I want us to think about this question for a few minutes: what is the Christian community for? It is involved in all sorts of things; there are churches that are highly involved in political processes, taking positions on issues of public policy, which is allowable, and sometimes stepping on the edge of the line over into endorsing candidates, which is not. There are churches that house sports teams, and others that sponsor them. They are communities of study, of social services, and of community development; rehabilitating houses, building shopping centers, improving the life of people in the community by helping people to find hope. They have dinners, care for children, and act on their plans. All of that is good, all of it is necessary, and when the church does it, all of it comes from the Christian community understanding itself to be about ministry and service beyond their own walls.

Today’s sermon is the second of a two part sermon series that began last week with a reminder that each of us by virtue of our baptism and our membership in the church, has a call from God, a holy invitation to be about ministry and service in the name of Jesus Christ. We claim that ministry as Jesus himself did when he went to Sabbath worship and read from the prophet Isaiah:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because God has anointed me
To preach good news to the poor.
God 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" (Luke 4. 18-19).

If you know this story, and if you were here last week, you will know that Jesus rolls up the scroll he has been reading, hands it to the attendant, sits down and in the custom of rabbis in his day, he begins to teach.

Sitting with the eyes of the worshipers on him, Jesus begins to explain what he means, "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4.21). I like the way Fred Craddock puts it. He says, "It is interesting that in Luke’s gospel, the first public word of Jesus as an adult, apart from reading Scripture, is ‘today’. The age of God’s reign is here; the time when God’s promises are fulfilled and God’s purpose comes to fruition has arrived; there

will be changes in the conditions of those who have waited and hoped. Those changes for the poor and the wronged and the oppressed will occur today. This is the beginning of jubilee. The time of God is today…" (Interpretation series. Luke. Fred Craddock. Louisville: John Knox Press. 1990; p. 62).

So far, so good. The gathered crowd is smiling and nodding and saying Amen. "He is talking about how he has come home to Nazareth to care of us." They asked in amazement and with great pride, ‘is this really Joseph’s son? Is this the one we watched to grow up, and to play, and get into mischief – well not so much. Look at Jesus all grown up. He reads with such clarity, he stands up with such grace, he moves in such elegance."

William Willimon is the bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, and a former professor of preaching at Duke Divinity School. He says of these words from Luke:

"All the Gospels agree that from the moment Jesus sets foot in the pulpit, things get nasty. A friend of mine returned from an audience with His Holiness the Dali Lama. ‘When his Holiness speaks’, my friend said, ‘everyone in the room becomes quiet, serene and peaceful. Not so with Jesus. Things were fine in Nazareth until Jesus opened his mouth and all hell broke lose.

"And this was only his first sermon! One might have thought that Jesus would have used a more effective rhetorical strategy, would have saved inflammatory speech until he had taken the time to build trust, to win people’s affection" (William Willimon. "Book ‘em", from www.christiancentury.org).

"Listen", Jesus says, "you have heard the saying, doctor heal yourself." In other words take care of yourself and people of like mind. And you will want me to do here what you know I did elsewhere. You say, we heard all about it, we saw the press clippings, now do it here. Over in Capernaum you healed and taught. Do it here, now. It was good over there, but it will be better with us here."

No doubt they were puzzled when he said, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown" (v.24). In other words, I can do all of it here in Nazareth, but would you believe me? Would your, ‘is this not Joseph’s son?’ become a rhetorical question meant to put me in my place? "Is this not Joseph’s son? Who does he think he is? Isn’t he from a carpenter’s family? How does he dare to heal us, teach us, talk to us about God? I don’t think so.

Jesus kept talking. "My ministry if for you, but not just for you. You remember the prophets Elijah and Elisha. They were prophets of God whom the Holy Spirit of God touched and led to go beyond the nation of Israel to show the power of God.

"Way back then when a three and a half year drought burned up the land, there were widows who desperately needed food, but Elijah was sent to the widow at Zarephath, a city of Sidon on the coast of the north of Israel where he turned the last handful of flour into enough bread to ensure her survival.

"Then there was Elijah’s protégé, Elisha who in a time when leprosy was rampant, was not sent to them, but to the house of Namaan the Syrian." As he talked, admiration became anger, smiles became sneers, hands raised in praise became hands eager to drag Jesus to a cliff and throw him over the edge. Was it something he said? What was it that made them so angry, and what is the word for us?

Jesus is saying that the word of God and acts of God are far beyond what pleases us. Jesus says the ministry and service to which we are called is beyond us. It is as it was for Jesus, to the foreigner, the immigrant, the one who does not speak English well, who is not from around here. The good news of Jesus is theirs to hear and receive too. It is to the marginalized, the ones at the edge of society and at the edge of the church, no matter how they got there. They need to hear the word of hope and healing and health we are called to give.

The lesson is that responding to God’s call to ministry and service will lead both to great respect and great recrimination and anger, often from the same people, and maybe at the same time. But we are nevertheless called to do it anyway. That is what Jesus did, and it is what we are called to do.

Jesus declares a ministry of inclusion, sharing the love and salvation of God with whomever was open to hearing and receiving it. We have said that we want to spread a welcome table for all of God’s children today. The need is urgent, our passion to be part of in inclusive ministry is based in these words of Jesus as he describes his ministry.

Anointed by the Holy Spirit, Jesus could not limit his ministry only to people just like him. Neither can we. Ministry, especially ministries of evangelism and education will take us far beyond the world we know and will help us know and receive people with whom we will have in common a love for Jesus and a love for humanity. Our ministry and service goes even to people who may be very different than we are, but who are as we are, known, claimed, and loved by God. Who am I talking about? Iraqis and North Koreans; people who don’t vote just like me, don’t root for my teams, don’t inhabit my social circle.

It means we include people who don’t make the same amount of money, have the same kind of education as we do. We include, because the spirit of the Lord is upon us to live the good news and to be alive in a freeing, seeing, proclaiming way to all people, whether married, partnered, or single, of every age, race, and orientation.

We set a welcome table because God has welcomed us. We offer the love of God because the world outside the church and sometimes inside it can be a mean, cruel, hellish place. We commit ourselves to ministry and service in the name of Jesus because the Holy Spirit of the Lord is upon us and we can do no less.

The people were so riled up that they did not notice Jesus passing through them to continue with his ministry. We have known controversy and anger here, but thankfully no one has been thrown over a cliff. What we have done is continue in our ministries, walking in the promise of God given from Genesis to Revelation, and given to every person of faith – it is the promise of God to be with us to be with us day in and out. We hear it today in Jeremiah, we hear every day when we need a word of hope and assurance that we were not alone. We have been commissioned by a God who knows our strengths and our limitations and sends us to do ministry anyway, and if we speak by the power of God in us, God will be with us, we need not be afraid. It is that faith that calls us to ministry and service.

"God’s love for creation remains real, patient, and searching. Such love ultimately spells hope and the possibility of a new beginning" (www.christiancentury.org). As we claim and do the ministry God has anointed us to do, we will know God through our prayer and discernment, build relationships inside and outside these walls, and do justice wherever we are. Thanks be to God. Amen.