Can you imagine how difficult it would be to stone someone? I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, but there are logistics involved. How many stones do we need, what’s the size of the stones? It’s like one of those problems you have on a standardized test. If you have 40 people and you have stones all weighing two pounds, how many times do you have to throw them at a person before they expire? Well, let me get my calculator. It’s like an engineering feat. Jesus faced stoning in the passage that we just heard read. Now what do you need to know about stoning? In the ancient Near Eastern world stoning was a form of public execution. It was interesting because in the scripture, if you read the Hebrew portion, the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, that covenant talked about stoning because it was a form of execution that involved the entire community. When someone was stoned every member of the community had to pick up a stone and hurl it at the person. There was no single executioner. It wasn’t like a guillotine in which one person pulled the rope or an ax or anything else we want to imagine on this very bloody image that we’re working with. The entire community would take the person out, and in order to immobilize them they would push them off the brow of a hill. Perhaps they would break a leg or have a concussion and so they would be immobilized, and then everyone in the community would take their stone and hurl it at the person who was immobilized until they died.

This is what Jesus was facing from his own hometown. If you think that Jesus never faced any resistance we need to read the scriptures again, because this was clearly resistance to what he said. Could you imagine if I stood up here, what would I have to say to make you angry enough to grab me, take me to the brow of a hill, throw me down, and all of you begin to hurl your stones. It’s an intense scene that we have here. Jesus almost got stoned by his own community. What did he do? What was it that he actually said that enraged them to this point? Does anything make us this mad today? What did Jesus do? Well, in order to figure out what he did to cause this situation we’re going to do just three things today. We are going to look at a story first about stoning Jesus, and then number two, we’re going to have a meditation together about loving Jesus, and then our third thing as we wrap it up will be a proposal for actually meeting Jesus. So again, three things this morning – number one, a story about Jesus, a meditation about Jesus and a proposal of meeting Jesus.

Let’s pray – God, we thank you for this moment where we are about to hear your words. We prayed earlier that you would open up our ears, and we meant that, Lord. So, we pray that these next few moments that they will be pregnant with meaning for the purpose, saturated with your very presence. Help us not to just pass by these moments with another sermon, but to tune in to the frequency of what you are telling us. We thank you for it. In your name we pray. Amen.

So, let’s return to the story. I’m going to start just a few verses before what our reading was for this morning. If you’re following along it’s Luke, Chapter 4. We’ll begin in verse 16, a very familiar verse. If you’ve been around church for a while my guess is you’ve heard this one. Verse 16 says, “And he, Jesus, came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.” So, Jesus is entering his hometown. These people have known him for decades, for about three decades. “And as was his custom he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day.” So, Jesus was a regular part of the worshiping community. “And he stood up to read.” In the ancient world in synagogues, they would have a scroll come forward and a person would stand up to read and would actually be seated to teach, so Jesus stands up and he reads. “The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.” So right away we have the prophet from ancient Israel, ancient Judah, who was writing forward, looking forward to a messianic figure, a rescuer, a savior, someone who was anointed with God’s presence. “He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written.” So here are the words of Isaiah. “‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me’” – the word “anointed” means smearing, there’s a smearing of oil that represents God’s very presence. “The Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.” To do what? Proclaim good news. In the ancient world when you proclaimed good news it wasn’t just a message of, “Oh, isn’t that nice?” Good news was a proclamation that whatever curse the people were living under – so occupation, it would have been the Babylonians at the time Isaiah was writing, or the Romans at the time Jesus was reading it. There was someone who was proclaiming that this is over, the occupation is over. Jesus was anointed to proclaim that. So, he is proclaiming good news to the poor because they have had all of their resources removed by the occupying power. “He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives” – those who were under control – “and the coming of sight to the blind” – now we can actually see – “to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” The Lord’s favor is actually returning to us because we feel like we have been under this punishment for sin, and Jesus’ job is to proclaim this time is over, a new era has begun.

Jesus reads this prophetic passage about the Messiah, and he has them all tuned up and ready to go. Now what is he going to say about this Messiah? Are we still waiting on him? Who is it? We continue in verse 20 – “And he then rolled up his scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down” – given that place of teaching – “and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.” All the people who knew him for 30 years, he has just read this passage, and they are waiting for what he is going to say. “And he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” As you are hearing the words that I have just read from this ancient prophet, we have been waiting for this moment, and here it is, right in our midst. It’s showing up in the here and now. A kingdom of God is at hand. That means it’s right here, showing up right now. “And all spoke well of him and marveled at his gracious words that were coming from his mouth.” So the initial response is, “I thought this guy was a carpenter. I thought he just worked with his hands. What is going on? This is amazing. Jesus is proclaiming good news. We have been waiting for 400 years for this, and now he’s announcing it’s here and now?” And they’re amazed.

Now if he would’ve just stopped there that would’ve been fantastic, but the problem is they kept going. “And they said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’” Like Joseph, the guy who helped us build our houses. Isn’t this Joseph’s son, and remember there was that thing with Mary, his wife, and not really knowing who the father was? Is this Joseph’s son, the one he raised but it wasn’t really his? On the one hand they’re amazed, on the other they’re ambivalent, because they think they already know who he is. Church, do we think we already know who Jesus is? Isn’t this Joseph’s son? Does this actually prevent us from receiving him? Think of all the lessons you’ve been taught about him, all the books you’ve read about him, all the conversations that you’ve had about him. Those are good, but the problem is if we get encapsulated, if we are like in concrete, if those conversations and what we read allow for no growth we can actually miss the Jesus that’s in our very midst. We can miss him, he can come right in, and we’re like, “Oh, that’s awesome, I love that about Jesus, but isn’t that Joseph’s son? Do we read the scriptures like that anymore, do we really do that?” And there’s this ambivalence that shows up. Verse 23 – So, Jesus said to them, “Oh, don’t worry, folks, it’s OK, believe whatever you want.” Of course that’s not what Jesus says. Jesus is going to turn the volume up to 11 and rip off the knob, OK? So, let’s see what he says. “Doubtless you will quote for me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’” In other words, OK, you’re talking big, how about you show us, why don’t you fix yourself? Why don’t you fix what’s going on in your own life? How about you worry about that instead of telling us what’s going to happen with our entire nation? “What we have heard you did at Capernaum do here in your hometown as well.” What did Jesus do in Capernaum? What was the story that was going around about that? Well, in the scriptures it tells us, the Gospels, that Jesus healed many people at Capernaum. How many people by a show of hands, if you’ve been around here for a while, remember the story of the paralytic being put down through the roof and Jesus healing the guy who came through the roof? That was Capernaum. And so what they’re saying is, “Hey, I heard that you did a miracle over there. How come you’re not doing it here?” Have you ever felt that way? Oh, I hear the story about Jesus healing lepers. Why not heal someone here? Are you busy? That’s exactly the attitude they have. So, he said instead, “Truly I say to you” – now here it is – “no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.”

The more familiar we are with Jesus, the more difficult it is to hear what he’s actually saying. I’ll try this side – the more familiar we are with Jesus, the more difficult it is to hear what he’s actually saying. Have you ever had a conversation with someone you’ve known for years – a parent, a spouse – and you’re having the conversation and you’re like, “This is the same conversation we’ve had 45 times, in the past five minutes?” It’s like a script you have – you never do this, you always do this. Jesus, I know who you are. Jesus is trying to say, “Are your categories keeping you from actually experiencing me and who I am, and who I’ve come to be for you?”

Capernaum is the town where Jesus healed the paralytic. My question is, has the church become the hometown? Has the church become so familiar with Jesus that we can no longer hear him speaking to us? This is a United Church of Christ. We believe that God is still speaking. Do we? Do we believe that Jesus is actually still speaking to us? Verse 24 – “But in truth I tell you there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months and a great famine came over the land. And Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow.” Now what is Jesus quoting? Jesus is quoting a single word that they all would have understood. During the reign of King Ahab in the north in Israel, over those 10 tribes, Ahab was a person who was away from the will of God. The prophet Elijah came and said, “The Lord is going to judge your kingdom because you are not following Yahweh. The sign of this will be a severe famine. There will be no rain for three and a half years.” Well, if there’s no rain you’re going to have to figure out how you’re going to eat, so what happened to Elijah was first he went to a brook called Cherith. There the rains fed him. And then when that stopped because even the brook dried up, he went to a widow. Now of all the widows he could have gone to, who does he go to? Does he go to an Israelite widow? No. He goes to a gentile, a non-Jewish person, a person in this story who would’ve been outside of God’s covenant. And he went to this widow, and he said to her, “Hey, I’m hungry.” She’s like, “No kidding.” He says, “Here’s what we should do. I want you to go and make me some bread so that I can eat,” which seems really self-important until you realize what’s going on. The widow says, “I have one measure of oil, and one measure of flour left. It’s enough to make one small loaf. I was going to share that with my son, and then we were going to die.” And Elijah goes “Yeah, yeah. So go ahead and do the first part of that story and bring me the bread,” which seems absolutely callous. Doesn’t Elijah understand, doesn’t he have any mercy? What if Elijah was putting in front of the widow an opportunity to respond to the word of the Lord? Notice that the prophet offends her to give her an opportunity. So, she says, “What do I have to lose?” So she goes, she makes the bread, brings it back, Elijah eats it, says, “That was really good, and now flour and oil will not run out for you and your son.”

This great story of faith was a gentile. And Jesus says, looking at the audience, a Jewish audience, his people, he was Jewish, “The faith is like a gentile.” That’s dirty, Jesus, that’s mean. And then he goes, “OK, you like that one, how about this one, the next one – “And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha” – Elisha was Elijah’s disciple – “and none of them was cleansed but only Naaman the Syrian.” So first he tells a story about a Phoenician woman and then he goes to the Syrians, north of Israel, also non-Jewish, they were gentiles. The short story here is that Naaman was the captain of the army of the Syrians, and he had a skin condition. His servant said, “Hey, there’s a prophet down in the southern kingdom. Why don’t you go down there and see if you can get healed?” He was like, “What do I have to lose?” So, he goes down there, and the prophet Elijah doesn’t even come out to meet him. Notice the rudeness of these prophets? What are they trying to do? Trying to get under our skin, to mess us up, to pry a little bit. So, he sends his servant out, the servant says, “Yes, the prophet says go dip in the Jordan River seven times.” And Naaman says, “I’ve seen the Jordan, that’s not much of a river. We have better rivers where we are.” He was going to turn around and leave and the servant says, “Hey” – notice how the servants in these stories are always the ones who get it – the servant says, “Hey, why don’t you at least try it.” So, he goes and he dips seven times and his entire skin condition is healed, and he becomes a follower of Yahweh.

Jesus uses these two stories, specifically of non-Jewish people, non-covenantal people, who turn to the Lord as examples to show them that we at the synagogue, we have the scriptures, just like a church – we have Jesus, we have the elements. Jesus uses these two stories to say, “Hey, do you really know what faith is all about?” How do you know you’re encountering the real Jesus? He will often use your nemesis, my nemesis, as an example of following him. Oh, look at that Harris supporter who’s over there following, look at that Trump supporter who’s over there following. No, thank you, Jesus. I would prefer that you line up with my politics. Look at that person over there following, and Jesus uses that as an example. This is what makes them angry. When Jesus goes against our understanding of who God is after then all of a sudden, we don’t like it and we’re ready to kill or stone that person of Jesus. Verse 28 – “When they heard these things all in the synagogue were filled with wrath” – anger, this can’t be, don’t you understand, we’re the right ones. Don’t we feel righteous in our politics? Maybe we wouldn’t be willing to actually, physically stone someone, but would we stone them in our hearts? Get rid of that person, I don’t need to listen to that junk. “When they heard these things all in the synagogue were filled with wrath, and they rose up and drove him out of the town, and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built.” Why? So that they could throw him down the cliff. What is that? Well, we know. They’re going to immobilize him so that they can all throw the stones at him. “But passing through their midst, he went away.” They’re all ready, they have stone in hand. You can see the white-knuckle grip they have on the rock they’re about to throw and cast at him. And then he just passes on through their midst.

Why do they not recognize him when they’re about to stone him? Could I offer an idea? They didn’t recognize Jesus the first time, and so they don’t recognize Jesus when they try to stone him. They don’t recognize Jesus when he’s coming to them and pleading with them and giving them a new understanding of what the kingdom of God is and how it’s going to work. They don’t recognize it at all. And so, when they come to stone him they don’t recognize him. And he just passes through their midst. He simply passes through our midst and leaves us to our own devices. Folks, we can put the name of Christ on this building. It doesn’t mean Christ is in here. In any church that we go into they can have Church of God or Church of Christ. It doesn’t matter what the name of the church is. We can put God’s name on the outside. The question is not what’s on the outside, the question is what’s on the inside. Have we so missed Jesus and who he is that he has passed right through our midst, and we haven’t even recognized it? And if you think I’m preaching to you, I’m preaching to me. Do I recognize when Jesus is in our midst? Or have I just figured out who he is and I’m going through the motions?

Now, here’s the good news. The good news is we can develop a love for Jesus as he actually is. We can make sure this congregation is a place where God’s name is not simply on the outside of the building, but the presence of the Lord dwells within it. Your life cannot be one just called Christian, but one in which the presence of the Lord actually is there. The question is how do we do that? What does it look like to love Jesus as he actually is, not just how I want him to be? And the moment you do that we’re going to do our second part. Our first part was a story about stoning Jesus. Our second part this morning is a meditation on the loving Jesus. You heard the words beautifully read this morning from 1^st Corinthians 3 and 4. Now if you’ve ever been to a wedding I bet you’ve heard this one. Love is patient and kind – have you heard that one? Now that’s great to have that at a wedding, there’s no problem with that, but can I recommend that when the apostle Paul wrote those words it wasn’t for a wedding ceremony? He was talking about how to fall in love in a church. Most of the time when we hear these words, we think in terms of loving each other. That’s a great application, so keep it that way. It’s how we love each other. But what if this passage can also tell us how to love Jesus? So, let’s listen with new ears. “Love is patient and kind; it does not envy or boast; it’s not arrogant or rude; it does not insist on its own way; it’s not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices at the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

So, what we want to do for just the next few moments is really tune in and think about, “Do I love the Lord?” Love for Jesus is patient. Why would our love for Jesus need to be patient? Well, he seems to be working slowly. Have we ever wanted Jesus to just put it in gear and go? Have you been dealing with a situation where it’s trying your patience? But love for Jesus is patient, thankfully recognizing he’s at work. Love for Jesus is kind. When we forget that he loves people who irritate us, he loves them. Do I love him the way he loves him, or do I judge them by externals – their skin color, their socioeconomic class, their political affiliation, whatever it is, their geography, their accent? Love for Jesus does not envy when he blesses others before us. Did you ever have that one? Did you ever watch someone get blessed before you and you’re like, “Alright, Lord, am I still in the right line? Maybe I’m in the line for when you’re handing out patience and I would like to be in the line for blessing.” Do you envy those people? Love for Jesus does not boast. When we want credit for doing good, do you ever come to the Lord and say, “Hey, did you see that, huh, that I just pulled? How about that flier or something I just sent? Wasn’t that beautiful, Lord Jesus Christ? Weren’t you impressed with my voice, or my giving, or my showing up on Sunday when I’d rather be somewhere else? I sacrificed for you, Lord.” Love for Jesus does not boast. Love for Jesus is not arrogant. Let me confuse our opinions for the truth, and I’m preaching right now. I have to be careful not to confuse my opinions with what is actually true. Love for Jesus is not rude, when we resist humbling ourselves before him – I mean actually humble ourselves and say, “You’re not just my savior, you’re also my Lord.” Love for Jesus does not insist on its own ways. When our prayer is only a request, now I caught myself doing this, I come to the Lord and boy, do I have a list. I’m a good list-maker. Anyone like bullet points in here? I’ve got bullet points for Jesus. And I wrote it down, “Here’s what I would like you to do, Lord.” It’s almost as if I’m saying if I was in charge here’s what I would do. And how many of you know it’s OK to bring requests to the Lord? We’re going to do that in just a minute, that’s totally legal, if it’s the only thing I’m saying. Love for Jesus is not irritable. When we read how the scriptures portray him, have you ever been reading along and got irritated by Jesus? If not, you’re not reading close enough. Go back, read again, he’ll irritate you. Love for Jesus is not resentful when we hear other people’s testimonies. The good thing is happening to somebody else. Have you ever seen somebody else get credit for something and there’s something in you that’s says, “Oh, but I did the same thing. Don’t they recognize me?” Love for Jesus does not rejoice at wrongdoing. When I want to hold on to Jesus and my favorite sin at the same time, I would like to have Jesus, I want to be a Christian, I want to do all those things and hold on to my favorite sin, the one that I know to be wrong. It could be my attitude, it could be the things I say or the things I do, the choices I make or the habits I have. Boy, do I want to hold on to my sin and my savior at the same time. And Jesus is saying, “Don’t you know I’ve come to save you from that?” Love for Jesus rejoices with the truth, when he points out the lies we believe. Perhaps some of you have come under a lie that you’re not lovable right now, and Jesus is saying, “No, the reason I came for you is because I love you and I care about you, and I want to have time with you.” Love for Jesus bears all things when others criticize us for following him. People have kind of a gauge for how excited about Jesus you can actually be. Maybe if you have a bumper sticker, we’re getting close to the edge there, right? If you talk about him too much. But love for Jesus bears all things. Love for Jesus believes all things. When Jesus is teaching, he can rub us the wrong way. Love for Jesus hopes all things. When we feel cynical about his intervention in life – does God really intervene? Is prayer ever really worth it? Does anything ever change? Yes. Love for Jesus hopes all things. Love for Jesus endures all things, when we start to doubt if faith in him can even matter. Yes, it endures all things.

And finally, our last one – love for Jesus never ends. When we worry about our own mortality, is this going to take me beyond this life? Is there really God? Is there really a heaven? Is that true, or is that a fairy tale to make us feel better? When you love Jesus, you recognize this was his teaching and you anticipate seeing him again. This is what it means to actually love him. So, let’s close this morning with our third and final, very short point. We talked about the story of stoning Jesus, a meditation for loving Jesus, and now how do we develop this love for Jesus? Here’s a proposal – this is something to take with you throughout this week. First of all, let’s make sure what we’re not saying. This doesn’t become about my striving, my trying harder. Did you ever have that impulse? Maybe I just need to grip and try and strive. There’s no striving in loving Jesus. Instead, we can come back to the five people we spend most of our time with. Did you ever notice that? Did you ever see a couple, the older they get the more they look like each other, the more they sound like each other? It’s almost like they spent days hearing one another, encountering one another, knowing one another. When I’m greeting people, you always can tell if that person has been spending time with the Lord. Why? Well, they’re patient and kind, they don’t envy, they don’t boast. They’ve been spending time with the source of love. That love just comes through them. You don’t strive to love. You spend time with loving people. How do you create a little kid who’s loving? Put them in a home where their parents love them. This is how we create loving people.

So, here’s the proposal. Spend time with Jesus by praying through the Gospels. If you’re new to this and you’re like, “I don’t even know where to start,” the Gospels are the first four books of what we call the New Testament – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Just pick the one we read through today, pick another one, pick a story you like, any story where Jesus is showing up doing cool stuff, and just pray through it. Just say, “Jesus, you’re feeding those 5,000 people, could you feed me? I’m hungry for you.” Whatever it is, just spend time this week. Why? Because you’ll be coming back with five people you spend most of your time with. Is one of those people the Lord? That’s the invitation, to just spend time with him, and don’t worry about striving. The Bible is the only book where when you read it the author shows up. It’s the only one when you read it the author is actually there wanting to encounter you. Now a final warning and then we’re going to pray. Here’s the final warning. If you love Jesus like we’ve just described you’re next in line to get stoned by the community. This is how you will know you’re on the right track. So, when you say, “I was looking for good news,” yes, it is good news. You’re in good company with Jesus. And they will want to stone you, and they won’t want to have anything to do with you, until they put down the stone and they start listening, just like we’re invited to do this morning. Let us pray – Loving, heavenly father, you sent your son Jesus into this world to live for us and to die for us and to be resurrected again. Pray in his place that there would be no striving, and any guilt or shame that has come from our past we would lay down at your feet. And we would ask you, help us to be loving. Help us to love Jesus for who he actually is. Give us hope and faith that this is actually possible and not just a religious ritual. We thank you for it and we love you for it. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.