January 31, 2016

I remember the first time I returned to my home parish after I was ordained. I was very nervous and I have no idea how bad my sermon was. Mr. Brown (whose lawn I used to cut in the summer) slept and snored through the whole thing. People were polite and they thanked me at the door. I don’t know what we all expected, but I was young and I didn’t have much to say.

There was a certain amount of pride in the congregation. They were proud to see the success of one of their own. They saw me as a reflection of who they were. They had a hand in raising me. Whatever I said about God had its source in them. I got over my anxiety. No one was offended. It was nice to meet old friends. But I had begun to loose my connection with them. I had already made a home somewhere else. I served another church. I belonged to a different community and did not have the same connection with the church of my past.

I can imagine some of the feelings in the congregation when Jesus comes home to preach. He is given a seat of honor. He has already enjoyed a little fame, and the people are wondering what he might do with them. He starts off well. He reflects on a passage from Isaiah, "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." Better still, he proclaims, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” The crowd can’t wait to hear what’s next. Is this Joseph’s son? What miracle will he do? What great words will he share? Will he challenge the powers that oppress them? Will he work some miracle to free them?

Jesus surprises them, but not in a pleasant way. Instead of comfort and solutions, Jesus reminds them that God seeks out strangers and aliens. When there was a drought, God sent Elijah to a widow in Sidon – not one of the chosen people. God sends Elisha to cure Naaman the Syrian, not one of the faithful.

No one likes what Jesus is saying, so they attempt to throw Jesus off a cliff. I wonder what else Jesus said to make everyone mad. I know from my own experience of preaching in my home parish that I cannot imagine what I could have said to make everyone mad at me. I can’t think of anything to say right now that would make you want to throw me out the window.

It wasn’t just the words of Jesus. He didn’t fit into the established order. Jesus didn’t accept their system of obedience and shame they used to keep order and define their identity. They had accepted the truth that they were God’s special people. They defined suffering as some sort of deserved punishment for past sins (and held a hope that God would punish their afflicters.) Jesus suggests that God loves everyone. God intends to bless and not to punish. God even works miracles not found among the chosen people.

In the middle of what everyone thought would be a feel good moment, Jesus didn’t tell everyone, “It’s great to be here! You’re all wonderful people!” Instead, Jesus reminds them that God loves everyone, especially those who are now outside on the outside.

We gather in this place because we expect something. We hope to find comfort and support. We hope to experience God’s love. We look for this in word and sacrament. We look for love in the gifts shared in this community.

Love is difficult. The hymn to love that Saint Paul writes for the church in Corinth reminds us how far we have to go. It’s not about how we look or how successful we think we are. The Corinthians thought they had everything figured out. They had charismatic and miraculous gifts. They looked good and everyone spoke well of them. Paul reminds them and us that without love, it’s all just a bunch of noise.

This passage is often read at weddings. I find this ironic. Do they know that Paul is writing about love to a bunch of people who don’t know how to love? Often, the dress and the wedding party and the reception all crowd out what is important. Everyone looks good in the pictures but they are all stressed out. The passage on love is romantic to hear on a wedding day but it takes a lifetime to live into it.

The hard message we need to learn is that the church is all about love. It’s not here for our comfort or to help us feel better about ourselves. God creates the church to help the world know that God loves everyone. Whenever we become a comfortable little club of friends, we risk forcing out the people who don’t know us. We are blind to all of the people whom God loves. We become a peculiar family that our neighbors wonder about.

Jesus was invited to his hometown and he wouldn’t bless their arrangements. I don’t think he really wants to set us aside as a special gathering either. Of course God loves us. We are set aside as God’s beloved people. It’s not enough to keep it to ourselves. The hard part for us is that as we open the doors and our hearts to those outside, we can’t expect things to stay the same. The stranger will change us. We will begin to care what happens outside these doors.

This is the risk of love. It is not easy or comfortable. God’s love is not just about this place or this time or this collection of people. As we are open to what God wants, God’s love changes us. We cannot control what will happen to us. That unknown, foreign, outsider place is where God wants us to be. As we trust God, we can trust how God will use us for others, and how God will use unknown friends to remake us.