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Sermon delivered by
The Rev. Dr. Augustus E. Succop III
Quail Hollow Presbyterian Church
Charlotte, North Carolina
January 27, 2013

“Preachin’ & Meddlin’”

(Luke 4:14-21)

For those of you who might not know, three of us returned last Saturday from two weeks in the Holy Land, and that included an extension trip to Jordan to see Petra, one of the NewSeven Wonders of the World. In light of that pilgrimage, you owe Stewart Davis a huge Thank you, for had his baptism not been scheduled for today, you might have been subject to what I will call a generous “sweet hour” of worship.

Seriously, I want to say how grateful I am to have had a third opportunity to visit the Holy Land. Being able to visit places such as the Church of the Holy Nativity where Jesus was born inspires me beyond words. Everyday of our pilgrimage, I was reminded in some new way of how God has been and is today active and alive in our earthly life, and the older I get the more I need to be reminded of such divine and personal activity in my life.

I don’t know about you but there are times when it seems to me that our world is like a run-away train heading for some bridge that is no longer there. That is when I need to be reminded that God is still in charge, and our risen Lord is busy, so very busy in and through the life of His church and through people like you and me. In other words, God continues to work all things, the good things, the tragic things, all things together for good. And I know that for some, especially for those who in Newtown, Connecticut, I know such words may be of small comfort; but I need to know that at the end of the day nothing has been up for grabs. By the grace of God the sun will rise again, and God’s love will be no less at work than it was when our Lord walked where I walked in the Holy Land. There’s an old hymn that reminds us: Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet ‘tis truth alone is strong; Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong, Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow keeping watch above His own.

When our Lord walked the Holy Land, which is why that part of the world is holy for some of us, Jesus was fully aware that God was alive and at work in the life of this world. Jesus could see, as you and I must see, God’s fingerprints all over this life. Nothing has been left to chance. Nothing is up for grabs. There is a vision, there is a plan, there is a divine desire for life on this planet, and God is bringing that desire to fruition, and doing so most keenly through the mission and witness of the church of Jesus Christ.

Let me ask you: if you were to share just one observation to a newly born Christian, to someone like Stewart Davis, what would be your observation? Would you impart some innocuous bromide that hard work makes for success? Would you provide some cliché about always doing your best, knowing that sometimes one’s best isn’t enough? Or, might you offer a more profound observation, maybe one that doesn’t depend upon us because, as our Lord discovered so very well, we are pretty unreliable at times. You and I have been known to fall down on the job, even to betray those whom we said we would never betray. In time, and I hope it will be in time, I would want someone like Stewart Davis to be told that God is for him. I would want Stewart to know and to know so very well that he and I and all the rest of you are on the receiving end of that preposition: God is for us. And because God is for us we can be bold followers of Jesus Christ. We can take God at His word that at the end of the day, even at the end of our lives, God will be working all things together for good, and no one, especially Stewart Davis, must be allowed to miss such Godly goodness.

Talk about being bold in one’s faith – that’s why Luke records for us the day Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth (and, by the way, I’ve been there!). On that day, Jesus read a portion from the prophet Isaiah that speaks of how God is actively sending out His prophets, His people, His very own Son to be about God’s will in the life of the world. And God is busy sending out such members of His family because God is for us. God is choosing to be on our side, on our team, and that is good, that is very good news to tell.

I have to smile because for today we only get the first half of the reaction of that congregation. Jesus closes His reading by saying that that passage of scripture had been fulfilled by Him. Jesus is the fulfillment of what the prophet was talking about, and Jesus could be so bold as to say what He said because He knew that God was for Him as God is for us. Jesus embraces what God is about, what God is calling Him to do because He trusts God, trustsGod. Jesus knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is for Him.

You and I live this very day on the end of that preposition, and thank God that we do. I would want Stewart and every newly born Christian to make sure there is no doubt in their heart-of-hearts that the God of Jesus Christ, first and last, is for us. And that means that for all of our life we can be bold in our faith. We can be about the things some may think we shouldn’t be about, things such as kindness and forgiveness and honesty and breaking down barriers that separate people from each another. We can take God at His word even when it appears, even when it seems, even when it sounds as if the odds are against us.

As I mentioned, I have been to the synagogue in Nazareth. Some say it was the one Jesus attended; some say it isn’t. But, it doesn’t matter all that much if it is or if it isn’t. What does matter is that it was Jesus’ custom to go to the synagogue to listen to the elders speak about God, that God was alive in the lives of God’s people, that God was no fiction of faith, that God did not belong to any one class or race of people, that God was for God’s people, and thus was for Jesus and is foryou and me, and as of this morning, God is now for Stewart. It was Jesus’ custom to go to the one place where there was no doubt about God being for Jesus and the rest of his family and community. Jesus signed on to God’s calling and claim because Jesus knew in some way that God plus one, be it you or me, is a majority. God is enough, is more than enough, more than we deserve; and yet, God will have it no other way. And that’s what we have promised to tell every newly born Christian who is delivered to us from that baptismal font.

You his family, you his church family, all of us have promised to tell Stewart such startling and bold news, and in telling him such news our hope is that one day it will become his custom to tell his family if not his children about the God who is, first and last, for them.

Let us pray: Abiding God, we are amazed and we are grateful that You are for us; that You are at work in our lives accomplishing kingdom-goodness. Grant us the grace not to keep such goodness a secret. Give us both the courage and the honesty to let it be known that through Jesus Christ You are for us, You are for each one of us, both this day and forever more. Amen

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