Jeremiah 1:4-10

1 Corinthians 14:12b-20

Luke 4:21-32

Psalm 71:1-17 or 71:1-6, 15-17

Pray for me, that the words I speak may be those God wants us to hear.

Last week, our Gospel lesson gave us the first half of a story from Luke. Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth, visits the synagogue, and reads these gracious words 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 for the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

This week, we get the second half of the story, which takes us from amazement at Jesus’ gracious words to his own townsfolk wanting to throw him off a cliff.  What made them so mad?  It doesn’t make too much sense on the face of it, so let’s unpack that a bit.

The people of Nazareth have heard rumors about Jesus…how he has been traveling through Galilee teaching and healing, and doing some pretty amazing things. Jesus knows that the people in Nazareth are curious, and would like to see him perform a miracle or two. But a miracle is not a sideshow curiosity—you don’t just do one to gain approval. So Jesus makes a general wisdom statement: “prophets are not without honor except in their own country”. A more modern version of that might be, “You can never go home again”. And there is truth in that. Think about it. If you return home to visit after being away for a period of significant personal growth, you notice how you don’t in fit anymore.  And some of the people you who “knew you when” are proud of you, but others are jealous, and still others find the new ideas you bring back with you disturbing, even threatening.

But wanting to throw Jesus off the cliff because he refuses to perform a miracle seems to be a rather extreme reaction. What were those people so mad about?

For one thing, by saying that the words of Isaiah are fulfilled in their hearing, Jesus suggests that the Messiah, God’s anointed one, is present. In pointing out the works of Elijah and Elisha, he likens his works to those of 2 major prophets. The people of Nazarethdoubt Jesus…their minds are full of stuff they know about Jesus…isn’t this Joseph’s kid? Where did he get all this? How can he be a great prophet, or even suggest he might be God’s anointed? Remember, in that culture, false prophets were put to death. So yes, making such statements without backing them up was dangerous.On top of that, the examples he used were really irritating to them. Jesus is not only saying he is a prophet, he is reminding them that God’s cares for people who are outsiders, non-Jews. The Widow of Zarephath and Naaman were both Gentiles. Jesus is reminding them of a truth they don’t want to hear.

So, where is the Good News in this passage? The folks of Nazareth couldn’t hear it. The good news is that God’s healing and God’s favor and even God’s messiah are not the possession of the Jewish people alone.God’s healing and God’s favor are given to those who trust God and act in faith, whether or not it makes sense at the time. The widow at Zarephath and Naaman were both such people, (even though Naaman had to be reminded to set aside his pride for the miracle to occur).We aren’t given an explanation of how Jesus gets away from the angry mob. Luke says “…he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” It doesn’t say he gave them the slip. He passed right through the middle of them, walked out under his own steam in plain sight. The next couple of lines give us a hint about why. We are told that in Capernaumthey were astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority. When he spoke with authority at home, and the people of Nazareth were amazed by it, but they weren’t really sure where he got it. They had too much mental baggage in the way. But the people Capernaum were free of all that mental baggage, so they were ready to hear.In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul is telling the church there to use their spiritual gifts for the building up of the church. In first Corinthians, there is a lot of instruction about how they are to behave when the church comes together to worship. Here he is speaking about the gifts of prophesy and of tongues. Paul is acknowledging the value of each, and gives instruction on the place of each when the congregation meets. At the end of chapter 14, Paul says “so my friends, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues, but all things should be done decently and in order.”

It is easy to listen to this passage and think, “Wow, those Corinthians were pretty wild folks, but this passage doesn’t really say much to us Episcopalians--after all, our Anglican heritage values everything being done decently and in order, so this isn’t our problem.” I suspect that the church at Corinth WAS a very different sort of congregation than we have here at St. Paul’s, or is usually found in the Episcopal church. And although Paul is referring to spiritual gifts, he is telling the Corinthians that the greatest gifts are those that build up the church by promoting instruction for the outsider, with clear communication as to what is going on. And communication to the outsider is always a challenge, for us as well as for the Corinthians. If you are not a person acquainted with our manner of worship, it can be just as mystifying as that unintelligible prayer that Paul is talking about. Beautiful, but puzzling.

Now, I have to say, we do try. Rather than jumping from place to place in the Prayer book, we have these nice Service Brochures. We are armed with our bulletin and our scripture insert. And when the service music we use is not in the hymnal, it is provided on the orange pew card in front of you. We often have an MC who announces what will happen next, and even tells you whether you should be sitting, standing, or kneeling if you are able. Every so often we have a class, and occasionally we have even had an instructed Eucharist. Many of you, aware that a person sitting nearby seems either unengaged or lost, will try to help by sharing a hymnal, pointing our where we are in the service, or which piece of paper we are using now. We all need to keep doing that. It is a form of hospitality, and it builds community. It builds up the body of Christ in worship.

But what about answering questions…why do we do things this way? If you are reluctant to answer because you also wonder why we do things the way we do, I urge you to come to our inquirer’s class, even if you are already confirmed. The class is Thursday evenings at 7 p.m., here at the church. It begins February 1. I’m not saying that we can answer every question you have, but we can sure try. If we don’t know, we can look it up. (I am part librarian, and I enjoy looking things up.)

And today, we have a living resource with us—Canon Carey. He is the author of that famous column in Trinity Cathedral’s newsletter, “Stump the Canon”.

Many people become Episcopalians because we are free to think—we don’t have to check our brains at the door. We also have a deep spiritual heritage, rich in symbolism, strong in traditions. These traditions draw us into fresh understandings of the salvation story. So be curious! Ask questions! Then, the next time a stranger asks why we do something, you can share in the ministries of hospitality AND education.