St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen, Jersey City NJ
January 31, 2016
Year C: The Fourth
Sunday after the Epiphany
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Luke 4:21-30
Rejection
Rejection
is one of the hardest things we face in life.
At
one time or another we’ve all been rejected, right?
The
other day at the nursing home I amused the crowd by telling the story of the
first time I worked up the courage to ask a girl out on a date.
We
had gone through all of school together so we knew each other pretty well and
by 7th grade I had worked up the courage to ask her out. I practiced
what I was going to say and imagined what the date would be like.
The
day came and I said the words and waited nervously and expectantly.
She
looked at me with a look that said, “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard”
or “You’ve got to be kidding me” or “Uh, no, not ever.”
Rejection.
It
was painful and so embarrassing. For years after I avoided her, looking the
other way whenever I saw her coming.
Rejection.
At
one time or another we’ve all been rejected – rejected by someone we like,
someone we love, rejected by someone we try to befriend, rejected by a
potential employer.
Rejection.
Of
course, we’re in good company.
I
was really bummed out that last week’s celebration of our patronal feast, the
Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, was almost
snowed out by last week’s blizzard.
Almost snowed out, because nineteen of
us still managed to get ourselves to church – church where it was freezing cold
because on top of everything else the furnace was out – church where we still
managed with chattering teeth and visible breath to worship God and receive the
Body and Blood of Christ.
I’m
not eager to repeat that icy experience anytime soon but, you know, there was
something appropriate to celebrating St. Paul in conditions like that.
If
you know anything about Paul you know that he faced many obstacles in his
mission of sharing the Good News to the Gentiles, the non-Jews.
The
other apostles didn’t always trust him, remembering only too well that earlier
in his life Paul, or Saul as he was then known, had persecuted the early
Church.
Over
the course of his ministry, as he traveled around the Mediterranean world, he
endured arrests and beatings and shipwrecks, and, ultimately, according to
tradition, execution in Rome.
All
of that was bad enough, but probably the hardest thing faced by Paul was rejection.
Maybe
because he suffered from some kind of physical ailment – maybe a speech
impediment or an eye disorder, maybe because he was not particularly
good-looking or the most eloquent, maybe because his message was just too hard
for people to understand or accept, for any number of reasons, over and over
Paul was rejected.
And
even when he wasn’t rejected, even when he managed to get a little Christian
community started, no sooner would he leave than he’d get word that they were
doing exactly what he had told them not to do.
The
church in Corinth gave him particular trouble because they seem to have been
led astray by others and fallen in love with what they perceived as their many special
spiritual gifts, things like prophesying and speaking in tongues.
And
so Paul’s beautiful hymn to love that we heard in our second reading is
actually part of a rebuke. Paul is criticizing the Corinthians because they had
rejected his teaching and forgotten the most important thing: love.
Love
that is patient and kind. Love that is not envious, boastful, or rude.
Love
that endures all things.
Love
that never ends.
Paul
faced rejection through his life and, yet, despite his anger, hurt, and
disappointment, managed in the end to remember the most important thing: love.
Of
course, like us, the rejected Paul was in good company.
Jesus
himself knew all about rejection.
Today’s
gospel lesson is the second half of the story of Jesus in his hometown
synagogue.
Actually,
things got off to a good start.
Some
of his fellow Nazarenes were aware of works of power that Jesus had performed
in Capernaum and maybe other places before coming back home.
Jesus
took his place in the synagogue and read from the Prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of the
sight of the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favor.”
After
that he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, sat down, and
said, “Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
So
far, so good. The people are impressed by his eloquence but then we realize
things are going off track when they ask, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” Of
course, we know that they’re wrong
about that, but there’s also a hint of doubt and maybe even hostility.
How
could a local boy, son of a craftsman, speak so well?
And,
how on earth could this local boy possibly be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s long
ago prophecy?
Jesus
seems to anticipate the rejection of his hometown, the rejection of the people
he had known his whole life – a most painful rejection.
Jesus
seems to anticipate the rejection of the people who looked like him and talked
like him when he reminded the crowd of the prophets Elijah and Elisha who had
both ministered beyond their communities, to non-Jews, to Gentiles.
This
enrages the hometown crowd, cements their rejection, and, we’re told, they want
to throw Jesus off a cliff!
Now
that’s rejection.
Jesus
knew all about rejection.
And,
of course, that day in Nazareth won’t be the last time Jesus faced rejection.
At
the end – or what seemed to be the
end - we know that Jesus was rejected by just about everybody, left to die on
the cross, abandoned by all or nearly all of his friends.
And
yet, how did Jesus respond to this terrible rejection?
Despite
the pain and disappointment and even horror, despite this most terrible rejection,
Jesus offers nothing but love and forgiveness.
So,
what does all of this mean for us?
First,
when we’re rejected, we’re called to offer nothing but love and forgiveness.
Very hard, I know. Only possible with God’s help.
Second,
we all, at one time or another, probably lots of times, reject Jesus – reject
Jesus when we fail to love one another and forgive one another, yet we know
that even when we reject Jesus, no matter how many times we reject Jesus, Jesus
will always respond with love and forgiveness.
Jesus
will never reject us.
And
that, my fellow rejects, is very good news, indeed.
Amen.
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