Loving Conflict

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
January 31, 2010; 4 Epiphany, Year C
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Luke 4:21-30) – In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and began to say, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
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There is a lot of conflict and turbulence in these readings today.

The first reading from Jeremiah is sometimes titled "The Calling of the Prophet Jeremiah." It has a personal connection for me. I used this reading at my ordination. I could relate to Jeremiah's protest, "Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." When I was ordained, I was only a boy. God tells the boy, "Speak whatever I command you." At the time of my ordination, I knew that's what I wanted to do – to speak God's word. But I was a bit uncomfortable with the last verse in this reading. In the last verse of Jeremiah's call, God told Jeremiah that his work would be more conflictive than I hoped my work would be. God called Jeremiah "to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." We'll, I liked those last two. I'd really like to build and to plant. But it made me anxious to imagine myself involved in plucking up and pulling down, in destroying and in overthrowing. I hoped I wouldn't have as volatile a career as Jeremiah. But those other words of conflict and turbulence are also part of the call.

Most of us have heard 1 Corinthians 13 read at lots of weddings we've attended: the "Love Chapter." But the original context of Paul's words is not a wedding. It's church politics. The church in Corinth has been troublesome for Paul. They've been acting elitist, proud, and self-satisfied. From Paul's perspective they've been "abusing their freedom, refusing to share, scorning their neighbors' spiritual gifts, boasting in their own gifts, seeking recognition for themselves, and jockeying for position in the church."(1) Paul is angry with them. It doesn't matter how big your outreach program is or how pretty your worship may be or how smart your preachers think they are or how fine your choir is. Without love, it's nothing. Paul points toward every single thing that their congregation is proud of and asks them, "Are these things done with love? How might they be done with greater love?" It's not a complement. It's a challenge.

And if you think Jeremiah or Paul might have ticked off some people, Jesus really infuriated folks in his own hometown. We heard the first part of this story last week. Jesus is visiting the synagogue at his home in Nazareth, and he reads 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." And we pick up with today's Gospel: Jesus says, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Sounds like people reacted positively. "All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth." How about Joseph's little boy. Hasn't he grown up?

But Jesus won't let it lie there. Maybe he knows something about his hometown. Maybe he knows that they only way they will relate to him is to revel in some degree of his celebrity status. Hometown boy makes good. Just goes to show. Nazareth is Number 1.

Whatever the underlying reasons, Jesus provokes them, intentionally. I'm not going to do any miracles here, like you've heard about from Capernaum. My work, God's work, is not about "homies." You remember in Elijah's days. There was a famine throughout Israel. But Elijah didn't help any of his people. He went over the border to Sidon, to a pagan widow over there, and he fed her during the entire famine. You remember Elisha. There were lots of lepers in Israel, but he didn't heal any of them. Instead, he healed Naaman, a general in the Syrian army, the same Syrian army that has fought against Israel over and over in our history.

That's provocative language. It's almost like President Obama saying "the heck with a stimulus package for American jobs, I'm sending billions to Mexico because they've got people out of work there." Or, "I'm abandoning my health reform effort on behalf of Americans, and authorizing free international medical care for Al-Qaeda."

People in Nazareth were enraged. They wanted to kill him. Then we hear that mysterious verse: "But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way." He stood his ground. Willing to alienate them; willing to let them reject him; willing to give up those relationships. He took a position and held it, even in the face of resistence, conflict and anger. Thus, self-defined, he passed through them, and went on his way.

I think Jesus' issues with Nazareth and Paul's issues with Corinth were similar. They are issues about love. Jesus and Paul make love their own self-definition. For Paul, love is more important than performance or talent or gifts or success. If you can't do your work with love, it's garbage. For Jesus, love goes universal. Love extends outward to the foreigner, the outsider, ...even the enemy. And if you can't handle that, if you can't love the alien, the immigrant, the enemy, he's willing to walk right through you and go on his way.

Jesus looks at the pride of his hometown, expressed as bias and prejudice, and he outs them. Paul looks at a self-satisfied, elitist church, and he shames them with love. In Jeremiah's words, there is some plucking up and pulling down going on, there's some destroying and overthrowing going on, in order to build and plant a kind of love that is primary and universal.

I'll bet some things changed. Whenever one person stands boldly, on principle, willing to let others reject and alienate – whenever one person takes a position and holds it, even in the face of resistence, conflict and anger – the whole system will be affected. I'll bet Paul's insistence on love deflated some of the spiritual pride in the congregation at Corinth. We know, especially from Second Corinthians, that he had to continue to reassert his message about love-centered leadership. We know that eventually the church did indeed respond generously.

I'll bet some things were shaken up in Nazareth. Despite their violent reaction toward Jesus, they knew they could no longer treat outsiders with prejudice without knowing they were known. Jesus did to Nazareth what Martin Luther King did to the segregated South. His stance of love forced their prejudice into the cold light of day.

We are invited to follow their example. Each of us is called. Often to build and to plant. Sometimes to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow. Whenever we see structures of pride and greed, elitism and prejudice – we are called to make a stand. We are to take a position of love, and to stand boldly on the principles of love, regardless of any resistence, conflict or anger it might provoke. That's the only way things change for good.

Love boldly. Beyond the boundaries of self-interest and bias. For, as Paul tells us, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. ...And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love."
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(1) Lewis F. Galloway, Pastoral Perspective, for 4 Epiphany in Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1, Bartlett and Taylor, eds., Westminster John Knox Press. p. 302
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