Luke 4:21-32

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.

He went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and was teaching them on the sabbath. They were astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority.

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Joan Chittister, the noted Benedictine prioress, who works tirelessly on behalf of social justice issues, tells a story about a young seeker who desired to be a prophet.

"I wish to become a teacher of truth," the disciple said. And the master asked, "Ah, yes, but are you prepared to be ridiculed and ignored and starving up to the age of 45?"

"I certainly am," the young disciple said. "But could you also tell me, holy one, what will happen after I am 45? At that time will I become recognized, and revered, and rich?"

And the master, smiling, answered, "No, but by then surely you will have grown accustomed to being poor and ignored and reviled."

Luke's story of Jesus' rejection at Nazareth, his hometown, is told in the gospels of Matthew and Mark as well. In all three gospels, Jesus appears in the synagogue and begins to teach with such wisdom that all the people are astounded. This was the same Jesus they had known since he was a child. They knew him as the carpenter's son, and the son of Mary. Everybody knew his family. However, very quickly their astonishment at his wisdom turned to offense. The reason for the people taking offense is explained, partially, by the widely known aphorism, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown."

Earlier this week, I learned the story of hometown girl, a sixth grader in a Bentonville elementary school. As part of a class project this child convinced her fellow students to recycle their soft drink cans and plastic bottles and paper. However she learned that, in Bentonville, the recycling truck only came by once a month and the trash was piling up. Showing initiative far beyond her years, she called city hall and inquired about the possibility of more frequent pick up of recyclables. She was told that the city had an outside contract with a garbage company and that it couldn't be renegotiated. Refusing to accept this obstacle as final, she called the garbage contractor and asked if they would be willing to renegotiate. And, amazingly, they were. As a result of her action, the monthly recycling pickup schedule was changed and now, recyclables are picked up in Bentonville every other week. (Still inadequate, but a move in the right direction). Many citizens applauded the change, but I'm wondering how the folks at city hall felt about her wisdom. I'm guessing that some of them might have wanted to toss her off the nearest cliff as well.

A number of years ago a young 11 year old girl in New York, Hallie Geyer, was killed in an automobile accident. Her parents knew that this child had a strong social conscience and that she deeply cared about the well being of others. But just how much, they didn't realize until after her death they found among her possessions a diary, began when she was still in kindergarten. The very first entry, in her five year old handwriting read, "People, be nice to each other." Six more years of entries followed, each exhibiting an unusual sense of concern for other people. And then they discovered that she had managed to save, from her tiny allowance and small jobs and gifts, $400 that she kept in an envelope, labeled, "Help for AIDS in Africa". Her parent's used this small sum of money and the memory of Halley's benevolence to start the "Keep a Child Alive Foundation." This past fall the foundation brought a group of children to New York, the Agape Choir, from the Agape Orphanage in Durham, South Africa - an orphanage devoted to the care of children whose parents had died of AIDS. Their orphanage had burned and the choir accompanied by Paul Simon, Alicia Keys, Usher, sang rhythmic South African tunes and raised a million dollars to rebuild their burned out home. The story doesn't end here. Returning to Africa, and discovering that they had more than enough money to reconstruct the orphanage and school, the children decided that they should send a portion of the funds to American children in Louisiana and Mississippi - children whose homes and schools had been destroyed by Katrina. An act of unselfishness, of kindness, from children of one of the poorest countries in the world to the children of the richest. A beautiful thing, but I wonder how our government, a government that failed to respond to the basic needs of its citizens in a time of disaster, reacted to news that children with nothing are responding in ways that a government with everything refused to do. I wonder if they too, "took offense".

Only in the version of the gospel story we read this morning in Luke do we begin to understand just what it was that this "new preacher" Jesus had said that so offended the residents of his hometown that they got up from their seats in the synagogue and drove Jesus out of town, and if he hadn't slipped away they would have thrown him off the cliff. What got the people of Nazareth upset was his interpretation of scripture. First, Jesus recalls the time of the prophet Elijah, when there were many widows (widows, the poorest of the poor) throughout Israel, but God sent Elijah to the aid of a widow from Sidon, to help a foreigner. And then Jesus recounts the story of the prophet Elisha, who instead of cleansing the lepers among the Israelites, chose to cleanse Naaman, a Syrian. What the citizens of Nazareth didn't want to hear, what got them so angry that they were ready to throw one of their sons off a cliff was the news that God loved foreigners as much as he loved the children of Israel. They chased him from the synagogue and were ready to kill him.

As Jacques Matthey has written, "Jesus proclaims that God's liberating power and solidarity is not exclusively meant for the benefit of the physical descendents of the patriarchs, of the people of the exodus, and the great prophets. God's mission has a universal scope - transcending any ethnic, cultural, social, racial or confessional barrier. God's preferential option for the poor is not for the poor of Israel only, and may even give priority to others."

But before we are so quick to cast judgment on the harsh treatment the people of Nazareth dished out to Jesus, we might look at the issues that provoke rage among the citizens of this country. How do we feel about the foreigners in our own midst? Legal or illegal? Would Jesus have made a distinction? What is it that fuels our willingness to engage in wars in distant lands? Could it be the same kind of tribalism, the hatred of "the other", those different from us? Jesus preached against it and it almost got him killed before his ministry has barely begun.

I am a member of the Board of Directors of a small struggling non-profit organization called the Northwest Arkansas Interfaith Workers Justice Center. The Workers Center is an advocacy group, working on behalf of a population for whom there are few advocates. Our clients are primarily Latino, poor, often undocumented, hardworking, and victims of injustice. The story of Ignacio Hernandez is typical. Nacho, as he is known, is the principle breadwinner for his family - a young wife and three baby girls. Unskilled, Nacho typically works at a variety of construction jobs. He and thousands of other undocumented workers are often cheated by employers. He came to the Workers Center last week, when after spending three days cleaning up a construction site, his employer disappeared without a trace and no one accepted the responsibility of paying Ignacio his wages. Another worker lost his eyesight after being splashed in the face with dangerous chemicals. He had not been provided with safety goggles, nor informed of the hazards of working with the chemicals. Bravely, these people, who because of their undocumented status have few of the basic human rights we take for granted, came to the Worker's Center seeking help. These are the same foreigners that Jesus spoke of. Those foreigners for whom the prophets Elijah and Elisha where advocates. And the recollection of whom, got Jesus chased out of town. As the Swiss sociologist Max Frisch famously said about his country's immigrants: "We called for workers, and there came human beings."

In a few moments we are going to baptize 13 month old Evelyn West. As part of the Baptismal Covenant, I will ask, "Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being." And you will answer, "I will, with God's help." Evelyn may be a little young to understand those words today. But we, the church, her community, are with these words, joining with her in baptism - remembering our own baptism and committing ourselves to the support of Evelyn in her life in Christ. My hope, my prayer, is that the people of Grace Church raise up Evelyn to be, like Jeremiah - appointed a prophet to the nations. My hope for Evelyn, and for us, is that someday, hearing her gracious words, her wisdom, and her willingness to speak on behalf of justice and peace, we will be astounded at her authority and say to ourselves, can this be the daughter of Matt and Catherine, the granddaughter of Shareen and Dennis?.. but that we, unlike the citizens of Jesus' hometown, will listen to her.