SERMON, PROPER 9B

Last week, if you remember, I talked about our need to let go. We need to let go of our selfish desires. We need to let go of our fears. We need to let go of our theology of scarcity and work from a theology of abundance. We need to let go of our pride. It is in letting go that we die, and through dying that we are raised to new life.

When we let go, we are not only raised to new life, but in that letting go we are acknowledging that we are not in control. Despite what we have been led to believe -- rugged individualism, pull yourself up by your bootstraps -- we really are not in charge. I'm not saying that we can simply sit on the couch watching SportsCenter thinking we'll just stay out of God's way, because not being in control does not mean doing nothing.

But by letting go we realize that God has a plan, for the world, for the church and for us. What the details of that plan are, I don't know. But I do know that if we are truly going to be part of it, then we need to spend time in discernment and prayer. We need to be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit. We need to be willing to admit that God may not fit into that little box we made for him. We need to be ready to say, "I might be wrong."

That idea of not letting go, of thinking that we can do everything and anything for ourselves, of being absolutely sure of God's limitations and not listening is the overarching theme of both the OT and gospel readings. Ezekiel is focused on a rebellious people. Jesus comes to a people focused on scarcity. And neither group is willing to let go of their perceptions and listen to God.

Ezekiel was sent to Israel because they were rebellious, stubborn and impudent. They turned their backs on God, focused on their selfish desires, and prophesied that all was well when, in fact, it wasn't. Later on in Ezekiel, God states that Sodom was destroyed for not aiding the poor and needy from their abundance, as well as because of their overall general bad attitude. God is saying, through Ezekiel, that the Israelites of his day are much worse. In short, they have stopped listening to God and are focused inwardly.

We get this same sense in the gospel. I'm not implying that the people of Jesus' hometown were as bad as the Israelites that Ezekiel was sent to, but they do exhibit an inward focus and unwillingness to listen. That inward focus comes when they tab him as the local carpenter, son of Mary, whose family still lives in town.

"How can this guy do anything? We know him, and he's nothing special."

It's that inward focus that says I know how things work and I am in control. Jesus could do no deed of power there because the townspeople refused to let go of their perception of Jesus as a local boy. They refused to let go of the preconceived notion of how God has to behave.

In addition to that inward focus, they refused to listen. Jesus taught in the synagogue, "and many who heard him were astounded." Astounded is not the same as awed. Astounded, in this context, is something negative. Another way of saying it is that they were incredulous. Mark doesn't say what he said, but we can guess based on the previous chapters. He taught that the kingdom of God was near. He asked people to repent. Maybe he asked for someone to follow him. He challenged purity codes and religious law. Maybe he threw in a parable or two. And they would not listen.

They wouldn't listen because they had watched him grow up. These were the people who had taught him in former days; and now he was coming back to tell of God doing a new thing. It's no wonder they asked, "Where did he get all this?" They were being threatend: threatened by something new, by something that went against the way they had always done things, and by their understanding of who God was.

And it is precisely because they felt threatened by this new thing that they would not listen. It was precisely becaue they refused to let go of their previous understandings of God and their preconceived notions about how God should act that Jesus could do no deeds of power there. In refusing to let go, they were unwilling to be raised to new life.

Ezekiel talks about a rebellious and stubborn people. Mark tells us about the people of Jesus' hometown who refuse to listen to him. What we are left with, I think, is an admonition to not put our selfish desires above God's desires for us, and for us to actively listen as to how God might be doing a new thing.

So going back to last week and continuing this week, we need to let go of our selfish desires, we need to die to our self. We need to listen for how God is doing a new thing, both in the world and in our lives. And because we are willing to let go and listen, we will have a new and exciting life in Christ.