“This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed.”
– Luke 2: 34-35
In the gospel we heard last week from Luke 4, we find Jesus as an adult who gets up in the temple of his hometown and “declares the year of the Lord’s favor” as he reads from the prophet Isaiah. When he sits down and everyone thinks well of him, accepting him as a prophet in his hometown, he decides (lol) well that won’t do! He starts telling them that they won’t accept him and will show themselves to be people who do not listen to the word until they all get mad and try to run him over a cliff! He knows that while they are initially impressed, what he has to say, and who he is, will not go down easy so he may as well tell them now. He is not wasting time and wants to know who might really be receptive and willing to follow, to change, to live a life of freedom unimaginable for a first century Jew in Roman occupied land. The kingdom of God is right now, he says, so what are you all waiting for? (They don’t like this.)
He is begging them to oppose him, to get stirred up, perhaps to find the edge of their anger and discover what lies in shadow in their hearts, and be brave enough to honor their human longing for connection, for justice, for good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom from oppression. It’s all right there.
This Sunday, we switch back to Luke 2, where Jesus is publicly presented as an infant. In the scene you will hear in church, Simeon tells his mother that her son “will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed.” Can you believe that? The whole point of this child, this man, is to make everyone uncomfortable. Why? Because it is only through discomfort, conflict, disruption that we discover ourselves and begin to tell the truth about ourselves to ourselves.
In her letters, the American writer Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) said,
“What people don’t realize is how much religion costs.
They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross”.
We often come to church for comfort, for a felt sense of peace. Of course we do, our nervous systems are ragged, we are overstimulated, we want the messianic dream of peace so badly. The Jesus we encounter in the gospels says there is no peace without first encountering the discomfort of the truth, the challenging reality of our time, and becoming aware of what we really think and how we really feel. Religion, our religion on this path of striving to follow Jesus, is supposed to cost us something. If we are always or usually comfortable, we might be doing it wrong.
Faith is not a big electric blanket. We are in a time where our neighbors fear being deported and our local non-profits who do not closely and obviously promote a particular agenda are at serious risk of losing their funding. It is imperative that we, as followers of The Original Troublemaker, be willing to get to know our neighbors and get uncomfortable on their behalf in all kinds of ways, however we can. “I am the vine, you are the branches” he says at a later part in the story (John 15: 5). We all belong to one another, all of us.
What will it cost us to be a people who trust in God, who listen carefully to Jesus and follow him closely?
We just had our Annual Meeting on Sunday. Many of you were there because you want to build a church community that is purposeful, real, compelling and alive. “We don’t recognize our potential,” you said. “We are flat. We could go either way. It depends on us,” you said. “Let’s be a supportive team for a vulnerable community,” you said. “We want to authentically proclaim the gospels in the community,” you said. It was a rich and honest morning.
The gospels are stories of a man who was born to be “a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed.” Let the gospels get you in trouble! And then, understanding that we are to love one another as God has loved us, and love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt 22: 37-39), let the gospels get you out of trouble just as quick!
See you on Sunday,
Associate Pastor
Sarah Christopher
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