OY!

Sermon # 1 for Pentecost VI (Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time)
Sunday, 9 July 2023 (8.15 am)
Saint Luke Lutheran Church; Albuquerque, NM

Matthew 11.16-19 [20-24] 25-30 [Greek and English text follows the Sermon]

+ In nomine Domini. Amen.

Preparing for this Sunday, I recalled the time when I served here at St. Luke’s as Associate Pastor. We had an annual Spiritual Life Weekend complete with a Guest Theologian. One year, the Guest was the Rev. Dr. Hagen Staack (of blessed memory) whom I knew not only that he taught at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, but also from his television series on NBC called “Frontiers in Faith.” It was quite well received in those days of the Church which was growing by leaps and bounds.

Staack was Ordained in the Confessing Church in Germany during World War II. But (along with Pastors like Dietrich Bonhoeffer) he was part of the underground resistance, and his Ordination was disregarded by the Nazis. He was drafted into the German Army in 1939 and saw action on the Eastern Front. He became a prisoner of war until 1945. Eventually, he came to the United States following the war and on top of his many other advanced degrees, he did work on a research fellowship at Princeton Theological Seminary.

When Dr. Staack appeared here at St. Luke’s in the 1970s, he would of course preach on Sunday Morning. In those days all three services occurred on Sunday. Staack, a brilliant Biblical Scholar, his method was to preach on the 1^st Reading at the First Service, the 2^nd Reading at the Second Service, and the Gospel at the Last Service.

When I looked, this past week, actually for several weeks, at the appointed Gospel for today, I seemed to have the spirit of Dr. Staack looking over my shoulder. I read through the verses of Matthew 11 appointed for this Sunday; and there are several verses omitted. When that happens, I always ask why, and I always am drawn to those omitted verses. They are verses 20-24 and the wonderful staff here at St. Luke obeyed my whim of just including them in your bulletin as if nothing were amiss.

So I decided that I was going to preach on those verses at this Service and then at 10.30 on the very end of this selection, which is: “Come to me, all who are heavy burdened.”

I felt Dr. Staack smiling. So, here we go.

+ + +

Verses 20-24 in Matthew’s Gospel contain some of the strongest invectives by Jesus against various communities in his time. We can name them: Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum.

How does the Gospel Storyteller Matthew recall what Jesus said about these places: (He wrote in Greek of course and this is what it sounds like:)

Οὐαί σοι, Χοραζίν! οὐαί σοι, Βηθσαϊδά!

Οὐαί is the Greek exclamation meaning: Woe to you! And I have to say when you pronounce it, it really does come out like the Yiddish OY! No, it’s not Yiddish, but it sounds the same and actually it conveys much the same meaning.

“OY! Chorazin. OY! Bethsaida.”

Why this exclamation of anguish, of woe, of hopelessness? Why is Jesus, in the words of Matthew, reproaching these places? And why, further on, does he also reproach Capernaum, that lovely fishing village at the North end of the Sea of Galilee — the very place where he began his Ministry?

After all, it was in these very places that Jesus performed many miracles, the Greek is the word for power. It is nearly always translated “miracles”, but the understanding is that when Jesus speaks, forgives, embraces, enfolds, welcomes, touches, heals — it is the presence of power, nothing less than the power of the Eternal One, of God.

By the way, do you notice in the story that where Jesus is concerned it is always verbs, not nouns that are at the core. Jesus heals, Jesus forgives, Jesus loves. Always the action!

That is the point. For those who follow Jesus, it is what we do, not what we think, not what we say — that brings the Presence of God to our neighbor.

In those places, Chorazin (in the north of Galilee on a hill overlooking the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee); Bethsaida (on the eastern shore of the Sea) about 6 miles from Capernaum, and Capernaum itself, this lovely fishing village with at least one or two synagogues makes its way into the invectives with a comparison to the ancient Israeli cities of Tyre and Sidon, with Jesus saying it will be better for those other places (historically and Biblically nasty places), better for Tyre and Sidon than it will be for Capernaum.

Why?

Here we are on this Sunday morning and your Guest Pastor has decided to preach about verses omitted from the reading! And you say to yourself, Well, here we are and now we are listening to this, but maybe it would have been OK to skip this Sunday?

Or, maybe you say, This is not the Jesus we know and love. Not the Jesus of total affirmation and forgiveness. And besides all this, Pastor, if you would just read on as you said, there are some lovely verses in this Gospel selection: “Come to me, all you who are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.”

True. Those lovely verses are there, and if you want to hear them, that’s the Sermon at 10.30. Thank you Dr. Staack.

But, you say, The Jesus we want is the Jesus that brings hope and love and comfort. Not this upstart fellow who curses the very places into which he has walked and proclaimed the Good News‽

So, why are you doing this, Pastor Ben, apart from the cute story of Dr. Hagen Staack?

I am doing this because the Gospel is not just sweetness and goodness. The Gospel, the Life of the Gospel, the very reason we are here this morning — with all of our faults and all of our misdeeds and all of our doubts and all of our misgivings — we are here because we need to hear the Story and listen to the Story — because it is a Story that not only speaks to us, but it is a Story that welcomes us and embraces us and forgives us and strengthens us and give us hope so that we can get up tomorrow morning and the day after that and the day after that and say to the God of All Creation, “Thank you!”

And having said that we can, if we are faithful, say one more thing each morning: “Put into my life today the needs of my neighbor, so that I can fulfill your Love.”

The villages of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum – did not do that! They heard, they even listened, but nothing changed. They never changed. They never moved off from their stance of refusing to reach out and love other people without condition.

What was their sin? It was — indifference. The Sin of Doing Nothing: seeing people in need, in pain, suffering and hurting and then — going off to Brunch.

Indifference is the point of these verses which are omitted from the lectionary. They attack and challenge us when we bring them to life in our liturgy by reading them aloud. They challenge our indifference. Maybe that is why they were omitted. They are too close, too uncomfortable.

BUT, dear People of God, People of Faith, Brothers and Sisters dear to me (we have known each other for many many years, so I can say this to you: reaching out with loveisthe Gospel. And if we don’t, then we are not part of the Gospel. These verses come to us this morning and ask us to go beyond the comfortable, the usual, that which makes us feel good and instead risk loving each other and those around us and those whom we meet this week and beyond.

And if we do — if we do — then not only will our eyes be opened, but our hearts will be opened. And that, my sisters and brothers is what the Gospel is all about.

Think of that this week. Remember to say OY! when you see indifference and the refusal of love. And then, by all means, be sure to act in love to those around you. Amen.

Deo Gratias (+)

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Retired

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Matthew 11.16-19 [20-24] 25-30

16Τίνι δὲ ὁμοιώσω τὴν γενεὰν ταύτην; ὁμοία ἐστὶν παιδίοις καθημένοις ἐν ταῖς ἀγοραῖς ἃ προσφωνοῦντα τοῖς ἑτέροις 17λέγουσιν, Ηὐλήσαμεν ὑμῖν καὶ οὐκ ὠρχήσασθε: ἐθρηνήσαμεν καὶ οὐκ ἐκόψασθε. 18ἦλθεν γὰρ Ἰωάννης μήτε ἐσθίων μήτε πίνων, καὶ λέγουσιν, Δαιμόνιον ἔχει: 19ἦλθεν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐσθίων καὶ πίνων, καὶ λέγουσιν, Ἰδοὺ ἄνθρωπος φάγος καὶ οἰνοπότης, τελωνῶν φίλος καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν. καὶ ἐδικαιώθη ἡ σοφία ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῆς.

The omitted verses:

20Τότε ἤρξατο ὀνειδίζειν τὰς πόλεις ἐν αἷς ἐγένοντο αἱ πλεῖσται δυνάμεις αὐτοῦ, ὅτι οὐ μετενόησαν: 21Οὐαί σοι, Χοραζίν: οὐαί σοι, Βηθσαϊδά: ὅτι εἰ ἐν Τύρῳ καὶ Σιδῶνι ἐγένοντο αἱ δυνάμεις αἱ γενόμεναι ἐν ὑμῖν, πάλαι ἂν ἐν σάκκῳ καὶ σποδῷ μετενόησαν. 22πλὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, Τύρῳ καὶ Σιδῶνι ἀνεκτότερον ἔσται ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως ἢ ὑμῖν. 23καὶ σύ, Καφαρναούμ, μὴ ἕως οὐρανοῦ ὑψωθήσῃ; ἕως ἅ|δου καταβήσῃ. ὅτι εἰ ἐν Σοδόμοις ἐγενήθησαν αἱ δυνάμεις αἱ γενόμεναι ἐν σοί, ἔμεινεν ἂν μέχρι τῆς σήμερον. 24πλὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι γῇ Σοδόμων ἀνεκτότερον ἔσται ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως ἢ σοί.

25Ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ καιρῷ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν, Ἐξομολογοῦμαί σοι, πάτερ, κύριε τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῆς γῆς, ὅτι ἔκρυψας ταῦτα ἀπὸ σοφῶν καὶ συνετῶν καὶ ἀπεκάλυψας αὐτὰ νηπίοις: 26ναί, ὁ πατήρ, ὅτι οὕτως εὐδοκία ἐγένετο ἔμπροσθέν σου. 27Πάντα μοι παρεδόθη ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρός μου, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐπιγινώσκει τὸν υἱὸν εἰ μὴ ὁ πατήρ, οὐδὲ τὸν πατέρα τις ἐπιγινώσκει εἰ μὴ ὁ υἱὸς καὶ ᾧ ἐὰν βούληται ὁ υἱὸς ἀποκαλύψαι. 28Δεῦτε πρός με πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι, κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς. 29ἄρατε τὸν ζυγόν μου ἐφ’ ὑμᾶς καὶ μάθετε ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ, ὅτι πραΰς εἰμι καὶ ταπεινὸς τῇ καρδίᾳ, καὶ εὑρήσετε ἀνάπαυσιν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶν: 30ὁ γὰρ ζυγός μου χρηστὸς καὶ τὸ φορτίον μου ἐλαφρόν ἐστιν.

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16 [Jesus said to the crowd] ‘But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another,

17 “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.”

18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; 19the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’

The omitted verses:

20 Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. 21‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22But I tell you, on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 23And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24But I tell you that on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.’

25 At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’