The first reading is Jeremiah 1:4-10.
The second reading is 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.
The holy gospel according to Luke (4:21-30).
21Then
Jesus began to say to all in the synagogue in Nazareth,
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in
your hearing.”
22All
spoke well of him
and were amazed
at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They
said,
“Is not this
Joseph’s son?”
23Jesus
said to them,
“Doubtless you
will quote to me this proverb,
‘Doctor,
cure yourself!’
And you will say,
‘Do
here also in your hometown
the
things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’”
24And
he said,
“Truly I tell
you,
no
prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.
25But
the truth is,
there were many widows in Israel in the
time of Elijah,
when
the heaven was shut up three years and six months,
and
there was a severe famine over all the land;
26yet
Elijah was sent to none of them
except
to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.
27There were also many lepers in Israel
in the time of the prophet Elisha,
and
none of them was cleansed
except
Naaman the Syrian.”
28When
they heard this,
all in the synagogue were filled with rage.
29They
got up,
drove
Jesus out of the town,
and
led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built,
so
that they might hurl him off the cliff.
30But
Jesus passed through the midst of them
and
went on his way.
The gospel of the Lord.
-----
Today
we celebrate God’s love.
Specifically we celebrate God’s love for people and communities that
churches have not always loved. We
celebrate God’s claim on our lives as God tells Jeremiah, “Before 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.” God
knows each of us intimately and has known us even before we’ve known ourselves.
While
our culture is changing, it still has a ways to go. It takes many of us in the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and queer community years and even decades to come out to
ourselves and to others, to accept the love that God has for all of us. It takes time because the assumption is
that we are straight, not gay or bi, cisgender—that is, people whose deepest
sense of self matches society’s expectations of them from birth, not
transgender or queer. It takes
time because communities of faith and groups in our culture still say that we
are not welcome, we are not loved.
But those messages are not the messages of God. God’s message is love.
What
a comfort that for all of us in our lives as sinners and saints, in our brokenness and the ways that we fall short, in
the ways society declares us not good enough, God knows us all and loves us completely. And precisely in the ways we are
different—our diversity of sexual orientation, our diversity of gender identity
and expression, our diversity in immigration status. The ways that we are different from the norm, excluded,
ignored, or pushed down are
ways that God is uniquely at work in and through us.
Jeremiah
thinks he is unable to do what God is calling him to do because he is “only a
child.” What is God’s response? “Do not say, ‘I am only a child’; 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.” Because it’s about more than what the
world and even some churches see and say.
It’s
about God’s love, which comes before and will last long after everything
else. It is God’s love that
gathers us here for worship. It is
God’s love that nourishes us at the Table with bread, wine, and Word. It is God’s love that sends us out,
following Jesus into the needs and messy-ness in the world.
It
is God’s love that comes to us in Jesus.
And no matter what else we might do, it is, as Paul points out, only
with God’s love that any of it has
meaning. Knowledge, faith,
generosity…none of it holds meaning without love, and, love transforms all of it.
This
transformative love can only be known in community. The love Paul talks about is a love in community, love that
is bigger and deeper than the many things that have been dividing the people in
Corinth and the people in our own country. In the community in Corinth, each person and group wants to
be best and in striving for that, they lose the love that grounds them and
guides them; they lose the love that brings them together to listen and learn
from each other.
This
love is what Jesus is talking about in the gospel as well. It is this love that pushes Jesus into
the world. That guides his claim
not to be sent to the people already within his community, but to those
outside, to the widows in the Zeraphaths of the world and the Namaans in the
Syrias of the world. And it is
that love that also pushes us out the doors into the world—into ESL classes and
backpack programs, witnessing to God’s love through our actions and through our
relationships.
It
doesn’t come without risk; the crowd in the synagogue gets so consumed with rage
that Jesus is not there to support and affirm their own personal faith,
righteousness, or agenda, that it’s like a switch flicks and they lose all
of the wonder and love they had just moments ago been expressing for
Jesus.
When
they realize that Jesus is there for the others that they aren’t concerned
about, they don’t just leave him and look for another who might focus solely on
them, the way they want; they are so offended that they are consumed with
rage! They drive Jesus to the edge
of the cliff to hurl him off!
Too
frequently that is what happens when people, especially those with power or
privilege, are confronted with the reality that we are not actually at the
center. That God’s love might also
center on others. This is clear in
reactions to the #BlackLivesMatter movement and in reactions to increasing
rights and protections for LGBTQ folks.
Neither of these groups put themselves against white or straight and
cisgender people.
Like
Jesus, they lift up those who have been left out; and in reaction, those “on
the inside” are filled with rage—inspired by a fear of losing their power and
privilege, losing their special place.
The
reaction is clear today in increased violence against LGBTQ people, especially
those who are transgender and especially people of color, who are the most
vulnerable in the community. Just
this week a transgender Latina named Monica was shot and killed in Austin, TX,
the first reported death in this country of a transgender person this year; and
it is clear in threats and violence against people and communities of color
struggling for rights and for safety.
These
attacks and threats and continued degradation and dismissal happen, quite frequently,
from people who profess themselves to be Christians, followers of Christ.
But
in doing these things, they miss Jesus’ point. He has not come to replace the folks in Nazareth, and he has
not come to replace white people or folks who are straight. Jesus comes in love for the love and
dignity of all people and when some
are denied that love, that dignity, that respect by society or by the church,
then Jesus’ love is poured out all that much more on them.
That
is what we celebrate today. Jesus,
out of God’s immense love, not only makes a space, an opening, at the Table for
people of all sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions, for
people of all immigration statuses and all cultures, but that Jesus also brings
the Table to those who are oppressed and marginalized.
That
God’s love shows up especially at the margins and especially in the people it
is so easy for us to disrespect, ignore, and exclude. But that’s where Jesus goes, oftentimes unnoticed by the
ones inside, the ones filled with rage, blood pumping in their ears, rushing to
the cliff’s edge.
…And
Jesus goes on his way. Jesus goes
to those who are overlooked. Jesus
goes to the ones we tell him not to bother with. Jesus goes to the margins. And creates the space there so that we can follow him. So that we can find his love outpoured,
the community he creates, the relationships and love that transform us all.
Thanks
be to God.
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