A Prophet Without Honor
Sermon
THE GREENING OF THE GOSPEL
SERMONS FOR ADVENT, CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY SUNDAYS 1-8 IN ORDINARY TIME)
After Jesus had made his messianac proclamation someone audibly inquired in the congregation: "Is not this Joseph's son?" Immediately, little buzz groups in the synagogue began to discuss his family. Mary and Joseph, the carpenter, were well-known among them. There were other children with whom they were familiar. (Matthew 13:55) Jesus was well aware of the rumblings of the dissidents. They were asking for miraculous proof, like the healings he had reportedly done in Capernaum. They wanted a sign to back up his words of divine authority.
Jesus was displeased with their unwillingness to receive his words. He wanted them to accept his messianic witness. Jesus was proud of his human association with Mary, his mother, and his stepfather Joseph and the rest of his family. But he was anxious for his hearers to perceive his true personage. As the Messiah, he was also the incarnate word of God.
He continued his discourse, trying to convince the congregation that stubborn unbelief prevents the penetration of the grace of God and how acceptance of God's messenger brings blessings. He used illustrations from the lives of the prophets, reminding them that Elijah was fed by the widow Zarethah during the great famine, from an almost empty barrel of meal. (1 Kings 17:1-24) God continually replenished the barrel because of her generosity to Elijah. When the widow's young son died, Elijah prayed and God empowered him. He breathed life into the boy's body and the lad was restored. All this God did for a non-Jew, a Syrophenician foreigner, because she accepted the prophet's message before she beheld his miracles.
Jesus also referred to Elisha's healing of Naaman, the Syrian leper. Here, again, a foreigner received the healing blessing of God because he obeyed the instruction of Elisha and washed seven times in the Jordan before he received the cleansing miracle. (2 Kings 5:1ff)
Elijah was a prophet in the ninth century B.C. Elisha was his successor, catching his mantle as Elijah was swept heaven-ward in a whirlwind chariot of fire. (2 Kings 2:11) Both the references to these venerated seers made the Nazareth congregation furious. They believed they were the chosen people because they were Abraham's seed. Jesus was suggesting that whosoever will accept the word of God is "chosen."
This emphasis upon God's indiscriminate concern was sounded in the eighth century by the prophet Amos:
Are ye not as children
of the Ethiopians unto me,
O children of Israel? saith the Lord.
Have not I brought up
Israel out of the hand of Egypt?
And the Philistines from Caphtor,
and the Syrians from Kir?
(Amos 9:7)
Suddenly, the congregation became a mob. They seized Jesus and ejected him from the synagogue. They would have cast him over a cliff to his death, but he disappeared out of their midst. Interestingly, this is the only recorded incident in the life of Jesus in which he was physically apprehended by a mob with the intent to lynch. It is also the only instance in the pre-resurrection life of Jesus, where it appears that he vanished or made a mircaulous exit as if he had a celstial rather than a terrestrial body.
Religous hostility is the worse kind, because the terrorits believe they are doing the will of God. We have seen the ruthless slaughter of human beings in the Protestant/Catholic controversy in Ireland. The ugly antagonism between Muslim sects in the Arab world, the Hindu/Muslim civil war in India and the diabolic exterminiatin of six million Jews by Hitler's paganism in Germany are tragic examples.
Each January we remember the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Each February we celebrate the life of Abraham Lincoln. Both men possessed an unusual compassion. Each was motivated by a single sense of divine mission. Neither man could be compared to Christ. But in their way, they tried to imitate his directions. They were both apostles of peace with justice. For different reasons, they were both loved and despised. They both lived lives punctuated by violence. King defied unjust laws. Lincoln gave first priority to his presidential obligation to preserve the Union. Finally, they both were felled by assassins whose concentrated destructive act of violence was equal to the full force and unbridled hostitility of a lynching.
A bit of the pathos that troubled the heart of Jesus is expressed on the day he exclaimed:
O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem
which killeth the prophets,
and stoneth them that are sent unto her!
How often would I have gathered
thy children together, even as
a hen gathered her chickens
under her wings,
and ye would not!
(Matthew 23:37)
The prophets are stoned and destroyed because they speak the truth out of season, when people do not want to hear the truth. It is risky to speak of peace in times of war; of justice when oppression has been legalized; of brotherhood when racism has been endorsed by tradition; of love when hate is subsidized by reasonable men and women.
But prophets have a way of persisting when they are told to be quiet. Prophets are the heroes of truth. All of us have our moments of bravery; but the persistent prophets of God are brave longer than the rest of us.
So Jesus departed from Nazareth and made his way to Capernaum, the city by the north shore of the sea of Galilee. I remember making that journey by car a few years ago. Leaving Nazareth, one can see the graceful peak of Mount Tabor reaching skyward. It is easy to sense the inspiration Jesus experienced growing up in this terrain. The beautiful countryside, the rolling hills, the distant mountains and the sea stir great memories and nurture lofty aspirations.
Ancient Capernaum received Jesus warmly. He preached in the synagogues there and the people were attracted by the authority of his words. The Living Bible translates verse thirty-two thus:
... He spoke as one who knew the truth, instead of merely quoting the opinion of others ...
Capernaum was different from Nazareth. Nazareth was more isolated. Its traditions were nurtured by generations of undisturbed care. Capernaum, on the other hand, was a crossroads city in the path of the great east-west caravans, bearing goods and mixing their cultural diversity with Capernaum's ancient Jewish traditions. Capernaum was more tolerant and more eager to hear something new. For this reason it becaue a principal base of operation in the ministry of Jesus. Mark refers to Jesus being "at home" at Capernaum. (Mark 2:1)
There is an old saying that "familiarity breeds contempt." Maybe that is why the people in Nazareth could not see Jesus as he was. They were always remembering him as he used to be: possibly a pensive little boy, a carpenter's son, a quizzical youth who seemed so serious, a craftsman whose goal was perfection, a familiar face which always seemed like a stranger. They knew so much about his humanity that they could not perceive his divinity.
But Jesus would not have his mission frustrated because of the lack of acceptance in Nazareth. He went to the cosmopolitan city of Capernaum. There he experienced success. Because of the constant flow of travelers, passing through Capernaum, word concerning Jesus spread rapidly. Perhaps there is a message of remerging prophets, people of extraordinary talent. If Nazareth will not respond to you, try Capernaum!
Every prophet faces the possibility of three types of listeners: the eager, who become converts; the resisters, who form the opposition; and the spectators, who are just curious, who listen at a distance but will not take the risk of being friend or foe.
The opposition is always out there. The spectators hold the balance of power. We must persuade them to become disciples. Christian disciples are spectators who have been converted. Somewhere along the line they listened to a convincing witness until the kindled desire to be transformed replaced indifference and fear.
Shortly before Jesus left the earth, he said to his uncertain but devoted followers: "Ye shall be my witnesses." So we must, in Nazareth, Capernaum, Jerusalem and in the uttermost part of the earth. Our task is to win the spectators and the unbelievers.
Jesus was displeased with their unwillingness to receive his words. He wanted them to accept his messianic witness. Jesus was proud of his human association with Mary, his mother, and his stepfather Joseph and the rest of his family. But he was anxious for his hearers to perceive his true personage. As the Messiah, he was also the incarnate word of God.
He continued his discourse, trying to convince the congregation that stubborn unbelief prevents the penetration of the grace of God and how acceptance of God's messenger brings blessings. He used illustrations from the lives of the prophets, reminding them that Elijah was fed by the widow Zarethah during the great famine, from an almost empty barrel of meal. (1 Kings 17:1-24) God continually replenished the barrel because of her generosity to Elijah. When the widow's young son died, Elijah prayed and God empowered him. He breathed life into the boy's body and the lad was restored. All this God did for a non-Jew, a Syrophenician foreigner, because she accepted the prophet's message before she beheld his miracles.
Jesus also referred to Elisha's healing of Naaman, the Syrian leper. Here, again, a foreigner received the healing blessing of God because he obeyed the instruction of Elisha and washed seven times in the Jordan before he received the cleansing miracle. (2 Kings 5:1ff)
Elijah was a prophet in the ninth century B.C. Elisha was his successor, catching his mantle as Elijah was swept heaven-ward in a whirlwind chariot of fire. (2 Kings 2:11) Both the references to these venerated seers made the Nazareth congregation furious. They believed they were the chosen people because they were Abraham's seed. Jesus was suggesting that whosoever will accept the word of God is "chosen."
This emphasis upon God's indiscriminate concern was sounded in the eighth century by the prophet Amos:
Are ye not as children
of the Ethiopians unto me,
O children of Israel? saith the Lord.
Have not I brought up
Israel out of the hand of Egypt?
And the Philistines from Caphtor,
and the Syrians from Kir?
(Amos 9:7)
Suddenly, the congregation became a mob. They seized Jesus and ejected him from the synagogue. They would have cast him over a cliff to his death, but he disappeared out of their midst. Interestingly, this is the only recorded incident in the life of Jesus in which he was physically apprehended by a mob with the intent to lynch. It is also the only instance in the pre-resurrection life of Jesus, where it appears that he vanished or made a mircaulous exit as if he had a celstial rather than a terrestrial body.
Religous hostility is the worse kind, because the terrorits believe they are doing the will of God. We have seen the ruthless slaughter of human beings in the Protestant/Catholic controversy in Ireland. The ugly antagonism between Muslim sects in the Arab world, the Hindu/Muslim civil war in India and the diabolic exterminiatin of six million Jews by Hitler's paganism in Germany are tragic examples.
Each January we remember the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Each February we celebrate the life of Abraham Lincoln. Both men possessed an unusual compassion. Each was motivated by a single sense of divine mission. Neither man could be compared to Christ. But in their way, they tried to imitate his directions. They were both apostles of peace with justice. For different reasons, they were both loved and despised. They both lived lives punctuated by violence. King defied unjust laws. Lincoln gave first priority to his presidential obligation to preserve the Union. Finally, they both were felled by assassins whose concentrated destructive act of violence was equal to the full force and unbridled hostitility of a lynching.
A bit of the pathos that troubled the heart of Jesus is expressed on the day he exclaimed:
O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem
which killeth the prophets,
and stoneth them that are sent unto her!
How often would I have gathered
thy children together, even as
a hen gathered her chickens
under her wings,
and ye would not!
(Matthew 23:37)
The prophets are stoned and destroyed because they speak the truth out of season, when people do not want to hear the truth. It is risky to speak of peace in times of war; of justice when oppression has been legalized; of brotherhood when racism has been endorsed by tradition; of love when hate is subsidized by reasonable men and women.
But prophets have a way of persisting when they are told to be quiet. Prophets are the heroes of truth. All of us have our moments of bravery; but the persistent prophets of God are brave longer than the rest of us.
So Jesus departed from Nazareth and made his way to Capernaum, the city by the north shore of the sea of Galilee. I remember making that journey by car a few years ago. Leaving Nazareth, one can see the graceful peak of Mount Tabor reaching skyward. It is easy to sense the inspiration Jesus experienced growing up in this terrain. The beautiful countryside, the rolling hills, the distant mountains and the sea stir great memories and nurture lofty aspirations.
Ancient Capernaum received Jesus warmly. He preached in the synagogues there and the people were attracted by the authority of his words. The Living Bible translates verse thirty-two thus:
... He spoke as one who knew the truth, instead of merely quoting the opinion of others ...
Capernaum was different from Nazareth. Nazareth was more isolated. Its traditions were nurtured by generations of undisturbed care. Capernaum, on the other hand, was a crossroads city in the path of the great east-west caravans, bearing goods and mixing their cultural diversity with Capernaum's ancient Jewish traditions. Capernaum was more tolerant and more eager to hear something new. For this reason it becaue a principal base of operation in the ministry of Jesus. Mark refers to Jesus being "at home" at Capernaum. (Mark 2:1)
There is an old saying that "familiarity breeds contempt." Maybe that is why the people in Nazareth could not see Jesus as he was. They were always remembering him as he used to be: possibly a pensive little boy, a carpenter's son, a quizzical youth who seemed so serious, a craftsman whose goal was perfection, a familiar face which always seemed like a stranger. They knew so much about his humanity that they could not perceive his divinity.
But Jesus would not have his mission frustrated because of the lack of acceptance in Nazareth. He went to the cosmopolitan city of Capernaum. There he experienced success. Because of the constant flow of travelers, passing through Capernaum, word concerning Jesus spread rapidly. Perhaps there is a message of remerging prophets, people of extraordinary talent. If Nazareth will not respond to you, try Capernaum!
Every prophet faces the possibility of three types of listeners: the eager, who become converts; the resisters, who form the opposition; and the spectators, who are just curious, who listen at a distance but will not take the risk of being friend or foe.
The opposition is always out there. The spectators hold the balance of power. We must persuade them to become disciples. Christian disciples are spectators who have been converted. Somewhere along the line they listened to a convincing witness until the kindled desire to be transformed replaced indifference and fear.
Shortly before Jesus left the earth, he said to his uncertain but devoted followers: "Ye shall be my witnesses." So we must, in Nazareth, Capernaum, Jerusalem and in the uttermost part of the earth. Our task is to win the spectators and the unbelievers.
