Wrestling with the Word

January 26, 2025 homily on Luke 4:14-21 by Pastor Galen

“When [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom…” (Luke 4:16a).

A Place to Gather

One of my favorite places to go when I’m not at work or home is Common Ground Cafe, where we have our Men’s Coffee and Devotions on Thursday mornings. One of the things I love about going there is that the cashier always greets me by name with a hearty “hi, Galen!” when I walk in the door. He asks me what I’m going to have, and nods his head when I repeat my usual order. 

In addition to the good food and warm welcome, I particularly appreciate the conversations that we have on Thursday mornings as we read and discuss the Scriptures together over coffee. It’s a respite in the middle of a busy week and helps refocus my attention on God and God’s Word. (On a practical level, it’s also very helpful as I’m preparing my sermons for Sunday since we generally read and reflect on one of the Scripture lessons for Sunday.)

…As Was His Custom

In Luke chapter 4, we see that Jesus also had a place where he regularly went that wasn’t work, or school, or home: the synagogue. In Jesus’ day, synagogues weren’t just places where the community gathered for worship. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, “Inscriptional and literary evidence suggests that judicial proceedings, archives, treasuries, prayers, public fasts, communal meals, and lodging for traveling Judeans were all associated with the ancient synagogue.”

More than simply places of worship, then, synagogues were places of community, where people connected with God and with one another throughout the week over shared meals and the study of the Scriptures, and where they even hashed out their arguments and legal dispute and where travelers could find overnight accommodations.

Sabbath services in Jesus’ day seemed to consist of not just prayer and singing and a sermon, but also of wrestling with the Scriptures. We see this here in Luke 4, as Jesus stood up to read from the Scriptures (Luke 4:16b), and then sat down to teach in Luke 4:20. This may seem odd to us since we’re accustomed to public speakers standing to preach or teach, but sitting down to teach signifies much more of an interactive experience, where teachers and students alike participated in grappling with the text to discover it’s meaning and relevance to today. It’s sort of like how we sit down to enjoy a good meal and conversation. While we frequently grab a quick bite to eat while we’re standing or traveling somewhere, when we really want to enjoy a good meal with friends or family, we usually sit around a table and take our time. In the same way, Jewish teachers would stand to read the Scriptures, out of respect for the Law, but then they would sit down to teach and discuss the Scriptures together. 

Wrestling with the Word

If we were to keep reading the rest of this passage, we would see that at first, the people responded positively to Jesus’ message. Jesus read a passage from the prophet Isaiah that was all about how the speaker had been empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom to the captives, and to set free those who were oppressed. When he sat down to teach, Jesus’s very concise Scripture lesson was, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). In other words, Jesus was and is the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy! 

Judging by their reaction in Luke 4:22 and the following verses, the people were excited to hear that Jesus had come to share good news and to proclaim freedom from oppression – until Jesus proceeded to let them know that he had come to extend mercy to all people, not just to people who looked like them. This made them so upset that they quite literally ran him out of town, which you can see for yourself in Luke 4:28-29.

In all of this, we see that for Jesus and the people of his day, “church” was a participatory event, where they not only listened, but also responded to and grappled with the Word, and sought to discern how the Scriptures related to their lives. For Jesus, this involved speaking the truth, even when it was a truth that people didn’t want to hear. 

And for us today as well, church should not just be a place where we come together to sing our favorite songs and to hear our favorite stories – but also where we wrestle with difficult truths, where we challenge one another, and where we open ourselves up to God’s transforming work in our lives.

The Assembly

If you’ve been a part of this congregation for any length of time, you’ve heard me say repeatedly that church is not just what happens here on Sunday mornings, but all throughout the week when the people of God gather together to fellowship and encourage one another and to learn and serve together. This is because the original words for “synagogue” and “church” referred to the people who gathered, not to the building where they met. And so, whether we gather in our church building, or at the local coffee shop, or on Zoom – when God’s people assemble together in Jesus’ name, church is taking place.

Now, we have a beautiful church building. I love coming here to worship, and I love that we’ve opened our building up to the various community groups that utilize our building throughout the week. But more important the building itself is the people who gather here, and who gather in various ways throughout the week – whether you worship with us online, or read this sermon during the week, and participate in other ways in the life of this congregation through your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness. The people – you! – are what makes this church special, and the fact that you have opened yourselves up to God’s transforming work in your lives. This is why I love being your pastor – because I get to interact with you, and to hear your dreams and ideas, and see what God is doing in and through you. I love hearing your perspectives, and your questions. I love the way you long to see the ministry of our church expand and flourish, and the way you long for others to join us and be a part of our community.

Of course, we are not a perfect community. We have our problems and flaws, just like every group of individuals, and so we’re constantly looking to make improvements.  We’re also always looking for ways that we can improve the way we work together, and the way we serve and minister together to reach out to the community around us. And so we gather together for worship on a regular basis, as is our custom. And, like the people of Jesus’ day, we come together not just to pray and worship, but to be challenged by the Word, to wrestle with it’s meaning for our lives. We come together to hear each other’s perspectives, and to learn and grow and be stretched together so that we can be more effective in our calling to make disciples of Jesus Christ. This is why we gather together, and why we’re seeking to create more opportunities where people of all ages can learn and grow and be transformed together.

Earlier, Gary shared a Sunday School Lesson Psalm 19, which we studied together at our Men’s devotions this past Thursday. In a few minutes, we’ll hear a testimonial from Camille about our Women’s Book club that she’s been attending by Zoom on Wednesday evenings. My hope and prayer is that we would all become “regulars” at such places where we can learn and grow together in our love for God and our understanding of God’s will for our lives today. (However, unlike the people of Jesus’ day who were listening to his sermon in the synagogue in Nazareth, I pray that we will be open to hearing the truth, as difficult as it may be!)

Lord, Prepare Us to be a Sanctuary

In a few minutes, we’re going to respond to the Word by singing the song, “Sanctuary.” It’s a prayer, asking God to prepare us to be sanctuaries, “pure and holy, tried and true.” The second time we sing it through, I want to invite us to replace “me” with “us,” as a reminder that God is in the process of transforming us together as members of the Body of Christ into a living and breathing temple of the Lord:

Lord, prepare [us] to be a sanctuary,

pure and holy, tried and true;

with thanksgiving, [we’ll] be a living

sanctuary for you.

Amen!