Dr. Dale Miller

March 4, 2007

Hiking to the Heart of our Home

Part Two of Six Part Sermon Series, "In His Steps"

Luke 4:16-30

Written by Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz is one of the most enduring, and endearing, of children's stories. Of course, it was made into an incredible movie with dancer, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, comedian, Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, actor, Jack Haley as the Tin Man and young Judy Garland as Dorothy. When I was a child and saw that movie for the first time I was convinced that I never wanted to run into the Evil Witch of the West (wonderfully portrayed by Margaret Hamilton) and her mean flying monkeys!

The Wizard of Oz made use of a relatively new technology, color, by starting the movie in black and white while they were on the farm in Kansas, then switching to color when Dorothy arrives in the kingdom of Oz. When Dorothy lands in Oz via a tornado, she is looking to find her way home. She encounters the Scarecrow who is looking for a brain, a Tin Man who is seeking a heart, and a Cowardly Lion who needs to discover his personal courage.

Through the course of their adventures they discover that home is really wonderful, even if the grass looks greener elsewhere. The moral of the story seems to be that we have it within ourselves to be happy. Home is always there and we hold the key. We must open it ourselves.

• Everyone has courage. The only difference is, some have been recognized for their courage.
• We have a brain. It's just that some have a diploma.
• Everyone has a heart. All we have to do is care enough to activate it.
• We have the capacity to be home at anytime. We have to learn how to be at home with ourselves.

Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow came together for a purpose. They all wanted to improve themselves or their situation. Banding together with common purpose, they accomplished their objective. They reached the Wizard. It was the process of the collaborative effort, however, that proved to be enlightening. Through the adventure they learned about themselves. So they accomplished their goals not in the manner they thought, but through the process of pursuing a shared vision.

Jesus went home to Nazareth. It was a town no one really gave a whole lot of thought about. In fact, scripture has someone saying, "Can anything good come of Nazareth?" Jesus did. He came out of Nazareth and now he is on his way back, headed back to his home. Like Dorothy, Jesus knew that his true home was when he came to understand and be at home with himself, his purpose, and his mission.

When the Israelites were looking for a Messiah, a Chosen One, they were looking for someone who was going to protect their homeland. They wanted to find their safe, secure, and protected home as it used to be when God delivered the Promised Land to them. Instead, Jesus came to proclaim that the home they were seeking was the fullness of their humanity that was deep inside them, the spark of the divine that challenges us to live beyond any personal selfishness.

As Jesus began his first sermon he is received with universal approval by the gathering. He preaches the kind of sermon that offends no one, confirms their hopes and makes them glad they came to worship. But something happens. Jesus gives two examples from the scriptures of what Isaiah's prophecy means: two examples of good news to the poor, liberty to captives and restoring of sight to the blind.

He says when famine raged in Israel and people died like flies, the prophet Elijah was sent not to the Jewish widows. No, he went to a widow of Zaraphath in Sidon, not an Israelite at all. And then the prophet Elisha did not cure the leprosy from which the Israelites were suffering. No, he cured the leprosy of Naaman, who was a Syrian.

Jesus is celebrated in his hometown as the local lad who made good: until he proclaims the year of the Lord's favor: until he reveals to them in unambiguous terms the truth of the Kingdom of God. There is a new understanding of God's kingdom coming down the road. It will require more than family connections, or strict adherence to the law, to transform their lives and make them whole in heart and mind and conscience.

The motley crowd that follows Jesus and went to Nazareth with him that day has been caught by a promise and a vision that has already changed their lives. But the people of Nazareth, who out of curiosity leave their houses and work in order to see what the son of Mary and Joseph has made of himself, do not want personal change. What happened in the synagogue changed the people from being "astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips" to being an angry mob, threatening to throw Jesus off the cliff.

"No prophet," says Jesus "is honored in his own home town." Perhaps that is the truth. The most difficult thing for the people of Nazareth was to hear hard things from one of their own. Who does he think he is? Is not this the son of Mary and Joseph, whom we know are part of our community? Who does he think he's talking to? Jesus was already pigeon-holed by the congregation and, however famous he was elsewhere, when he came home, it was obviously their opinion that he should know his place and not cross the boundaries or there would be trouble.

Jesus knows his place, but it is not at the end of the yellow brick road. His place is where and when he is at peace with himself following the mission that is set before him. He then tells his listeners what is involved with his mission. They get angry because it is not the direction they were expecting. They are not asking to take steps that insure prosperity, security and success. They are asked to strip away the layers of misunderstanding that prevent them from traveling to the center of their hearts.

In the newspaper an editorial once read: "After a man makes a visit to his boyhood town, he finds that it wasn't the old town he wanted but his boyhood." Perhaps the longing within the citizens of Nazareth may be the residue of grief over what they have lost, but it also may be the fact that they are lost as well. Perhaps they are hoping that if only their livelihoods could be reconstructed according to some former external design, the longing will cease. Instead, Jesus suggests that some internal reconstruction of their lives is required.

We need to ask, "Who is Jesus for our lives?" Allow me to suggest three responses:

• Jesus comes to us as one of us. When Jesus went back to Nazareth he was one of them, a Nazareth boy. They knew him as one of them. God sent him to be that. Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of humanity. In doing this, Jesus identifies himself with all of us. He took upon himself all the pain, sorrow, sin and heartache of those he walked among.

Years ago the phone rang in the church office. I picked up the receiver to answer and I heard a voice say, "Sorry, this is the wrong number," and hung up. I thought to myself, "Actually, I'm the wrong number. You're the right number dialing the wrong number!" Jesus came to be one of us, to become the wrong number so that we would be the right number.

• Jesus comes to us where we are. He went home to his own people first and met them where they were. He knew where they were. He knew they couldn't see past the boy from Nazareth. He still went to them. Wherever there were people who had troubles, problems pains and sorrows, Jesus went to them.

A teacher asked her 5th grade students how many points there are on a compass. One girl said, "Five!" He said, "No, there are four." The girl replied, "But I can prove it. There is north, south, east, west and the place where I am right now." Wherever we are right now Jesus is the one who will make himself a part of our life. He comes to us where we are.

• Jesus comes to us and calls us to go with him. Jesus left Nazareth and went on the road. No one from Nazareth went with him. He called no disciples from Nazareth and no one volunteered. Jesus does call us to go with him. For whoever we are and whatever we are, he does not leave us as we are. He calls us to become more than we are and to move on further than we are.

I remember a colleague telling me about a trip that she made to Haiti. She told of walking in the streets of one of the little villages surrounded by children who barely had enough to eat. She was greeted warmly by families whose income would not exceed a few hundred dollars a year. At the time she and her husband were carrying camera equipment that cost quite a lot of money. The night after her return to Michigan she was eating in a restaurant in Port Huron. She found herself beginning to weep. She was home again, but she knew that home, the home in her heart, would never be the same.

What are the results of our inward journey, this quest to uncover the grace of God within our hearts? As God has loved us, we are able to love and accept ourselves. We can know ourselves for what we are, and therefore we can destroy any false images of ourselves that we project instead of the real "me."

In fact, it is only as we love ourselves, accept ourselves, and know ourselves that we are enabled to become something different - higher, nobler. The high love of God that accepts us and redeems us can challenge us to new and higher behavior and deeper discovery.

In relation to other people, we are enabled to enter into relationships that are meaningful and real. We can love, accept and respect others, for we have been loved and we don't have to be defensive. As the poet Browning puts it:

Be love your light and trust your guide,
with these explore my heart!
No obstacle to trip you then,
strike hands and souls apart!

Jesus is inviting us into a new kingdom reality. We are God's creation, free to be ourselves because we have been accepted in love. We now have responsibilities we did not have before. We see these responsibilities not as obligations, but as opportunities to experience God's grace in our lives and through our lives.

We live so that the living Word of God, Jesus Christ, can live in us and through us. This living Word reaches out and touches us, grasping our lives and redirecting them. We live by the living Word, at home with ourselves and with our Christ.

This morning, as we take the bread and dip it into the cup, we claim the living Word for our lives. We rejoice in the grace of God that stirs the blood in our hearts and makes us alive in Jesus Christ. Through Holy Communion God is brought closer to us and we bring ourselves closer to God.

Here is the place and today is the time to unload all that is unnecessary in life and to follow this preacher from Nazareth, follow him all the way into the center of our souls. Just as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion were not alone in their journey, we are not alone. We have banded together in a common purpose, pursuing a shared vision, not to reach a mythical Wizard, but to claim the grace of God for our lives. Amen.