Love and getting thrown off a cliff – A Sermon for 4th Sunday of Epiphany
Text: Luke 4:21-30, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who loves us.
Have you ever been so mad at someone you wanted to throw them off a cliff?
No? well, that’s good. But, that’s what almost happens to Jesus in our text for today. The reasons can be complicated. One, they aren’t mad at all the things he declared while preaching in the synagogue, good news to the poor, release to the captive, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. They liked all that stuff, good news indeed.
But, then something changes. They are so proud of Jesus. The line, Isn’t this Joseph’s son, is not in shock that he did this, but more, wow! He did that! He’s from here! Nazareth! Our hometown boy! We’ll be the talk of everything! How great we’re going to be!
I’m a Minnesotan at heart and it’s like how we claim Bob Dylan or Prince or Charles Schulz of the Peanuts comic or author F Scott Fitzgerald. Prince and Schulz did indeed live a large part of their lives in Minnesota. But, Dylan lived there until graduating High School and one year at the U of MN and moved to New York. Fitzgerald moved away from Minnesota at 2 years old. Yet, we’ll still claim them. Look at the wonderful thing that Minnesotan did! He’s Minnesotan, don’t cha you know.
Or famous South Dakotans. Tom Brokaw’s from here! Chad Greenway’s from here! Adam Vinatieri’s from here! They’re ours!
The People of Nazareth are excited and proud because Jesus is theirs and theirs alone!
Jesus abruptly states, you’re going to ask me to do things here that I did in Capernaum. Well, Elijah was sent to feed not the widows of Israel, but the widow of Zaraphath. And Elisha didn’t heal the lepers of Israel, but instead went and healed Namaan the Syrian general. Essentially, don’t get your hopes up, don’t get too excited y’all, or the upper midwestern, you guys! Because I’m not called to help just you, but called to even the gentiles. And the of Nazareth get so mad, they try to drive him out of town and off a cliff. If we can’t have you, no one can.
A quick comment, it’s important to note that the people here do not represent the entire Jewish people, but only the people of Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown. If viewed as the whole people of Israel, this text can very quickly become Anti-Semitic. That here it’s somehow the entire Jewish people who are rejecting Jesus by trying to kill him. But, that’s not the case. This isn’t the whole Jewish people rejecting Jesus. In fact the people of Nazareth aren’t even rejecting Jesus, they’re rejecting the notion that he’s not just for Nazareth. They aren’t mad he’s going to gentiles, they’re mad he’s not staying here just for them. They want him for the hometown team, and Jesus is declaring free agency.
As you know I’m sure, it’s Super Bowl Sunday. And we all have our teams. Some are for the Patriots. Some are for the Rams. And I’m sure many others are for the commercials. Well, I’ve got bad news for you all. And I hope you don’t throw me off a cliff. Jesus doesn’t care about who wins. Jesus isn’t on one side or the other. Just like Jews and gentiles, Jesus isn’t for one and against the other. This is well, hard to grasp, because we like to group, we like to find our side vs those people. It’s easy to cast judgement and not care for someone different than you.
What Jesus is for, is love. Love for the other.
I’m going to brag on my wife for a bit. When we were first dating, maybe 6 months or so in, we were at Walmart shopping in the soap aisle, and she started to look at bars of soap, the big multipacks. And I started thinking, I have way more soap than I need already, she has way more soap than she needs already, we don’t need more soap. So, I asked, why do we need soap? Well, it’s for the food pantry in Vermillion, they’re looking for soap to give out to people. I was thinking of myself, she was thinking about others.
That’s what Jesus is calling us to do. That’s how Jesus wants us to live. It’s the core of not just the Gospel, but also the core of our 1st Corinthians lesson today. Love for others.
Ok, I’ve got another thing to say, bad news and good news, and again please don’t throw me off a cliff. Bad news first, 1st Corinthians is not a wedding text. Paul did not write the passage with weddings in mind. In fact, it’s written to the people of Corinth who well, are not being very nice to each other. And Paul here is essentially saying, people, stop it, be nice, and love each other! So the good news, this means it’s a great text for weddings! Because it’s for more than just a wedding day, the love that we are called to in the text is not just for that one day, it’s for a life time. And it’s also not just for one other person, it’s a call to love all. This not just a call to how to live in a marriage, but how to live in life.
If we don’t have love, there is nothing. I ended last week by asking, what would this world be like if we lived life for the other. What if we lived our lives for others, knowing we have already by saved by Christ in his death, claimed in Baptism, fed in communion, and therefore become more concerned about others welfare than our own.
Well, what if we lived our lives in the love found here,
Love is patient, what if we were patient with each other,
Love is kind, what if we were kind with each other,
Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. What if we were not envious of each other, what if we didn’t boast of our own deeds over each other, or let our pride get in the way of caring,
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; What if we, in love, didn’t seek our own way over all others, what if we worked to not be easily angered?
It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. What if we didn’t make mental lists of what other people did to us, but thought first about the truth that they too have been saved in Christ.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. What if our first concern was to bear all the needs of the other, believe all the fears of the other, hope for all the dreams of the other, endure pains and trials right alongside the other. Knowing they will do this for us too.
Love never ends. What if we actually understood this? That love never ends. That God’s love is so expansive and massive that it will never end. God’s love will not run out, or stop, or quit. From Romans 8, For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
People of God, live in love with each other. Even if they are patriot fans, even if they’re Rams fans, even if they don’t even like football. Love each other, as Christ loves you. And friends, know in the deepest parts of your being, that God does indeed love you. Amen.
Comments