Hi everyone,
Welcome to worship for this 4th Sunday after Pentecost, February 2, 2025!
The bulletin for this service can be found here. In it, you’ll find the order and words of worship as well as the full sermon. You can use to the bulletin to follow along with the service, or you could use the words that will appear on the screen. The sermon is also included on this page below the worship video.
If you’d like a fuller worship experience online, you can have a candle in your space, lit at the beginning of the service and extinguished near the end, after the sending hymn when the altar candles are extinguished. You are also welcome to join in communion if you are comfortable, by having something small to eat and drink ready for the appropriate time. Further instruction will be given then.
May God’s unending grace and mercy be apparent to you, this day and always!
God of life and love, open our hearts this day, that our eyes may see our ears hear your very real and gracious presence with us, granting us peace and mercy, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
So earlier this week I found myself not unusually predisposed in the washroom taking care of some, uh, business, when a knock came to the door. Now this isn’t unusual either in our house as the boundaries around our “private time” aren’t always set or even respected if they were, but hey, at least the door didn’t swing open. Anyway, I have to admit that I was a bit perturbed with the interruption, because you know, that business isn’t going to take care of itself. But before I could say anything, I heard our daughter call from the other side of the door, “Yo, when you’re done, can we hang?” Her exact words.
How can I stay annoyed at that?
I’m at a stage in my parenting life where our kids are wanting less and less to hang out with their parents, talk to their parents, or even be seen in the same vicinity as their parents, so this was a nice surprise. I mean for our little girl knock on one of the most sacred doors in our home to so politely request to spend time together? I almost felt bad for being annoyed that my “me time” was yet again interrupted. So needless to say I finished up my business lickety split (not literally), and went to find her to see what she had in mind for our “hang sesh”.
Well, I found her in the kitchen and I asked if she still wanted to hang. She said yes, and I asked where.
She looked at me and laughed and I was thinking, that’s not really a joke. But she led me to where I keep some of my exercise stuff and just stood there. The heck? Then it hit me, I realised what was going on and a second or so later, so did she. Turns out that she didn’t want to “hang” as in “hang out,” but she wanted to “hang” as literally hang off my chin up bar. And since she isn’t tall enough to set it up or even reach, she needed my help.
I chuckled a bit as I realised how my mishearing her led to such a wild misunderstanding. I mean I was a bit disappointed of course, but it was still funny how I thought I heard what I thought I heard and how I reacted to that assumption. I mean, I hurried to finish what I was doing, I put aside my plans to get some work done at my desk, and I looked forward to spending some time with the youngest of our offspring and the last one who would actively ask to hang out, even when that wasn’t what she was doing.
Of course, this has happened to many if not all of us in the past, right? We have misheard others, we have been misheard by others, and we’ve all landed in some sort of misunderstanding because of it. It’s a part of life. But sometimes it can be a problem when the misunderstanding goes too far. Like I mean past just the embarrassment of such a simple mistake, I’ve known people to get downright angry at the other like the misunderstanding was their fault. I don’t know, maybe they felt like they were being led on, intentionally deceived, or somehow manipulated. Maybe they still don’t see the misunderstanding or mistake and want to just prove their point. Or maybe the sting of just the thought of maybe being wrong set them off enough to not let it go.
And so I wonder if it’s this sting of disagreement, discouragement, and perhaps disappointment that the people of Nazareth were feeling when they were trying to hurl Jesus off a cliff. Like we talked about last week, Jesus was in his home town attending church, where he read a beautiful, comforting, and probably familiar text out of Isaiah that proclaimed good news, freedom, and the year of the Lord’s favour.
Imagine hearing that kid you watched grow up saying this to you, reaffirming everything that you were taught and were already thinking. Imagine watching one of your hometown boys show such maturity, faith, and ability to read. Imagine the pride that you’d feel in seeing someone who you maybe babysat at one point, reassure you of God’s promises, God’s favour, God’s love… toward you.
And then imagine that same kid suddenly saying what he really meant. Imagine that little homie shattering your dreams of being exclusive, favoured, and set apart. Imagine Jesus telling you that God didn’t want to just hang with you, but those you don’t particularly like or deserve that blessing.
That’s basically what Jesus did. He reminded them how Elijah wasn’t just for the people of Israel but for those outside of their borders as well. He recalled how Elisha didn’t help only those behind their exclusive walls of exclusion but opened the doors for all. He revealed to them how God is a God of great love, grace, and mercy.
And this offended them enough that they wanted him dead. Really dead. So dead that it wasn’t enough to throw rocks at him like how they’d traditionally deal with heretics, but they wanted to throw him at the rocks by tossing him off a cliff.
So angry were they at their misunderstanding that they wanted him dead. So hurt were they at their misguided assumption that they retaliated with violence. So offended were they at a message of grace and mercy that they completely closed their ears and couldn’t comprehend or even fathom how wrong they actually were.
But I get it, it isn’t easy. Taking responsibility in a gross assumption gone wrong like this takes humility. Seeing the role that we play in a misunderstanding takes strength and respect for the other. Admitting wrong, believe it or not, takes love. Love for the other. Love for ourselves. And love for God and God’s wisdom and teaching.
See when Jesus explained how Elijah and Elisha helped those outside of Israel’s borders, Jesus didn’t say that those within the borders were excluded. When they heard Jesus saying that the other is welcomed into the favour of God, he didn’t say that they were no longer welcome. When Jesus revealed how big God’s love and mercy is, he didn’t say that it was only for a select few and not anyone else. Rather, Jesus said it was for everyone. All people. Of all time.
So they were offended at God’s generosity. They wanted to kill this message of inclusivity. They rejected the notion that they weren’t the most righteous, the most faithful, and the most deserving of God’s blessing.
Thankfully though, just because that is what they were thinking, that doesn’t make them right. Just because they assumed that Jesus meant something that Jesus didn’t mean, it doesn’t mean that Jesus was wrong. Just because they were so offended by the expansive and unending love of Jesus that they tried to kill him, that doesn’t mean that the message would end, that God’s love would cease, that the darkness would overcome the light.
See Jesus walking through their midst and leaving them wondering if they were successful in driving him out or not tells us that Jesus remains untouched by their anger, unchanged by their self-righteous indignation, and un-displaced by their mis-placed offense. Jesus not staying dead three days after being crucified shows us how God’s love for all of God’s people is bigger than any kind of bullying, name-calling, and mean tweeting. This message of grace and mercy still lasting to this day reveals to all people how short-sighted, narrow-minded, and downright wrong people can be regardless of where they’re from, what colour their skin is, or the amount of worldly power they might have.
The point is that God’s love is patient and kind. It is not boastful or arrogant or rude. It keeps no record of wrongs, but flows out from the heart of God upon all of us, full of grace and mercy, and shows us how we, along with all of God’s people, are welcome, can find belonging, and are saved.
The world can be a difficult place to navigate these days. We are faced with decisions, allegiances, and wild misunderstandings. It is important that through it all, we not forget that we are God’s people not because we climbed that spiritual ladder, but because God has decided to include us, bless us, and love us. And we mustn’t forget that this is God’s eternal message that cannot be discarded, destroyed, or distorted by us, the world, or anyone in all of history as God continues to be God whether or not we admit to it, acknowledge it, or accept it in our hearts. God will continue to love and be love with us, through us, and in spite of us.
So in this season after the Epiphany, may we continually be humbled by the unending, unchanging, and everlasting message of God’s grace and mercy, that we might learn to love just as we have first been loved, through Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God. Amen.