Luke 7.11-17
11Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. 12As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. 13When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ 14Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’ 15The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us!’ and ‘God has looked favourably on his people!’ 17This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.
Sermon by BISHOP OF WHITBY
Through the miracle at Nain, Jesus creates an environment of prophetic word and action, where life is seen in different terms. The limitations of the mundane are suspended, as God reveals new and unexpected potential.
The people respond with fear. This is not the incapacitating fear that stifles love and generosity. It is, rather, the quality of disturbing wonderment that typifies encounter with God in the excitement and inexplicable awe of worship.
The description of Jesus as a prophet is a statement about the effect of the presence of Jesus, rather than a definition of who he is. It suggests that Jesus engendered the hard-to-define atmosphere that was unmistakably prophetic. This atmosphere was focused on more than prediction of the future — a serious misunderstanding of what prophecy is about.
Among the names or descriptions most frequently used to describe a prophet are the Hebrew words that mean “one who is called” and “one who sees”. In the miracle at Nain, there is a distinct sense of being favoured, by God, with a vocation of witness, an experience shared by Paul. Similarly, in the person and action of Jesus, the people are enabled to see the nature of God’s redemptive love. They themselves become prophetic by seeing and proclaiming the presence of God in their midst.
The American Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann writes that the task of prophetic ministry is “to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us”.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus confronts what we might term the culture of deprivation and death: the poverty of a widow and the death of her son. To it, he brings the alternative culture of hope and life.
Our prophetic calling is to a patient and persistent engendering of the alternative culture of the gospel of Jesus Christ: life, not death; hope, not despair; glory, not waste.
The people respond with fear. This is not the incapacitating fear that stifles love and generosity. It is, rather, the quality of disturbing wonderment that typifies encounter with God in the excitement and inexplicable awe of worship.
The description of Jesus as a prophet is a statement about the effect of the presence of Jesus, rather than a definition of who he is. It suggests that Jesus engendered the hard-to-define atmosphere that was unmistakably prophetic. This atmosphere was focused on more than prediction of the future — a serious misunderstanding of what prophecy is about.
Among the names or descriptions most frequently used to describe a prophet are the Hebrew words that mean “one who is called” and “one who sees”. In the miracle at Nain, there is a distinct sense of being favoured, by God, with a vocation of witness, an experience shared by Paul. Similarly, in the person and action of Jesus, the people are enabled to see the nature of God’s redemptive love. They themselves become prophetic by seeing and proclaiming the presence of God in their midst.
The American Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann writes that the task of prophetic ministry is “to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us”.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus confronts what we might term the culture of deprivation and death: the poverty of a widow and the death of her son. To it, he brings the alternative culture of hope and life.
Our prophetic calling is to a patient and persistent engendering of the alternative culture of the gospel of Jesus Christ: life, not death; hope, not despair; glory, not waste.
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