"Known by God"
Scripture reading: Luke 4:21-30
Rev. Diane Hooge
Sermon on Sunday, February 1, 2004
Last Thursday night I was headed home from a hospital visit when I caught a piece of an interview on MPR focused on the story of a long ago strike in Austin. Not having lived here in that era, it took me awhile to piece the story together. There were various voices that spoke about how the strike had impacted the town’s history. I was intrigued by one man, Charlie Valdahl, who spoke about being a “knifer” which meant that for years he was working on an assembly line using an incredibly sharp knife to butcher hogs on a fast moving conveyor belt. He made it clear how dangerous it was for the workers to hang on to their cleavers, knives, and saws, which were greasy with blood and fat. Hormel cut wages. Contract negotiations with the local union collapsed. And in l985, more than 1000 workers walked out of the plant.
Charlie stated, “You tend to use – almost like the birth of Christ – before the strike and after the strike.” What touched me was the residual pain – or grief that still remains within the community. One man talked about his role in the strike, and how after six months he chose to go back to his job and how painful and intimidating it was to be considered a scab. He talked about the length of time that it took to be able to be back in relationship with his six brother-in-laws. And, he also spoke about how there are still folks in town who refuse to speak to him.
One woman spoke about how important the churches were to the community during the strike. She explained that they had offered their facilities for bringing both sides together as well as having provided listening ears for people who were dealing with pain.
Our text is part two of Jesus’ story of returning to his hometown. It’s about the conflict and grief that sets in as he claims his authority in the role to which he has been called by God. Like any prophetic leader experiences, Jesus received mixed reviews. The writer seems to have combined material which came from two different sources so that the reader experiences the inconsistency of the story. It seems to me that it lends credibility to a messy era of Nazareth’s history. It feels authentic. Every community experiences the grief that occurs when camps are developed over new ideas or hard choices. Discerning truth often means that we have to let go of something that we were sure should be held in concrete.
I suspect that this community of Nazareth has found their worship services to be place of comfort because they are all clear on what they believe and they are united and insulated because they have wrapped themselves in those beliefs. On that day so long ago, maybe they arrived at the synagogue with the residual stresses of trying to make ends meet and feeling a sense of relief that they are now in the safety of their faith community. Of course they were stunned and angered when “one of their own” returns and uses his Liturgist’s Reflections to hone in on their own sacred texts and in so doing he points out God’s inclusive love.
Jesus presents two stories – two stories of God acting on behalf of strangers: 1. God uses Elijah to bring relief to a widow who lived in the wrong part of town in Zarephath, and 2. And, then if that first story wasn’t enough, Jesus reads the story of God’s involvement with one of Israel’s enemies by the name of Naaman, who happens to be an officer in the Syrian army, who was struggling with leprosy. Jesus reminds the hometown folks, that Naaman, the outsider, experienced healing. Naaman was not orthodox, but he was eager and receptive to God’s work in his life.
As much as I long for the Church to be the prophetic voice in our society, we are often left scrambling to offer our voices and strategy long after the issues have been debated in the public arena. There are some differences that I have more tolerance for than other issues. I get the fact that there will always be personal preferences around whether or not we sing Beethoven, Watts, or Sara Thompson. Here at Judson, we mix it up and sing them all. I have been through the process of selecting a new hymnal – a year long process. I have been through the endless discussions around whether or not to invest in an inclusive language hymnal. I have been through the debates of robes vs. non robes, and building programs, and whether or not to commit to having a church bus. But, what Jesus was getting at is the very heart of our faith. He was teaching that no one can be left out of God’s love. There are no second class lists with God. Jesus is following the teachings of the text of Jeremiah which we heard Katie read earlier, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you.”
It is this teaching that so angers Jesus’ hometown crowd, that they channel their rage into moving him not only out of the synagogue, but out of the city. In their collective outrage they took him on a path that would lead to revenge. They were headed for a cliff where others before him with strange ideas had been hurled off the edge, or had been killed by stoning. However, the text indicates that their plan is derailed – the story is summed up with the words, “But passing through the midst of them he went away.”
This past Monday morning, I received a phone call from our Area Minister, Diane Ehr, who gave me the information that she had just gotten a message from our Executive Minister that Ross Aalgaard’s official acceptance as an American Baptist pastor was being held up on the Regional level until the Regional Commission on the Ministry has a chance to vote March 15th. On Friday, I was able to reach Marshall Peters, our Executive Minister. He indicated that it would have been better to slow down Ross’s process until the Regional Committee could have voted to see if they would accept a gay pastor. I told him that it didn’t seem to me that two years was a speedy process. I also asked for a copy of the constitution that included this part of the process, since I had never heard about this, and it had not come up in other procedures during the past three years. He indicated that it was important to give the regional committee a chance to vote before carrying out our formal worship service where we invite in guests to affirm Ross’s call to pastoral ministry within our denomination.
I’ve been distracted all week. And, I’ve been frustrated. I found myself more than a little angry when I had a denominational leader suggest that I needed to “gently handle this.” I have to remind myself that the “isms” of our culture take generations of consciousness raising. We are not the only denomination that has done a superb job of staying stuck. I’ve been reminded of how fear sets up back-peddling within denominational leaders who are afraid of what churches might do if those deemed the outsiders are invited in.
Denominations, like many communities who have gone through a strike, have done a masterful job of staying stuck on the issue of homosexuality. My frustration comes from my history of having been an Area Minister, who worked with churches on both sides of this volatile issue. I have witnessed faith communities who have spent an inordinate amount of time participating in a denominational version of walking the picket line. Both sides often have paid a high price for leaving behind authentic work both within and outside of their individual churches. It is important that neither the leadership of Judson, nor our whole community get sidetracked from doing the work that we have been called by God to do.
Yes, we must hold this denominational back-peddling process in our prayers, but we also must not slow down or get side-tracked in moving ahead with what we have been mandated to do by our own Area 1 Committee on the Ministry who voted unanimously to accept Ross’ ordination by the Baptist General Conference. The letter encouraged us to move ahead and proceed with a Service of Recognition.
Jesus’ model of moving on isn’t about packing our bags and going home. It’s about prayerfully choosing what we will participate in, and what would compromise our souls to enter into. When the very essence of who people are called to be is at stake, we have to take action.
In my article in the Messenger, I asked for those of you who can attend a meeting on Saturday, February 14th, to let me know. There is a new structure that will be presented regarding how leadership decisions will be made regarding ordination and the process for receiving pastoral leaders from other denominations into our American Baptist family. We need to make sure that we have representation.
Judson Church is not a community where ultimate truth was cast in stone and put in place as part of our foundation. This has been a community where the truth has perpetually been sought. We seek to be an intentionally diverse community where we collectively seek to discern where the Spirit is leading us. It sometimes means that we are called to abandon old ways of doing church, not because they weren’t relevant for a past generation, but because the new generation is still part of a movement that demands constantly adjusting to a changing world as we continually discern God’s truth for us at this stage of the journey. Perhaps part of our role is to be a prophetic voice to our own denomination.
In the midst of a changing world, may we hang on to Jeremiah’s words:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Amen