The
Gospel we just heard presents an inspiring picture of Jesus. He is filled with the power of the Holy
Spirit. He has just returned from his
time in the wilderness and his encounter with Satan. He has been tempted three times by Satan and
rejected the three temptations of food for his starving body, power over the
kingdoms of the earth, and perhaps the greatest—putting his heavenly Father to the test of his
love. Now he is ready to being his
public ministry of proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God. He does
this in familiar territory. He brings
the Good News for those closest to him—the people in his home of Galilee. Everything is set for his triumphant
homecoming.
The
stage is indeed set for a triumphant return in which he will be recognized for
who he is by those who probably mean the most to him. Well, that is just what happens. He teaches in the synagogues and he receives
praise from all quarters. He is now
ready to truly come home. He come home
to home town of Nazareth where he was raised—the triumphal return of a local boy who has made
good. It is surprizing that they don’t
throw a parade for him? In fact they go
one better. He is invited to read in his
home synagogue. The stage is set. What could go wrong?
I
had an experience that was a bit like that.
My home parish where I became an Anglican and where I worshipped for
many years and where I served in many different functions is St. John the
Evangelist in London. When I started on
my journey to ordination and was enrolled in the M.Div. Program at Huron, I was
invited to preach at the Sunday service.
Well I preached what I thought was a pretty good sermon—pretty good from a first sermon
anyway. I put a lot effort into it and
said a lot of things I wanted to say.
The
only problem was that it was far, far too long—for Anglicans in any case—at least twenty minutes in
length. I did not have enough presence
to know that despite the brilliance and eloquence of it (just kidding) people
started to get restless probably at the fifteen minute mark. Things can go wrong when you come home in a
new role.
Well,
that is nothing compared to what happened to Jesus. If we read on in Luke we find that he begins
to give not good news but what the people receive as bad news. He tells them that those foundational
prophets Elijah and Elisha did not bring God’s message and salvation to the
people like them; they brought it is widows and foreigners. Well, if you don’t know, you can probably guess
their reaction, “They were filled with rage. 29They 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. 30But he passed through the midst of
them and went on his way”. In effect, they
ran him out of town on a rail.
As
Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s
hometown”. This would not be the last
time that Jesus got people—particularly
the religious and civil leaders—angry. He was continually criticizing the religious
leaders and doing things like healing people of the Sabbath that they objected
to. In fact, they eventually managed to
succeed at what they failed to do this time—they murdered him—or at least they
thought they had.
We have a situation
in the Anglican Church today that seems to resonate with what happened to
Jesus. The leaders of the World-wide
Anglican Church, The Primate have decided to punish the Episcopal Church in the
USA for their decision to allow the blessing of Same-sex Relationships. They have suspended the Episcopal Church from
the Anglican Communion for a period of three years.
In effect, the
Episcopal Church has decided that they are called by God to go to a place that
is not acceptable to other parts of the Anglican church. Indeed the Canadian Church may be in a
similar position when we vote on changing the marriage canon at General Synod
later this year in July. As we see in
the Gospels, religious leaders can be wrong.
Jesus certainly did not hesitate to criticize them when he knew they
were wrong. Unfortunately, we do not
have Jesus with us on earth to tell us which position is right. We cannot know with certainty which position
is right and which wrong in the eyes of God.
The position of the primates was and is influenced by the Anglican
Churches in the third world, many of whom support laws in their countries which
would jail gays and lesbians or even put them to death. And yet they are not sanctioned for these
unchristian attitudes.
To be open about where
I stand, I support the position of the Episcopal Church and hope and pray that
the Canadian Church will follow their lead and change the marriage canon to
embrace same-sex marriage. I have come
to this position after many years of considering the situation and knowing LGBT
people as friends and associates. In
some cases the church must lead and take a position which is opposed by other
parts of the church as the Canadian Church did with the ordination of
women. We are called to try and discern
God’s will and to go where it takes us even if it is not the commonly held
understanding of God’s will.
I will close with and
excerpt from the statement by our Primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz:
Our conversations reflected the truth
that, while the Anglican Communion is a family of autonomous Churches in
communion with the see of Canterbury, we live by the long-held principle of
‘mutual responsibility and inter dependence in the Body of Christ’. While our
relationships are most often characterized by mutual support and encouragement,
there are times when we experience stress and strain and we know our need for
the grace of God to be patient with each other. Such was the experience of the
primates this week. We struggled with the fragility of our relations in
response to the actions taken by the General Convention of The Episcopal Church
in changing its canon on marriage, making provision for the blessing of same
sex marriages. We talked, prayed and wrestled with the consequences considered by
the meeting. Some of us wept. For now I ask for your prayers for all of the
primates as they make their way home. I know some are returning to very
challenging situations beset with extreme poverty, civil war, religiously
motivated violence and the devastating effects of climate change.
This week reminded me once again of the
servant style of leadership required of the primates of the Churches of The
Anglican Communion. As Jean Vanier reminded us in his reflections at our
closing Eucharist, we are called to be the face of Jesus in this world. Pray
with me that all of us be faithful in this calling. Amen
