There was a young woman who was in my confirmation class in a congregation that I served in Nova Scotia. At the time, we were studying the text that Janet read so beautifully from The Gospel of Luke. She began to recount a story that had happened, but she felt that there was a correlation between what she had seen in her life and this text, although in the beginning I found it hard to understand.
You see, the young woman in question was a wonderful rower. She rowed competitively for one of the Dartmouth teams. She told the story of how one day there was a meeting, a regatta, and there was going to be a competition between the two great rowing clubs in Halifax-Dartmouth, one of them a Halifax club, the other one the Micmac Rowing Club – and they were rivals! They were going to be on Lake Banook and Lake Banook was very close to where I lived, and in close proximity to the Church where I served, so it was well known.
This young girl from my confirmation class belonged to one of the rowing clubs. When it came time for the big day, the big race between the two boats and their rowers, the only problem was that the home team was suffering from influenza. There were two of the rowers who couldn’t participate. Fortunately, they had an alternate, and the alternate stepped in, but the home team was still down one rower.
The visiting team was there, and they were fine. They had also brought an alternate with them. So, in a magnanimous gesture, and realizing that the last thing they wanted was to cancel the race after every one had gone to all lengths to have this great confrontation, they decided to loan their alternate to the home team in order that the race could progress. All looked good.
The two teams put their boats in the water, the rowers got in, their oars hit the water, and they were off! It was a close race – and the home team won! The visiting team lost. The visiting team was so upset at having lost that any magnanimous attitude that they had before hand went out of the window. They were furious that their alternate had rowed so well!
They excoriated her for her outstanding performance for the home team. How could she possibly do this to them? She of course was a competitor and she wanted to row and win no matter what - and God bless her for doing it! The home team, on the other hand, felt haughty and proud that they had won the race. They actually were bragging about their abilities, even though it had been an alternate from the other team that had helped them achieve their goal.
The first team, the one that had loaned the rower was lacking in grace; the winner was lacking in humility. It was awful! When you think about it, and you describe it in the following way, it makes sense. First, you have an insider, the alternate, who goes and rows for the outsiders. The outsider then becomes an insider with the team that was the outsiders, and the team for which she was an insider now considers her an outsider, so she is no longer inside. Do you all follow me? Trust me, this is fairly accurate.
There is this movement between being in and out. That poor girl had no idea what team she belonged to in the end: the one that won or the one that lost! And of course, you know who that girl was, don’t you? The member of my confirmation class! So, she reads Luke, Chapter 4, and she goes, “Oh, I get it! Jesus was an insider who becomes an outsider, but he becomes an outsider for other outsiders to become insiders, and is rejected by the insiders because he has reached out to the outsiders. You have got that one too, do you?
Let me clarify. This is an incredible moment, this text from Luke, Chapter 4. It is a powerful text! Don’t let its shortness and simplicity rob it of its power. In this text, what we are getting from Luke is an account really of Jesus’ ministry as it was to unfold: one of fulfillment, one of reception, and one of rejection. It was one where he was accepted; the other where he was abused and forced out.
In many ways, this was a microcosm of the whole of the Gospel story. When one looks at the setting, you can see why. The setting, we are told, is when Jesus had gone into the synagogue in Nazareth, his hometown, and he had unfurled the scroll and he had read from The Book of Isaiah one of the most powerful passages: “The Spirit of the Lord has come upon me to proclaim Good News!” A powerful message! It was a message that was supposed to be read at the time of the Jubilee and was also the time to be read when the Messiah was going to come.
We are told by Luke that the Spirit was upon him. He was filled with the power of the Spirit. Jesus says, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled.” Well, the people of Nazareth were in awe! They couldn’t believe what was happening! They had heard that he had done some great things in Capernaum. There had been some healings on the other side of Galilee. They were impressed by him, and now when they heard him read this and say that everything that was in the Prophets was fulfilled in their hearing by his very presence, they were thrilled to pieces: “This is our hometown boy who has made good. We are on the inside with the person who is really powerful!”
They even said his words were “gracious”, which means they had a divine flavour, they were a divine gift. They were caught up, and they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son? Joseph, the carpenter, who lives down on such-and-such a street, it is his son?” Now, they weren’t so sure then. That is pretty close by. “How can someone so special be Joseph’s son?” they might have been thinking? Or else, they might just have been caught up in the euphoria of a hometown crowd when the boy comes home.
It reminds me of something I witnessed when I was a boy myself, when a hometown hero came to town. It was in the days in which the rock-pop group The Monkees were very successful – remember them? They had a lead singer, Davy Jones. God bless Davy, he died last year! Davy was the lead singer and the pin-up boy for The Monkees. It was at the height of the euphoria for The Monkees and their power, and Davy was from a place called Openshaw, which is a suburb of Manchester in Lancashire, not far from where I lived.
What was fascinating was that his grandparents lived just a few doors down from my grandparents in the town of Accrington in the east of Lancashire. So, one day, my father and I went to visit my grandparents. When we arrived, the whole street was cordoned off: police were there, barricades. You couldn’t even get to the corner store to purchase things – the news agents, where I used to buy my licorice all-sorts! I was really upset! And, it was all because something terrible must have happened? It must have been a disaster, a gas leak, something like that. It was all cordoned off.
Well, finally we went to one of the police officers and we explained who we were and that my grandparents were at Number 82, and finally they let us in. They said, “You do realize, you know, that Davy Jones is about to visit?” So, with great excitement we went into my grandparents house, and they said, “Ah, but look, you are not allowed to come out of your house to meet Davy. There are to be no photographs, no interviews, nothing.”
I just sat in my grandparent’s living room with a bay window and looked out on to the cobbled streets, and sure enough, Davy Jones arrived in a bright yellow Jensen Interceptor car. It was magnificent! He got out, and I thought, “Oh, this is marvellous. I am going to be able to chat with Davy Jones.” His visit to his grandparents was supposed to be an evening dinner, but ten minutes later, he was gone! He headed down the road, and the hometown’s “star boy” that everyone loved so much hardly spent any time with his grandparents.
The rest of us were heartbroken. But, I always remember that I saw Davy Jones get in his car. I should put it on my Facebook Page, don’t you think? For one shining moment, I felt next to greatness! I felt I knew something nobody else knew, and I went to his grandparent’s house the next day and they gave me some licorice and gave me some Tizer to drink, and all was well. They were lovely people!
I thought about that, and that is how Nazareth was with Jesus. He was a superstar, and he has come home. He is going to do great things. He is a wonderful guy. He is ours. But, Jesus wasn’t seduced by all of that! He knew that he was going to be rejected by his own. He knew that they were going to say, “Doctor, heal yourself!” He knew that they were ultimately going to turn on him.
Why? It was because he knew that his mission was actually to reach beyond them. They were the insiders, but his ministry was to the outsiders. He wasn’t just to glory in the fame that he had at home; he was there to reach out beyond the bounds not only of his own community, but beyond his own people and his own faith.
The whole ministry of Jesus from that moment on was about this. It was about the insider reaching out to the outsiders. You can see that in his own ministry he starts out by saying, “A prophet has no honour in his own home.” It is hard to be accepted in your own home. He knew there were other prophets who had gone before him, who also had no honour in their own home, and he uses examples. He says, “Look, for example, at the story of Elijah.”
The story that he is referring to is found in 1 Kings 17. It is the story of Elijah going to the King of Israel and prophesising that there would be three years of drought. He was correct. The King was so annoyed with Elijah that he banished him from the land, and so he goes to Syria, to Sidon, and to Phoenicia. When he arrives there outside the city wall, he finds a widow with her son. He goes up to the widow and he says, “Would it be possible for you to bake me some bread for I am hungry?”
The widow said, “All I have is some flour and some oil, and I barely have enough to make for my own son. I am just about to make a fire and cook the little that I have. Then, we will eat, and then we will die.” She knew that the famine was destroying her land as well.
Elijah says, “Look, if you will make me bread, my Lord will make sure that you have enough to eat.”
So, the woman goes, in trust, and she starts to bake. Miraculously, she has enough bread even for Elijah!
Here is this woman, a widow who has a son – the poorest people in society, widows and orphans – and here she is feeding the prophet Elijah! Elijah says to the widow of Zarephath, “You know, my God will take care of us. You will be able to eat bread until the rains begin again, because you believed.”
And the woman believed.
She said, “The God of Israel is the greatest God there is!”
Elijah had been rejected by his own king, but his ministry had been to a Syrian woman, who was hungry and in need: the insider going to the outsider to make her an insider!
Jesus doesn’t just stop with Elijah he also talks about Elisha, who was Elijah’s successor. Elisha is found to be a wonderful prophet. There is a story about a man called Naaman, and he was a commander in the military power of Aram. The king of Aram would look on this great leader Naaman to provide military support as one of his great warriors, but then Naaman contracts leprosy. Realizing that he doesn’t know how to be healed from this, something happens.
The Arameans had just invaded Israel, and they had plundered some of their slaves, so they took a slave girl from Israel to work in the house of Naaman. Naaman’s wife and the slave girl are talking about Naaman’s leprosy and what a problem it is, and the slave girl says, “Have you ever thought of going to one of the prophets of my home country of Israel? They will heal Naaman.”
So, Naaman goes to his King, and the King says, “Anything that will heal you is good.”
He writes a letter to the King of Israel and says, “Take care of my great soldier, Naaman, who has leprosy.”
Naaman goes to Israel, but the King of Israel says, “I want nothing to do with this. Why should we heal someone who has invaded us?” So, he rejects the request.
Enter Elisha. Elisha hears that the King has rejected Naaman. Elsiha goes to Naaman and says, “You know, my God can heal you. This is what you have to do. Go down to the river Jordan, go under the water seven times, and you will be healed.”
Naaman says, “I am a commander of a great army. I am not going to go down in public in front of everybody and bathe in the river Jordan. Are you crazy? I am not going to do that!”
Elisha says, “Unless you do that, you will not healed, but if you do, my God will heal you.”
Finally, Naaman recants. He says, “I will do as you say.”
He goes into the river, he comes out, and he is healed. A miracle! Naaman says to Elisha, “There is only one God, and that is the God of Israel, and I will worship this God for the rest of my days.”
Naaman was restored. Naaman was healed.
Do you see what is going on here? In the story of Elijah we have an outsider, the widow of Zarephath, becoming an insider, because of the ministry of Elijah, and she believes. She is poor and she is in need and she is fed. Naaman is powerful, but he is sick, and in his sickness he comes to Elisha and he believes and he is healed. Jesus says to the people of Nazareth, his hometown, “I am going to do exactly what Elijah has done before me. I am going to do what Elisha has done before me. They have taken two people who are outsiders and have brought them into the kingdom, and healed them and restored them.”
What was the response of his hometown audience? Anger! Even though Jesus was quoting from Elijah and Elisha, two of their greatest prophets, as examples of what he was going to do, they picked up stones, they walked him to a cliff, and they planned on pushing him over and stoning him. They rejected him, because he, as an insider, wanted the outsiders to become insiders, but the insiders could not stand the outsiders being healed.
No wonder Jesus ended up on a Cross! Yet, he did this out of love and passion and compassion. The whole of Jesus’ ministry was to reach out to the outsiders, those who were broken, in order to bring them into the Kingdom. This is why he said, “The Scripture is being fulfilled today. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim Good News to the poor, to give captives their release. This is what I am going to do. This is my ministry. Now Nazareth, you are either with me on this, or you are not.” And clearly, they rejected him. Jesus continued his ministry. He took the outsiders and he brought them in.
A couple of Sunday’s ago we had the week of prayer for Christian unity, and in the afternoon there was a service at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church on Jarvis Street. It brought together all the Christian religious leaders throughout the city – the Cardinal, the bishops, the Metropolitans of the Orthodox Church, clergy from well known churches and congregations – and I was part of the service. It was an incredible moment to hear Cardinals praying, to hear bishops singing, and to hear ordinary people praising God. It was wonderful!
There was a highlight in this service that none of us anticipated. There was a moment in the service when there was a beating of drums and there were cymbals and there were bells and there was chanting and loud singing, and into the service came a group of Indians, Indians from India – not North American native people. They came in singing and praising God. They made an incredible sound! With no disrespect to our music team, it was as sublime as you are! Memorable! We were riveted to our seats! Why? It was because they were Dalits.
Darlits are the lowest caste in Indian society. They were the untouchables, the untouchables who for a thousand years had been rejected in the Indian caste system. Even though there had been changes made in Indian law in the 1980s and 1990s to include Dalits into the Constitution, to give them some rights under the law that they previously hadn’t had, there was one group that had not been given those rights – they were the Dalits Christians! In other words, if you would recant of your faith and adopt another faith, even though you were a Dalit, you would no longer be an untouchable, but if you maintained your Christian faith, you would be an untouchable, and not have the benefits of the Constitution.
Here they were, in a Canadian church, singing their hearts out, glorifying their Lord, unabashedly Christian, powerfully witnessing to what they believed. Afterwards, there was a reception, and they were sitting on their own ironically, having a cup of tea, and I went over to them and just said, “Your music was magnificent! I was really touched.” Their faces lit up, and we talked about where some of them had come from, and we talked about cricket, and talked about all kinds of things, and finally, I said, “You know, I thought you were magnificent!”
Then, they started to talk about why it means so much to them, and what their Christian faith means, and there was one woman there, and she was someone I will never forget. She talked about what her family had gone through, and she said, “You know, they really, really, really want us to change our faith, to renounce Jesus. We cannot, because the only reason on earth why we are free is because of him. The only one who accepts us, we believe, is Him. He has reached out to us, and therefore we owe everything to Him.”
This is the same Jesus who stood up in Nazareth and said, “These Scriptures are fulfilled today that the captives will be set free.” This is the same Jesus who said to the broken world, “See the widow of Zarephath, see Naaman who has leprosy, these are the people I have come for. These are the ones I am willing to die for. These are the ones who are my children. I have come for them: the outsiders, to bring them in.”
So, in any way, shape or form, if you this day feel that somehow within the kingdom you are an outsider, if you feel for example that your life is upside-down and is not what it ought to be, if you are suffering from broken relationships, if you are suffering from ill health, if you are mourning the loss of a loved one, if you are crying out from the depths of your soul for relief from pain, if you are desperately earnest to have your sins forgiven, if you are passionate about a cause in society where justice needs to be done, and you feel that you are an outsider, believe me when I tell you that it is Jesus Christ, our Lord, who makes you an insider.
It is by his covenant of grace and love that you belong in his hands. And for that, the insider was willing to become an outsider, to bring the insiders to a better place, where they may receive the outsiders, and to make the outsiders insiders. And for that, He bore the Cross!
Amen.