St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – Third Sunday after The Epiphany – January 24, 2010
“Realization: Here and Now!”
Text: Luke 4:21,22
Just as there are “Kodak” moments in life, those special moments when all of a sudden someone or something is wonderfully pretty, delightful, perfect – worth taking a picture of, so there are also what I’ll call “wake up” moments in life, those moments when all of a sudden the light goes on and we are blessed to realize something, or able to see and to be a part of something that is wonderfully genuine useful, helpful and we or our family or our community or our country are the better for it, better than before.
For example . . .
Do you realize how blessed we are in Minden to have a good clinic, good doctors, a good hospital right here in our own community?
Do you realize what generous gifts it took, what a community effort it was to restore an old opera house and give it the look & feel of a brand new, big-city theater?
Do you realize what a good school system we have?
Do you realize what a joy it is to be a part of a community that has always shown strong support for its children & youth, as well as help the elderly thru an active Community Center & Meals on Wheels?
When something terribly tragic happens be it storm damage from a local tornado or massive devastation from a far away earthquake do we realize how generous, how available, how compassionate some people can be because that’s their gift; they WANT to help and they will?
Or we can take this question of realizing all the way back to the day a young Jesus age 30 returned to his hometown of Nazareth, went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, stood up to read as was the cus-tom, read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, rolled up the scroll gave it back to the attendant, sat down, looked at everyone who had their eyes fixed on him, and Jesus said to them “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing?”
Those townspeople people who gathered in their synagogue at Nazareth were all eyes & ears to hear what Jesus, a home-town boy, Jesus, Joseph’s son, had to say. They knew Jesus, remembered him as a little boy, and were proud of the reports coming out of Capernaum and from other towns about Jesus’ success as a preacher, teacher, and miracle worker. In fact, that’s what we’re told: the people were hoping to see Jesus do a miracle or two, give them a sample of his teaching & preaching.
So there they were. The people had come together on the Sabbath to sit and hear words about the Word! It was pretty much the same as it is today with countless church-goers all across this country coming together, sitting in churches, expecting to hear words about the Word. But did those people back then realize who Jesus really was? Did they realize what Jesus was saying when He read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and said, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing? Here and now! Hear it and how! Did they realize?
It’s always interesting to me, especially in church, how people will hear what they want to hear; hear a lot of words and wait for the end of words, end of sermon, which they hope will come sooner rather than later. What do people expect when they come to church? A sermon!? Yes! Words and more words!?
But a message from God?! A word from the Lord?! That’s something else. What a difference there is between words about the Word and a word from the Lord!
People will say to me, “Pastor that was a good sermon, a good talk you gave, that was interesting.” But that’s what you’re supposed to say, isn’t it? That’s what people think preachers want to hear, like to hear, “Good sermon! That was interesting. I liked that!”
The truth of the matter is, whether you realize it or not, a sermon may be nice religious words carefully written & spoken so as to be words everyone can live with. But a word from the Lord, like a word from a pathologist, or a word from an oncologist, or a word from a heart surgeon, a word from the Lord can be a word that’s disruptive, disturbing, unsettling; challenging, revealing.
A sermon can be tucked away or even ignored; in one ear and out the other; but a word from the Lord must be heeded. “Blessed are those who hear the word of the Lord and keep it, obey it, practice it, live it.”
A sermon can be butter on bread, but a word from the Lord is sharper than a two-edged sword that cuts away at one’s comfortableness or complacency like a razor-sharp butcher’s knife.
A sermon can be what you’ve heard before, something you think others need to hear, but a word from the Lord is new, here & now! A word from the Lord, changes things, forces you to wake up, to shape up, to try something new & different, live deeper & better.
I’ve told you the story a time or two before about the two elderly ladies sitting in the back of a church who when they heard the preacher preach against smoking, the ladies smiled at each other nodding their heads in agreement, “Give it to them, preacher!”
Next Sunday the preacher preached against drinking, over-indulging, not know when to say when, and again the ladies smiled and nodded, “Give it to them, preacher!’
Another Sunday the preacher preached a sermon against the evils of the lottery, preached against gaming & gambling and the ladies smiled politely, less enthusiastically, but still nodded their heads in agreement.
Then the preacher preached against gossiping, hearsay, spreading rumors, talking behind people’s backs. The ladies looked at each other with a frown and said, “Now, he’s meddling.”
Do you realize this? Most people want a sermon because a sermon lets people drift off, doze off; lets people imagine God is far off, distant, not much for here & now. But a word from the Lord cuts against that, a word from the Lord opens one’s eyes, a word from the Lord can comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. A word from the Lord is not for someone else, it’s a word for you, it’s a word that’s fulfilled for you, fulfilled here & now, fulfilled in the power & person, in the life & work of Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man.
Back in the synagogue at Nazareth, people were expecting nice words from Jesus, words the hometown folk could live with, smile about, nod their heads in agreement. But Jesus offered a wonderfully genuine, useful, helpful, all-be-it, hard-to-take, truthful word from the Lord, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”.
When the people heard the word of the Lord that the Lord was not pleased with their hypocrisy; that Lord was not pleased with the prejudice & the hardness of heart of their ancestors over against the poor & needy, the people frowned, were upset, not happy.
In fact, we read when Jesus was finished speaking, no one was ready to say, “Good sermon! Thanks, we needed that! What should we do?” No! They were all filled with wrath, rose up, drove Jesus out of the town, even tried to throw him down from a cliff, but Jesus walked away from them.
The question it raises is this: do we realize, do we see anything of ourselves in this story, do we find it hard to believe, hard to accept that a living, revealing, accusing, promising word from the Lord tells it like it is, that we might be better for hearing, obeying it, rather than denying it or rationalizing it.
In the synagogue that day in Nazareth – and in countless churches all around the world today, someone is reading from the Word of God. Some will speak words about the Word, and some will say, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing! The word of God is not about yesterday, the Word of God is coming true, is true for you today.
This Word for you is from the God who called the world into being out of nothing, from the Lord your God who created the heavens & the earth. This Word comes from the Lord your God who loves all human beings with a wild passionate love and will not let us go. “Thus says the Lord,” comes from God our Father who brings life out of death, God who claims us as His very own people.
People today may still say, “Good sermon, that was interesting!
But that’s not the point! The point, the purpose, the power of a word from the Lord is in realizing Jesus Christ is who He says He is and is doing what needs to be done here and now when He says . .
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me . .
The Spirit of the Lord has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set a liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
While life may have it’s “Kodak moments” that send people scurrying for their cell phones or digital cameras, may you & I realize when Jesus says, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” means Jesus has any number of “wake up, shape up, open up, raise up, lift up, give up” moments in store for us whereby we, here & now, are invited to see things & be a part of things that are wonderfully genuine, helpful ways to follow Christ and be the better for it, better than before.
Wherever the Gospel is preached, says Billy Graham, no matter how crudely, there are bound to be results.
Don’t tell me it was a good sermon, interesting, something to think about, tell me you will do something.
And don’t go away angry, upset, uncomfortable, guilt-ridden. What God has done for all of us, each of us in Jesus Christ, cleanses us from all unrighteousness, and from all complacency & comfortableness.
May the Word of the Lord, may a word from the Lord, be for us and for our souls, the highest good! God grant it for Jesus sake. Amen.
