Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
February 3, 2019
Lectionary Year C

Bp. Brewer at St. David’s by-the-Sea

I don’t remember my first sermon as an ordained clergyperson over 40 years ago. Fresh out of seminary, I was called to be an assistant at a modest-sized church. My only preaching experiences prior to that were in homiletics classes and a few times in the seminary chapel. My nerves, doubts, fears were all in overdrive. The sermon was short. The congregation was gracious in their comments. And no one tried to run me out of town or throw me off a cliff.

The rejection of Jesus at His hometown synagogue (Luke 4:21-30 also Matthew 13:53-58, and Mark 6:1-6) was Jesus’ opening day preaching experience and the official start of His public ministry. Fresh from His baptism by John, His temptation in the wilderness by Satan, and being filled with the Holy Spirit, one would have hoped that there would have been least some sort of “honeymoon” period and Jesus could have racked a few more accolades before the crowd turned on Him.

But that was not to be. This event and the rejection by the people laid the groundwork for what would be His ministry met by rejection. His words would offend His childhood friends, the religious leaders, zealots, Roman officials, the chief priests, Pharisees and Sadducees. He was an equal opportunity offender – because He never diluted His message to make it palatable to His audience.

He spoke truth, with authority and conviction. He never shied away from controversy or preached what “itching ears wanted to hear.” His claims of Messiahship and His declaration that He was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1-3 brought the first of many rallying cries of those who were not yet ready to hear His message. Such outrage could have ended His ministry before it began.

Holcombe

I know clergy whose formative years early in ministry were similarly fashioned by adversity and rejection. Many clergy leave the ordained ministry because it is not what they expected. Perhaps Commissions on Ministry and Seminary Deans should more fully acknowledge that ministry does come with rejection and sometimes in big doses! In life and in the Church, there will be differences of opinion, differences of style, and times when you may start looking for the guardrails of nearby cliffs; it all comes with the territory. If our founder experienced rejection and trials in ministry, then perhaps we should expect the same.

– The Rev. Scott T. Holcombe is rector at St. David’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Cocoa Beach.