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There's No Place Like Home: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast the First
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Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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On this podcast, the goal is not just to share our sermons, but
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to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and
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what God is doing in us and in our community.
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This fall, we're living in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
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and John and learning how to live from our model, Jesus.
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This sermon is part of our series The Gospels.
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You can find out more information about our church at
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fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for listening.
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Hello, our scripture for today is Luke 4 verses 14 through 30.
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I think we're good. Then Jesus returned to Galilee,
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filled with the Holy Spirit's power.
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Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region.
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He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by
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everyone. When he came to the village of
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Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue
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on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures.
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The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him.
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He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was
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written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
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me, for He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
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He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that
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the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and
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that the time of the Lord's favor has come.
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He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and
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sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked
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at him intently. Then he began to speak to them.
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The Scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very
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day. Everyone spoke well of him and
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was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips.
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How can this be, they asked, Isn't this Joseph's son?
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Then he said, you will be doubtedly quote.
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You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb position heal
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yourself. Meaning do miracles here in your
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hometown like those you did in Capernaum.
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But I tell you the truth, no profit is accepted in his own
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hometown. Certainly there were many needy
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widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the heavens were
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closed for 3 1/2 years and severe famine devastated the
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land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any
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of them. He was sent instead to a
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foreigner, a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
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There were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet
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Elijah, but in one, only one healed was Naman Assyrian.
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When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious.
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Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him forced into the edge
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of the hill on which the town was built.
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They intended to push him over the Cliff, but he passed right
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through the crowd and went on his way.
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So, Word of God for the people of God.
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Thanks be to God. Thanks, Joanna.
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In the movie The Wizard of Oz, a young woman by the name of
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Dorothy is going through the typical angst of feeling
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misunderstood, right? And as the famous song goes, she
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begins to think about what life would be like if she were to
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travel to a place somewhere over the rainbow, right?
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Apparently, the grass was always greener there, too.
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As the movie continues, though, Dorothy finds herself magically
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transported to the land of Oz, and once there, all she wants is
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to return home, right? She's instructed that there's a
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Wizard in the Emerald City who might be able to help her, and
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the rest of the movie documents Dorothy's journey to meet the
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Wizard of Oz. And when she finally tells the
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Wizard her problem, she's told to tap the heels of her Ruby
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slippers together, right? And to repeat what There's no
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place like home? There's no place like home.
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And while for Dorothy and for many people today, that phrase
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is wonderfully true, for many other people in the real world,
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that phrase there's no place like home is unfortunately,
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tragically true at the wounds that they've received at the
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hands of those closest to them, from the very ones who are
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supposed to love them unconditionally, those wounds
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have cut deeply. And with those wounds have come
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messages that people often carry throughout their entire
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lifetime. The reality is whether your
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childhood home was a place of wonder and nurture or if it was
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full of abuse and neglect or or maybe even somewhere in between.
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The reality is that when we enter back into those physical
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spaces, those relational spaces, we can be transported back into
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those same relational dynamics and the coping mechanisms that
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we learned as children in order to navigate or even survive
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life. For instance, the young woman
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who has learned to carry herself through life with a
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self-confidence and poise. She goes home for a holiday and
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as soon as she steps through the doorway she becomes overly
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compliant, deferential or a middle-aged man who who on the
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outward appearance seems to be quite gentle and soft spoken.
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He goes home for a funeral and of an extended family member,
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and as soon as he crosses the threshhood into that childhood
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home, he begins to raise his voice, become combative.
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For some people who move so much during their childhood that
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their concept of home isn't actually connected to a physical
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space that's more familial and and relational.
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That can happen even when, say, parents come and visit and as
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soon as they come, that person, they, they begin, even though
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they were able to make decisions about their family and their
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work and all those kind of things, that person begins to
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look again to their mother and father to make every decision
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that comes up. And these are mild examples,
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right? All of us know people for whom
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returning home means confronting far worse realities.
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You may even be among those. My point is, the phrase there's
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no place like home can mean radically different things for
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different people depending on what someone's experience of
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home was like. The story that we're looking at
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this morning from Jesus's life and ministry jumps us back to
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the beginning of Jesus's public ministry, to the time right
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after Jesus was baptized by John, right?
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And then he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where
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he fasted for 40 days before being tempted by Satan.
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Luke tells us that after that experience does, then Jesus
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returned to Galilee filled with the Holy Spirit's power.
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Or he had been down in the area of Judea where John was
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baptizing people in the Jordan, and there's a good bit of
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wilderness down there. But then Jesus returns back to
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Galilee. That's like coming back to South
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Jersey for us, right? Coming back to your home turf.
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And don't miss this. When Jesus came back from that
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time in the wilderness with God, he was there with God.
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Even though the devil appeared at the end of it.
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Throughout that 40 days of fasting, it was also a time of
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solitude for Jesus with God. And when Jesus came back from
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the wilderness, he came back filled with the power of the
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Holy Spirit. Remember the lens that that
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we're looking at Jesus's life through as we work our way
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through the Gospels over these three months.
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It's that that lens is that the ministry that Jesus did, he did
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from a place of intimacy with the Father, right developed in
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those rhythms of spiritual practices, and he did it in the
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power of the Holy Spirit expressed through those
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spiritual gifts that Jesus had been given.
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Jesus is showing us throughout his life, throughout his
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ministry, what is possible in and through the life of a person
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surrendered to God and filled with his Spirit, right.
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So this is, this is how Jesus comes back to Galilee.
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And when he gets there, he begins teaching in the
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synagogues. He's he's demonstrating his
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power with miracles. And everyone in Galilee has
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begun to talk about Jesus. Then, then Jesus comes back to
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Nazareth. He comes back to that little
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village where Mary and Joseph had settled down after they
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returned from Egypt, where they had gone to protect Jesus from
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the murderous insecurity of Herod.
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And in Nazareth, that day after coming back, Jesus went to the
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synagogue on the Sabbath right as usual or as was his habit.
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Some translations say this. This is another nod to that
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rhythm of life that Jesus lived out of.
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He didn't just connect with God when he was alone in the
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wilderness places or or when he got up early in the morning to
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go be alone with God. He went to worship every
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Sabbath. He learned and worshiped and was
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formed within the community of faith among the people of God,
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right? This is why I struggle sometimes
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when people who say they're Christians, they say, but but I
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don't go to church. Well, following Jesus means
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doing what he did. And so we can become like him,
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right? And that happens for Jesus and
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for us within the community of faith.
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That's where we're formed and shaped.
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So Jesus, he's there in the synagogue.
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And when he stood up to read the scriptures, he was handed the
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scroll of the prophet Isaiah, right?
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They, they didn't have the Bible like we have it today.
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It wasn't a pay a book with page numbers and it didn't have the
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chapter numbers and the verse numbers and all those kind of
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things that we're familiar with. The scroll of Isaiah.
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It's about a foot tall and 24 feet long. 24 feet long.
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That means from this side of the Pew on the aisle all the way
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over to this side of the aisle, 24 feet long.
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In my Bible, it's like 63 pages. It's a long book of the Old
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Testament, right? And Jesus is handed that scroll
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and he just rolls it open right to the right place.
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It's a different kind of scrolling than we're used to
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these days, right? But he was comfortable enough
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with Isaiah, with the Scriptures, familiar with it,
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that he could find just the right place where he knew he
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wanted to read from out of that whole 24 feet of scroll.
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And this is what he reads there from the prophet.
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Isaiah says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has
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anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
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He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that
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the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and
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at the time of the Lord's favor has come.
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Amen, Amen. Right that that's the first 2
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verses of Isaiah 61, right? This would have been a passage
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that was familiar to the people. So far so good.
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Jesus is doing OK, right? It's, it's kind of nice when
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the, the kid who grew up in the church comes back and reads
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scripture and worship, right. Joanna did a great job for us
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today. It's nice to see someone up here
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reading Scripture. That's not me.
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Everyone was watching Jesus right?
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Every I was on Jesus as he finished this reading.
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And the custom in those days was that whoever read the Scripture
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would make some comments on it, right?
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Kind of like I'm doing it. That was their version of a
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sermon. Joanna, you're welcome that you
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didn't have to do that part too, right?
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But Jesus says the the scripture that you've just heard has been
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fulfilled this very day. It's a mic drop kind of moment.
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Jesus has just said, without actually saying it, I am the
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anointed Messiah that God has promised to send.
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I'm the one who's been anointed to bring good news to the poor,
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to proclaim freedom to the captives, to give sight to the
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blind and deliverance to the oppressed, to declare that God's
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favor has come near to us. And the people in the synagogue,
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they can't believe it, right? They they start whispering to
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each other. Isn't this Joseph's son?
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Didn't your daughter used to babysit him?
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Isn't he the one that was born before Mary and Joe got married?
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They're not just shocked, they're indignant.
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Who does this Jesus think he is anyway?
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And sometimes it's those closest to us, as we've said, right?
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Those who who think they know us best, who wound us most deeply.
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Familiarity breeds contempt, as the old saying goes.
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And Jesus, he picks up on their murmuring.
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He calls him out on it. He says, I know what you're
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going to say. Why don't you show us some
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miracles like what you were doing over in Capernaum, as if
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that would actually change their thoughts about Jesus.
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And he goes on to tell them that they're no different than all
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the Israelites who came before them and who rejected the
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prophets that God had sent to them.
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So God ended up sending them to foreigners, right?
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What Jesus was really saying was those Israelites, they missed
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what God was doing and you're going to miss it too.
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And that was a step too far for the people of Nazareth for the
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good synagogue going people of Nazareth.
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They get up and they become an angry mob.
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They force Jesus to the very edge of the hill that the
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village was built on, overlooking the Sea of Galilee.
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And they're ready to throw Jesus over the edge to his death.
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Because this is blasphemy. God would never use a bastard
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like him to deliver his people, and they're not going to stand
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for it. But Jesus just slips through the
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crowd. It's almost like he pulls an Obi
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Wan Kenobi, right? These are not the droids you're
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looking for. And he's gone.
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He disappeared. He goes back to Capernaum, where
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people were responding to the move of God with faith.
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But that trip back to Nazareth, it was probably not the
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homecoming weekend that Jesus was hoping for.
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And there are so many things that we could say about this
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passage, so many things we could go into from this story.
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But I don't want to lock in for a moment on this passage that
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Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah because I don't think it
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was just Jesus's way of declaring his messianic identity
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to them. And I think this passage from
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Isaiah 61 was Jesus's manifesto, right?
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So I want to look at it again. We're going to walk through a
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little more slowly, phrase by phrase here and see what it is
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that Jesus is telling the people in Nazareth, but also us today.
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He starts off, he says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
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right? This is the key to Jesus's
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understanding of his ministry. This anointing that he's
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received that's been dramatically confirmed at
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Jesus's baptism when when the Holy Spirit came down and
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descended on him in the form of a dove, right?
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And as the opening verses of this story told us, Jesus is now
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filled with that spirit or the Spirit of the Lord is on me.
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He's operating in the power of of the Spirit and Jesus
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understands that God is the source of all that he's doing,
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all that he's going to do. It all flows out of that
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understanding that God is the source of him.
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What, what does that look like? Well, he goes on, he says, for
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he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, right?
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That anointing of the Spirit, that filling with the Spirit, it
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has a purpose. It's to bring good news
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specifically to the poor. And yes, we, we believe that the
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good news is for everyone, right?
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But, but I also don't think that we can read through the Bible
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without recognizing that God has a special place in his heart for
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the poor and the vulnerable and the marginalized, right?
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The good news is especially for those who are overlooked by the
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world, for those who need to be lifted up.
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And the good news is lived out, at least in part, in how we care
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for those groups of people. Or that's God's message all
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through the prophets. I think we have to avoid the
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tendency to spiritualize the different categories of people
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that Jesus and Isaiah are talking about here, right?
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If you think back to like Matthew's account of the
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Beatitudes, when Jesus is teaching, he says blessed are
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the poor in spirit, right? That's different.
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Than what Jesus says, what Jesus reads, hear from the prophet
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Isaiah as recorded in Luke. It's good news to the poor.
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And we see throughout Jesus's ministry as he constantly
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chooses to engage in those on the margins of society, right?
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The elites come to him all the time, but when he goes to
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someone, most often it's the poor, the vulnerable, the
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marginalized. So big part of what he's doing
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is bringing the good news to the poor, He goes on, he says.
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He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released.
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Now, I know I just said that we can't spiritualize all these
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things that Jesus is talking about here, right, all these
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groups of people. But when we get to the idea that
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Jesus has been sent to proclaim, released to the captives, I
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think we have to ask, well, what does that look like in Jesus's
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ministry? Because as far as I know, Jesus
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never actually frees anyone from captivity in the Gospels, unless
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maybe you count Barabbas, right? Who who got free because Jesus
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was kept captive? I mean, Jesus doesn't even go
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and somehow free John the Baptist when he's in prison.
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He ends up being beheaded. So So what is Jesus talking
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about? I think this phrase is come to
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to proclaim that captives will be released and and the phrase a
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little later that says that the oppressed will be set free.
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Both of these speak to the reality of either the the
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captive 2 or or being oppressed by the Kingdom of darkness.
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It's just it's a matter of degree whether you're being
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released from captivity or receiving freedom from
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oppression. The message is the same.
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It's it's deliverance from the world and from the devil.
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And that can include the systems of this world that oppress
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people and keep them held captive.
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This is part of Jesus's ministry.
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Set the captive free, he says. He's come to proclaim that the
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blind will see. And amazingly, he doesn't just
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proclaim that it's going to happen, He actually does it
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right there. There are numerous stories in
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the Gospel of blind people literally receiving their sight
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different ways. He doesn't do it the same time
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every time. Sometimes he spits in the ground
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and makes mud and rubs it on somebody's eyes.
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Sometimes he just touches someone's eyes in different
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ways. Sometimes he just uses a word.
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But it's interesting to me how many of those times that that
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Jesus heals someone physically of their blindness.
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Those stories are bracketed on on one side or the other by a
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story of people who aren't able to see spiritually, right?
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Sometimes it's the religious leaders, other times it's
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Jesus's own family, or sometimes it's even the disciples
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themselves. Sight for the blind.
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But I think this phrase also speaks to healing more broadly,
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right? Not just the blind, but also the
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lame and the lepers, the deaf and even the dead.
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Just like Jesus told the disciples of John the Baptist
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when they came to ask on John's behalf if Jesus was really the
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Messiah or if they were supposed to wait for someone else to
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come. Good news to the poor, released
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to the captives, sight for the blind and to proclaim that the
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oppressed will be set free. Again, I think this connects
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with the other two phrases that preceded carries the idea of
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deliverance but also healing where those conditions have
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their source in demonic activity.
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Like that woman who came into the synagogue and she was bent
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over and was set free after 18 years.
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But again, it's not just proclamation that this is
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possible that could happen, it's demonstration.
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Jesus does it. Then the last phrase says and
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the time of the Lord's favor has come to proclaim that the time
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of the Lord's favor has come. This was the message that Jesus
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was going around all of Judea, all of Galilee proclaiming,
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right? Mark 115 says that Jesus went
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around proclaiming The time promised by God has come.
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At last He announced the Kingdom of God is near.
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Repent of your sins and believe the good news.
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This was Jesus's message. The the point is, Jesus was
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announcing that God had come near to his people and with his
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presence coming was coming the Kingdom.
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This was Jesus's manifesto. This passage from Isaiah is how
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Jesus framed his purpose and his ministry.
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It's how he understood all, all that he was doing and all that
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God was doing. And friends, I believe it's
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still what Jesus is doing. He's still bringing good news to
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the poor, still proclaiming released to the captive, still
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proclaiming that the blind we'll see and the oppressed will be
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set free, still proclaiming that the year of the Lord has come
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and the Kingdom of God has drawn near to us.
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And friends, Jesus is still calling us to be a part of that
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work with him, to join Him in the work of declaring that
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release is possible, to join him in the work of setting people
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free from their oppression, to join him in the work of bringing
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healing in people's lives. God wants to use you.
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God wants to use you, surrendered to the Father,
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walking in intimacy with Jesus, empowered by the Spirit to do
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it. He wants to use you to do it,
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but first, first He wants to heal you and set you free.
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Because we can only give what we have already received ourselves.
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And so this morning as we close, I, I want to open the altar.
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If you want to come and pray, it's always open, right?
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Some people came during our worship time.
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But if God is speaking to your heart this morning about an area
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of your heart that needs healing, maybe thinking about
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family earlier raised some things that Jesus wants to bring
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healing to. Or maybe there's an area where
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you need freedom. Could be an area of of sin that
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you just can't seem to shake. It could be an area where you
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feel oppressed by something outside of yourself.
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Maybe you need to ask Jesus to help you hear the good news
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again, or to be given sight to see where and how His Kingdom is
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moving today. Or maybe it's something else.
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Or maybe you want to pray these things for someone else.
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There's no judgement when someone comes to the altar to
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pray. Or at least there shouldn't be,
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right? There should be celebration that
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someone is responding to the work of God in their lives or or
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desire to bear the burden alongside them, that burden that
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someone is bringing. And so as I lead us in prayer or
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as we sing the Blessed Assurance this morning, you feel free to
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come knowing that we are celebrating the work of God in
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your life. We're carrying you to Jesus as
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we come, as you come trusting. But the things Jesus said he
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came to do, he's still doing today.
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Would you pray with me, Jesus? We're so grateful.
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So grateful that you came for us and you still come for us.
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You still pursue our hearts. You still long to bring healing
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and freedom and release and sight and Jesus, we're glad
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because we can't do it on our own.
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So, God, we ask, even in just these next few moments, would
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you speak to our hearts? Would you highlight those areas
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within us where maybe there's still brokenness that you want
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to heal? Maybe there's still a wound that
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we think is is healed, but it's really just scabbed over and
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maybe there's a little bit of infection in there too, Jesus.
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And we need you to come and cleanse it out of us.
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Just maybe there are areas of our hearts where we feel
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trapped, captive, oppressed, and we don't know how to get out
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from under it. Would you come and speak
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deliverance over us, Jesus? Maybe there's physical things in
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us that need to be healed that you want to heal this morning.
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Maybe there's someone in our lives who we feel a burden for
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this morning. We want to come and lift them up
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to you, Jesus, knowing that you are the one who can do what they
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need. But Jesus, would you come,
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Spirit, would you come? Move among us in these moments.
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Do what you've been doing since you read those words from the
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prophet Isaiah. Bring your Kingdom near to us,
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and let us be changed and transformed because of it.
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We love you, Jesus, and we pray all these things in your name
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and for your sake. Amen.