On Being Offered an Easy Job

He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.”

(Luke 4:17b, 18a)

 

 

A sermon by Siegfried S. Johnson on the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, January 20, 2008

First United Methodist Church, 605 West 6^th, Mountain Home, Arkansas 72653

 

 

The story is told of a very religious woman in the rural south making her way through the countryside.  Each time she came to a crossroads, she would toss a stick into the air, and whichever way the stick pointed was the direction she went.  At one intersection a gentleman saw her tossing the stick into the air.  “Why are you throwing the stick like that?” he asked.

 

“I’m letting God direct my journey by using this stick,” was her reply of faith.

 

“But why three times?” he asked.

 

She responded honestly, “Because the first two times he pointed me in the wrong direction.” 

 

I wonder, when I hear people prone to say “God told me to do this,” if they don’t have bit of that woman in them, waiting for God to point them in the direction they had already decided upon.  Sometimes, it seems to me, to live with the questions rather than to suppose God is giving divine concurrence to the answer we are seeking, seems the better part of intellectual honesty and spiritual maturity. 

 

Bottom line is that sometimes, in our decisions, we don’t know for certain.  I saw a religious cartoon in which the pastor had stepped into the pulpit on Sunday morning, congregation in the pews with a wide-eyed, stunned look.  The caption makes their bewilderment clear, as the pastor confesses, “I was going to preach on commitment, but now I’m not sure!”

 

I found myself in a similar position this week.  I began thinking I was going to speak on commitment – a natural theme on a Sunday dedicated to highlighting the work and mission of our United Methodist Women, whose commitment through the history of United Methodism is a wonderful example. But now I’m not sure.  Shifting themes, diverting from the original pathway, was the course of Jesus in Luke 4. 

 

Let’s look closer at the text.  Jesus, who had made a good beginning of his ministry only 25 miles away on the Galilean coast, comes to his home town of Nazareth and visits the synagogue, where he takes the scroll, unrolls it, and reads from Isaiah a passage about the anointing of a Messiah to bring Good News to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed.  The text ends with promise, “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” at which Jesus rolls up the scroll, gives it back to the attendant, and sits.  Up to this point, text and circumstance favor jubilation of spirit.  The people, though, sit bewildered, all eyes in the synagogue fixed on Jesus, who begins to say, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 

 

End of the revival.  When they begin to ask, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” Jesus seems to change his message.  He puts words in their mouths, reading their disbelief.  “Surely you will say, ‘Do here in your hometown the miracles we’ve heard you’ve done in Capernaum,’” a town about a day’s walk.  That’s when Jesus makes the well-known statement, “Truly I tell you, a prophet is not without honor save in his own home.” 

 

Then Jesus speaks of God’s mysterious choosing.  There were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heavens were shut for 3 years and six months, but to none was Elijah sent, but to the widow of Zarephath, in Sidon, a Gentile city.  And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, but none were cleansed but the most unlikely, a leper from Syria, Naaman. 

 

This Good News becomes a moment of rage, the people of Nazareth driving him from town, up to a high place, which today the people call Mt. Precipice, or Hill of Fright, there to hurl him off the cliff.  What is today remembered as the Hill of Fright is a beautiful spot overlooking Nazareth and the entire Jezreel Valley.  On our trip to the Holy Land last March, a storm arose that shortened our time on Mt. Precipice, scattering us immediately down the trail and to the bus. It occurred to me then that Jesus, facing a storm on Mt. Precipice, saw the people likewise scattered, leaving him to pass through peaceably and be on his way.  The text is so matter-of-fact – they took him to hurl him off the cliff, but he “passed through the midst of them and went on his way.”  We expect confrontation and flaring anger.   No, none of that.  I suggest that Jesus’ calming of the storm in these hearts was as stunning as his calming of the waves on the Galilee. 

 

If the disciples in this early part of Jesus’ ministry hadn’t understood the message before now, perhaps Nazareth engraved the lesson into their minds.  It’s not an easy job, asking people to change perspective, to take a different course from that which they had already decided upon.  “At this crossroads let us throw the stick up another time.  Perhaps God will, this time, give the answer we expect.” 

 

During the Civil War, a Union soldier from Ohio was shot in the arm during the Battle of Shiloh. His captain, seeing he was injured, barked an order: “Give me your gun, Private, and get to the rear!”

 

The Private handed over his rifle and ran toward the north, seeking safety.  After covering two hundred yards, he came upon another skirmish.  Then he ran to the east and ran headlong into another sector of the battle.  Then he ran west and encountered yet more fighting there.  Finally he made his way back to his original position and shouted, “Gimme my gun back, Captain.  There ain’t no rear to this battle!”

 

Perhaps that’s how Jesus’ disciples felt when they left Jesus’ own hometown.  It should have been easy here in Nazareth, where Jesus is known by all.  Surely this will be a haven of security and excitement for our message.  Hardly.  “There ain’t no rear to this battle!” the disciples must have felt.  It is no easy calling, following Christ, but rather the call is a challenging one, a Calling stretching us beyond where we are now.  

 

Our eyes are conditioned to see our life the way it is, not the way it could be.  Our eyes are naturally focused on present reality, resistant to change.  Change requires vision, and vision injects an element of ambiguity, if not outright risk.  That’s why leadership is only necessary when change is required.

 

Speaking of Leadership, I read an interview a while back with Max DePree, author of the well-known best-sellers “Leadership is an Art” and “Leadership Jazz.”  Max DePree is a well-known business figure and a committed Christian.   In giving an interview to a Christian journal, he was asked, “Can there ever be too much vision?  Can too much vision tire a church out?” 

 

“When a church is worn out, it may be that it’s not being renewed.  When people work in second gear all the time, never getting into overdrive, doing a lot of piddly stuff year in and year out, they get tired out.  But usually we’re not worn out by tackling meaningful challenges. As a matter of fact, a leader ought to give high-performing people tougher challenges.  Keep stretching them toward their potential.  What makes us weary is the lack of renewal that comes from the satisfaction of a work well done and well rewarded, followed by new challenges.” 

 

He goes on to explain that a demanding vision that calls us to stretch beyond where we are now can actually be energizing.  “In the church sometimes we’ll call up somebody in mid-August and say, ‘Sorry we’re late but we wonder if you would like to teach the eighth grade Sunday School class starting right after Labor Day?  It doesn’t take much preparation.  It’s not a lot of hard work.  You can do it easily.

 
“That’s no way to get anyone to reach his or her potential.  It’s wrong to offer people easy work. Few things in life are more insulting than to be offered an easy job.” 
 

I love those last words.  Hear them again.  “It’s wrong to offer people easy work.  Few things in life are more insulting than to be offered an easy job.”

 

Imagine Jesus in Nazareth.  “Hey, we Israelites are great.  Let’s stay right here where we are. Let’s stay on the course mapped for us, and not challenge ourselves to see with other eyes the pathway God intends, to see with other eyes what we might be.”

One reason I wanted to share this message today, is that in the history of the United Methodist Women, they have often challenged Methodist Christians to greater concern for mission, to get out of our comfort zone and bring the Good News to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and freedom for the oppressed.  In a very real way, the UMW has challenged our denomination and all Christians to see the world with different eyes.

 

Many in our own church have said that they sense change afoot.  I will be going to Subiaco Abbey this afternoon for three days of retreat, study, and meditation.  Upon my return on Wednesday I will be bringing an excellent Leadership Video produced by Dewitt Jones, a photographer from National Geographic, called Everyday Creativity.  I want to show the video in several small groups, leaving time for discussion, not only to gauge each person’s sense of how the video may have inspired them personally, but to share at the level of our church – how the video may help us envision where God wants our church to be.  If you’re interested in being a part of one of those small leadership groups, call or e-mail the church office and register your name. 

 

We don’t want to be a church that has been proven great in the 95 yard dash!  That’s a distinction we can do without.  Lacking the last five yards makes the first 95 fairly pointless.  So it becomes us to ask ourselves where we want to be five years from now, and determine together what kind of vision and commitment that will require.  It may not be easy, but then again, as Max Depree says, “Offering an easy job is no way to get anyone to reach his or her potential.  It’s wrong to offer people easy work. Few things in life are more insulting than to be offered an easy job.” 

 

I’m not suggesting for a moment that I have all the answers, nor certainly that at the end of these viewings and discussions we will have arrived at all the answers regarding where God wants to take us as a church.  I hope our time together will give us time to live with the questions concerning how we can best prepare First United Methodist Church of Mountain Home to fulfill its mission for today and tomorrow.

 

Sources and notes:

“Visionary Jazz,” an interview with author Max DePree in LEADERSHIP (Summer 1994, pp. 17-23).