A Moment for Change

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
I Corinthians 13:1-13
Luke 4:21-30

Tim Christoffersen
Church of the Resurrection
February 1, 2004

Good morning.  My name is Tim Christoffersen.  I live in Walnut Creek and my home parish is St. Timothy’s in Danville.  I am a volunteer hospice chaplain and it is a pleasure for me to be with you this morning.

            There is an abrupt change in the feelings of Jesus’ hometown hearers in the first couple verses of the reading this morning from Luke.  The reading began with Jesus saying, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” The following verse indicates ‘all spoke well of him’ and they were amazed ‘at the gracious words that came from his lips.’  Then Jesus says to them, in a kind of anticipatory manner, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

            We need to go back to what the scripture said last week to understand the context and the reason the hometown people turn violently against Jesus in the next verses of the reading from today.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah in the reading last week.  The passage is, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach good news to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

            In a sense, the transition in their mood swing is focused on the word “Today.” Jesus, in effect, tells them that none of the actions have taken place in Nazareth.  It dawns on them what Jesus’ is telling them. Their amazement at what they have heard about Jesus from Capernaum and elsewhere suddenly turns to anger, as Jesus has done nothing notable in Nazareth. In the words from Luke, “All the people in the synagogue were filled with rage.”  And the passage ends with the people trying to kill Jesus by throwing him off a cliff.

            There is a cultural setting in first century Palestine that makes their anger, viewed from this perspective, a little difficult for us to understand.  The culture of that day was what some call a client culture.  There were local leaders who stood between the Roman occupiers and the people.  They were the go betweens between the background Roman power and the people and they maintained their positions by delivering the goods to the people.  It would have been the natural expectation that the hometown people would expect Jesus to perform miracles on behalf of his own townspeople, as he was one of them.

            The other background factor is the setting at the time of Luke’s gospel.  The gospel was written about 80AD or just shortly after the Romans have destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem and the Jews have been dispersed.  At this time the tension between the followers of Jesus, who are still mostly Jewish, and the broader Jewish community have erupted into almost a total split.  The non-Jewish people or the Gentiles have increasingly become followers of Jesus through Paul’s missionary journey to the north and west.  Luke’s gospel foreshadows this antagonism and sets the stage for the crucifixion of Jesus.

            Let me go back to my comment that the mood swing turns, in a sense, on the word “Today.”  Some helpful insight into this word comes from a Lutheran pastor named Brian Stoffregan.  The Greek word ‘today’ is used by Luke 12 times and it is used only 9 times in the other three gospels combined.  Two familiar passages from Luke are “Today you will be with me in Paradise” and “Today salvation has come to this house.”  Luke clearly uses the word to convey the sense of a moment of radical change. The thief on the cross had a radically different future. Jesus promised him eternal life in paradise with him. The shepherds come and see the savior born in Bethlehem.  The world had radically changed.

            At a deeper level, those who heard Jesus’ words in Nazareth were forced to look into a mirror that Jesus held up in front of them.  In a sense, the question was how did they treat the poor, the captives, the oppressed and the blind?  They were angered by what they saw in the mirror.

            Jesus is holding up the same mirror today for us.  “Today” conveys more than ‘after yesterday’ or ‘before tomorrow’.  It conveys a time of change brought about by our encounter with Jesus.  Many images immediately come to my mind.  I suspect the images that come to your mind may be different ones.  One method for me to avoid the mirror is to remember the good ol’ days and focus on how things have changed for the worse.  I find myself tempted by this convenient escape route.  We do need to learn from the past but we also run the risk of getting lost or stuck living in the past if we go there too often.

            Who are the poor, the captives, the oppressed and the blind among our communities?  Whether we like it or not we are in a similar predicament to contemporaries of Jesus in Nazareth.  They were the churches of Jesus’ day and he was a rabble rouser offering the good news to those outside the churches, including even the Gentiles.  We are the church of our day and we are followers of Jesus.  When the mirror is held up to us, what do we see?

            Do we see ourselves in a moment of radical change?  For me, the temptation is to say the moment of radical change has occurred and not everything can be done today.  In ordinary terms, we all know the words we use.  Someday, I’ll loose weight. Someday, when I have more time I’ll get involved in helping others.  When the kids are grown and out of the house, I’ll have more time.

            We live with the illusion that we have plenty of time.  That illusion characterized much of my life and perhaps still does…at least more than I admit.  But I also see the other side.  I have worked for the last three years as a hospice chaplain.  I have learned that, with only a few exceptions, those who are dying are clear eyed about their state. They have moved beyond “putting on the dog” or “gilding the lily” or whatever words describe the way we insulate and protect ourselves from others emotionally.  They know they do NOT have plenty of time and my conversations with them are a source of great joy and wonder because they know what is important to them and they talk about it.

            One of the patients I had been seeing weekly for seven months died last week.  I felt like I had lost a close friend. In fact, I had. Yet she still lives in my heart and the radical changes and reconciliation I saw occur between her and her children in those last days will remain for me a deeply moving lesson on what can happen when you know you do not have plenty of time.

            Today Jesus calls us to look in the mirror.  We are called to see the poor, the captives, the oppressed and the blind among and around us. We are called to recognize that we do not have plenty of time.    Today is a moment when radical change for us is possible.

Amen.