JANUARY 31, 2010 11:15 AM EPIPHANY IV

Jesus Inaugural Sermon

Every year I find a profound sense of hope in the presidents State of the Union address, and this past
Wednesday night was no different. It doesnt matter what party the president belongs to, or whether he
has a gift for words or not. It is one of those occasions when the presidentDemocrat or Republicanis
mostly at his best. Because on that night it seems all presidents try to do the same thing. They frame the
particulars of their agenda and their assessment of where we are as a nationall of which you may agree
or disagree with depending on your politicsin a broader context that resonates with our deepest hopes
and aspirations as a people. Most presidents on that night try to paint a portrait of what our best selves
looks like: working across partisan lines for the good of all, compassion for the least among us, and
concern about the welfare of the rest of the world.
Usually there are several ordinary Americans invited to sit up near the first lady, whose stories of
extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice on behalf of fellow citizens are highlighted. Its always a speech
that tries to lift us up out of our life-choking divisions, prejudices, cynicism, mean-spirited political
accusations, score-keeping, and narrow self-interests. But as we know all-to-well, appeals for joining
hands across our divides for the common good where the needs of all are considered are too often met by
partisan ears in both the House chamber and living rooms across the land. The casting of lofty expansive
visions is met with exclusive, narrow, and self-interested protests. By the end of the presidents address,
some folk are actually enraged. It happens every year regardless of what party occupies the White House.
Christian love takes every ounce of your maturity and hard work over a lifetime,
waking up every morning asking God for the grace to help you love despite others and
despite yourself.
For two Sundays now weve been listening to Jesus give a sort of combined inaugural/State of the Union
sermon in his home-town synagogue at Nazareth. Hes come to launch his public ministry. Quoting the
prophet Isaiah, he rolls out a platform grounded in Gods extravagant love and inclusion for all. He
announces that good news will be proclaimed to the poorthose who are poor because they have no food
on their table and those who are poor in spirit because they are enslaved by too much stuff, and everyone
else in between whose spirits long for refreshment and renewal by Gods grace. And the blindthose who
just never seem to get it right about life, those who are awake at night worrying about who is in and who is
outwill finally recover sight to see the world as it really is and will begin to see the face of God in every
other person. It is a big, bold, expansive, vision that can happen in the world only because of lovea love
that we can only begin to give and receive by allowing the transforming grace of God to work in and
through us.
Now we hear that at first the people marvel at Jesus gracious words. They are blown away by his
eloquence and vision, and on top of it all, hes one of their own. The synagogue was packed! But we know
how quickly soaring visions that call us to our best selves, the selves we were created for, can come
crashing down on hardened hearts. By the end of Jesus sermon the faithful are so enraged they want to
run him out of town and throw him off a cliff.
What is happening here? First of all, the people in Jesus hometown are guilty of the sin that has plagued
religious people since the dawn of consciousness: the sin of exclusivity. God is for us and not for them.
Gods primary agenda with them, so they assume, is freedom from their oppressors. Jesus is, indeed,
preaching a message of freedom, but its not about political or national liberation, its about Gods
liberation for all regardless of nationality, gender, race, or any other division that keeps us one from
another. And Jesus tells them that Gods primary agenda is that they are to be a light the world,
manifesting Gods extravagant love for all. He promises the gift of Gods grace for this awesome,
transforming vocation in the world. He tells the home town crowd that their real oppression comes not
from political or national foes but their own fearful, walled-in, self-possessed worldview, which keeps
them from the transforming power of Gods love in the first place.
Jesus launches a ministry proclaiming that Gods grace is never subject to human limitations and
boundaries. We are to be instruments of Gods boundless love but were never to set limits on who is to
receive Gods love. This is Gods mission for us. Actor/playwright Jim Nagle, who is with us for tonights
performance of Fourth & Walnut, a play about the spiritual journey of Thomas Merton, puts it quite
simply when he describes the Christian vocation as helping all people realize that they are loved
unconditionally by God. Friday night in his sermon at our diocesan convention Eucharist, Byron Rushing,
an Episcopal priest, social justice advocate, and Massachusetts legislator, said somewhat shockingly, The
church doesnt have a missionGod has a mission and a church to help realize that mission. What he
was trying to say is that Gods expansive love and extravagant grace are so much bigger than the agendas
or mission statements of any one group, religious or otherwise.
Throughout history the Gospel has always been more radically inclusive than any group, denomination, or
church. And the paradox of the gospel is that the unlimited grace that it offers so often scandalizes us that
were unable to receive it. It has been said that its not Gods aloofness or judgment that makes us angry;
its Gods mercy. Its too big, too wide. And that is why it is always just a matter of time before arguments
that try to use the Gospel to excludebe it by, race, nation, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or any
other divisionalways fail. How many times has the church had to make a public apology for its part in
the discrimination of some group that it rationalized with the use of Scripture?
Lets turn for a minute to St. Paul and this mornings first reading from his First Letter to the Corinthians.
We usually associate this reading with joy and unity because we hear it most often at weddings. But the
original audience of this letter was a bitterly divided church. People were taking sides as to which group
was in possession of the greater truth. Sound familiar? And like Jesus before in the synagogue at
Nazareth, Paul tells the church that only through love will their divisions be healed, and, once again Gods
love extends to all. Is is not the exclusive claim of one group claiming a greater righteousness than
everyone elseGod is so big, and we are so small, as a seminary professor liked to remind us.
Paul is not talking about sentimental or even romantic love. Because Gospel love is grounded by dogged,
determined commitment that requires daily, intentional work to love even when you dont feel like loving.
Or as my friend Paul Zhal, former rector of All Saints Parish just up the street, is fond of saying, Gospel
love is about learning to love some of the most disagreeable people you will ever meet. Of course we cant
begin to do this on our own. Rather, this is a love that flows from opening ourselves to free gift of Gods
grace.
It has been said that Christian love is understood by looking at the world as it is and the recognition that,
because the world is as it is, nothing less than love will do. That is the Gospel love Jesus was preaching in
the synagogue in Nazareth and what Paul is writing to the Corinthians about. So faith, hope, and love
abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. The greatest of these is love, because the dogged
determination to love even when you dont feel like loving holds the only hope for reconciliation and
redemption. Those of you in the Cathedral community who have taken the DOCC course have heard the
dean talk about Christian love as agape love, love that seeks not its own. Christian love takes every
ounce of your maturity and hard work over a lifetime, waking up every morning asking God for the grace
to help you love despite others and despite yourself.
I admit when I talk like this Ive had young couples in marriage preparation sessions say, Good grief you
dont make love sound like much fun at allwheres the joy, the romance, the spark? And of course Im
sure theyre sitting there thinking no wonder this guy is single. Surely there is nothing more beautiful and
energizing than romantic love; its just that the kind of love called for in the Gospel isnt always so
romanticbut it is always liberating. And any of you who have been in love in a romantic way know how
notoriously short-lived can be our feelings of such love. That is why the question in the wedding ceremony
is not Jack do you love Kim? It is Jack will you love Kim? The next time you are at a wedding notice that.
Those of you who have been married or partnered for a long time know that love is a lot more dependent
on commitment and fidelity than feelings.
But it is exactly through this kind of love that we become our best selves, to be the people we were created
to be, and to be set free from the bonds that keep us unable to move beyond the boundaries we hide
behind that keep us one from another.
Of course, left to our own devises we quickly give in to our divisions, jealousies, and partisan- and self-
interests. Its why we ask Gods blessings upon our marriages and loving relationships. Love is a gift from
God, not just a human achievement. So we come here to this table to ask God to open our hearts to the
grace of Christian loveto be able to start loving one another as God loves each of us in Christ. Maybe this
is what is missing from State of the Union addresses. In this self-professed religious nation, wouldnt it be
something if some year the president would conclude this speech by inviting the nation into a period of
prayer, asking for the grace to become agents of Gods transforming love in the world.
In spite of all of our divisionsboth in and out of the churchthis is the greatest gift we Christians have to
offer. Such selfless, reconciling love is, in fact, our vocation in the world. Christian love is steadfast love;
its about long-term endurance. Its about becoming our best selves, the people we were created for in the
first place.