If…..Going Over The Edge…!
1 Corinthians 13: 1-13, Luke 4: 14-21
January 24, 2010
After first reading of Lucan passage:
     I invite you to hear the passage again now, more deeply.  Hear it as if you were there in the crowd around Jesus…as an observer.  Listen to the undertone of the crowd’s expectation.  That’s what Jesus seems to be addressing.  Note the two examples Jesus gives of prophets who went to meet the needs of one person in the midst of the needs of many, going to the needs of the outsider, the foreigner, the powerless above the needs of those within the community…perhaps because they, even in their powerlessness out others ahead of themselves or faced themselves deeply in the mirro.  I wonder because together, as insiders/community/church/nation, we have the ability to do much if we only will, but chose not to. We have power we don’t use and so the prophet’s attention goes to those who seemingly have no power to change the circumstances but find it within themselves to do the thing most needed. 
      Listen further and you hear the crowd’s anger as they lead Jesus to the brow of the hill on which their town was built.  I wonder what is the “hill” we have built our community on/you have built your life on.  Is there a cliff we threaten to push people off if they do not say or do as we want.  
     And, wonder how it is Jesus manages to walk through the crowd and just go on his way if they were so enraged with him.  Is it they were so self-involved with their anger, they forgot what they were really angry about?  After all, you get an immediate “bang” being angry that you don’t get being thoughtful.  Listen again for the word of God.
As approach second reading from Corinthians:
     Well, not a pretty picture of us in Luke, hey?  A hard passage to hear.  And if you were going to pick a passage to compliment it…what would you pick?  At first glance, our second reading seems as far away from the first reading as it could possibly be…OR, maybe the first passage is exactly the lens through which we are called to look at this familiar passage….often used at weddings, maybe more appropriately used in times of discord and anger and self-righteousness….times when a new leadership is most needed.  Hear the Word of God:
      I think they expected to experience the wonder of the hometown boy made good…. After all, they were insiders, right?  Privy to some special treatment, right?  …and he didn’t give them what they wanted.  I wonder why he just didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear, make it easier for himself?  ….was it a struggle for him to say what he said.  Did he think, “I have to say “this” to these people I know and care about.”  It must have taken an awful lot of courage….to love and lead them.     It may be hard for us to relate to Jesus. But I don’t think it is hard to relate to the crowd.  We often push around people we don’t agree with, people we want something from who don’t respond the way we want them to, or challenge our authority or rights…we push them off cliffs.  How?  …by not being genuine with them and then gossiping about them, by not being open to hearing them and finding the piece of truth in what they share, by not extending grace to them while expecting them to extend it to us, by not inviting them into a real process of making choices with us, by not sharing our real feelings in the moment and then going away mad and blowing up at some little thing later.  …You know….like when you’re nice to everybody here at church and then you go home and push the spouse, partner, or child off a cliff yelling at them or blaming them or dismissing their requests because you’re stressed out or are just plain old too tired to cope.  You know…that cliff.
     So often we act out with the people we’re closest to…because it feels safer…they can’t leave us easily…wouldn’t really hurt us or push us back…so we think.  This kind of anger sabotages life and is the underbelly, the shadow side, of trust.  It is trust broken.  It shatters lives!
     And then, here come the words on “love” from Corinthians.  If you really listen to Paul’s words, it becomes clear “love” doesn’t necessarily have a lot to do with feelings.  Love, instead, is a matter of intention and courage…the courage to really care.  Jesus loves them so much he is willing to say what is true and pay whatever the price.  He entrusts them to deal with the truth about themselves.  And, rather than be distracted from his mission or get bogged down defending his words, getting caught up in the conflict, Jesus simply doesn’t get hooked by their anger.  And he gives them every opportunity, right up to the very last moment, before he makes his break.  He gave them every opportunity to think, believe and respond…before moving on to more “fertile ground” to grow the good news.  
     There is no record Jesus ever went back to his home town.  But I don’t think they were left out in the cold…they were left, instead, to their own devices…and maybe that day was the beginning of something new in them, a shift in self-awareness….and they had much to do within themselves before they could reach out to others.  That seems like how it is for most of us most of the time.
     And…love is…not necessarily nice…nice, the malaise of church people and our greater culture which keeps us all stuck.
     So, what part of “love” is hardest for you when someone tells you a truth or challenges your choices or perceptions?  As Paul lays it out for us…..is it resisting irritability or resentment? (Mine!)  Resisting gloating and boasting when you think you’re right?  Being kind and patient when someone isn’t being kind or patient with you?
     There are times when things happen and we just can’t figure out how it all came to this.  There are times when life…and God!...disappoint us or the answers to our questions and problems are blunt!  At such times, do we “love” or do we push others, truth, God….away, off cliffs….like the people of Nazareth did?  
     We can’t push God over a cliff (God won’t go!), but we can distance ourselves from God and others, often those dearest to us… “that” we can do…and this just isn’t very helpful.  
     God will never push you off a cliff.  God will never distance God’s self from you no matter what your choices have been so far.  NEVER!  And God is always bringing you others to journey with you and help you.  Don’t you really already know who they are?
     Even though you may not understand how you got where you are or are confused as to what to do next, love never ends.  You are to endure…for it’s not what you don’t understand that is your challenge, it’s what you do understand.  And you can handle, with God’s gracious help, what you do understand…if you only will!
     Paul says…and it is true: We are becoming adults.  (Some of our kids the best adults in the crowd!)  “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then (when we remember the call of love and its simplistic yet bold ways) we will see face to face.  Now, we know only in part, but then we will know fully and be known fully. As we mature in our relationship with God, these three truths emerge: faith (trust) is the great energizer that gains strength from integrity; hope is the great motivator giving courage to act; and love is the great equalizer strengthening the whole person and community without doing harm. But for the mature, the greatest of these is love whose unvarnished acceptance and unselfish action empowers and sustains all.
     The greatest of these is love….the will to love, naming truths and being genuine in relationships and in community, even in the face of being thrown off a cliff!  
     …love is having the courage to keep on walking through the crowd instead of letting things get to you, killing off your own energy.  Love is having the courage to keep on walking through the crowd and not throwing yourself off the cliff of self-righteousness, or joining the crowd to push someone else over their edge.
     Life is edgy.  If you go over the edge for God, you will fall…..for love.