Date: February 9, 2025

Scripture: Luke 4:21-30

Sermon Title: “Rejected on Earth, Accepted in Heaven”

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Bob Jon

As a pastor, I have been preaching for the past 15 years, almost every Sunday. I cannot say I have always preached good sermons. There are sermons which I feel like I did a good job. There are some sermons I know I could have done better, feeling regretful for the rest of Sunday afternoon. There are many different responses from people. Some people shake my hand, saying, “I just needed to hear the sermon today.” “I felt like you were speaking to me today.” I have had some negative responses as well. One person walked out during the sermon because she could not tolerate any sermons that went over 10 minutes. Another person always complained he could not understand my accent. One Sunday, he was pretty upset about my sermon and wanted to argue with me. “I don’t want to hear about money in your sermon.” I said, “Good God. You understood my sermon today?” 

The Bible has several different images of Jesus. Some of us can visualize the famous painting of Jesus, who walks with a herd of sheep, carrying a little lamb in his arm. In John 10:11, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life for the sheep.” When we are sick, we pray to Christ as a healer, who had much compassion for the sick, healed them, and liberated them from many illnesses. To some of us, Jesus is like the lighthouse that shows us the way to God. As I was driving with my boys yesterday, Joshua said, “Jesus is the light of the world,” which the Gospel of John says. “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” He was a teacher. He was a miracle worker. But not many of us would think about Jesus as a preacher. But that was who he was. He was a preacher proclaiming the kingdom of God. 

After he was baptized and tempted in the wilderness, he came home to Nazareth. It was the Sabbath day. He went to the synagogue. He took a scroll, unrolled it, and read from Isaiah 61. “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 set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and said, “Today, this reading has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Upon hearing his words, people were cheerful and amazed by his gracious words. If you have noticed, we have been encouraging our youth to be part of the worship by reading one of the scriptures. If you saw them baptized in this church as little babies, how wonderful it is to see them grow and be part of the service. 

Last summer, Laura sent me and staff members an email with an adorable story. Owen and Emmy often play school together. But one day, they were playing something different. They were playing church. Owen was singing, “Draw the Circle Wide,” and said “Good morning!” Then, he made some announcements about a pancake breakfast, talked about Sunday school, and baptized a couple of baby dolls. He even said a prayer thanking God for the birth of all these babies. When I read Laura’s email, I was delighted to hear such a story and told her we might be nurturing a future pastor in this church. Who knows what our children will grow up to be in the future? We often call our work vocation. In Latin, vocation means “to call.” In other words, we may have our interests, passions, and talents for jobs. But it is God who calls us to a certain work to serve God and our neighbors. 

And that was what Jesus was doing. He started doing the work God was calling him to do. He was preaching and teaching the crowd in the synagogue. All of a sudden, someone pointed his finger at him and said, “Hey, isn’t this Joseph’s son?” This person did not say such words in excitement, welcoming the new prophet to his hometown. Instead, he said that to undermine his words and his authority. A similar story appears in Matthew 13. “Hey, isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Mary? Are not his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not all his sisters with us?” Jesus responded, “You will say, “Do here also in your hometown the things we have heard you did at Capernaum.” People had heard about how he taught some words and performed miracles of healing the sick. Good news to the poor. Release to the captives. Healing to the blind. Do that here. 

But here comes the real trouble. Jesus said, “There were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah when people struggled with famine for 3 years and a half. But Elijah did not go to his own people but to the gentile widow in Sidon. During the time of the prophet Elisha, many people had skin diseases. But the person who was healed was the gentile army general Naaman.” Upon hearing this, everyone became outrageous. Why? It was because they believed that the good news Jesus was addressing would be for them but for someone else, especially the Gentiles, the strangers, and outsiders. We are the chosen people. We are the circumcised. We are the ones who have been coming to the synagogues to keep the Sabbath holy and study the law. We are the ones who have been waiting for the Messiah. But why would this Messiah choose others over us? 

Last year, Joshua was growing excited for his birthday party. Since Daniel’s birthday is in August, it is a little difficult to invite his friends to come to the party. So, for our family, the birthday party has been mainly about a family gathering. But Joshua’s birthday is June, and he said he wanted to do it at his Taekwondo school. We gave him some papers he could write the invitation letter. Out of 23 or 24 classmates, he wrote only 18 birthday invitation cards. The next day, I got an email from his teacher saying, “Our policy is that if not every child in the class is invited to an event, we ask that the invites are handled outside of the classroom. If he wants to invite his friends from the classroom, it should be the whole class.” When I told him about this, he got pretty upset. “But there are some friends I don’t want to see at my party.”

Aren’t we the same from time to time? If possible, we want to handpick whom we want to see around us. We want those who can contribute to our club or community. We want those who understand the rules and follow them. We want those who care about the core of our social identity as much as we care and respect them. We don’t want any strangers or outsiders to come and disrupt our way of life. When I was first appointed to my church, the members of SPRC were excited to welcome a young pastor. They said, “We are very excited that your coming will bring in some young families with children.” Well, God had a radically different plan. For my three years there, God sent the kind of people they least expected. A homeless couple. A mentally challenged young man. A single mom with her young son from the condemned part of the neighborhood. An ex-prisoner. 

Here is a theological challenge for us as followers of Christ. We can never confine God to our little box of familiarity and comfort, hoping God will bless those we deem as praiseworthy. We can never control whom God extends God’s grace and salvation. Our commissioning is simple. “Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It is simple and yet difficult, challenging, and even disruptive because the neighbors God calls us to love as ourselves may not be the ones we want to care about. This is why the crowd got upset with him, took him outside, and tried to push him off the cliff. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who was hanged by the Nazis, said, “Preaching allows the risen Christ to walk among his people.” If Jesus stands among us and says the same thing, what will we do with him?

G. Campbell Morgan was born in 1863. As a child, he was often sick so he could not attend school and was tutored at home. He was enthusiastic about studying the Bible and later wanted to be a Methodist preacher. He submitted his written Bible and theology papers and were approved by the committee. One last thing was remaining. He had to preach a sermon before the committee of pastors and others in a huge auditorium which could seat over 1,000 people. When Morgan got up to the pulpit, he got extremely nervous and preached poorly. After a week or so, he found his name among the list of people rejected for ordination. Extremely disappointed, he wired his father with one word, “Rejected.” He got a reply back from his father, which said, “Rejected on earth; Accepted in heaven. Love, Dad.” 

Amen.