Not Who They Were Expecting

Scripture Lessons: Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10, and Luke 4: 14-24 Sermon Title: Not Who They Were Expecting Preached on January 23, 2022 “Find out who you are and do it on purpose,” is a quote from Dolly Parton that I love, which fits in with this Gospel reading. Now in chapter four of Luke, we are still near the beginning of the Bible's account of Jesus life. His birth was predicted, he was born in a manger, he was baptized by John the Baptist, he gathered some disciples, last week we remembered his first miracle, turning water to wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. Today he comes out with his mission statement. Here in Luke, he tells everyone in his hometown after gaining a reputation as a preacher and miracle worker, “this is what I’m all about.” That’s not an easy thing to do. What are you all about? What is your true purpose? Those are hard questions to answer when it comes to human beings and the things that we create. Take Facebook as an example. If you’re not on Facebook, I can understand that. It can be used to spread misinformation and division, but if you’re on Facebook, I highly recommend that you become friends with Ray Fountain. Ray is a member of our choir, he’s an accomplished musician, he’s married to Judy, he’s a father, a grandfather, and Mark Zuckerberg should be taking notes, because Ray has mastered Facebook by showing us all what it should be used for, namely, sharing hilarious jokes. Last week he shared a post that said something like, It’s hard getting older, especially when the members of my family don’t call me as often as I’d like. Fortunately, a young man with a foreign accent calls me nearly every day. The only problem is that the only subject he really likes to talk about is the extended warranty for my car. Ray Fountain, true to his name, is a ray of light, a fountain of joy, and this joke helped me remember this poem from middle school English class where the poet dreamed, he was a butterfly, then he woke up asking: am I a man who dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly who is now dreaming that he’s a man? Life gets confusing, so we all must ask ourselves, are we distracted salesmen who should be making extended warranty sales rather than keeping Ray Fountain company or are we distracted Christians who have forgotten what we’re here to do? One of the most important things we can do is come to terms with our true purpose. Psychologists have proven that it’s even better to come to terms with our true purpose and then say it out loud, because if we say it out loud, we increase the chances that we’ll do it. But, first, consider how hard it is to identify what our true purpose is in this life with all those many demands and oh so many choices. Youth sports is a demand on many parents’ time. I was listening to a Podcast last week about parenting an athletic child. The host is a psychologist with a specialty in child development and her guest was an Olympic athlete, now raising kids who are very interested in sports. The Olympic athlete really got to me when she described walking through the Olympic village. She said, “No one there looks normal, but when you’re there you start to think that it’s normal to have zero percent body fat or be seven feet tall. What they ought to do is have an average sized person always standing next to them, so we see how different they are. Maybe then we’d realize that if our kid doesn’t have certain genetic advantages, they’re probably not going to make it to the Olympics.” That’s good advice, and that advice could be helpful for a lot of people. The other thing that I got from the podcast: when your kid is involved in sports, be sure you know what your goal is. Then, make sure that your goal is the same as your kid’s goal, and weigh your actions considering what you’re hoping to accomplish together. I like that advice even better. But not everyone does it, so some people think they’re encouraging their kids to play sports just because it’s fun, yet if they don't ever see their kids smile while she's on the court, they should start asking some hard questions regarding what they're trying to accomplish. We all must think about these things. What are we trying to do. What’s our true purpose? Can we say it out loud? Are we distracted salesmen making small talk or distracted Christians trying to send extended warrantees? That's what today's gospel lesson is about. When he came to Nazareth, where he was brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath. He stood up to read: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To let the oppressed go free, To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. “That’s my true purpose,” he told them, “I just said it out loud.” So determined was he to be clear about his true purpose that he ends the reading by rolling up the scroll, giving it back to the attendant, and while the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were still fixed on him, he said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” He couldn't have been any clearer. And we know that then he went out into the world to do what he said he had come to do, only Jesus makes it look easy. It’s not easy. Think about how much courage it takes. I was 18 years old the first time I mustered the courage and dared tell someone I wanted to grow up and be a preacher. I had just graduated high school and I told Dr. Jim Speed in his office. Years later a mentor of mine asked me what I hoped to achieve in life. I felt like a crazy person telling her that I dreamed of having my sermons published in a book. At the time I said those things it never occurred to me that either would happen. I was just making audacious statements, saying my wildest dreams out loud. Have you ever done that? It’s not easy, especially when you consider how you might not do it. One might announce to his family, “This week I’m making dinner,” only to find himself driving through the Chick-fila drive through once again. Worse, one might say, “Tomorrow, we’re all getting up early and going to Sunday School,” and have an insurrection on her hands. When Jesus made his declaration in the synagogue, letting them all know what he planned to do with his life, I can imagine them saying, “But Jesus what about the economy?” “What about how bad King Herod treats us?” And “My grandchildren never call me. Will you talk to them?” We can understand what they'd be getting at if they had asked questions like these. There are all these problems in the world. Yet, Jesus just told them which of the problems he's here to address and which ones he's letting someone else deal with. This is a brave thing to do, and many of us never do it. How many of us can't say no to anything because we haven't yet determined what we must say yes to? Those of us who are trying to be all things to all people might take a lesson from Jesus here. If he couldn't be all things to all people neither can you, so what were you born to do? What is it that you can do that no one else can? There is a Howard Thurman quote that I love. Howard Thurman was the great theological mind behind the civil rights movement. It's been said that Martin Luther King Jr. carried two books with him when he traveled: the Bible and a book Howard Thurman wrote called Jesus and the Disinherited. He reportedly had Thurman's book with him when he was locked up in the Birmingham jail. Personally, my favorite Thurman quote is this one: Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs there's more people who have come alive. Have you come alive? Do you know what you're here to do? Are you willing to just look yourself in the mirror to say, This is what I'm about. This is who I am. I'm for one thing and not the other. I'm wanting to stand up for the poor which means I won't bow to the rich. I'm here to proclaim the captives release which means I can't just drive by the jail without thinking. I want the blind to see. The oppressed to go free. I must proclaim that this is the year of the Lord's favor so don't try to tell me that hope is lost. Dr. King often spoke about death, as though he didn't fear death nearly as much as not living. He said, “If a physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit then nothing can be more redemptive.” More than that he said, “a man who won't die for something is not fit to live. No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they die for.” What would you die for? What do you live for? These are hard questions to answer because the moment you start answering them you’re just a little accountable. The moment you say them out loud you likely start disappointing people who had other expectations for you. That’s how it was in our First Scripture Lesson. The Law was read, and the people cried. With Jesus it was the same. Jesus let them know who he was and what he was about and the people of Nazareth tried to throw him off a cliff. More on that next week. For today know this: Jesus wasn't who they were expecting. Jesus isn't who we were expecting either. Because we thought the savior would be who we wanted him to be. Instead, he was who he was born to be, and he is teaching us to be, not who the world wants us to be, but who we were born to be. It’s hard to stick to being who you were born to be, especially in the middle of a crisis. Schools exist to educate children. That sure would be a lot easier for them to do if they didn’t also have to respond to a viral pandemic. Likewise, a parent lost her job last week, which was a momentary relief. Why? Because she said to herself, “Now it won't be so hard to drive my kids everywhere they need to go.” Now, is that what she was created to do? It might be part of it, but there’s more to life than carpool. And so, a boy once loved dreaming of who he would be when he grew up. In his sandbox he played with a bulldozer and imagined himself on a construction site. In the woods behind his house, he fought battles and imagined he was in the army. He lettered in three sports in high school but never made the Olympics because he was only 5 – 3, so after graduating college, he suddenly didn't know exactly what to do so he settled for making as much money as he could. On the day he retired he started to wonder, “what now?” Then the phone rang and a young man with a foreign accent asked him about the extended warranty on his car. My friends, our Gospel lesson for today pushes us to one question in particular: what are you here for? What is your purpose? Jesus said it plain, now go and do likewise. Decide what to be and go be it. It’s never too late to decide who you’re going to be when you grow up. It is a statement of faith to dream, to imagine, and to say out loud what you believe God might do through you.