On Good News and Bad News
February 2, 2025
Traceymay Kalvaitis

Psalm 71: 1-3
In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me. Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

From Luke chapter 4 we have the conclusion of the story we heard last week, when Jesus, speaking in his hometown synagogue and reading from a scroll the words of the prophet Isaiah, identified himself as one anointed by God.

Luke 4:21-40
Then [Jesus] began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 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; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 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. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
***
Today’s sermon is titled On Good News and Bad News.
When asked the question, “What do you want first, the good news or the bad news?” 78% of people want to hear the bad news first.* Had Jesus known this, I’m not sure if things would have turned out any better for him in his hometown of Nazareth. Jesus had a tough audience that evening in the synagogue. They think they know him and they have heard about what happened at the wedding in Capernaum, even though Capernaum was 50 miles away. Jesus had turned water to wine and not just a little bit of water, either. There were 6 stone jars, each holding 20-30 gallons of water, that Jesus turned into 120 gallons, or more, of wine.
Perhaps the inhabitants of Nazareth had high hopes about what Jesus could do for them. Nazareth, during Jesus’s lifetime, was a tiny village. Based on archeological digs, archeologists estimate a dozen families lived in Nazareth during the time Jesus was growing up.** So we can imagine that Jesus spoke to a crowd of around 100 people as he read the following words 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 sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” That was the good news. Then, Jesus said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
With those words, it began to dawn on the people of Nazareth what they were witnessing. Joseph and Mary’s son, Jesus, was claiming to be the long awaited Messiah, the anointed one, the Christ. Jesus must have been acutely aware of how the tenor changed in the synagogue in those moments, how the “amazement” the scriptures describe turns, and begins to twist, into something else entirely.
Sensing this shift, Jesus knows, there is no room for the Holy Spirit of God to work in and through because the people have passed the point of openness and receptivity; their “amazement” has shifted to apprehension. There will be no miracles for them. There will be no proof. There will be no epiphanies, and there will be no gift of grace because the people are no longer receptive to insight, not receptive to change, not receptive to the unexpected. The unexpected is like the unknown; whatever it may be, or who it may be, is scary, unfamiliar, and threatening. Being caught off guard by the unexpected can cause a survival response that is aggressively protective. Sensing this rising tension, what does Jesus do? He pushes it just a little bit further. What he says next, about the prophets Elijah and Elisha, sends that crowd right over the proverbial edge.
What Jesus says, essentially, is “I can not help you because your hearts and minds are closed.” No one wants to hear that. That is very bad news. That’s the kind of news that, if you hear it first, you need some really good news to follow. Jesus does not offer a chaser of good news. Perhaps veering into the defensive, Jesus reminds the people about the stories they already know of their two beloved prophets, stories of the prophets doing great works not among the Hebrew people but among the Syrians and the Phoenicians because it was among the outsiders, among the unchosen, where they were most able to transmit the healing power of God, and why? Because these outsiders, these foreigners, these “others” were not clouded by what they thought they already knew; they were in a place of vulnerability; they were in a place of need and they were receptive to receiving the grace of God.
Jesus brings these stories of the prophets back out into the light of day, and the people are incensed. Let’s take good care not to fault them, either, for they simply reacted as most people do to hearing what they don’t want to hear. I’d like to share with you a passage from a series I inherited called The New Interpreter’s Bible; it was written in 1952. It is not contemporary commentary but it rings true, all the same. “Jesus was saying to the people gathered that often it has been shown that God’s goodness could not be appropriated by those who thought they had a special claim on God, but that it went out to all those who were eager and receptive and those who were thus eager might be not those of orthodox privilege, but the stranger and the alien. Always, there is a tendency to resent that. A church wants to keep its religious privileges to itself; it does not want to be annoyed with unduly difficult claims for Christian missions. The congregation’s business, it thinks, is to nurture its own life, and moreover it is God’s business that this precious life of its own should be thus nurtured. Men who decide the policies of nations in their legislative assemblies often have the same idea; whatever happens, the nation’s special interests must stand first. Anyone who suggests that other peoples of the earth might be equally important in God’s sight is to be pushed aside as an intolerable nuisance. Still there are many places where a message such as that which Jesus spoke on that sabbath in the synagogue would be as unwelcome as it was in Nazareth.”
The friends and neighbors of Jesus gathered in the synagogue that day worked themselves into a defensive rage and chased Jesus straight out of town, or at least most of them did. I’d like to think that a few were touched deeply enough to keep their fear at bay and allow themselves to open up to something new, something completely unexpected. Perhaps a few found a new teacher that day.
Friends, the lessons we can take from this dramatic story are many, but I offer you three for good measure; they all have to do with how we perceive one another. The first lesson is to avoid the trap of thinking we know all there is to know about someone. How often have you said, or heard someone say, “Oh, they’re just like that.” Such statements confine. Such statements allow no room for the Holy Spirit of God to enter in. Let’s instead allow one another to change, allow one another to surprise us, even. Let’s look for the best in ourselves and in others. Lesson two: Let’s avoid the trap of generalizing about groups of people. Consider the wide range of diversity among Christians. There is at least as much diversity among the group we call Republicans, among Democrats, Independents and among the apolitical. We are all people who have way more in common than we like to admit. Look past the labels; look for the person. Lesson three: As followers of Jesus, we are called to look for the light of Christ in one another, especially in those whom we think are least like us. Every living thing contains a spark of the Divine; it is up to us to look for it, to recognize it when we see it, and then to honor its presence.
In closing, I hope we provide space for ourselves to be amazed as we encounter stories about Jesus during this season of Epiphany. I hope we will allow room for positive change for others and for ourselves. I hope we can practice looking beyond the well-illumined area that surrounds us and those like us, and look into the shadows of the unknown, for it is in the shadows of uncertainty we are most receptive to the light and the unexpected possibility of Christ, within us and among us. So be it. Amen.
*https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ulterior-motives/201406/why-hearing-good-news-or-bad-news-first-really-matters
**https://www.timesofisrael.com/listen-what-do-we-know-about-nazareth-in-jesus-time-an-archaeologist-explains/

Pastoral Prayer

God of the stillness, we thank you for the quiet spaces in between. Help us to push back the world and create a safe harbor for ourselves where we can reflect and rest. When problems and concerns are looming large in our minds and hearts, Lord, remind us to begin within, to seek your calm and your peace. From this centered place, we can see the world, and all our brothers and sisters in a new light…a light that comes from you. From this centered place within, we find a depth of understanding and a clarity of purpose that reshapes us in your divine image. From this centered place, we can lay down our expectations and learn to trust that through your grace, we will have all the love we need, even in grave adversity. Help us, Lord, to feel deserving of such grace, so that we may fully receive what you intend for us. In thankfulness we pray. Amen.

Benediction

I leave you with these words from Psalm 91:
“To his angels he has given command about you, that they guard you in all your ways; upon their hands they shall bear you up.”