The Darkness of Galilee

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
January 27, 2008; 3rd Sunday after Epiphany, Year A
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Matthew 4:12-23) – When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
"Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles--
the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea -- for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
_______________________________________________

How profoundly each of us is shaped by our heritage and environment. Have you ever wondered what kind of person you would be had you been brought up somewhere else? How different might your life be if you grew up in an impoverished village in Africa or Mexico? What would your religious or political opinions be if you lived your whole life in Baghdad or in Tehran; in the Gaza strip or in a Jewish settlement in the occupied Arab territories; in Afghanistan or Tibet? How different might your life be if you had been raised as the son of George H. W. Bush or Sam Walton? ...the daughter of Queen Elizabeth or Desmond Tutu? Do you ever imagine these things? What would I be like? Would I be different?

I know how profoundly my environment put its mark on me. When I was twelve years old, in fifth grade, James Meredith integrated Ole Miss, and there was a riot in my hometown. Vehicles filled with angry whites rallied to defend segregation. I saw tags from Texas and North Carolina and everywhere in between. Nearly 30,000 U.S. Army troops and federalized Mississippi National Guardsmen were sent to help U.S. Marshals restore order. Forty-eight of those soldiers and thirty marshals were injured with gun wounds; miraculously only two people were killed. For months afterwards the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne inspected our family car and its trunk every time we left our neighborhood to drive to school or work or church.

I remember the helicopters and troop carriers, the smoke and the burned cars, the guns and equipment, the fear and the hate, the pride and the shame. My fifth grade teacher was furious that these foreigners had invaded our sacred soil to impose their misguided values on our sovereign traditions and heritage. My priest urged his congregation to get involved in the great Civil Rights movement for freedom and equality. My governor and senators and representatives did everything they could to sabotage and slow down or halt the integrationists. I grew up in a world that was volatile and polarized. Racial tension is still very powerful in Mississippi.

Galilee of the Gentiles -- the people who sat in darkness..." That's the description Matthew recalls from Isaiah. A description of the place where Jesus was raised. "Galilee of the Gentiles -- the people who sat in darkness..."

Just about the time Jesus was born, a man named Judah instigated an armed revolt in Galilee. His group captured the provincial capital of Sepphoris, and seized a garrison of arms stored there. Sepphoris is one-hour's walk from Nazareth, about five miles from the village where Jesus grew up.

In retaliation the Romans attacked, burned the city of Sepphoris to the ground, enslaved its inhabitants, then sent the army throughout the countryside looking for people to blame, crucifying some and deporting others into slavery. The rebellion was quelled, but a fire seethed deep within the soul of Galilee.

When Jesus was about twelve years old, Judas of Gamala initiated the Second Galilean tax revolt. He co-founded the paramilitary group called the Zealots. Romans called them "Bandits"; we would use the term "Terrorists" today. It took two Roman legions to suppress the rebellion. The troops went throughout Galilee burning the fields and poisoning the wells. Entire villages were destroyed and young people were deported into slavery. Agriculture in Galilee was devastated. Families who had tilled the soil for generations lost everything -- homes, tools, animals, children. The first century historian Josephus describes the Galileans as a people "inured to war from their infancy."

How easy, how natural it would have been for Jesus to have absorbed the ethos of his people: to burn with righteous anger, to yearn for a reversal of the injustices and violence that had been visited upon his kin. With his gifts of leadership, Jesus could have been the one to succeed in throwing off "the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor," as Isaiah had prophesied. Isaiah spoke of the light coming into the darkness of Galilee as a joy coming through great reversal; a joy that comes, he says, "as people exult when dividing plunder." So many Messianic expectations in the Hebrew Bible longed for the day of deliverance, when God's warrior would lead Israel to such earthly victory and power that all nations would look to Zion, and bow down. How many children of Galilee, their hearts darkened by violence and oppression, imagined they might lead the fight to bring that light into their people's gloom, these children, "inured to war from their infancy."

But that was not the way that Jesus chose. "Do you not think I could not call and my Father would not send legions of angels," he said when his disciples looked to him to fight back at his arrest. And when one of his companions did draw his sword and cut off the ear of one of the arresting party, Jesus cried out, "No more of this," and healed the injured enemy. After his arrest, like a sheep that before its shearers is mute, he uttered not a word. He soaked up the evil and hate and oppression and violence, returning only love and forgiveness, breaking the vicious cycle of attack and reprisal. That is the new light he brought into the darkness.

"Galilee of the Gentiles -- the people who sat in great darkness..." Notice that descriptor, "Galilee of the Gentiles.

Situated in the far north of Israel, Galilee was a crossroad for people moving and trading between the east and the west, north and south. At its borders and sometimes within came other settlers: Assyrians, Phoenicians, Arameans, Greeks, Persians. Galilee's was a very different culture from Judah and Jerusalem. It's people spoke with a different accent. Jesus and his Galilean disciples had only to open their mouths and speak for the Judeans to know they were "Northerners," "Galileans." Where you are from makes a difference. I remember it well. If you talk like I do in New York City, they assume you are stupid. To those at the center of first century Israel -- the people of Jerusalem and Judea -- Galilee was a rural backwater, suspiciously tainted by proximity to unclean Gentiles, home of hotheads and violent rebels. No wonder Nathanael spoke cynically when Philip told him, "We have found the Messiah." "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" he asked skeptically.

I remember what Bob Dylan said about my town, Oxford Town:

Oxford Town, Oxford Town
Ev'rybody's got their heads bowed down
The sun don't shine above the ground
Ain't a-goin' down to Oxford Town

He went down to Oxford Town
Guns and clubs followed him down
All because his face was brown
Better get away from Oxford Town...

When Jesus the Galilean came to Jerusalem and the Temple, the authorities made fun of those who tried to tell them anything positive about Jesus or about his preaching, "Look for yourselves and see," they said. "There is nothing in the scripture about any prophet coming from Galilee." Galilee was nothing but darkness. The kind of place that nothing good comes from. Forget it. Write it off. We already know about them and that place. "The sun don't shine above the ground." "Galilee of the Gentiles -- the people who sat in great darkness..."

But "the people who sat in great darkness have seen a great light." The light is Jesus. There is great significance that Jesus began his public preaching with the word, "Repent." Turn around. Go the other direction. Think again. Change your mind. "The kingdom of God has drawn near." Let anyone with ears, hear. But mostly, people were deaf. One reason their ears were closed was because everybody knows that there is nothing in scripture about any prophet coming from Galilee.

Sometimes I've wondered. If I had been alive when Jesus was on the earth, would I have listened to him? Would I have recognized who he was? Or would I have been as blind and deaf as most of the others, blinded and deafened by in part by prejudice toward Galilee.

Where is Galilee in your mind today? Where is the place in our generation and on our earth from where no good can come? Who are the Galileans in the prejudice of our mental geographies? We all have these judgmental maps. We hear an accent, we assume something about the person. We ask, "Where are you from?" and think the answer tells us something.

We are products of our heritage and environments, and we are invited to transcend our heritage and environment. How remarkable is the path that Jesus has shown us. He turned away from the bitterness and anger that filled the very air he breathed. He repented from following that heritage. Instead, he called into his intimate band of twelve of ordinary fishermen: a tax collector and a Zealot. With healing friendship he reached out to a Samaritan woman, a Canaanite, Simon the Pharisee, Nicodemus an official of the ruling Sanhedren, Zaccheaus the head tax collector, a demon-possessed foreigner living in a cemetery, a Roman army officer, children, lepers, and a condemned criminal dying with him on the cross. He gave them living water, new life, food from heaven, deliverance from bondage, healing, acceptance, and life in Paradise.

He was light in darkness. And he invites us to walk in that light. To do so will mean giving up some things. Repenting. It will mean giving up all defensiveness and prejudice. It will mean letting go of power and presumption. It will mean being from Galilee but not of it, whatever your own Galilee may be. Those dark things have lost their power in Jesus. "For those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned." And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people."
_____________________________________________

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance and love.

For information about St. Paul's Episcopal Church and it's life and mission, please contact us at
P.O. Box 1190, Fayetteville, AR 72702, or call 479/442-7373

Please visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org