Epiphany 2 (NL3) John B. Valentine
Luke 4:14-30 January 19, 2025

"I LIKE THE CHRISTMAS JESUS BEST"

Any of you perchance remember a movie called ‘Talladega Night’s?

‘Talladega Nights’ was a Hollywood attempt to spoof all the stereotypes of NASCAR and good ol’ boys’ and small town white Southern culture.

And the lead actor was Will Farrell ... who played the role of stock-car driver Ricky Bobby.

Now ... truth be told ... ‘Talladega Nights’ isn’t really worth watching ...

But there was this one particularly pointed scene in that movie wherein this Ricky Bobby character is sitting at a table filled to overflowing with pizza boxes and fried chicken and two-liter bottles of Coke and Mountain Dew ... and he’s offering up grace before the meal.

Will Farrell thus begins:

“Dear Lord Baby Jesus ...we thank you so much for this bountiful harvest of Domino’s, KFC, and the always-delicious Taco Bell. I just wanna take time to say thank you for my family, dear Lord Baby Jesus” ...

At which point his wife interrupts him and says:

“Hey, you know sweetie, Jesus did grow up. You don’t always have to call him ‘baby’. It feels a a bit off-puttin’ to pray to a BABY.”

To which he shoots back:

“Look ... I like the Christmas Jesus best, and I’m sayin’ grace and I like the baby Jesus version the best, you hear? When you say grace ... you can say it to Grownup Jesus or Teenage Jesus or Bearded Jesus or whoever you want.”

And then he concludes thusly:

“Dear Eight Pound, Six Ounce, Newborn Infant Jesus, don’t even know a word yet, just a little infant, so cuddly, but still omnipotent .... in your golden fleece diapers. Thank you, for all your power and your grace, dear baby God. Amen.”

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Now you might laugh at Will Ferrell doing this ‘Ricky Bobby’ thing ... ... or you might NOT laugh at Will Farrell doing his ‘Ricky Bobby’ thing ...

But ... given the fact that humor is necessarily somehow grounded in reality ... maybe we should own up to there’s something to the idea of “liking the Christmas Jesus best.”

After all ...

• Everybody loves to sing “Away in a manger, no crib for his bed.”

• Everybody seems a little sad when the Christmas season is over and we don’t “Go, tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born!” anymore.

• People who don’t show up for much of anything at church show up for Christmas pageants with overgrown sheep and shepherds in bathrobes.

We LIKE the Christmas Jesus.

Maybe we even like the Christmas Jesus BEST.

That “eight pound – six ounce” Jesus who’s swaddled in fleece diapers and surrounded by cuddly animals.

But sometimes I wonder if ... as a community and as a society and as individuals ... we’re willing to worship “bearded Jesus” ... the “grownup Jesus” too .....

Or if ‘the Christmas Jesus’ is the only one we really want.

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You see ... a little bit ago ... we heard this story from the Gospel of Luke ... chapter four ... in which Jesus returns to Nazareth ... to his own hometown.

And ... since it’s the weekend ... and since it’s his custom ... he heads off to worship with most everybody else from town ...

• Some of whom were his neighbors back in the day ...

• Some of whom were his childhood friends ...

• Some of whom probably just remembered him hanging out at the park with his brothers and sisters back when he was but a child.

But ...since then ... Jesus has begun to develop something of a reputation for being a preacher and a miracle-maker ... and I can’t help but think there was a least a bit of a buzz about the fact that Jesus was going to be at church that day.

Anyhow ... wile he’s there ... he gets up to read something from the Scriptures ...

And they hand him the scroll of the words of the Prophet Isaiah ...

And he scrolls down to the part wherein it says what?

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because

• He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor ...
• He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives ...
• And recovery of sight to the blind ...
• To let the oppressed go free ...
• To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

And ... with that ... Jesus rolls up the scroll ... hands it back to the attendant ... and takes a seat.

Now what the text doesn’t say ... but what the next little bit of it clearly implies ... is that everyone ... EVERYONE ... was pleased and amazed and proud at what they’d just heard.

So much so that you can hear the buttons popping off the shirts of those in attendance!

• “That’s our boy.”
• “He’s made quite a name for himself.”
• “That boy is going to go places!”

You see ... the text that Jesus chose from Isaiah 61 ... is a text that is all about GOOD NEWS ...

And if Jesus is declaring that he himself is the medium ... the messenger of that good news ... all the better for them!

• Blind people see ...
• Deaf people hear ...
• Lame people walk ...
• The possessed are set free ...

That’s exactly the sort of stuff they say heard he’s been doing up by Capernaum!

And if that’s what he been doing fo those weirdos up in Capernaum ... can you imagine what he going to do for the people from his own hometown???

But ... needless to say ... their enthusiasm doesn’t last for long ......

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You see ... Jesus chooses to not leave well enough alone.

He says to his homies:

“Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have head you did at Capernaum.’”

Then he says:

“Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

And when they heard this ... all of a sudden ... all of them are filled with rage!

In short order ... the atmosphere in the synagogue goes from smug satisfaction .... to surprise .... to shock .... to rage!

Because Jesus cites two stories which make it clear that God sometimes blesses

• the outsiders rather than the insiders ...
• enemies rather than friends ...
• them rather than us.

You see ... the good news that Jesus is bringing is not exclusively meant for the benefit of good people and likeable people and our people ....

Rather ... it’s good news that transcends each and every ethnic, cultural, social, racial, confessional boundary that we might ourselves lay down ....

• We can’t tell God where God can and cannot be present.

• We can’t tell God what God can and cannot do.

• We can’t tell God whom God can and cannot bless.

This God of Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebekah and Rachel and Leah and Jacob doesn’t do miracles for us and our kind ... but for all and all kinds.

If God decides to miraculously feed a widow in Zaraphath ....

That’s what God will do.

If God decides to heal Naaman the Syrian ....

That’s what God will do.

If God decides to bless someone who is an illegal immigrant ... or a lesbian ... or an atheist ...

Or a bigot or a bigamist ...

Or a trans person or a trans-phobic person ...

Or even a self-righteous Lutheran for that matter ....

That is what God will do.

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You see ...

From what I can tell ... it isn’t just Ricky Bobby who likes the Christmas Jesus best.

These folks in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth didn’t want Jesus to grow up either.

They didn’t want him to grow up and become “teen-aged Jesus or bearded Jesus or whoever you want” ....

They wanted Jesus on their terms ... in ways they could control and predict and prepare for ... and put away when the celebrating of Christmas becomes stale.

And I’m not altogether certain that we really want the Christmas Jesus to grow up either!

But let’s be honest here ... folks.

As Ricky Bobby’s wife observed ... Jesus DOES grow up.

Jesus leaves his manger and his family and his hometown behind pretty quickly and sets the “all snug in their beds” crowd on edge right from the get-go.

• Pronouncing “good news to the poor” ...
• Healing those with despicable diseases ...
• Eating dinner with prostitutes ...
• Hanging around with IRS agents and thieves.

This grownup bearded Jesus starts a social revolution that asks us to love our enemies and to give those who’d take advantage of us not only our coats ... but also the shirt off our backs.

It’s okay to “like the Christmas Jesus.”

Heck ... it might even be okay to “like the Christmas Jesus best!”

But it’s not okay to “like the Christmas Jesus” only.

• Let him grow up and teach you ...

• Let him grow up and challenge you ...

• Let him grow up and die for you ...

• Let him grow up and bring you a new life ... a different life ... a life ... the life that God first created you to live.

You’re not from Nazareth. Don’t act like you are!