A Prophet's Hometown

A Prophet's Hometown
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
January 28, 2007
Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30

Jeremiah 1:4-10
"Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "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." Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." But 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, Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." Then 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. See, 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."

Luke 4:21-30 NRSV
Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" He 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.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But 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; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him 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. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way."

I. BEGINNING

Think about your hometown. That place that shaped you, that place you still think of as "home" even if you have lived for somewhere else for a long time. That place where everyone is understandable, speaks like you, dresses like you, perhaps. Where you don't have to explain what a 'hoagie' or a 'frappe' or a 'beef on wick' is. That place where the local news anchors are familiar and talk about familiar things.

A home town.

I know that when I go back to my home town, or even anywhere in my home state, I feel back in my element. Among my people. There is a comfort there--even for those of us who may have left with an eye toward never returning. What is comforting is that it is familiar, even if it is not ideal. There is familiarity, comfort, safety.

II. THE TEXT

But that is not how it goes for Jesus in his hometown. Quite the opposite, really.

As Luke tells us the story, Jesus is in his home synagogue in Nazareth. He stands up to read the scriptures and is handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah from which he reads:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19 NRSV)

He rolls up the scroll and hands it back to the attendant and says, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." They speak well of his preaching and wonder "Is this not Joseph's son?" And it goes downhill from there:

He 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.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But 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; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."

Jesus begins to proclaim a message that the favor of God he has just read about in Isaiah will come to the Gentiles as well as Jews--in some ways, it even sounds like he is saying to the Gentiles instead of the Jews. He talks about how God's blessing has fallen before on other non-Israelites throughout Israel's history: the widow at Zarephath in Sidon, Naaman the Syrian. The crowd is outraged.

This was not what they wanted to hear. The Jews had been oppressed by one tyrant or another for a long time. First the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom. Then the Babylonians came in and wiped out the Southern Kingdom deporting the people into exile in Babylon. Then after the Persians had let the Jews return home, the Greeks came in and oppressed them. After they kicked the Greeks out, the Romans came in and so on. And so, Jews who were looking for deliverance--Messianic deliverance--were expecting a little more butt-kicking and a little less compassion when it came to the Gentiles. Imagine today if someone were to stand up in church, read from the Bible and then say, "And God will richly bless Iran and Syria." Now you have a sense of it.

This was not the message they were expecting and the message that Jesus was actually bringing placed him at odds with his hometown--to the point where they led him to the brow of a hill "that they might hurl him off". That's a visit home that's gone bad.

III. LEAVING ONE'S HOMETOWN

Jesus' radical inclusivity got him into trouble in his hometown. One scholar notes: "Throughout history, the gospel has always been more radically inclusive than any group, denomination, or church, so we continually struggle for a breath of love and acceptance that more nearly approximates the breadth of God's love." [1]

But it is no less the same for the rest of us. The Gospel is a radical document. Luke Timothy Johnson once remarked that there were a lot of people for whom the central message of the Gospel was "Support your local sheriff." [2] But the Central message of Christianity is really closer to "fight the power". Because while many in the church have sought to use the Gospel to support those persons and institutions in power, the Gospel is about solidarity with those who are the weakest, those who have no power, and about ceding power to the One True Source of all power and authority, of a radical devotion to God, such that all else falls away.

That radical devotion to God can get you into trouble. It can have an effect on you in ways that place you at odds with your hometown.

Now, the "hometowns" that I am talking about are not just those places on the map: Elkhart, Indiana; Keene, New Hampshire; Youngtown, Arizona; Sherwood Park, Alberta; White River, South Dakota; Coxsackie, New York. They are those states of comfort and familiarity. Those places we cannot remain when we are called to witness to the Gospel.

For the Gospel is notorious for calling us outside our comfort zones. Challenging us out of our complacencies. God defies our conventions. God defies our easy labels and categories. In the same way, following God, being a disciple of Christ, is not something that fits safely and easily in a lot of places. Especially not the familiar ones.

A. Journey

Faith is a journey. We use that image so often that sometimes we forget its implications. We understand that faith is a journey and that there is a process at work, but we often forget that the journey is about more than just the process--it is about the setting out. The leaving.

No journey can begin until one has left home. And that is by far the most discomforting part.

Some of you may have discovered this feeling already. As you move through your college years and explore and deepen your faith, you discover that you have moved from those things you once found safe and familiar.

B. The Opportunities

A life of faith is full of opportunities to leave one's spiritual hometown and to step outside of one's comfort zones.

Tonight in services, we will be trying for the very first time, an Agape Meal , the "Love Feast", an opportunity to share food and faith with others in a more intimate context. Imagine that, right here in church. If it works, we'll be doing it again.
Next week, we will be asking and answering questions of faith. Challenging our understandings and opening ourselves up to the possibilities.
Or it may be taking a turn at using unfamiliar language in the context of prayer or worship. What if we prayed "Hallowed be your name" instead of "Hallowed be thy name". Or what would it be like to refer to God as she rather than the traditional he ? We might do that some service, just to shake things up.
Or it might be in sharing testimonies during services about where you have encountered God, or about something that means something to you. Or preaching during our Thursday night Healing Service.
Or it might be going on an Alternative Spring Break trip. Meeting people of a different place and culture. Challenging the way you see the world.
Or it could be simply in the encountering of people of different views, theologies, politics, orientations, races, cultures.

C. The Necessities

There may be other, more challenging ways as well, that are not so much opportunities to step outside of one's comfort zone, but those times when faith all but requires that you do.

There may be a time when you are at home with people you've known all your life. And one of them makes a joke you no longer find funny, because what you have learned and how you have grown in faith has given you a different understanding.
There may be a time that people may make assumptions about you because of who you are and where you come from, that is no longer really who you are.
There may be a time when the life you had planned--the career or major you had wanted--may no longer fit the way you are coming to view the world.
There may be a time when you realize that your own commitment to God and to your faith calls you toward a mission or a ministry that is unfamiliar, uncomfortable, unsafe.

There may be plenty of times throughout a life of faith when the calling of God requires you to step outside of your comfort zones. To leave the familiarity and safety of home. To find yourself suddenly apart from that hometown. And to set out into the unknown.

IV. THE ONE CALLING

It's a frightening thing. Who in their right mind would want to do something like that? It is unsettling.

Jeremiah knew that. It's why he objects to the calling--as all prophets do--out a sense of inadequacy for the task. Faced with the responsibilities of the work, being a prophet of the Word of God--how could anyone be adequate to the task? Jeremiah's objection on the grounds that he is young and inexperienced--only a boy . The word boy denotes not only youth, but sometimes a servant or attendant, someone with a lower economic or social status.

God remains unconvinced.

But God addresses Jeremiah's anxiety about stepping out, about leaving home, by saying:

"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, Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD."

And that is really the key. A calling can be a challenging, frightening thing. And not just a calling to a life in the church or mission or something like that. But a calling to a life of faith, itself, has enough challenges to be daunting. But we do not lose sight of the one calling.

God does not call us out into a life of faith and then abandon us. God promises to be with us.

V. END

The road we take as we set out from our spiritual hometowns can be challenging. It can be frightening. And it can be wondrous--full of possibilities we would never have considered before. We are not alone. We are accompanied by God and by one another. We are met on the road by one who understood that proclaiming the message of the Gospel would put him at odds with the people and places he knew best. That it would cause him to have to leave from his hometown into the challenging world that would not always accept him.

That one walks with us today and always as we set out upon the journey of faith.

Notes
NIB, Vol. VII, p. 108
Luke Timothy Johnson, Lecture on "The Human Jesus", Wesley Theological Seminary, Fall 1999.

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*A Prophet's Hometown* Rev. Mark Schaefer Kay Spiritual Life Center January 28, 2007 Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30 Jeremiah 1:4-10 "Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "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." Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." But 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, Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." Then 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. See, 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." Luke 4:21-30 NRSV Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" He 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.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But 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; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him 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. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way." I. BEGINNING Think about your hometown. That place that shaped you, that place you still think of as "home" even if you have lived for somewhere else for a long time. That place where everyone is understandable, speaks like you, dresses like you, perhaps. Where you don't have to explain what a 'hoagie' or a 'frappe' or a 'beef on wick' is. That place where the local news anchors are familiar and talk about familiar things. A home town. I know that when I go back to my home town, or even anywhere in my home state, I feel back in my element. Among my people. There is a comfort there--even for those of us who may have left with an eye toward never returning. What is comforting is that it is familiar, even if it is not ideal. There is familiarity, comfort, safety. II. THE TEXT But that is not how it goes for Jesus in his hometown. Quite the opposite, really. As Luke tells us the story, Jesus is in his home synagogue in Nazareth. He stands up to read the scriptures and is handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah from which he reads: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19 NRSV) He rolls up the scroll and hands it back to the attendant and says, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." They speak well of his preaching and wonder "Is this not Joseph's son?" And it goes downhill from there: He 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.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But 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; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." Jesus begins to proclaim a message that the favor of God he has just read about in Isaiah will come to the Gentiles as well as Jews--in some ways, it even sounds like he is saying to the Gentiles instead of the Jews. He talks about how God's blessing has fallen before on other non-Israelites throughout Israel's history: the widow at Zarephath in Sidon, Naaman the Syrian. The crowd is outraged. This was not what they wanted to hear. The Jews had been oppressed by one tyrant or another for a long time. First the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom. Then the Babylonians came in and wiped out the Southern Kingdom deporting the people into exile in Babylon. Then after the Persians had let the Jews return home, the Greeks came in and oppressed them. After they kicked the Greeks out, the Romans came in and so on. And so, Jews who were looking for deliverance--Messianic deliverance--were expecting a little more butt-kicking and a little less compassion when it came to the Gentiles. Imagine today if someone were to stand up in church, read from the Bible and then say, "And God will richly bless Iran and Syria." Now you have a sense of it. This was not the message they were expecting and the message that Jesus was actually bringing placed him at odds with his hometown--to the point where they led him to the brow of a hill "that they might hurl him off". That's a visit home that's gone bad. III. LEAVING ONE'S HOMETOWN Jesus' radical inclusivity got him into trouble in his hometown. One scholar notes: "Throughout history, the gospel has always been more radically inclusive than any group, denomination, or church, so we continually struggle for a breath of love and acceptance that more nearly approximates the breadth of God's love." [1] But it is no less the same for the rest of us. The Gospel is a radical document. Luke Timothy Johnson once remarked that there were a lot of people for whom the central message of the Gospel was "Support your local sheriff." [2] But the Central message of Christianity is really closer to "fight the power". Because while many in the church have sought to use the Gospel to support those persons and institutions in power, the Gospel is about solidarity with those who are the weakest, those who have no power, and about ceding power to the One True Source of all power and authority, of a radical devotion to God, such that all else falls away. That radical devotion to God can get you into trouble. It can have an effect on you in ways that place you at odds with your hometown. Now, the "hometowns" that I am talking about are not just those places on the map: Elkhart, Indiana; Keene, New Hampshire; Youngtown, Arizona; Sherwood Park, Alberta; White River, South Dakota; Coxsackie, New York. They are those states of comfort and familiarity. Those places we cannot remain when we are called to witness to the Gospel. For the Gospel is notorious for calling us outside our comfort zones. Challenging us out of our complacencies. God defies our conventions. God defies our easy labels and categories. In the same way, following God, being a disciple of Christ, is not something that fits safely and easily in a lot of places. Especially not the familiar ones. A. Journey Faith is a journey. We use that image so often that sometimes we forget its implications. We understand that faith is a journey and that there is a process at work, but we often forget that the journey is about more than just the process--it is about the setting out. The leaving. No journey can begin until one has left home. And that is by far the most discomforting part. Some of you may have discovered this feeling already. As you move through your college years and explore and deepen your faith, you discover that you have moved from those things you once found safe and familiar. B. The Opportunities A life of faith is full of opportunities to leave one's spiritual hometown and to step outside of one's comfort zones. Tonight in services, we will be trying for the very first time, an Agape Meal , the "Love Feast", an opportunity to share food and faith with others in a more intimate context. Imagine that, right here in church. If it works, we'll be doing it again. Next week, we will be asking and answering questions of faith. Challenging our understandings and opening ourselves up to the possibilities. Or it may be taking a turn at using unfamiliar language in the context of prayer or worship. What if we prayed "Hallowed be your name" instead of "Hallowed be thy name". Or what would it be like to refer to God as she rather than the traditional he ? We might do that some service, just to shake things up. Or it might be in sharing testimonies during services about where you have encountered God, or about something that means something to you. Or preaching during our Thursday night Healing Service. Or it might be going on an Alternative Spring Break trip. Meeting people of a different place and culture. Challenging the way you see the world. Or it could be simply in the encountering of people of different views, theologies, politics, orientations, races, cultures. C. The Necessities There may be other, more challenging ways as well, that are not so much opportunities to step outside of one's comfort zone, but those times when faith all but requires that you do. There may be a time when you are at home with people you've known all your life. And one of them makes a joke you no longer find funny, because what you have learned and how you have grown in faith has given you a different understanding. There may be a time that people may make assumptions about you because of who you are and where you come from, that is no longer really who you are. There may be a time when the life you had planned--the career or major you had wanted--may no longer fit the way you are coming to view the world. There may be a time when you realize that your own commitment to God and to your faith calls you toward a mission or a ministry that is unfamiliar, uncomfortable, unsafe. There may be plenty of times throughout a life of faith when the calling of God requires you to step outside of your comfort zones. To leave the familiarity and safety of home. To find yourself suddenly apart from that hometown. And to set out into the unknown. IV. THE ONE CALLING It's a frightening thing. Who in their right mind would want to do something like that? It is unsettling. Jeremiah knew that. It's why he objects to the calling--as all prophets do--out a sense of inadequacy for the task. Faced with the responsibilities of the work, being a prophet of the Word of God--how could anyone be adequate to the task? Jeremiah's objection on the grounds that he is young and inexperienced--only a boy . The word boy denotes not only youth, but sometimes a servant or attendant, someone with a lower economic or social status. God remains unconvinced. But God addresses Jeremiah's anxiety about stepping out, about leaving home, by saying: "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, Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." And that is really the key. A calling can be a challenging, frightening thing. And not just a calling to a life in the church or mission or something like that. But a calling to a life of faith, itself, has enough challenges to be daunting. But we do not lose sight of the one calling. God does not call us out into a life of faith and then abandon us. God promises to be with us. V. END The road we take as we set out from our spiritual hometowns can be challenging. It can be frightening. And it can be wondrous--full of possibilities we would never have considered before. We are not alone. We are accompanied by God and by one another. We are met on the road by one who understood that proclaiming the message of the Gospel would put him at odds with the people and places he knew best. That it would cause him to have to leave from his hometown into the challenging world that would not always accept him. That one walks with us today and always as we set out upon the journey of faith. Notes NIB, Vol. VII, p. 108 Luke Timothy Johnson, Lecture on "The Human Jesus", Wesley Theological Seminary, Fall 1999. Back to Sermons page Back to AU UMC Home Copyright © 2007. Mark A. Schaefer. No part of this text may be reproduced or otherwise disseminated without the express written consent of the author.

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