Volunteer or Draftee?

Our bus ground slowly through the gears as we twisted up through the Galilean hills until all of a sudden the guide pointed out a cliff opposite us as we rounded a curve.

“There it is,” he said, “the cliff just outside Nazareth.”

And today's gospel reading came alive in a starkly realistic way.

There is no stunt-jumper's airbag waiting at the bottom of the cliff.

Rather, there is the sharp talus weathered from the rock face of the cliff.

They meant for Jesus to be hurt very badly, or, likely, to be killed.

They don't want him inconvenienced, but rather, dead!

Why?

Just a few verses earlier they were telling each other about how well Jesus spoke.

Jesus was the center of conversation throughout the region.

He was especially active down in Capernaum, lakeside Galilee.

But now he was moving around the hill-country, and arrives in his hometown, Nazareth.

A big crowd turns out.

We can imagine the newspaper headlines:

Local boy – new celebrity;

to appear Saturday at the synagogue.

Miracles abound in last show;

what will he do here?

Fix 'em, heal 'em, raise them up, Jesus!

And in the buzz of local conversation, it is heard exclaimed

“Is not this Joseph's son?”

There are two ways to understand this comment.

It could be derision: We know this guy,

we know his family,

we know his hometown.

Nothing worthwhile ever came from there.

Or, it could be the acknowledgment of the derision and throwing it back at the speaker:

“Capernam, Tiberias, and all of those other towns brag about this or that.

But we have Jesus, he's one of ours;

we know him and his family.

we know their humble circumstances

But oh, boy, he will put us on the map

with what he can say or do for us.

Finally, it will be our time to shine.

Sam has plans to turn the carpenter shop into a museum,

and Joe is planning to turn out a whole line of walking sticks blessed by Jesus!

Tourist shekels, pouring in! It will be great!”

And then Jesus brings it all to an abrupt halt.

His comments seem to go along these lines:

“You think that my work is all about you, what you want, or think, or need, or demand.

My work is not limited to you; it is about the whole kingdom of God,

and you are no more at the center of it than is anyone else here.”

Poof! There went the big plans and the tourist shekels!

Their amazement turns to disappointment, and then to anger, as Jesus explains it this way:

“You like to think of God being concerned exclusively with you.

You say that God's banquet table is very small, just for the few,

especially for the home-town crowd in Nazareth.

You're wrong!

You have forgotten your own history!

You have forgotten that God's intention is far larger.

His banquet table is one that is pulled out to insert another leaf,

and another leaf, and still more leaves.

He keeps welcoming foreigners and outsiders all the time,

and transforming them,

even as he intends to transform you.

The original version of a familiar hymn begins Take my life, and let it be....

And everyone takes a breath right there, and too often that is exactly what we mean.

“Let me be”

-don't touch me

-bless me just the way I am

-don't challenge me

-don't make me think or grow

-just pat me on the head, very gently, and continue your good gifts to me.

Of course that is not what the hymn intends for us to say or think, so that first line was edited a bit to

Take my life, that I may be,...

which expresses a much more appropriate direction for the text

which then says in full: Take my life, that I may be,......consecrated, Lord, to thee.

There is an unfortunate idea which has taken strong root among us,

that somehow this church is a voluntary organization,

that, like in a social club, if we don't see everything exactly the same way, then you or I should sit in a corner and pout.

But this isn't a social club, and in the deepest sense none of us have volunteered to be here.

Christ Jesus has called us,

given us every good gift,

made us to be members of his body in Holy Baptism,

an event which took place for many of us even before we could say anything but goo-goo.

And he set us about many tasks in the process, changes us, transforms us.

And that is a painful and difficult process.

Our reaction is just like Jeremiah:

“Oh, you don't mean me; I'm too _____ (fill in the blank with your choice of.....young, old, limited in speech, afraid, tired, unlettered, etc).

And the Lord dismisses it all and says to us as he did to Jeremiah:

“Don't say I am too ____(whatever).,

for you shall go to all to whom I send you,

and you shall speak whatever I command you.”

That is not the way one addresses a volunteer, is it?

But we are not volunteers!

In military language, we're draftees.

We're under orders

They include the Ten Commandments (not suggestions),

and we had better be busy discerning them and applying them in every life situation.

At Gettysburg Seminary they often used the chapel for the preaching class.

At certain seasons they might have an 8-foot parament hanging down from the high pulpit bearing these words from St. Paul: Woe to me if I preach not the Gospel.

Is that intimidating? Yes, indeed!

But as it came to each student's turn, he or she stood there and preached and was transformed a bit by the experience.

And that painful work of transformation is in process in each of us in our Christian vocations, as we get on with the tasks that come differently to each of us.

Such as:

--the one who writes condolence cards

--the one who feeds the hungry

--the one who teaches the youngest

--the one who raises a family to walk after the Lord's way

--the one who folds a newsletter

--the one who deals gently with a cranky neighbor.

It is only momentarily satisfying when we push someone off a cliff.

It is ultimately disastrous for the body of Christ.

There is much to be done,

and we dare to take it up because of the Lord's words to Jeremiah and to us:

Don't be afraid, I am with you;

I put my words in your mouth,

I have put my words in your mouth,

I intend to put my words in your mouth;

my words happen.,

have happened, will yet happen

..to you, and through you.

“Who, me? we say.

“Yes, you.” Amen

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.