Delivered by Rev. Ellen Brantley

Sunday, January 31, 2010

SERMON: Boundless Love

TEXT: Luke 4:21-30

The hometown boy has made a name for himself out in the world, and now he returns home. How excited everyone is to see him and to hear his message. How proud they are that this is “one of their own.” It’s about time that Nazareth was recognized as a place where special people come from. Now whenever people speak the name of Jesus, everyone will think of Nazareth and what a wonderful place it must be.

The people crowd the synagogue – many arrive early to get a good seat. This is a time when they will sit in the front row! They whisper and fidget with great anticipation. Finally Jesus stands up to read. He chooses a text from Isaiah about proclaiming release to the captives, restoring sight to the blind, binding up the brokenhearted, and bringing good news to the oppressed. Then he preaches that this is not a dead letter; this is a scripture that is alive and active and powerfully at work. He tells them that this scripture is being fulfilled as he speaks.

At first the hometown folks are pleased. What a good preacher he is! His words are eloquent, wise, and so meaningful. “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” The more they talk the more excited the get about the miracles that he might perform for them. How proud they are that he is Joseph’s son, that he is “one of us.”

But Jesus overhears their bragging and their anticipation of miracles. “Truly I tell you,” he says, “…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.”

As Luke tells it, this enraged the people. They drove Jesus out of town, and even tried to throw him off a cliff! But what were they so mad about? What was Jesus really saying to them?

Well, with further study I learned that Jesus was telling a hard truth that his kinfolk would find hard to swallow – especially when it came from one of their own. Jesus was making a point about how God is not only the God of Israel, but God sends good news and miracles also to those outside of Israel. God embraces those that Israel has left out – women, sinners, Gentiles, and the poor. Elijah helped a widow who was not an Israelite; Elisha cleansed a leper who was not an Israelite. Jesus, too, indicated that he would be serving others outside his hometown, outside his own culture, outside his own religion.

Think about that for a moment. How would you feel?

My first college roommate and I became friends the moment we met. We hit it off so well, in fact, that people thought we had been friends for a long time when it had really been less than a week. A couple months went by and we were still hanging out and having fun together. But my birthday came and went and she barely recognized it. I didn’t get so much as a handmade card! Well, I was a bit hurt, but decided that must be the way she was, so I should just forget about it. Then another couple months went by and another friend of ours had a birthday. My roommate went all out: a gift, a card, a cake – the works! Now I was really offended! I was her roommate, after all. We had become best friends. Didn’t I deserve at least as much attention on my birthday as the girl who lived down the hall?! This reminds me of a t-shirt I saw once that said, “Jesus loves you… but I’m his favorite.”

On a more serious note, “God bless America” is a sentiment near and dear to our hearts. But sometimes we act as though Americans are God’s chosen people – especially Christian Americans. Even though we all espouse John 3:16: “For God so loved the world…,” sometimes we act like God loves America more than China or Russia or Iran, more than Jews or Muslims or Buddhists. Sometimes we act as though God should bless only America, only Christians, only those that we love and bless. If Jesus walked in here today and announced that he was going to concentrate his efforts elsewhere… maybe we would become angry enough to want to throw him off a cliff.

The people of Nazareth probably welcomed Jesus home, thinking he would go the extra mile to give special favors to his beloved relatives and lifelong friends. But when he indicated otherwise, they were hurt, offended, shocked and enraged. Like a jealous lover, if they couldn’t have Jesus to themselves, then no one could have him!

Most of us were raised to believe that “charity begins at home.” Most of us believed it even more fervently after the 9-11 attacks on our country. But Susan Retik and Patti Quigley took a very different direction. Both of them were pregnant when their husbands were killed in the 9-11 tragedy. You might expect their grief to turn them inward, but instead they reached further outside themselves. They began a non-profit corporation called, “Beyond the 11^th” which helps women in Afghanistan who lost their husbands in the war against the United States to become independent entrepreneurs.

These are women who seem to understand that Paul’s description of love was less about husbands and wives and more about how we as human beings should treat one another in response to God’s love for us. You see, Paul was writing to the church at Corinth, in response to their bragging about the spiritual gifts with which they were endowed. Paul is emphasizing that without love, none of our other gifts matter. Speaking in tongues, prophetic powers, understanding and knowledge – unless these gifts are undergirded by love, they mean nothing.

The people of Jesus’ hometown perhaps were looking forward to boasting about their own power and fame; perhaps they were expecting to get their own way – getting moved to the front of the line for miracles – because Jesus was one of them. They needed to hear Paul’s words, that “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.”

This is the kind of love that Jesus has – not just for his hometown, not just for his own culture, not just for his own religion – but for the world. The love of Jesus is a BOUNDLESS LOVE.

Without it, we are nothing. No matter where we come from, what our name is, who we’re related to, how much money we make, or what special gifts we have. Jesus loves all of us, all the same.

So may we learn to pray for our enemies. May God bless the whole world. And may God give us the grace to love one another as he has loved us – with a BOUNDLESS LOVE… to the glory of God!

AMEN.