August 19, 2001
Jeremiah 1: 4-10; Luke 4:21-30 ( RSV) ( KJV) ( NIV)

"Not In My Backyard"

From the beginning of time, there has been a creative tension between those whowant things to change and those who wish to preserve existing values.  Advocates for change are frequently called ‘progressives’. People who wish to preserve traditional values are frequently called ‘conservatives’.  Canada is, I believe, the onlycountry that has created an oxymoron by calling one of its political parties, The Progressive Conservatives.

During my almost 46 years in ministry I’ve seen a lot of changes that deviatefrom historical values.  For instance, look at the front of this sanctuary.  Does it startle you when I say, there isnothing about this area that even hints of historical Congregationalism?

Let me illustrate. Historic Congregationalism would never have tolerated a dividedchancel.  They felt that was bowing to the liturgical.  The pulpit was always in the center because of the convictionthat however the spirit of God comes, it comes primarily through a personality.  [Ed: This church in 1920]

Never, in a Congregational Church would you find an altar against the back wall.Our forbearers held that altars are for a sacrificial emphasis, which they rejected.

The old Congregationalists also rejected an altar because the Lord’s supper must,they insisted, be served from a table on the floor of the meetinghouse so the community was gathered around the communal table andall were on an equal footing, clergy and lay alike.

One thing the old Congregationalists would have liked is that the windows are clearand let in the light. They did not like stained glass windows-felt they too were too Romanist.  However, no Congregationalists of the 1800’s would ever be seen in a clerical robe or wear a stole; they appeared inCongregationalism only a few decades ago to graphically show that in worship the clergy dressed differently to graphically showthat for this time at least, were representing God.

All these changes have taken place in the life of this Church and I’ll wager, oneof the buildings in the history of this congregation did have a central pulpit and a communion table instead of an altar.

I illustrate this simply to point out that even the most conservative ofCongregational purist’s worship with good conscience and conviction because over the years, change has been accepted.

When Jesus left the Galilee, the disciples knew there would be trouble. The free-wheeling, embracive religion of the heart that characterized Jesus clashed headlong with the legalism and, “that’s the way wedo it” attitude of the religious authorities.

When religious leader’s authority is threatened, one way or another, they, likesecular sources, get rid of the threat. Luther was ex-communicated. Huss was burned at the stake. Henry Barrowe, of earlyseparatist fame was put into clink prison and later hanged. Jesus was crucified.

It still happens, let a religious leader propose major change and he or she is introuble. Even within free Churches without hierarchy, such a leader is often the subject of a gigantic whispering campaign amongsister Churches.

That ought not to surprise us. That’s the way humanity is. Most people arecontent with situations as they are until they either aren’t working, are intolerable or different.

When I was in Toronto, everyone was agreed that the city had to get anotherlandfill area- that’s a fancy word for garbage dump.  Research teams were hired; atgreat expense and they came up with three possible sites. In every instance, when hearings were held, NIMBYS lobbied the council;people who said- put it there or there but ‘Not in my back yard.’

When we moved back to Milwaukee in 1997, Toronto was trucking the waste to Detroitwhere it was burnt something that was unlawful in Ontario but now they were complaining because the air was polluted from Detroit.I’ll bet a good share of it was Toronto’s own waste being burned. Now, I read, trains run between Toronto and Kirkland LakeOntario, a town about 350 miles north carrying garbage so it can be dumped into an abandoned open pit mine.

During the last four years as I traveled all over this nation, I observed thatalmost every airport in the country is under expanding construction. People want to fly and are flying but whenever an airport hasto expand its runways to keep up with the traffic that the local tourist bureaus and Chambers of Commerce crave, people cry out,Not In My Backyard. Even the people who bought homes near the airport long after the airport was there and have had insulationinstalled by the airport authority, to kill the noise, join the ranks of protestors.

Our scripture today, reveals a very similar situation. Luke tells us about Jesusfirst sermon. Jesus has just come from the desert where he has resisted the temptation to use his enormous powers for personalgain. His call is clear and his mission has been determined in his own mind and heart and validated by God.

Now he is in Nazareth. He is about to preach at his boyhood synagogue. I can tellyou from experience, that is the toughest place in the world to preach. They used to say in Chilliwack B.C.-isn’t this LaurieLobb’s boy, the one who grew up in the machine shop? Where did that young whippersnapper get the idea he can talk to us likethat?

Or, our closer friends who knew me well as a teen-ager would say, we wouldn’thave been surprised if Ernie, that’s my brother, became a minister, but you Doug!

That’s just exactly what occurred to Jesus. It says, they all spoke well of himand said, Isn’t this Joseph’s boy? Isn’t this kid that grew up in the carpenter shop?

Jesus hears this and answers, Doubtless you will say, physician heal yourself, whatwe heard you did in Capernaum, do here but he added, no prophet is acceptable in his own country. Move away from your home and youarea an authority or a great preacher or, in business a consultant.

Back to the story. This is a Nazareth synagogue. There are Jewish believers andthey KNOW that they are the chosen ones and they do NOT want any non chosen people to be part of their synagogue: sounds like lotsof Churches I know. Jesus upsets them with a different message.

Jesus startles them with two stories from the Old Testament. He tweaks them with astory from their own Holy words. Jesus refers to a story in 1 Kings 17.

A famine rose in the land and the great prophet Elijah, was both hungry andthirsty. God said to him, rise and go to Sidon, a long walk from the parched desert, and go to a widow named Zaraphath whom I havecommanded to feed you. Elijah goes and finds the widow gathering sticks for a fire. “May I have some water”, he asks, and asshe was going to get it he adds, “and a bit of bread because I am hungry.”

The widow responds, “I have not baked anything and I only have a tiny bit of oiland flour and I am gathering some sticks so I can go and make it for myself and my son then die.” Elijah says,” don’t worry,you oil and flour will not get to be less if you make me some bread and then some for yourself and your son.”

She does as he asks and the oil does not diminish, nor the flour. The pious hadjust heard it told to them-Elijah, the greatest of the prophets was sent by God to an old widow with a sick son; not to a leader,not to a devout Jew, not to a synagogue; but to a widow and he was fed. Would the people in Nazareth treat an outsider in thatmanner?

Then he told a second story, this one from 11Kings 5. This one had to do withElisha, the successor to Elijah. There were many lepers in Israel at that time. This was a disease for that world like Cancer orAids in our world- people hoped to be cured.

Naaman was the military leader of the Syrians who had conquered Israel and evenworse, during one of the raids, Naaman had carried off a young woman to be a maid for his wife. Naaman was a leper. The maid saidto Naaman’s wife, “if your husband could see then prophet in Samaria, he would be cured.” So Naaman sent a letter and a hugeamount of money to the King of Israel who is dumb founded, and cries, “ Am I God? Who am I to cure him?

Elisha hears of this and as Naaman is coming with a hoard of soldiers he sends amessage, “go and bathe in the Jordan seven times and you will be cured.”  Naamanis enraged. “Surly he would come and meet me and wave his hands over me, and are there no rivers in Syria?’ He begins to goaway, but his servants get his ear and say ”the prophet said to do this, you should follow him.” So Naaman bathed in theJordan and he was cured.

Jesus was teaching through the Hebrew scriptures, that God does not do predictablethings. Elijah sustained by a widow. A non-Jewish conqueror of the Israelite nation cured of leprosy, by God, while many faithfulHebrews were not.  What is going on here? God, suggests Jesus, is not just God of thesynagogue in Nazareth, not just God of the Jews;  God defies our understanding. God is greater than our comprehension, God is always out there ahead of us. 

The people of Jesus home synagogue are furious and they chase him out of town andseek to destroy him, but he slips away.

In essence, they were saying, Not In My Backyard. Our God isn’t an embracingloving unpredictable God like that. We understand our God. Don’t tell us about God accepting outsiders.

If Jesus came to First Congregational Church of Wauwatosa and spoke such a message,What would we do?