THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER THE EIPHANY 2007

The Revd Deacon Polly Bowen preached this sermon on the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, January 21, 2007.

Today’s Gospel reading begins just after Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, when he began his public ministry.  It made me remember that for a week before my ordination I went off on a silent, solitary retreat to be alone with God and to sort things out.  I came home with a renewed sense of ministry, a new understanding of what it means to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, and a profound sense of complete, utter, total dependence on God.  I knew I could do nothing by myself.

I had to “let go and let God.”  That’s one of those catchy phrases like “Bloom where you’re planted,” “Have a nice day.”  “Jesus loves you and so do I.”  We all verbalize them, - we give lip service to them – but then sometimes we forget to live them.  “In God We Trust” – that’s another one, but can I really trust him to manage things without MY expert guidance?  We forget that he’s the one in charge, and we’re dependent on him for everything.

But God often works through other people, so our dependence on him needs some help from our brothers and sisters, and we get a startling reminder of that in the story that today’s gospel introduces.  I actually read you next week’s gospel, too, because I wanted you to hear the people’s reaction to Jesus’ teaching.  He was on a roll, you know  - he came off his retreat in the wilderness like a whirlwind, and started a teaching ministry in Galilee.

Galilee is the large region in the North of the Holy Land.  It was a busy place – there were three million people living there.  It was surrounded by non-Jewish nations, so there was lots of outside influence.  The people welcomed innovation.  They followed new leaders.  They liked new ideas.  And they liked Jesus.

But Jesus had a special mission, and he had a special announcement to make.  He decided to make that announcement in his hometown of Nazareth, a very small Galilean town.

Going back home after you’ve been away for awhile is an occasion for all sorts of mixed feelings and emotions.  You look forward to seeing the old crowd again, but you’re a little bit nervous about it, too.  Remember your last high school reunion?  Did you go on a diet, buy some new clothes, get a new hairdo?  YOU WANT TO LOOK GOOD!  You want them to say, “Wow!  That’s terrific!  I always knew she’d do well!”

Jesus was human.  Sometimes we forget that.  We usually get the divinity part right, but when it comes to his humanity – well, maybe we think of him as a Superman sort of person who doesn’t need anybody’s help.  But that’s not what the Church teaches us.  The Church tells us that he was fully divine, but also that he was FULLY HUMAN.  In order to be fully human, Jesus had to have all the same needs and wants and fears that we have.  Going back home meant confronting the past and facing the future for him, too.  But he was empowered by the Spirit, and he knew it, and he put his trust in the Father.

So Jesus went home to Nazareth, to lay his cards on the table.  At first the people listened, and at first they even liked what they heard – this is a hometown boy, we know his parents – but the more Jesus talked about God’s grace, the more he refused to buy into the socially accepted taboos and proclaimed justice for all people, the angrier they got – until eventually they even tried to kill him. 

In Mark’s version of the story we are told, “ . . .when he came to his own country, he could do no great works there . . .”  Isn’t that preposterous!  The great God of heaven and earth, and he could do no great works?  Why?  Mark says it was because of their unbelief.  Take note of that – WE CAN LIMIT THE POWER OF GOD when we choose not to believe.

“Today the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  Jesus took a real chance dropping this kind of bomb.  He made himself vulnerable, open to rejection.  Telling it like it is, is risky.

The hometown folks didn’t know who he was at all.  They thought they did, but now they were seeing him in a whole new light.  They had something new to think about.  WHO IS JESUS?  Is he just somebody who’s gone off in the desert and got some crazy ideas in his head – maybe a little too much sun – OR IS HE WHO HE SAYS HE IS?  That’s the question they had to wrestle with.

When Jesus comes home to us we have to wrestle with that same question.  Who is Jesus?  And who am I in relation to him, and what am I doing about it?  These can be pretty unsettling questions.  They require us to dig in and think about them.  They give us something to chew on –they’re not just some sort of “Spiritual Twinkie” stuff to give us warm fuzzy feelings.  This is stuff that requires real thought, real courage, real answers.

And the answers to those questions can make us just as vulnerable, just as wide open to rejection as Jesus was.  It’s not always easy.  “Who is Jesus?” and “Who am I?” are questions we have to answer over and over again in situation after situation, and sometimes people don’t like the answers we give.  Being a Christian isn’t always comfortable. 

Jesus tells the people that today the scripture is fulfilled in their hearing.  This morning in the reading of the Gospel he gave us that same message: TODAY.  Today is a turning point.  We can start now – today. No more living in the past; no more daydreaming about tomorrow – we have work to do – today!  And the beauty of that is that Jesus comes to us every day of our lives to say, TODAY you can start anew.  TODAY I am with you; I have given you everything you need.  TODAY is the day of salvation.

Jesus left Nazareth and went on about his ministry.  He was effective because he was empowered by the Spirit, and because in his humanity – and his humility – he recognized his dependence on God.  As Christians, the servant ministry of Jesus is our ministry, too.  It’s a challenging, sometimes even frightening ministry.  But it’s ours, and if we’re going to call ourselves Christians we can’t ignore it.  Sometimes it just means doing nice, socially acceptable things like visiting the sick and feeding the hungry.  But sometimes it means sticking our necks out in support of an unpopular cause or speaking up for Jesus when it’s safer or more comfortable to keep quiet.  It means risking rejection and ridicule.  It means acknowledging our dependence on God, and not limiting his power by our unbelief.  It means being able to say, “In God We Trust,” and mean it.  It means remembering – and believing – that WE TOO ARE EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT TO DO HIS WORK – TODAY!

That’s a promise that God makes to us, and it’s up to us to claim that promise, and act on it – TODAY!  Amen.