Sermon Title: Walking with Jesus or Just Along for The Ride?

Sermon Text: Luke 4:20-30

Sermon Date: November 4, 2007

20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.

23Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' "

24"I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27And there were many in Israel with leprosy^[f] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian."

28All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Message

Start with Chris’ story (A member of our church began Chris’ story sometime

ago. With his help we have taken it into Luke’s fourth chapter. For the

beginning of the story go to October 7^th sermon.)

Chris’ home church had invited him, fresh from seminary, to accept a call as their pastor. They would vote today, in just a few minutes. After the closing hymn the congregation dismissed him while they deliberated.

He stood for a moment in the entry of the church and reflected. He had done a lot of that lately – all along the road home and again this morning as he struggled with doubts and second-guessed his own sermon.

At the last moment he changed everything up. Using a familiar text from Luke 4 where Jesus returns to Nazareth, Chris read from Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And then Chris said, “This is how the Kingdom of God works. Starting today and for all the today’s to come, this scripture is to be fulfilled.”

What he really wanted for this little church, these old friends who had watched him and loved him as he grew up, was to grow up a little themselves.

He preached on and he told them, “You are ready to do this. God has allowed us all to stand up boldly, as clean and pure as on the sacred Day of Atonement. The ancient promise, the Kol Nidre, sung in Jesus’ own Aramaic tongue states, “From this Day of Atonement to the next …” a year “ …we do repent.”

“The Year of the Lord’s Favor begins today.”

The sermon was tight and complete. The best of his short, but so far, brilliant career.

2000 years ago when Jesus read those same lines in Nazareth, all the people were amazed. But just as suddenly these same people were ready to toss him over the cliff. What happened?

“No doubt,” Jesus said, “you will say to me, ‘Physician heal yourself …’ and then you will want to say, ‘Do the same things here, in your own town, as you have done in other towns.”

Physician … heal … yourself. Preach good news to the poor...

Physician heal … yourself. Proclaim freedom for prisoners…

Physician heal, yourself. Do the same things here …

Bring sight to the blind…

Physician, do it yourself. Do the same things here …

Release the oppressed …

Preacher, do it yourself. Do the same things here …

Proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Preacher, do it yourself. Do the same things here …

Chris, do it yourself.

And Chris took a deep breath. It was the only sound he made as he turned toward the front door. It was left open, inviting him through.

And he walked away.

Message

What would you have done if you had been in the synagogue that day? Envision it, will you? How would you have reacted if you had been there?

Or what if those who grew up here like Mark Spencer, or Joyce Anderson or Molly Sullivan stood up and said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me! And I’m here to tell you that things need to change. You need to look outside your church doors more often.’

What if one of them had said to you:

“You need to reach out to the 12% of Tippecanoe County residents that live below the poverty level.

“You need to reach out to help those who are trying to put their lives together after they get out of jail.

“You need to help the mentally ill and the homeless and the hopeless.

“If you want the Spirit of the Lord to be upon you, you need to look inside your hearts and reach out to the poor, the imprisoned, the blind and the oppressed.

What would you do if that happened here?

This isn’t easy to think about, is it?

We don’t like being told that we need to do something differently. Not at home or work or at church. We are used to things the way they are. We liked it when things were uncomplicated and reasonable. We want things to be the way they used to be. But things were actually never really uncomplicated.

If you think about it, we complain about the intrusion of cell phones but they have saved people’s lives when 911 can be called immediately…even out on the interstate or on a country road. We complain about the high cost of medical bills but never before has medicine been able to save so many people from so many illnesses.

I don’t know about you but I’ll take the bad with the amazing good things that are available to us today. And besides, things were never as good as we remember they were. Jesus was telling the people in the synagogue that day that things needed to improve. That people needed to be treated better. That people needed to be helped. And that they were the ones to offer the help. Each of us is capable of helping someone else…no matter what our circumstances are.

It doesn’t matter if you are homebound, you can help someone. It doesn’t matter if you are a struggling single parent, you can help someone. If doesn’t matter if you are a senior citizen on a fixed income, you can help someone. It doesn’t matter if you are working 60 hour weeks, you can help someone. In every situation, we can help sometime.

Why is this important? Because if we aren’t willing to do these things, we are just along for the ride, not really walking with Jesus. And that is hard. Really hard.

Maybe for you it isn’t a matter of knowing you should do something. Maybe the bigger issue is knowing what to do and what God has in mind for you to do.

So here is today’s question: How does God talk to you? I mean, how do you know that the voice you are hearing is God’s voice?

Let’s look at four ways God speaks to us.

1. God talks to us through others. Ordinary people. Ordinary ways.

Pastor Edward Markquart tells the story of a woman coming to him with marital problems. She wanted to know what to do so he told her what he believed was the answer. But she didn’t hear. She wanted to hear God say it. Then a month later she came back wanting to know what to do. Again he gave her advice but his wasn’t the voice she was looking for. She came again wanting to hear God tell her what to do. Finally he told her that there are times God uses ordinary people to speak to us. But that offended her. She didn’t want to hear even from her pastor. She wanted to hear God’s voice, not a human one, not even from her pastor. But God often speaks to us through ordinary people in ordinary ways.

2. God sometimes speaks to us through people who know us really well, like family members. You know this one. When your daughter tells you that you sound like your father and you know it isn’t a compliment….you should listen. It might be God speaking through her…even if she is ten. If your spouse says that you seem distant…..it might be God saying that even if you don’t realize it, you are unavailable to your family. If your mother worries aloud that you are short-tempered, pay attention. It isn’t easy to speak those words to someone you know and love. At the very least, look at what is being said and discover what the real truth is. God can very well be speaking to you through the voice of someone who loves you very much.

3. God speaks to us through the faces those who need us – the poor, the imprisoned, the blind and the oppressed. When you see someone in need and wonder how you could help…..that is God speaking to you. A retired missionary I knew in Indianapolis said “a need known and the ability to do something about that need is a call.” A call from God.

4. This isn’t a definitive list but there is one more way God speaks to us. Through the Liturgy of the Worship Service – the word, the message and the ordinances. The scripture read, yes, even the message from your pastor, and in the bread and cup set before us.

Now having shared these ways God speaks to us, let’s look at something

theologian and professor Dallas Willard says. God speaks to us all the time but ultimately we have to decide if what we are hearing is the voice of God. We must use our ability to discern if this is our ego or God’s voice.

If you are sitting there wondering just how you are supposed to know, it is like this. You have to get to know God really well. You have to spend time with God and with others who also want to know God better so you can be stretched to know more. Tomorrow at 1:30 in the lounge I’m beginning a six week Renovare group. Renovare meaning renewal, this is a six week look at the spiritual disciplines and how your relationship with God can grow. That is the only way to know what God is saying to you. To learn about God, Jesus Christ and yourself takes time and effort. It takes energy and a desire to know.

When Jesus entered the synagogue to bring those words to the people who knew him from childhood, it wasn’t easy. It is never easy to be a prophet. But God needs prophets like you and me. And God equips those God calls to walk alongside Jesus. Just being along for the ride is an unfulfilling existence. The Lord’s Supper wasn’t given to us to settle for a little. It was given to us to experience the depth and passion of God’s love for you and me.

In a moment I’m going to invite you to come forward as you are able to experience God’s love through Christ Jesus. You do not need to be a member of First Baptist Church to take of it. You just need to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

Prayer: Holy God, on this day we ask you to stretch us. You don’t ask us to give a little, but you ask us to love you with all of our hearts, our minds, our strength and our souls. Break down the barriers that keep us from loving you completely. Crumble the walls that separate us from our sisters and brothers who sit around us. And help us to know you well enough to know when you are speaking. Thank you for the love that comes to us through you. Amen.