This past week my wife Sydney and our son Jack and I moved from one building to another. Moving is an interesting experience, I suppose that the phrase good move is not an oxymoron in that my wife Sydney is so organized that she is actually really good at it. The truth of the matter is, we moved on Monday and we actually have pretty much everything in place. We are just doing some minor tweaking, but that doesn’t mean that the experience wasn’t a relatively painful one. Part of that was because what we are doing is what we call downsizing, and I do mean that literally. We went into a space that’s now about 60% of what we had before. One of the things of the logistics that amazes me is that you think you have done your due diligence. In advance you have thrown away those things that you no longer have any need for, or you have donated it to our Cross Roads Community Services. So now we are trying to lug all of this stuff over to the new space. And I’ll be darned if you don’t find yourself moving things out of storage from the old building to go place in storage in the new building. I actually had a panic attack driving down McKinney. I looked around at a car filled with stuff and I said I am drowning in stuff. What am I doing with all of this I have to get rid of it. So, as I was looking in my closet, which is considerably smaller, Sydney was explaining to me that a good percentage of my clothes were going to have to go away. I in turn explained to her, “No if you really cram it in, if you really push…” She pointed out to me, for instance, that I had 32 golf hats, they have different names on the tops or whatever, and being the kind and understanding spouse that I am I patiently explained to her that I needed each and every one of those golf hats. They represented a very important experience of my life. Finally, I went away. Sydney did the hard purging while I was away and now everything looks great in my closet, and I don’t even miss it. But it was a reminder to me that what surprises me was how caught up in my property I had become, in stuff. You don’t realize how vested you get until you try to move away. I know they say that there are no Hearses’ with luggage racks, and that you cannot take it with you. I understand we are on the downside of the bell curve, and it is important that we start downsizing but what makes it so difficult is to turn loose. And for goodness not just to give away but to share. It is also a reminder to me that the status quo is actually a very relative reality. I am reminded of the poem by Carl Sandburg in which it begins this way, “Get off my land!” the dialogue response is “Why?” “Because I own it and I don’t want you here.” “Where did you get the land?” “I got it from my father.” “Where did he get the land?” “He got it from his father.” “Where did he get the land?” “He fought for it” “Well then, I will fight you for it.” Listen carefully to the scripture text out of the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 4:14-21

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. 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.

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.’

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

This is the Word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

You’ll note that it says that Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath Day as was his custom. Jesus was a person of faith. Jesus was a Jew, a devout Jew who was worshipping according to the tradition. And Jesus was not about reinventing the wheel. He didn’t want to totally jettison all of the prophets and all of the scriptures before he emerged. Rather he was drawing on them and it was his custom to go the Synagogue. This was a place of learning. This was a place where members of the congregation who were able to read would take their turns reading from the scriptures, reading from the scrolls and what an honor it was to share and to read from the Holy Scriptures and Jesus did that. And he read quite well and he read from the scriptures from the Prophet Isaiah. He took these words from the Sixth Century Prophet talking about the deliverance of the Chosen People from their exile. And Jesus really used these words as His job description as His inaugural address. Not only to reminisce on an event that had happened 600 years before, but also to talk about His role, what He was about, His mission and His ministry. He said the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him and that He had been anointed to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim the release of the captives and the recovery of sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go free. And to proclaim the Year of the Lords favor. And He read so well and He spoke with authority everybody was proud. All of the townspeople were saying to themselves “There’s a local boy who’s made good.” And it made for a great homecoming and there was a special sort of warm glow about it as everybody took pride. “Isn’t that Joseph’s boy?” “Yes, didn’t we see Jesus, he was raised in this area?” And look what a fine figure he cuts standing there and reading the scriptures. And there is a part of me, let me just confess, there is a part of me that would like to end this story right there. And the disingenuous nature of the lectionary is sometime it will slice a narrative right in half and that makes for a great happy ending there. The problem is, the story doesn’t end there. So let me share with you in the words that Paul Harvey used to say “The rest of the Story.” 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 home town 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 home town. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for 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 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.

That is not a happy ending. What happened? How did it go from the warm glow of community pride to a group of people so outraged that they drove Jesus out of the Synagogue and wanted to hurl him to his death. Let’s go back and re-think that dynamic and figure out what went on and perhaps I as a preacher might say well you wouldn’t want to repeat that, make a congregation so angry that they throw you out on your ear. Jesus was proclaiming the Year of Jubilee. This really was the concept the scholars say you really can’t find any instance of it actually having been practiced but it was a concept and the concept went like this. Every 50 years there would be an economic reset in which all of the lands that had been obtained from other people all of the debts that had been incurred and all of the people that were laboring trying to repay those debts. All of the prisoners who had been arrested and were thrown into jail all of these things would be forgiven. All of the land would be restored. All of the debts would be wiped clean and that would be the Year of Jubilee. It was sort of a systemic understanding that every now and then you need to pronounce grace that people began to become crushed under the weight of the debts and the loose of the land and the loose of their liberty. They find themselves in bondage. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And this was a systemic way for the society to affirm God’s grace and to free the people of this bondage. Now, in theory I think most of us can affirm that. Oh some day, we should help the poor in a more effective fashion. Some day we should rehabilitate the prisoners. Some day we should seek a more equitable economy a more equitable society. The thing that Jesus did was He changed some day to today. In Methodism we say He stopped preaching and started meddling in people’s lives, because that means change today. Now, as I read about the outrage of the crowd, I bare in mind I am a person that was unwilling to give up 1 of my 32 golf hats. So entrenched in the status quo of my property that the idea of the giving up just 1 of those hats was just highly threatening to me and I just had to hold on to them for dear life. It took an intervention in order to remove a few of those from my closet. So I realize I am part of the problem. I understand that logistic and if that can be true regarding golf hats, my goodness, what about houses and property and bank accounts and investments. We worked hard for those things. Our logistic, our Puritan work ethic informs us that there is a logic to that. You go out and you work hard and you do your due diligence and you’re rewarded for those things. And if the other person isn’t quite as fortunate, well there may be a reason for that. But if we are not careful these things, this property it becomes this idol and we don’t realize the ways that it entangles us and it holds us down and we begin to live life in a defensive posture. And we find ourselves lugging it around from storage bin to storage bin. And come to think of it wasn’t there a parable about that in which the man who had been so successful and filled all the granaries and was planning more so he could increase his wealth. And God said to him “ You fool, this day today your very life will be required of you and you can’t take it with you. You can leave it behind for your kids to fight over, but you cannot take it with you.” Jesus was proclaiming the Year of Jubilee and the very concept was threatening to the people and He even went on so far to talk about serving the Gentiles and moving beyond the faith community and that was the final straw. Jesus pushed the envelope in a way that was highly threatening to people and they were outraged. They didn’t want to change the status quo. And suddenly he went from the heroic local boy made good to this threatening outsider. What happened to that Jesus anyway? Where did he go off and pick up these new ideas? And so he was driven out. Jesus was rejected. We need to remember that, the next time we risk in the name of our faith, the next time we reach out to somebody and give them a compliment or say something kind, try to do something for somebody and they don’t immediately repay it, they don’t say oh thank you thank you thank you so much for helping me they don’t seem all that appreciative and so we feel rejected we can remind ourselves that’s just the dynamic that Jesus experienced and we’re no better than Christ. Jesus with all of His powers and all of His talent and all of His authority He experienced rejection. But what Jesus did in response to rejection was to reject that rejection and say I don’t care. I’m not going to give up, I’m not going to give in, I’m not going to dilute the message of God, I’m going to continue to be this Prophet of the Word of God and talk about a new arrangement, a new more just system, in which the poor benefit. I have been favorably impressed with our outreach and the collections we have taken for the nation of Haiti. United Methodist are generous, Americans are generous in the face of this crisis. I think our record shows that as Americans we usually can be counted on to send aid wherever in the world it is needed. We are a generous people. I believe that, I know that at our heart we are a good people. Probably our greatest challenge is not giving up 1 of our 32 golf hats, but rather not waiting for an earth quake or a natural catastrophe in order to reach out. In order to have the narrative work for us to say well there was this earth quake, this catastrophe therefore we need to help. Rather if we can embrace and embody the Spirit of Jubilee and know that all of human beings we’re all God’s children and all God’s children need shoes, and all God’s children need education, and all God’s children need to be a part of a community. And as we rebuild Haiti and help and assist we got to bear in mind that there is more to be done than just rebuilding the buildings. Those people they need help and they need a since of community and they need to know they are not in it alone. God created the land and the land belongs to God. When God in the story of Adam and Eve, God gives Adam and Eve dominion and commands them to have stewardship and we as humankind are commanded to have stewardship and be good stewards, but it is not ours. We do not own the land. It is held in trust and we must remember that.