Sermon - January 31, 2010

Year C | The Year of Luke | Epiphany 4

There is so much to talk about in today's readings. I first want to talk about the Gospel. Jesus returns home after being baptized. His ministry has begun with his disciples. He comes to the synagogue and reads from the prophet Isaiah where he quotes how the blind will see and the captive will be set free. Then, he tells those gathered at the synagogue that these words of the prophet Isaiah have been fulfilled in their hearing.

At first, the response is those gathered in the synagogue think all this is wonderful; see how Mary's son has grown up and how well he reads and speaks. Then, things take a turn. Jesus begins to confront those gathered in the synagogue. He knows that many there are looking for a magic act. They want to see him perform some tricks. Jesus refuses to do so, and the response of the crowd is amazing. They take him to the edge of the cliff and prepare to throw him off.

It is at this point, that I find something revealing about Jesus' nature. Remember when Jesus was in the wilderness with Satan. There the devil told Jesus that he should turn stones into bread because Jesus was hungry. Another temptation was that the devil wanted Jesus to jump off the highest point of the temple because his angels would save him. Surely if he did such a thing, people would see it and believe. Finally, a similar temptation came when Jesus was on the cross. The religious leaders would walk up to him and taunt Jesus by saying that if he would just take himself off the cross and come down, they would believe.

In today's reading, the crowd takes Jesus to throw him off a cliff. Jesus could have responded by allowing this to happen and then, amaze everyone by having angels lift him up. However, Jesus did not do that. He simply walked through the crowd. The simple power of his presence silenced the people and they parted to let him through.

The question is, "What does this mean?"

When Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah, he was declaring that he was here to fulfill the words of the prophet. As we see his ministry unfold, the miracles he performed were not tricks to make people believe, but signs of his divinity. They were there to reveal that he was the Son of God. People do not have a living faith because of miracles. They see miracles because of faith.

Think about it. One of the things that always intrigued me about the time when Moses led the Israelites in the desert was how willing they were to give up and not believe. Look at the miracles they witnessed: The plagues of Egypt, the Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire at night, Mount Sinai and the giving of the Law, water from a rock. The list goes on. However, even in the midst of these great miracles, the people still grumbled, complained, and did not believe.

Miracles in and of themselves do not lead to a living faith. Miracles are seen, experienced, and known because of a living faith. Jesus could have surprised everyone by performing some trick; but he did not. He was here to fulfill the words of Isaiah. He was here as the Messiah. He was here as God's only Son. From this point onward, Jesus was going to go out and show what that means. Furthermore, he was going to go out and show what it means to live in faith.

What he is going to show the world surprises everyone. He will be the reverse of what everyone expects a Messiah to be. Furthermore, he will surprise everyone by showing that the outcast, the lame, the rejected, and the unwanted show greater faith than those who rule the temple and synagogue.

What we have in this reading is Jesus showing the world what it means to be the Messiah and what it means to follow him. We follow in living faith.

Now, we look at the Epistle for today. St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians is one of the most popular readings from the Bible. “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

However, this reading has always ended on a note that at times I have found odd. Paul writes, "And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love." Love is greater than faith? How can that be? After all, Jesus went all around Galilee saying things such as how faith can move mountains. He spoke about how a Greek woman had greater faith than anyone in Israel did; he praised her for this. He spoke about having faith like a little child. He told people he healed that their faith made them whole and well. How is love greater than faith?

The truth is that the Pharisees had faith. The Sadducees had faith. All those who opposed Jesus had faith. In fact, even those in the synagogue in Nazareth who were going to throw him off the cliff had faith. All of these people believed in God. They meticulously followed the laws of Moses. The truth is that St. Paul had faith when he was a persecutor of the Church.

The difference is this. The word Paul uses for love in this passage from First Corinthians is Agape. That is a specific kind of love in Greek. It takes on a special meaning in the New Testament. Agape is self-giving love. It is self-sacrificing love. It is love that is concerned for the "other." It is love that is willing to surrender itself. Jesus displayed this love when he went to the cross. That is Agape love. Faith that is not grounded in this kind of love is still faith, but it is not living faith.

Faith grounded in Agape love is the kind of faith Jesus declares to be the faith that saves, makes whole, and makes one well. It is faith that reaches to the heart of humanity guided by the light and grace of God.

This is the kind of Messiah Jesus was to be. This is why he did not do miracles as magic tricks. Faith based on tricks is not living faith. It is not based on Agape love. It is not faith that seeks the good of the "other"; it only seeks the good of the self and to be entertained, astonished, and astounded. St. Paul says that we are to seek a more excellent way.

The question for us becomes: Do we come to worship to be entertained, astonished, and astounded; or do we come to worship the living God in whom we have a living faith? Christ the Messiah who came to fulfill the words of Isaiah came as a Messiah showing us the meaning of faith based on Agape love. This agape love is the more excellent way. It is a gift from God, by which we worship and live worshipfully. Amen.