Much to my surprise the title of this sermon, "Scandalous News," has caused a lot of people this past week to take notice. They would ask me, "What are you going to say?" I said, "I don't do previews." I did say, though, "It's not what you think, but it's probably much better than you could ever imagine."

Titles can be misleading, but I have to put something out there on the billboard that will catch the attention of people who are traveling 70 miles an hour. But I do have some standards, I want you to know, unlike other preachers I know. I know a preacher who preached on Jesus' baptism, where the heavens open, and a voice says, "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased." The title of that sermon was, "That's My Boy." That same preacher on Easter had a sermon entitled, "You Can't Keep A Good Man Down." I would never do anything like that.

The title of this sermon, "Scandalous News," refers to the first sermon that Jesus preached at Nazareth, his hometown. It was read to us as the Gospel lesson for this morning. The Rabbi in the synagogue at Nazareth invited Jesus to preach in his hometown. These people knew him way back when. They remember Jesus when he was a boy.

He is thirty years old now. He has some notoriety. Luke says that they were "talking about him in the surrounding country." Now he has come back to preach. They filled the synagogue, all his neighbors, extended family, and cousins, probably, all gathered there in this small town, proud as punch. There aren't many people from Nazareth who are "talked about in the surrounding country." So he has notoriety. He returns as a celebrity.

I can tell you when you return to preach in your hometown, they don't come to hear a sermon, they come to see the preacher. They want to see if he is still the same kid who was "raising cain" when he was sixteen. So when Jesus came back to Nazareth to preach, they didn't see a Messiah standing up there, they saw the son of Mary and Joseph. Look at him now!

The text that he preached was from the prophet Isaiah, the 61st chapter. Isaiah, in this passage, is promising that there is going to come a day that the Jews call the "Jubilee." The term is from the Book of Leviticus, which says every fifty years all land is to be returned to its original owner. It was a reference to land held as collateral. All prisoners, especially those in debtors prison, are to be released. All indentured slaves are to be set free. In the Year of Jubilee, all of creation is to be restored. Life is to be put back the way it is supposed to be, and everybody is allowed to begin their lives over again.

What it meant, really, was mass forgiveness. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors," that is what it means. That is what was supposed to happen in the Year of Jubilee. Isaiah said, when the Messiah comes, it will be like that. It will be like everyone is forgiven and you can start over again. These are the words of Isaiah that Jesus read that morning in the synagogue:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord [the Year of Jubilee].

That was his text. A wonderful text. They must have heard it many times. A popular text. I am sure their response, every time they heard it, was always the same, "Isn't it going to be wonderful. Someday that will happen and it will be wonderful."

Jesus finished the reading, closed the book. Then Luke says, "All the eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him." Jesus speaks, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." There was silence. They were stunned. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked. Which is to say, "Who does he think he is?"

Then Jesus began to preach. "Undoubtedly you will quote the proverb, 'Physician, heal thyself; do those things in your hometown that you did in Capernaum.' Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country." Then he quoted other scripture. He cited First and Second Kings, the stories of Elijah the prophet, and his successor Elisha, both of whom healed Gentiles, and because of that were rebuked by their people.

When he finished talking, they came at him. Chased him out of the city. They were going to kill him for saying that. Luke says, "Passing through the midst of them he went away."

You know what they said about that sermon? They said it's a scandal. It's blasphemous what he said. They didn't like it.

According to Luke this story is of enormous importance in understanding Jesus. Two weeks ago we looked at the story of the miracle at Cana, the changing of the water into wine at the wedding feast. According to the Gospel of John that was the inaugural event of Jesus' ministry.

According to Luke, and also Matthew and Mark, the inaugural event of Jesus' ministry was the sermon at Nazareth. The way a presidential candidate will go to his hometown in order to start his national campaign, Jesus went to the people who loved him best. That is what Jesus was doing at Nazareth.

His first sermon was the prophesy of the coming of the Messiah. He said, "Today this is happening." It was a disaster if he is a politician, because his hometown people tried to kill him. Can you imagine that on the six o'clock news? It was a disaster for a politician, but it was the order of the day, business as usual, for a prophet.

That is the point that Luke wants to make. Jesus stands in the line of the prophets, all of whom were rejected by their people, but everyone of them chosen by God. That's who this man is. Luke wants you to see this. His ministry began the way it ended, with rejection. They were scandalized by what he was saying. From beginning to end, for three years, then rejected him. John says in his gospel, "He came to his own people, and his own people received him not."

So what are we supposed to do with this, this strange story of Jesus' first sermon to his hometown folk? The Old Testament lesson read to us this morning gives us a clue. It is from the Book of Nehemiah. It is an historic passage, because it records the event in which scripture was established as the Word of God.

For those of us who are in the Protestant tradition, this is so important, because we believe that scripture is the Word of God. We believe that God reveals God's self to us in scripture. This is the source of that belief, this incident. It takes place in 458 B.C., in Jerusalem. The Jews have just returned from the Exile in Babylon.

It is difficult for us to even imagine what that event meant to the life of the Jews. It devastated them. Prior to the Exile, Jewish religion was centered in the Temple in Jerusalem. That is where they believed God was to be found. If you want to find God, go to the Temple. If you want to be reconciled with God, go to the Temple, make a sacrifice. That is where the priests were who would make the sacrifice for you. That is where the holy festivals were held that gave the people identity. If you were Jewish, the Temple was the center of life. Then it was destroyed by the Babylonians, the city pillaged, and a remnant of people taken off in captivity into Babylon.

Most people thought it was the end. They thought God must be dead. But a strange thing happened. They couldn't take the Temple with them, they couldn't take the sacrificial system with them, but they took the scriptures with them, what they call the "Torah," the first five books of our Old Testament. That was their Law, their scripture. They read the scripture while they were in exile, and discovered that God was still with them, only God was with them now in the reading and interpretation of scripture.

When they returned to Jerusalem, a hundred or so years later, and rebuilt the city, and the Temple, they were a different people. Because of the Exile, they were different. Instead of a people who are tied to a Temple, they are now a people, and still are, who are tied to a book.

The scene from Nehemiah records that formal recognition. The people gathered in front of the Temple. Instead of the people going into the Temple where the priest would offer a sacrifice, the priest brings the books, the scripture, out to the people, and reads.

Ezra was the first to read. He handed the books to the elders, who read in succession. Day and night they read, until they had read through the five books of the Law. The people stood there day and night, weeping, as they listened to the Word of God. Nehemiah described it this way:

And they read from the book, the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

That's the way God is present with us, through the reading and the interpretation of scripture. Which is exactly what Jesus did at Nazareth. He read the scripture, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news..." Then he interpreted the scripture. "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." And they rose up and took him away, put him out of the city, and were going to kill him.

Reading the scripture is not the problem. Interpreting the scripture is the problem. Reading about Jesus' sermon in the synagogue at Nazareth is one thing, interpreting his sermon to a congregation in San Diego is an entirely different thing.

A woman left church and said to the minister, "That was a powerful sermon this morning. Everything you said applies to somebody I know."

People say to preachers all the time, "I know somebody who needs to hear that sermon."

Up in New England, there was a terrible snow storm one Saturday night, ten foot drifts. The preacher woke up in the morning. He knew that probably no one would venture out in weather like this, but he thought he had better go anyway. He took his shovel, shoveled his way to the church. Sure enough, as soon as he got the church opened, here comes an old man. He's there every Sunday, never misses, always sits in the same place. No one else came. The preacher decided to preach the sermon to this one man. After he finished, the old man said, "Well, you really gave it to them this morning. Too bad they weren't here to hear it."

People tell me, "Mark, I'm not going to be there Sunday. I'm sorry I am going to miss your sermon." I say, "I am too. I wrote it just for you."

"Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." The assumption is that God is going to speak to us through the scripture. The Jews discovered that in the Exile. They discovered that they were not alone. God had gone with them through the Word. When the scripture is read and interpreted, and when the people understand its meaning for their lives, God speaks to them. If we are to hear, we have to interpret.

So put yourself back in that congregation in Nazareth and listen now. Listen to this. "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." What that means is, the time that you are waiting for is here. The time is now, not some other time. The time for you to begin living is right now.

That preaching created two scandals. The first was that the Messiah who came to bring us life now, went to the poor, the outcast, to the people that the respectable had given up on. They just assumed that they would always be the way they are. They will never change. The scandal was that Jesus went to them and said, the time for you is now. You can change. Now is the time of the Jubilee. The past is forgiven. You can put the past behind you. The future is laid out in front of you. Now is the time for you to start living.

That was the practical effect of Jesus going to all of those who had been ostracized by society, "the wretched of the earth." They were allowed now to begin their lives, to start over again. That is the meaning of the healings: the lame walk, the blind see, the crippled are able to throw away their crutches and walk. That is the meaning of the comfortable words, "Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me." He was talking to people who were in bondage of one kind or another. He is saying to them, you don't have to be in bondage. Follow me and I will set you free. He is talking to those people who ate with him, sinners and outcasts, the unclean. He said to them, you are discriminated against in this society, but you are first in my Kingdom. All of those people who were in poverty, illness, or were discriminated against, he said to them, now, today, you can be free.

Is there anyone here offended by that message? Because the time is now. If the time is now, it means that Jesus is still saying to all those people, you can be free. It means that Jesus believes that all of them can start over, find new life. It means that those who believe he is the Messiah, should go to those people who are in bondage, or poverty, or illness, and tell them, the time has come for you to live. We are here to help you.

Forty years ago Martin Luther King, Jr., offended a lot of people by writing a letter from a Birmingham jail. He wrote that letter to church people. He said, "Now is the time." God wills that all his children be free. God wills that all his children be given an equal chance in this life. He challenged the Church to believe that what the scripture says, applies to "now." Not to sometime later, not to when everything is ready, but now. Not some other time, but right now.

When Bishop Tutu was visiting this country and lecturing in those days just before the fall of Apartheid, he said, "God is at work in this world breaking down the barriers that separate people from one another." Then, interpreting scripture, he said, "God was not only freeing the slaves in Moses' time, but Moses' story is there to reveal to us that God is always freeing slaves, always freeing those who are in bondage." So, he said, again in scripture, in the words of Deuteronomy, "Choose ye this day whom you will serve." Choose on whose side you are going to stand. "Today this scripture is being fulfilled in your hearing."

The first scandal of Jesus' preaching was that he said, I've come in the name of God to free those people whom you believe to be Godforsaken. The second thing that he said that was a scandal was, I have come to free you, too.

I suppose that to some extent all of us are products of our society. That is to say, all of us are shaped by the values and assumptions that constitute the time in which we live. It is easy to analyze the values and assumptions of Jesus' day. We have an historical perspective with which to do that. We know that it was a time of kinship and tribal loyalties, where shame, guilt and ostracism were used as a means of social control.

The sermon at Nazareth is aimed directly at that assumption that kinship is the highest loyalty. He told them, "You are probably offended because I did not come to you first, to my own folk, but went to Capernaum." The expectation in that society, the moral thing to do in that society, was to go to your people first. "Charity begins at home." That is an aphorism in our time. It was a law in Jesus' time.

Not only was Capernaum not his hometown, it was a Gentile town. That means there were people there that Jews were not supposed to associate with. So before he went to his own people, he went to Capernaum and healed some folks, made them well, strangers, foreigners, unclean people. He went there to get his own folk to see that the narrow, exclusive, prejudiced world that they lived in was a prison.

He came to free everybody. He came to free the poor and the rich. He came to free the slave and the free. He came to free the weak and the strong. That is the offense. He said, we all need to be redeemed.

We still live with the remnants of an exclusive kinship society. I think that is true. But the real bondage of our time is not to kin, not to family, but to self. That has been created by what is called the "triumph of the therapeutic," the assumption that what is happening to me is the most important thing in the world.

Have you ever listened to those talk shows? Every talk show is about people who in some way feel victimized, or offended, or outraged in some way. If that is your situation, the assumption of those shows is, nothing now is expected of you. How you got to be where you are justifies your staying the way you are.

Jesus' command to those people who saw themselves as victims, who were trapped in circumstances that they didn't create themselves, was, stand up and walk! You don't have to live this way anymore. You are free.

He also said, if you would be my disciple, then you had better know something about crosses, because everybody has one. So stop complaining about yours, and follow me. I will show you how to carry a cross. I will do even more than that. I will show you how carrying a cross is going to lead to a new life. So stop thinking about yourself all the time, and start following me.

You read the New Testament and you can divide it this way. Some people he healed, he set free, simply by touching them. He healed them because of his compassion. He healed them with his comfortable words. There were thousands of those people, I imagine. In the New Testament those people are called, "the crowd." But there were other people in the New Testament whom he healed and set free by his command, "Take up your cross and follow me." There were fewer of them, but those people in the New Testament are called, "disciples."

During the II World War there was a young woman who lost her husband in India to some tropical disease. He was there as a medical missionary. She went into despair. She lost all interest in life. She didn't care now whether she lived or she died. She booked passage on a ship that would take her back home to America. On the ship she met the victim of another tragedy, a seven year old boy whose missionary parents had been killed in the bombings in Burma. Now he is being sent home to his relatives in America.

The little boy was attracted to the woman. I guess because a seven year old boy needs a mother, especially in circumstances like that. But she would have nothing to do with him. In fact, she scheduled her time on the ship so as to avoid him. She couldn't get outside of herself, her own sorrow, long enough to comfort a little boy. She said, "I have my own problems to deal with."

In the middle of the Pacific the ship was torpedoed. The woman came up on deck to prepare herself to do down with the ship. She thought that was the solution to her sorrow. On the deck she saw the little boy. The little boy was shivering with cold and with fright. He came over to the woman, clung to her. Something came over her. She led him over to one of the lifeboats. They both got in. For the next several days she held him, until they were rescued. Later on her friends said, "We don't know whether the woman saved the boy, or the boy saved the woman.

Jesus said, now is the time to live. Now. Later on the disciples of John the Baptist will come to Jesus and ask, "Are you the one, or do we wait for another?" That is to say, "Are you the Messiah? Are you the one who has come to redeem us, or do we look for somebody else?" Jesus said to the disciples of John, "Tell John what you see and here, and blessed are those who are not offended at me."