JEREMIAH 1:4-10
LUKE 4:21-30
Gordon E. Ellis
January 28, 2007
I hear it all the time: parents describing how FRAZZLED they are because their KIDS are involved in so MANY activities: from sports to dance, music to art, scouts to day camp, and SO many more. Just last week, I was talking with a MOM, who is ALREADY trying to figure out how to parent a TEENAGER, even though her child is still in ELEMENTARY school. Our conversation went something like THIS: I just don’t know how to find the right BALANCE!
So I asked her: Well, WHAT do you think will be the most IMPORTANT and life-giving activities for your child in the LONG run?
And she replied: But he has so many MORE opportunities than I had when I was growing up. I HATE to see him to miss OUT on ANYTHING! So I encourage him to do all SORTS of different activities.
I understand that, I said, but certainly you realize that he CAN’T participate in EVERYTHING. And it’s up to YOU to help him make good CHOICES.
But THAT’S the PROBLEM, she said. We don’t always have a CHOICE! For example: IF he doesn’t stay on the TRAVELING team NOW, he’ll NEVER have a chance to make the team in middle school or high school; and he WON’T be able to get into Junior OLYMPICS! And THEN, there’ll be NO possibility of a SCHOLARSHIP to COLLEGE!
I said: LISTEN to yourself! He’s in 3rd grade and YOU’VE planned his whole FUTURE!
And she SHRUGGED and said: I KNOW, but that’s JUST the way it IS!
Does that sound FAMILIAR? Now, DON’T get me WRONG! I think that sports and music and art programs, and ALL these enrichment activities for children are absolutely WONDERFUL! They TEACH kids about fair play and sportsmanship! They TEACH kids to appreciate great art and music, and to be well-rounded as young adults! They TEACH kids grace and movement, and taking care of their bodies and minds. BUT, when I see parents totally STRESSED out over of their CHILDREN’S Palm Pilot schedules, I see ALL sorts of RED flags! And when I SEE parents SHRUGGING their shoulders and saying, Well, that’s JUST the way it IS, as they WRING their hands and spend MORE hours in a MINI-VAN than any adult should ever HAVE to, it upsets me IMMENSELY, because it’s just not RIGHT!
And this is NOT just some LOCALIZED phenomenon! It’s happening EVERYWHERE across America! I remember a Newsweek article about it a couple of years ago. And NBC Nightly News did a STORY that dealt with this SAME phenomenon. Even Disney World captured it in a commercial that showed a secretary confronting a DAD, a DAD who simply wanted to spend some time with his OVER-SCHEDULED son. And she says: Well, how about NEXT Tuesday? OR: how about to trip to DISNEY World? Yes, it just FEELS like this is JUST the way it IS in our fast-paced society, and there’s NOTHING we can DO about it! RIGHT?
Well, a man named Glenn Graves said: The battle we face everyday is that people keep trying to make us LESS than we know we OUGHT to be. And OUR task is to REALIZE it and find the courage to RESIST. The WORLD wants you to BE like everyone ELSE - so the BATTLE is for your PERSONHOOD. And what makes THIS especially HARD is that the battle is often waged against you by THOSE who say they LOVE you.
It’s like the 2 young TEENS, who have been DATING for a few weeks. And BECAUSE they’ve bought INTO the cultural values of middle school and high school, and they routinely see R-rated movies, listen to sexually-charged music and watch hours and hours of television commercials and programming that just lays out for us our cultural GUIDELINES for beauty and morality, their conversation goes something like THIS: Come ON, everybody’s doing it!
But I just DON’T feel READY; says the other. I want to WAIT.
But you TOLD me you LOVE me! IF you DO, you’ll LET me! OR, we’ll BREAK-UP!
How SAD to have our FULLEST expression of human love MANIPULATED by FEAR and lack of confidence. Or WORSE: to have a decision made for your child, NOT by his or her OWN convictions, and NOT by the VALUES of your FAMILY, and NOT by the ETHICS of your FAITH, but by MTV and her PEER group! Are we supposed to say, Well, that’s JUST the way it IS…about that TOO?
Well, I wonder: do our Scripture Lessons today have ANYTHING to SAY to us about this? Well, once again, the story of Jesus CAN be a model for OUR story. It’s that proverbial question: WHAT would JESUS do? Well, I think JESUS would dare to ROCK the BOAT! OUR problem today IS that NOBODY seems to want to ROCK the boat. NOBODY wants to be the FIRST on their block to be DIFFERENT! And certainly, NOBODY wants to get CHASTISED for being different (OR crucified for what they BELIEVE)! And let me tell you: I’m preaching to MYSELF here too, because I’m JUST as big a WIMP as YOU are. I HATE confrontation! I want EVERYBODY to like me! I want to be like JESUS in the BEGINNING of our gospel lesson! He’s the HOMETOWN boy making GOOD! He comes BACK to Nazareth, fresh out of seminary, and preaches a GREAT sermon! And everyone in town is slapping each other on the back, CONGRATULATING themselves on PRODUCING such a GREAT young man. Isn’t that JOSEPH’S boy? Oh YES, I taught him in Sunday School! I used to show him the BEST way to interpret the PROPHETS! You know: I was in Joseph’s shop the day he learned to use the LATHE! Yes, this is OUR boy, JESUS! We’re SO proud of Him! And BECAUSE we’re His friends, WE’LL probably get a little something EXTRA in our STOCKINGS this year!
But Jesus KNEW what they were thinking, and said to them: I KNOW you’re wondering WHEN I’ll start bringing in the KINGDOM. I KNOW you’ve heard about all the healings and miracles I did in Capernaum, and you’re excited about WHAT will happen HERE in my hometown. When will YOUR crippled start to WALK? When will YOUR elderly be CURED? When will YOUR economy have an UPSWING? But, I tell you THIS: YOU have been on the INSIDE for too LONG! God has spoken words of love and grace to YOU for centuries, and you’re STILL so FICKLE! And SO, God’s gone BEYOND the chosen race, to work on the OUTSIDE: with WOMEN who are widowed; LEPERS who are untouchable; and GENTILES, not of OUR faith tradition at all. Yes, God has come INTO this world for the WHOLE world, NOT just for THIS congregation, or EVEN this PEOPLE! But YOU have done EVERYTHING you CAN to hold ON to God for YOURSELVES alone, REFUSING to SHARE God!
Well, BARELY has Jesus SAID this when the congregation EXPLODES in RAGE. They jump up, DRAG Jesus outside, and HAUL Him over to a convenient CLIFF, ready to throw Him OFF. Somehow He COUNTERACTS the energy of the mob and walks away from it. Opposition like this WILL bring Him to His DEATH, but much LATER, and not in Nazareth, but JERUSALEM, the holy city. But the POINT is THIS: JESUS is beginning to understand WHO He IS. And He’s NOT someone who can just SHRUG His shoulders and say: Well, that’s JUST the way it IS!
Well, I WONDER: what if WE dared to be LIKE Him? What if WE took ourselves as SERIOUSLY as GOD takes us? What if WE took our OWN baptism and our OWN spiritual commitment as seriously as JESUS takes HIS? And what if WE began looking differently at the world, and ACTING differently, which MAY mean looking differently TO the world? Don’t you think that WE could be a VERY powerful WITNESS to others? What if we ADULTS stopped ASSUMING that we HAVE to keep up with the JONESES, and found employment that AFFORDS us a SIMPLE home and FOOD on the table, but FEWER luxuries than we’re USED to now – but a BETTER family life and less STRESS? And what if we PARENTS simply walked AWAY from those PREMIERE sports systems that HOOK our kids into stressed-filled, high-level competition, even when they’re still in ELEMENTARY school? And what if our KIDS were asked to CHOOSE only 1 or 2 extracurricular activities that they REALLY want to be INVOLVED in this spring, so that they have some TIME just to be KIDS? And what if our TEENS had enough SELF-ESTEEM to be the ONE person at school who DARES to REMAIN a virgin? IMAGINE the IMPACT that THAT might have on those kids who really DO want to wait, but DON’T have the strength and courage to DO it on their OWN. What if EVERY child had PLENTY of time with EACH parent? What if SPOUSES got all the ATTENTION they needed from their SPOUSE? What if SINGLE people found a REAL family here at church? What if every HURTING person we KNOW could FEEL the love and compassion of GOD through OUR hands and OUR voice? And what if being a CHRISTIAN makes us look DIFFERENT to the world, but gives us the COURAGE to RESIST when the world tries to make us into something LESS than we know we OUGHT to be? Yes, what IF?
Now, playing this WHAT IF game is kind of exciting, but remember: it’s also DANGEROUS. When we DO the right thing, people OFTEN get upset at us, like they did at JESUS. When we love the UNLOVEABLE, people start to TALK. When we GROW in our faith, so that we KNOW what’s the RIGHT thing to do, and we actually DO it, it ANGERS people! A few years ago, the season finale of my all-time favorite TV show, West Wing, ended in a hail of bullets shot into the presidential entourage. Well, AS the NEXT season opened, it became clear that the TARGET was NOT the president, but his AIDE, a young black man named CHARLIE, who was also DATING the president’s daughter. Well, Charlie carried with him the knowledge that, EVERY day, there were people out there who HATED him -- because of his position within the White House, or because they didn’t think he should date the president’s daughter, or simply because of the color of his skin. Yes, Charlie KNEW all this, and yet he PROUDLY continued doing what he was doing, UNASHAMED. Sometimes, however, he just wanted talk with his MOM, who was a police officer, killed in the line of duty. And late one night, Charlie was sharing his loneliness with a Black co-worker at the White House, and the man said, Charlie, if your mother were here today, she would tell you exactly what MY father used to tell ME: ‘If they’re SHOOTING at you, you know you’re doing something RIGHT.’
Well, not MANY of us know what it’s like to be SHOT at, either literally or figuratively. And not MANY of us LIVE in such a way that we have to deal with INJUSTICE on a DAILY basis. Or DO we? You know: MAYBE if we played that WHAT IF game a little more often, we’d FIND those places where God is CALLING us to take a STAND! And our CLUE might be whenever we hear ourselves SAYING, with a shrug of the shoulder, Well, that’s JUST the way it IS…. And you know: WHEN we FIND those places, and HEAR God calling us to take a stand, THEN, in addition to JESUS, we ALSO need to remember JEREMIAH, and HOW God told that young prophet NOT to WORRY that he was only a BOY, because GOD would give him the words to SPEAK. And God added: Do not be afraid…for I am WITH you to deliver you.
Can WE trust that promise TOO? Of COURSE! You know: JESUS entered history, NOT to play it SAFE, and NOT to be like everyone ELSE, but to SAVE the world for all the ILLUSIONS and HALF-TRUTHS that we consider TRUE and REAL! SO, I can’t imagine Jesus EVER saying: Well, that’s JUST the way it IS! And NEITHER should WE! Amen.
(With thanks to my colleague, Susan Langhauser)