Sermons:
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Comfortable and Familiar?
based on Luke 4:21-30
Rev. Karen A. Goltz
We
have an interesting relationship with scripture, don’t we? We turn to it gladly
when we’re looking for comfort or inspiration. We might point to it proudly
when justifying our own behaviors, or accusingly when judging someone else’s.
But most of the time, we keep it at a distance. It includes some nice stories,
some harsh words, some clear expectations. It includes some parts we return to
again and again, and it includes some parts we carefully avoid.
Last week I challenged you to approach the
bible as a person dying of thirst might approach water, but the truth is that
most of us approach it more like an all-you-can-eat buffet of exotic foods,
going for the few things we think we know and like, cautiously sampling a few
others, and utterly avoiding the rest. It’s too overwhelming to try it all.
And it’s too dangerous. You never know what you’re going to get. Better to
just stick with what you know, with what’s safe and familiar.
But are you sure you know what you think you
know?
The people of Nazareth were in familiar
territory. It was Sabbath, and they were in the synagogue. It wasn’t a
festival day or a big holiday that might attract more occasional worshippers—it
was just a regular Sabbath with all the regular people there. Nothing unusual
at all. Everyone’s sitting in their usual places, doing their usual things.
And oh look! There’s Mary’s boy Jesus, all grown up now and back visiting his
home synagogue. When the folks saw him they probably chatted a bit amongst
themselves, comparing notes on what they’d heard he’d been up to since he’d left
home. Traveling around quite a bit, they’d heard. A preacher of sorts, some
said. A few even claimed he’d done some amazing things—miracles they were!—in
places like Capernaum. Maybe he’d do some here, too! Ah, little Jesus, a grown
man now, who was really making something of himself out in the world. They
remembered him when he was just knee-high to a grasshopper.
Worship gets started and Jesus stands up to
read. How nice. Someone hands him the scroll of Isaiah and Jesus searches
through it until he finds the passage he wants. And in a clear, deep voice 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.
How nice. He read the Jubilee passage. What a
lovely idea, that everyone would be restored to the just and equitable society
that God had intended in the first place. Too bad it had never happened the way
the scriptures said it should, and it probably never would. But it’s a nice
idea, and it’s comforting to think about. [continue]
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