the reality that I don't believe or feel that I am loved.  But I read this passage over and over and I don't see that particular rule of life expressed by Paul.  Imagine that...you have to be open to receive God's love from whence it comes, respond in love to whomever comes, and live love wherever it may lead; and that is the Law of Love.

Some Thoughts on Jeremiah 1:4-19

"As the book unfolds, it is apparent that Jeremiah is called to deliver a message that is both difficult and unwelcome. The declaration that God knew him before he was born, even before he was formed in his mother's womb, does not exempt Jeremiah from problems inherent in his ministerial call."
Commentary, Jeremiah 1:4-10, Alphonetta Wines, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.


"Sometimes Love for God puts us in pain"
"In Pain with God," Will Willimon, The Hardest Question, 2013.

"Even if the preacher is not using this first lesson as the beginning of a series on the Jeremiah, some context is necessary to understand these six verses and the content of God's instructions."
Commentary, Jeremiah 4:1-10 | Rev. Megan M. Pardue | Pastor at Refuge, Durham, NC | A Plain Account, 2016


"Since Jeremiah 1:4-10 functions to introduce and authorize the entire book of Jeremiah, it may be helpful to introduce the range of content in the book, from calls for repentance, to announcements of judgment, ..."
Commentary, Jeremiah 1:4-10,Richard W. Nysse, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.


"Most people I have ever heard speaking of their start in vocations similar to those of Moses and Jeremiah begin not with a burning bush or an audible voice, but with a deep conviction that whatever else they may do, and no matter how they might or might not establish their 403Bs, it is the task itself that draws them in."
Commentary, Jeremiah 1:4-10, Patricia Tull, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament Text

We jump to Jeremiah this week. We had this as a passage back in proper 13c. It is rich enough to come back to here. 

In this passage we here that Jeremiah is especially and specifically is called to this vocation:

5Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” 6Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” 7But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, 8Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” 9Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth.

Here is something very important to understand about Jeremiah (And I lean on Levenson in his book Sinai and Zion 180ff here) - he was part of the Sinai prophetic tradition. Jeremiah was one of the priests in Anathoth. Now here is the story... the Sinai shrine at Shiloh (one of the most ancient and powerful shrines of the Sinai tradition) was destroyed after its priests supported the wrong king - Adonijah over and against Solomon. Solomon punished the line of Eli which led to Jeremiah. So while the great high priest at the Temple mount succeeded, the shrine was destroyed and the priests and their lineage including now Jeremiah, were lost. That is until now.

Jeremiah then resurrects the prophetic Sinai tradition over and against a centralized dynasty in Israel. He reminds the religious institution of his day that God dwells in the midst of the people, and that they are invited to partake as members of God's family. They do not own the rights to the religion and should be very careful of thinking they are somehow protected by throwing around God's name.

Jeremiah tells us that God has given him the God's spirit to speak truth to the powers that be and to the religious institution:

8Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” 9Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. 10See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

God invites the prophet to speak out loud what he sees and to speak the truth about the centralized religion of the day. Jeremiah speaks:

I see a branch of an almond tree.” 12Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”13The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, tilted away from the north.” 14Then the Lord said to me: Out of the north disaster shall break out on all the inhabitants of the land. 15For now I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, says the Lord; and they shall come and all of them shall set their thrones at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its surrounding walls and against all the cities of Judah. 16And I will utter my judgments against them, for all their wickedness in forsaking me; they have made offerings to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands. 

With these words and the passages that will follow Jeremiah sets out upon a mission to preach against the religion who centralizes faith, heaps up codes and requirements upon the people, which rob the people of wealth and who in the end hang a millstone around the least, and lost, and hungry's neck.

God is clear with Jeremiah, he is to give the faith of Israel back to the people and break the back of the oppressive religion. God for God's part will not stand in the way of the armies that are to come, who will bring the reign of man who acts like a God down reminding them this is not their home, nor their place, nor their wealth - but it is God's and meant to be shared to and benefit all of God's people.