February 3, 2013
Epiphany 4
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Luke 4:21-30
(prayer)
For several years, one of the roles I took on in the work of the wider United Church was to be on the Conference Settlement Committee. Up until recently, this committee was one of the most anxiety-causing groups in the church for new ministers coming out of their theological education. Prior to 2011, every person seeking to be Ordained or commissioned as a Diaconal Minister in the United Church relied on the Settlement Committee for their first placement as a minister.
It was also a vehicle for churches (usually smaller, more isolated ones) to find a minister more easily. Any church or any minister could apply for settlement, but Ordinands and Commissionands had no choice. [Since 2011, the settlement process is no longer mandatory. New ministers can choose to seek a call or appointment on their own, but they have to have one in place, before they will be commissioned or ordained.]
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Now, although the final decision always belonged to the Settlement Committee, and the Settlement Committee alone, we were not an insensitive committee. We operated on the axiom that “it was better to leave a person/church without a settlement than to force a bad match.”
Without breaking any confidences, each year, there was usually at least one minister and at least one pastoral charge that were pretty hard to make happy.
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When I was on the settlement committee, we had a standard that... we would not normally settle a person in a church, where they had a prior significant relationship.
We would not normally settle a person in their home congregation, or a church where they had been a student minister.
Can you guess why?
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For better or worse, many churches have a bit of difficulty seeing the mature, trained minister (ready to offer leadership) in a person that they had known before in a less mature or learning environment. One the other hand, some new ministers have difficulty breaking away from the systematic support that comes with being a student: expecting others to meet all of their needs.
In essence, student internships primarily focus on the needs of the students; settlements primarily focus on the needs of the congregations.
As a settlement committee, we did our best to avoid situations where those competing needs might meet head on.
Another way of saying this is that for new ministers, it is hard to be a prophet in your old town.
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Last week, we read the verses 14 to 21 of Luke chapter 4.
Jesus, by this time, had been travelling around the synagogues of various towns near Lake Capernaum: teaching and preaching as he went. It seems, he had been pretty well received.
In Luke 4, Jesus was back in his home synagogue (in Nazareth). This is where he went as a child. He was a crackly-voiced, pimple-faced teenager in that synagogue.
Now as a 30 year old adult, he stood up and did what he had been doing elsewhere around the lake: he offered his take on the scriptures that were read.
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[spoken]
The spirit of the lord is upon me
Because God has anointed me
To preach good news to the poor
God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
And recover of sight to the blind
To set at liberty those who are oppressed
To proclaim the acceptable year of the lord.
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21Then... [Jesus] began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’
Take note of the verb at the start of that verse: Jesus began to say...
It’s not that Jesus just blurted out that this scripture has been fulfilled as they were listening to the reading and left it there – we can assume that Jesus went on to explain why he thought this was the case. Luke doesn’t give us any of the details, but the text does say that people were ‘amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” That is also an interesting turn of phrase: ‘gracious words’. They saw Jesus’ teaching as a holy gift (grace). It sounds like this is what Jesus’ experienced in the other Galilean towns where he had been.
And then...
some reality set it. "Wait a second, isn’t that Jesus, Joseph’s son? I remember little Jesus running around here."
Matthew and Mark (when they relay this story) ask “isn’t Mary his mother?” Matthew also asks, “isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” Mark (which is likely the oldest version), asks “isn’t he the carpenter?” - implying Jesus’ own trade.
The message is the same in all the versions – and Jesus knows exactly what it is: “It’s hard to be a prophet in your hometowm.”
The people of my home congregation (God love ’em) have been wonderfully supportive of me my whole life. I believe that they are proud of me and the ministry I have carved out for myself in Swan Hills, Red Deer and Leduc. But every time, I go back there (to preach or even just to attend church), people reminisce about my childhood and youth years in the church.
No matter what else I am: I am (first and foremost) ‘Dorothy’s son’ at Pilgrim United Church.
What’re gonna do?
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In Mark and Matthew’s version, they point out that Jesus had a hard time doing some of the ‘mighty acts’ he had done elsewhere in Nazareth. The closest Luke comes to saying that is to have Jesus offer (what was apparently an old proverb) “Physician, heal thyself!” (KJV) Luke also justifies the attitude by having Jesus make a reference to the great prophet Elijah having a similar problem about 900 years earlier.
And then the third gospel takes it to another level. Luke ends this story with an event that is not told in any of the other gospels: the Nazarenes were not just skeptical, they were outraged; they (apparently) tried to kill Jesus.
It’s one thing to not agree with what another person is saying, but this was a unacceptable reaction.
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Did anyone notice that, as the scripture lessons were being read earlier, that I had a picture of Malala Yousafzai (Ma-lā-lah Yū-saf-zay) on the screen. She is the young girl from northwestern Pakistan who wrote an anonymous blog for the BBC a few years back when she was 11 years old. That’s the same age that my daughter, Annie, is now; coincidently, Malālah and Annie also share a birthday.
Malālah blogged about life under Taliban rule, including her views on the education of girls, which of course the Taliban opposes.
Some of you may have known Malālah from her blog, but I suspect that many of you learned of her a few months ago, when gunmen highjacked her school bus on the afternoon of October 9th, 2012, found out exactly which girl she was. and then shot her in the head.
Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, she survived this assassination attempt and is recovering in a hospital in Brittan, as we speak.
Malālah may very well win the Nobel Peace prize this year. While I think that would be most appropriate, I am so dismayed that a person’s peace filled words and hopes for a world of equal opportunity and status engendered such a violent response. Sadly, outstanding efforts for peace are too often brought to our attention by acts of violence seeking to silence those efforts.
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The end of this passage in Luke describes everything that is wrong about religion-motivated violence and holy war.
You can’t reason with a person who wants to believe that their god has instructed them to express the depth of their faith by:
· shooting a girl in the head, or
· setting off a bomb at an abortion clinic, or
· manhandling people off the land they have lived on for generations, so that you can forcibly build a new settlement to prove a religious and political point, or
· beating up a gay person for simply being gay, or
· justifying the enslavement of a race of people by quoting Holy Scripture, and the even when full emancipation is the law, still justify further violence and mistreatment, bible in hand, or
· shouting praises to God as you slam an airplane into an office building.
Nothing about my reading of the Bible or my understanding of Jesus brings me to believe that God wants blind, violent faith from anyone.
We are invited to take faith to heart; to understand it in our minds – to think about what is right.
For me, this was true that day in Nazareth, and during the crusades, during the spanish inquisition, on 9/11, and on that bus in the Swat district of Pakistan: violence in the name of Jesus, or Yahweh, or Allah, or Brahman, or the Buddha (or whoever you see as God) is unjustifiable from a faith perspective.
In a funny way, I have more respect (not the right word) for a person who kills out of greed or jealously or some admittedly selfish reason than the one who blindly and cowardly claims to be doing God’s will.
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When we are challenged by the words and actions of another, even when it calls into question what we believe, we need to be ready to respond with humility and maturity.
Even if we aren’t ready for what the person has to say, if we remain confident in the faith we have, so be it. Faith is always strengthened by challenge and questioning: either because it expands our connection to the Divine or it confirms what we already believe.
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If the people of Nazareth were not ready for what Jesus was saying (either because of the message or the messenger), then they needed to accept it and move on.
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Isaiah 9:6For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
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Matthew 11:28‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
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Philippians 4:8... whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things 9... and the God of peace will be with you.
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I wonder when we will be ready for this!
I wonder when we will be ready for this!
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Let us pray:
Great and Gracious God;
Like Jeremiah, we may think we are not ready to proclaim your good news. Holy One, make us channels of your peace. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.
***offering***
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