This sermon was delivered to St Oswald’s in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 31st January 2016; St Oswalds is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.
Jeremiah 1:4-10 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Luke 4:21-30 Psalm 71:1-6
“Please be seated, and join me in a short prayer.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord. Amen. (Psalms. 19:14).
Introduction
We are here this morning to worship the Lord, … and for no other reason. … Last week we saw the arrival of Jesus into the Synagogue, where out-with protocol, he chose his own reading from a passage from Isaiah, … and from that we saw that he was basically introducing himself as the long awaited messiah, … stating what he was about to do, … his mission. We also saw that he completed that mission, … as prophesized in the Old Testament.
Today we want to focus on his sermon which proceeded from that reading; a sermon not recorded in full, but with just enough to give us the gist, … and what Jesus was basically saying, was that “He is God’s salvation to the world”, … (which we now know he was), … but back then, this is not what the people wanted to here.
Yes it says they “all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth”, at first, … but this is not how it ended, … because somewhere in that sermon he really annoyed them, … to the point where he enraged them fully, … and too get people that angry he must have spoke with authority and disdain, … he must have belittled or humiliated them, and he must have said something that hurt them to the core, and we will come to that later.
Yes, I am sure he spoke confidently, and I am sure his sermon was good, but I am also sure it was radical, … a sermon unlike they had never heard, but then, … for some reason, their eyes were suddenly turned to the fact that this was Josephs son, the carpenter, … the kid they had watched grow up, … and now that kid, was a man, and he was telling them, that he was the son of God.
So can you imagine how they felt, as they stood there looking at him, seeing nobody special; … just a carpenter with his good church clothes on, in fact the bible tells us in Isaiah 53, “that Jesus did not have any external features or beauty that would attract or draw people to Him”. So to them, he was simply ordinary.
I was trying to imagine Jesus that day, because the bible tells us that crowd started getting restless, … and I worry about that, because I have been teaching things from the bible, that many preachers would shy away from, … and I always worry how it will go down. I never teach anything I do not understand, … but there is so much in the bible, particularly the New Testament, that is just not being taught, maybe it is because it is not understood.
Many preachers stick to the familiar, and that bothers me, because there is so much that we do need to know, … information that is necessary live the Christian life. Today we read, that this did not worry Jesus, because I am sure he let rip, and gave them a good taste of the gospel, almost rubbishing every Jewish tradition they held dear.
And we do know from the other gospels that Jesus never held back, … if the people needed to hear it, then Jesus taught it, and then he would try to explain it
But then, as the crowd got ugly, Jesus did a strange thing, … he did nothing. … He could have done one tiny miracle to prove he had the power, but instead he did nothing.
You see, sometimes to prove yourself, you are putting yourself down. … Can you imagine Jesus doing one simple undisputable miracle, … let us say the healing of a person from a mild sickness that everybody knew about. That would prove that Jesus had the power. … But what if he did that, … what would the crowd demand next? They would want one more demonstration, and one more after that, until he was at their beck and call. … And notice the emphasise on them, … where the emphasis should have been on God, … in other words, they wanted to manipulate Jesus into working for them, to be their slave, and Jesus knew it. They would want to control Jesus, and this control would start by demanding a small demonstration of his power.
I have always been amazed at what Jesus did after he was raised from the dead. If it was me, … I would want to stand in front of Chiapas, Pontius pilot and Herod, and all the others who plotted against him, and say Boo! “Are you going to kill me again”?
No, Jesus never went near them, why because that would have given them authority, that would be saying they were someone who was to be impressed, and by doing that he was giving them authority. … No Jesus did nothing, he did not rise to their bait, … he answered to his father and nobody else.
And this annoyed many Jews, because the people already had an image in their minds of what this new Messiah should be like, … to them, it was a mighty king who would take on and drive the Romans out of their land, … a new type of King, was what they all wanted. … A King like David, but mightier, a king who would trample their enemies, and bring victory, wealth and prosperity.
So when Jesus said he was the Messiah, ... they were all looking at a young man they had known all his life, … a man who had no army, nor wealth, … instead he had 12 ordinary, probably dirty looking men who followed him. … So you cannot blame the people when they began to question Jesus as to who he really was, … particularly after he told them that he was going to bring Gods salvation to earth, … and only through him.
They just could not see how could this be, just like many people today. You see, most people, particularly the shallower ones, (and that is the majority), generally look at the physical, and make judgments based on what they see. … Some people can see beyond the physical, and see the soul of a person, … you know the intellect, the mind, the will, and the emotions of a person, and then make judgements based on that.
But very very few people look at the spiritual side of a person, and see the powerhouse behind them, … and that was what Jesus had, … that was where his strength lay, why? … Come on, you know the answer, … he had the Holy Spirit in him, and there is nobody more powerful as I have said a few weeks ago. … This is what the crowd did not get; … because there was no way the people could see this, or know this, … but that is Gods plan, … to work through the common, ordinary things of life, … from which he reveals the spectacular.
God takes pride in working through the ordinary things in life. … He does not need great wealth, or a big army, he does not need fame nor presence, he just knows where to tap the right thing, at the right time, … without making a show of it.
All God needs are the ordinary people in life, with ordinary things like water, and bread and wine, … from which he can do amazingly powerful things, like bringing true forgives of sins from which captives can be set free.
The words we hear this morning, the scripture we read, and this sermon, are all done by an ordinary people, (no offense intended), with ordinary common words.
But it isn’t our words, and it isn’t the person who says these words that gives them power and authority, … it is the God within who created these words that gives them the necessary power. We are only a vehicle, or a tool, that is being used of God, … to bring these his truths into our hearts, … and he does it by his spirit, … and it is the spirit that make his words come alive, and bring changes into peoples lives.
It is God’s promise that he is here with us here today as we proclaim his word through his scripture, … through the hymns and liturgy which are based on scripture, and through this sermon which is based on the life of Jesus when he was here on this earth.
This then brings authority and power to the service, … and any good preacher knows that he is just a vehicle being used by God to spread his word. … And I must add, that every other Christian is also being used by God to do his work, … that is through our actions, … through our personalities, … to bring God’s message of salvation to the people whom we meet. In our own unique ways, God uses all of us, … (if we only knew).
And with that in mind, the second part of his message is made more clear, where Jesus really became unpopular. … Why, … because he reminded the Jews that all people on this earth were to receive God’s salvation, … note, all people, and not just the Jews. … Jesus reminded them of the Old Testament stories where Elijah and Elisha brought food and healing to a widow woman and a leper, … both of whom, … were not Jews.
Now this may sound innocent enough, is shows compassion, … but in context, … there was a great famine throughout the land of Israel at that time, with many widows and lepers going hungry and dying. … Jewish widows and lepers, and here … God was ignoring them, … and bringing food and healing to Gentile widow and a Gentile leper.
And the Jews knew this story well, … they did not like this story, … and Jesus reminded them of this story, … because it really hit a nerve; … after all, they were God’s chosen people, and not these gentiles who they always looked down on. … This story really angered the Jews, … in fact it angered them so much that they all, drove him out of town to a cliff, where they tried to kill him.
Jesus was saying that God wants salvation for all people, … and he wants all people to understand his gospel, nothing being exclusive. The gospel is to be preached to all, so that all can here the good news; … and I can assure you that there is so much more good news in the bible that is not being shared, … and I say this because I want you all to develop a thirst, to find that good news in the bible.
Our reading this morning finished with the words, "but passing through the midst of them, he went away". Why did he go away, … because the people just did not accept him as their Messiah, (or the Messiah they really wanted), … and by refusing to accept Jesus as their Lord, they were not receptive to his teachings, and so were denied salvation.
We all have a calling from God to be his vehicles here on earth. … We are only his instruments, … his delivery service of salvation in this world, … and as we grow in his words, we are encouraged to share his words with others, … to be his voice here on earth. The Jews gave Jesus no choice but to leave, and take his message where it would be welcome.
And on that note, did you know that the fastest growing Christian church in this world is in Africa? … And do you know they send missionaries over here to convert us to Christianity. One black woman visiting from Africa said, “You might live in a Christian country, but why are your churches empty”? Why, because the Gospel, (or the good news), is simply not being taught, or encouraged.
If we do not do it, God will find other means to bring his message of salvation to this world, because he will not let his message die. God watched his son die in agony on the cross, to bring us that good news, so we can rejoice that God will always continue to spread his message, but remember, … we too will be asked to be that person, when the spirit comes, … to spread his word.
Amen, let us pray.
Father, we thank you for Jesus, we thank you that he came to this earth all those years ago, too live as we do.
We thank you that he persisted with his mission, despite being rejected by his own, and innocently put to death on a cross, from which he later rose.
Father we are here today to worship you, and be you voice here on earth. Father anoint us with that mission, and enable us to work for you, through you, as your vehicles here on this earth.
Father, we ask in Jesus name, Amen.
