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This Week's Sermon The Third Sunday after the Epiphany 21 January 2007 "The Hometown Hero" LSB Series C Vicar Hans W. Fiene Soli Deo Gloria!

Everybody loves a hometown hero-everybody from that hometown at least. And whenever someone begins to make a lot of noise, whenever there's a good deal of talk about someone, nobody wants more success for that guy than his hometown crowd. The reason for this is because they get to live vicariously through him. So if he succeeds, then they feel like they've succeeded in a way too. A new season of American Idol is upon us and I think it offers a good example of how people are viewed by their hometown friends and family.

If you've watched American Idol throughout the years, you may have seen the episodes where the few remaining stars of the show go visit their hometowns. And especially for these small, rather insignificant towns, there's such a great sense of love for their respective hometown child who seems set for great fame. They're giving away keys to the city, the mayor proclaims that day Taylor Hicks day, et cetera et cetera. Just watching the few minutes of footage, you can feel the sense of anticipation and excitement as these people sit around and wait, hoping so much that one of their own might become a national superstar.

In a far more meaningful way, this is the kind of hype that was surrounding Christ. Those in Nazareth had been hearing powerful things about this Jesus whom they had known growing up. They had heard about his wonderful teachings in the synagogues. Somehow, this simple carpenter's son possessed even greater knowledge and authority than even the scribes and Pharisees. This Jesus, their former neighbor and friend, just might be an actual prophet with the full favor of God resting upon him. And so their conclusion is something like this: If Jesus is blessed by God, and Jesus is one of them, then they must therefore be blessed by God. And so when Christ comes into the synagogue and read these words about giving sight to the blind and liberating the oppressed, you can understand why those in attendance are marveling at these words. Everything that they had hoped for was turning out to be true.

And then this hometown boy pulls the rug out from underneath them and does something that, in their minds, is just treason. By referencing Zarephath and Naaman, both gentiles who had been blessed by God, Christ effectively tells his hometown crowd that, even though He has been given the power and authority of God, his former neighbors don't actually deserve any of God's blessings and it's actually the gentiles-those who have no relationship with Jesus-who will receive them. And so the crowd immediately turns on Christ. The moment that He preaches the Law to them, they instantly begin to hate him because, in their eyes, he's not acting in a loving way to his hometown friends and family.

Going back to American Idol, you may have noticed a trend with the episodes from this past week. These are the episodes where all of these atrocious, horrible people come out to audition. And when the judges tell them straight up that they have no talent at all, they can't believe it. Which seems strange to us, but have you noticed what happens when they walk out the doors in rejection? They immediately begin to cry on the shoulders of their mothers or fathers or friends who have been telling them all their life how amazingly talented they are. Now I'm not saying that singing poorly is at all sinful. But these rather absurd examples actually illustrate the kind of response that we want from our closest loved ones, from our hometown crowd with regard to our failings and weaknesses and sins. Very often, the closer we are to someone, the less we are willing to hear the law from them.

When we consider the office of the Holy Ministry, congregations like pastors who are affable and likeable and who they feel are one of them. But the amazing thing about our sinful reaction to the law is this: The more people consider their pastor to be one of them, often times the angrier they get when his use of the law cuts them to the core. Even if that pastor preaches a sermon where he passionately and beautifully explains the wonderful Gospel of Christ Crucified, even if he brilliantly proclaims the forgiveness of sins through Christ, those who are cut by the law will often shut off their ears and refuse to hear anything other than the condemnation leveled at them. And just as the Jews from Nazareth refused to hear the law from their hometown guy, so the affable, personable, hometown pastor has the law ripped out of his hands by those who are essentially saying, "How can you be so unloving? You're supposed to be one of us."

Of course this rejection of the law from isn't just limited to the pulpit. We also do this to those in our Christian family. Very often, our friends or family members will present us with our sins. And they'll do this with the genuine, loving desire to see us stop sinning against God and stop harming ourselves in the process. And in times like this we frequently find ourselves using our close relationship against that person. We call them judgmental and accuse them of being a bad friend or an unloving family member when they don't support us as we continue to reject God's law.

What's important to remember about rejecting the Law is that the Law and the Gospel are intricately tied. They always belong together. When you reject your need for salvation, you automatically reject Christ as a savior. So when people respond to the law in hatred, they are also responding to the Gospel in hatred. And even though none of us were physically in the synagogue during the events of today's text, don't think for a second that you've treated Christ any differently than that murderous mob when you despise the Law and Gospel of Nazareth's Least Favorite Son. Anytime that you've grown defensive and angry when your pastor has condemned a sinful thought, word or deed that you don't want to let go, you've been on that hill. Anytime that you've tried to guilt your friends and family into shutting up about your sins, you've been on that hill, trying to grab hold of Christ and throw Him to his death.

But the amazing thing about that moment on the hill is this: Even though we weren't physically there, even though Nazareth is not our hometown, Christ actually knows us better than anybody from our hometown. Just as Christ knew what was in the heart of every man, woman and child in the synagogue of Nazareth, he knows what's in the heart of every man, woman and child here today. Think about your closest friends and family members, the people who know you forward and backwards, who know you better than anyone. If they could see into your heart and knew every nasty and vicious thought you've ever had about them, if they heard every cruel word you'd ever said about them behind their backs, they probably wouldn't want to continue having that close relationship with you. They wouldn't want to deal with you any more.

Christ sees every evil thought and vicious thing we've done against him, both directly and indirectly when we've sinned against our neighbor. But when Christ sees these things, He doesn't walk away from us. He actually makes Himself closer. In today's text, Christ reads from these words from the prophet Isaiah: He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. After reading these words, Christ reveals His desire to bring himself closer, to actually unite himself, with those who are separated from him by blindness, oppression and imprisonment. When sin blinds our eyes from seeing Christ's mercy, when it imprisons and oppresses us in burning hatred towards Christ, Jesus doesn't run away from us. Instead, He takes all of that hatred away from us and puts it to death in His death upon the Cross. And when Christ frees us and draws us closer to Him after destroying our sin, He proclaims the same forgiveness to us that He proclaimed in Nazareth that day, by saying, "Today, the Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

And the wonderful thing about how close Christ is to us is that it's not a one-sided relationship. It's not just about how close Christ is to us. When we receive the benefits of Christ's death and resurrection in Holy Baptism, we become closer to Him, closer than we are to anyone in the world because we actually become united with him, we become one with him. Everything that Christ has becomes ours. In particular, his kingdom becomes ours. You see, even though the incarnate Christ grew up in a town called Nazareth, the true hometown of Christ is the Kingdom of Heaven. And because we have been united with Christ, that's now our true hometown too. Even though our earthly homes may be Terre Haute or Brazil or Muncie or Cheboygan or Duluth, Minnesota, because Christ loved those who hated him so much that he gave his life for them, our true hometown is now His Kingdom.

And the national anthem of that Kingdom is the song of forgiveness. Christ sings that song of forgiveness to you when the pastor preaches the Word of absolution. Christ sings that song of forgiveness when He comes into our presence in His flesh and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. And when we sing along in that song of forgiveness, that's the true homecoming parade for our hometown king. In the liturgy, we cry out for Christ to come to us and for him to destroy in us everything that's evil and to put into us everything that's holy. And that's what makes the homecoming parade for Christ so different from anything you'd ever see on American Idol or anything else in the world. This is a homecoming parade on both sides. Not only are we rejoicing in how righteous Christ is. Christ is rejoicing in how righteous He has made us. This is the song that we sing with Christ in unison throughout the never ending celebration of our Hometown Hero.