WEBVTT 00:00:00.719 --> 00:00:02.879 A reading from Jeremiah. 00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:12.560 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:15.679 I appointed you a prophet to the nations. 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:23.760 Then I said, Ah, Lord God, truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy. 00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:34.799 But the Lord said to me, Do not say I'm only a boy, for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:40.960 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. 00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:50.320 Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, Now I have put my words in your mouth. 00:00:50.640 --> 00:01:02.640 See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck down and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:04.640 The word of the Lord. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:12.319 A psalm for scouts and scouters. 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:15.680 We will read responsibly by the half verse. 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:21.599 The Lord God is our great scout master who provides all our needs. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:26.319 God leads us to hand and for us all in the earth's green. 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:36.000 God leads us on trails beside waters deep and still, brooks babbling, streams rushing, and rivers raging. 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:49.599 God encourages the Eagle Scout in their upward climb. 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:07.920 Even though the trails may lead through dark valleys with towering mountains, we are courageous because the Lord God leads us onward. 00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:20.960 Even when our enemies dislike or distrust us, God blesses us with the gifts of love and forgiveness. 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:34.960 And when we climb the final trail through the awesome pass that leads to the great council fire. 00:02:57.759 --> 00:03:09.680 And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:19.280 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body, so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:26.159 Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:36.639 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. 00:03:36.879 --> 00:03:43.280 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:45.120 Love never ends. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:48.479 But as for prophecies, they will come to an end. 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:50.879 As for tongues, they will cease. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:53.520 As for knowledge, it will come to an end. 00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:58.240 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part. 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:02.319 But when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:08.800 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. 00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:12.800 When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:18.000 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:24.240 Now I know only in part, then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:27.279 And now faith, hope, and love abide. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:30.560 These three, and the greatest of these is love. 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:32.639 The word of the Lord. 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:58.720 Jesus began to teach in the synagogue at Nazareth, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. 00:04:58.959 --> 00:05:03.600 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:06.720 They said, Is not this Joseph's son? 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:18.879 He said to them, Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, Doctor, cure yourself, and you will say, Do hear also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum. 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:24.639 And Jesus said, Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:34.720 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land. 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:39.920 Yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow in Zarephath in Sidon. 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:47.920 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:52.560 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:06:00.720 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:04.079 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:07.120 The Gospel of the Lord. 00:06:21.279 --> 00:06:36.720 Is that the magi, the Epiphany is perhaps that even those who we think are pretty wacky, like astrologers, get included in the story, their way essentially finds God, and they give gifts not just of luxury, but gifts of what they have. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:44.879 Jesus has this epiphany in the Jordan River with his cousin, John the Baptist, and changes the orientation of his life. 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:47.360 Certainly a call we're invited to embody. 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:49.759 Jesus shows up at a wedding in Cana. 00:06:51.120 --> 00:07:02.959 And there's this epiphany where water that could have been used to scrub each other clean is turned into wine, where God celebrates us not in spite of us, but because of who we are. 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:12.480 And last week, Jesus has this epiphany that somehow the scriptures are going to be fulfilled in him, and certainly that's our invitation as well. 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:20.800 We cut the story short last week, and so you'll notice this week we start right off with Jesus having his one-liner sermon. 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:24.480 Today, the scripture is fulfilled in your presence. 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:30.720 And the reaction is initially kind of favorable, you know. 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:33.600 This story, I mean, and consider what's happened. 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:39.680 Jesus went to the Jordan and got baptized, and then he does some miracles in Capernaum, and now he's come home. 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:48.319 This is sort of like the college boy who has just come back with his Yale diploma, you know, and everybody says, look, look at this. 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:50.720 This is our hometown boy who's come. 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:57.199 He did so well up in New Haven, and now he's going to work his wonders here in town. 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:04.959 And then well, Jesus says something sort of harsh, you know, and after the next three sentences, they decide they're gonna throw him off a cliff. 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:12.079 And I didn't mention this to you at 8 o'clock last week, but um I did mention it at 10:30. 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:14.959 This is sort of like um in the late 80s. 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:28.319 I had mentioned to you a little bit about the Southern Baptist Convention last week, but in the late 80s, Tony Campolo, he ended up being the um spiritual advisor for Bill Clinton, and was the keynote speaker of the Southern Baptist Convention. 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:32.000 I mean, he was probably supposed to preach for like 45 minutes. 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:47.440 And he got up and in front of this huge gathering of people, his sermon went exactly like this 40,000 children are going to starve to death this week throughout the world, and none of you give a damn about it. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:55.519 And more of you are upset that I said the word damn than that 40,000 children are going to starve to death this week. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:08:57.279 And then he left. 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:01.039 That was his 45-minute keynote speech. 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:03.600 I don't know if they paid the guy or not. 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:08.080 What was funny was in youth group, we heard this story. 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:16.080 I mean, I heard that story in youth group, and I sure was more upset that Tony had said the word damn in church. 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:22.240 And that's kind of what Jesus does today in the synagogue. 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:25.840 It's not gonna make much sense. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:28.799 I mean, it's really even hard to stretch this. 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:32.320 Um, what's the expectation here? 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:43.759 Maybe it is, in fact, that Jesus who has done this great stuff is now gonna go back and live there and be very insular and just do it for his own community. 00:09:43.919 --> 00:10:05.679 And Jesus sort of says something like, Listen, I get that we all love uh what I've got to offer and what just happened and what God's doing, but I want you to remember, folks, that way back in 9-11 there were a lot of sick people in the United States, and God's only healing happened in Saudi Arabia. 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:08.799 Well, Mike, that's a stretch. 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:11.279 It's not really a stretch in the text. 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:20.320 You have to figure out here what could Jesus say that would make you want to throw him off a cliff? 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:29.840 Who would Jesus have to tell you to love so that you would want him thrown off a cliff? 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:31.840 And you might say, there's nobody. 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:34.399 I know I'm supposed to love everybody. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:43.519 We do know we're supposed to love everybody, and maybe that's why we get to hear the Corinthians text today talk about what love is. 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:54.559 Now, I don't want to be a dead uh horse here, but I'm very, very confident we read this poem a lot about weddings, and it is a poem. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:11:04.320 In fact, a lot of scholars aren't sure whether Paul wrote this or not, but what Paul does is uses this in a letter to really locate the greatest of all virtues. 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:15.840 And I do think we are so stuck up on love being something that we feel instead of something that we practice. 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:20.799 And I want you to contrast those because to be honest, love is patient. 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:24.240 My feelings are not very patient. 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:29.840 My planning can be, but my feelings are not always patient. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:33.919 Now I will tell you, I can be patient when I'm plotting revenge. 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:39.759 So that's why we go to the next thing that love is also kind. 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:43.039 So it's not only patient, it's kind. 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:51.600 Boy, I'll tell you what, um, I sometimes do feel like being kind, but um, is my kindness always patient? 00:11:51.759 --> 00:11:59.120 Actually, when I feel like being kind and people frustrate it, um, my patience usually goes right out the window. 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:03.039 It does not envy, it doesn't boast. 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:12.559 You see now how you start compiling these adjectives, and well, feeling alone might not just embody these. 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:16.240 This is a deep set of practices. 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:22.799 And Paul's writing this to a community that's having a lot of disagreements among itself. 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:29.840 We got to hear last week, a part of the body says they're more important than the other part. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:31.919 They can do without the rest. 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:36.320 Everybody needs to have what I've got, and then we'll really function. 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:43.519 And then Paul is writing: listen, you may think that speaking some prophetic words is the most important. 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:44.559 It isn't. 00:12:44.879 --> 00:12:51.120 You may think that speaking in tongues is the most important thing, it isn't. 00:12:52.720 --> 00:13:00.639 You may think that being able to predict the future or turn water into wine is the most important. 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:02.480 It isn't. 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:31.360 Paul says that the greatest gift is this kind of love, and thereby he differentiates, I think, what we often confuse between things like feeling and easy love, and these difficult practices, particularly when people don't agree with us, particularly when people frustrate our hopes. 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:52.399 Now we could read what Paul says that love endures all things and hopes all things, and say, listen, Paul's just saying that love is just blind optimism, it's just naivety, but no, I think what Paul's saying is that love is able to find hope in hell. 00:13:55.279 --> 00:14:01.919 If you're like me, you have a really hard time loving like that. 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:07.039 And that's why we read this letter. 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:18.320 I'm not talking about eternal hells, although I do want you to know, if you if you want to read a good imaginative exercise on that, I commend to you, C. 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:18.480 S. 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:20.240 Lewis's book, The Great Divorce. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:21.679 It's 90 pages. 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:24.159 You could probably read it in a week. 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:25.519 Easily. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:27.039 In that book, C. 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:27.200 S. 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:35.440 Lewis says that hell is only eternal if we choose that, but that God beckons us out of hell constantly. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:44.559 What he doesn't say that I think Paul is actually suggesting as well, is that many of us know hells in this life. 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:52.960 Hells of things like abuse and addiction, and living with either one of those people. 00:14:54.240 --> 00:15:02.799 And God beckons us out of those hells now, and love hopes in all things. 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:16.000 Sometimes my brain cannot imagine hope in places like that. 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:20.559 Which is why we come to church. 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:24.399 Because somehow God can. 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:29.519 And with God's help, maybe we can as well. 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:34.080 And this is the path of love that Paul invites us to. 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:40.559 Invites us to practice. 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:48.879 And what's interesting in Jeremiah, we get to hear Jeremiah's call today. 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:53.519 He's called to speak words that he doesn't want to speak. 00:15:54.480 --> 00:16:01.840 And notice in his call, he's given four things he's supposed to do according to the word of the Lord. 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:14.159 He is supposed to pluck up, pull down, destroy and overthrow to build and plant. 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:21.200 He's called to deconstruct before he raises something else. 00:16:21.360 --> 00:16:26.799 And this is what I think is perhaps the epiphany Jesus might experience himself today. 00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:36.399 He's sitting there in Nazareth and he looks out at these people who have helped raise him, and he sees that their love is very shallow. 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:41.519 They love what he might do for them. 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:44.559 But do they love him? 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:48.960 Gosh, that's a great question, isn't it? 00:16:49.120 --> 00:17:06.960 And I want to stop for a second and say in parentheses that often when I'm maddest at somebody who I thought I loved, I'm mad because they've disappointed what I wanted them to do instead of just loving them. 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:10.160 I'm gonna close that parentheses. 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:22.079 Jesus looks out and sees that, and he does something that boy, I learned how to do really well as a kid, which is speak some tough love. 00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:25.519 You know about this speaking tough love? 00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:29.039 That's where we set limits and say enough is enough. 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:37.279 The thing that perhaps Jesus does and learns to do, that is so hard for me. 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:50.880 I'm just using my imagination, I guess, is that Jesus is able to do that and actually still love the people. 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:53.599 I'm gonna tell you about myself. 00:17:53.759 --> 00:18:02.319 When I speak words about tough love, like you're gonna do this, or blank's going to happen, or I'm setting this boundary. 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:12.559 Whether it's with my co-workers or family members, or even people who come to me asking for money. 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:15.599 That happens, by the way, usually about once a week here. 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:20.160 Sometimes we'll take a week off and I'll have three in one week and none or two. 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:27.119 I set this tough love boundary and in the middle of doing that. 00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:31.680 I usually rest in the toughness. 00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:37.279 And somehow the love just I can't seem to find it. 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:41.920 You're probably better people than I am. 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:55.680 But sometimes when I say things like, the next time you blank, you're going to lose, or I'm going to do blank, where my emotional energy goes is what I'm going to do next time. 00:18:57.279 --> 00:19:00.720 And not hoping in all things. 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:09.839 When disappointed, I usually think, here's what you deserve instead of. 00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:18.880 Now listen, Jesus doesn't fail to set the boundary. 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:20.640 That's obvious here. 00:19:20.960 --> 00:19:22.960 He calls these people to the carpet. 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:26.720 He has literally a come to Jesus meeting. 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:33.039 And they come to Jesus to throw him off a cliff. 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:35.200 Notice how they come. 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:36.319 They don't. 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:38.079 This is really confusing why they don't. 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:43.359 I mean, they bring him to the cliff and he just sort of walks through them, and that's strange. 00:19:47.680 --> 00:20:03.359 But I wonder if Jesus isn't able in that moment of calling people to the carpet to be deeply in love with them, even while he does it. 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:12.720 Maybe you have figured out how to do that already, but I can tell you that often eludes me. 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:17.759 Often when I set the boundary, often when I'm upset, that's where I stay. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:22.319 And I don't practice being patient. 00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:26.640 Or if I do, I don't practice being kind. 00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:34.160 I often hope people get what they deserve when I have to set the boundary instead of hoping they turn it around. 00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:42.319 I didn't know about being proud in those moments, but I sure do know about being rude. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:55.680 I know because my voice has a tone and an inflection that is neither kind nor patient nor hopeful. 00:20:57.759 --> 00:21:13.680 I don't know how Jesus sounded in the synagogue, but I wonder if Jesus didn't this day find that in the middle of plucking down and pulling up, he was really just there to build and to plant. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:34.400 I wonder if Jesus wasn't trying to do what John the Baptist says, which is to separate the chaff out so that the wheat can grow, to pull down the shanties that we live in, so that we can build a mansion for God's presence. 00:21:35.359 --> 00:21:40.799 And I am positive that our feelings will never take us there. 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:44.000 Or if they do, that they won't last. 00:21:44.079 --> 00:21:56.400 I'm positive that we're being invited to practice the kind of love that call that Paul calls us to if we ever want to see that transformation in our lives and in our world. 00:21:57.680 --> 00:22:03.279 I don't think I need to say it would be amazing to see Congress be patient. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:09.680 It would be amazing to see our political leaders be kind, don't you think? 00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:20.000 And as much as I'd like to hope that, I suppose I'm not able to control their practices. 00:22:20.720 --> 00:22:23.839 So this week I'm invited to control my own. 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:30.319 And to start with patience and kindness. 00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:43.440 If those are the only two things we could do, if we miss the other seven, how much brighter would our lives shine with God's love. 00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:57.359 The double message is that we're not to be afraid to set boundaries, but that we're to set them with empathy, with hope. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:11.519 That when our own imagination fails, that's why we come and ask God every week to give us energy and nourishment so we can grow. 00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:21.279 Again, the opportunity here is not just to hear about epiphanies Jesus might have had, but to have our own and to be like Jesus.