A MESSAGE FROM THE REV. J.C. AUSTIN: EXPLORING SUNDAY’S SCRIPTURE
As I was reading our Scripture passage for Sunday to prepare the sermon, it suddenly occurred to me: “Wait, is Jesus falling prey to 1st century ‘cancel culture’?” The passage is Luke 4:14-30, which is the story of when Jesus came to his hometown of Nazareth, read Scripture in the synagogue during Sabbath services, and then began to teach on it.
At first, everyone is impressed and excited by what he’s doing. But then 
he references a few other Scripture passages about God working through Gentiles, non-Jewish people who are not part of the covenant established between God and Abraham and his descendants. At that, they get so angry that they rise up and drive him to the edge of the high cliff that Nazareth is perched on, overlooking the Jezreel Valley far below, and try to hurl him off the cliff.
Jesus somehow manages to escape, but the fact remains that the end of his first sermon, preached to what seemed to be a receptive hometown crowd, was so offensive to the congregation that they turned almost instantly into an angry mob that literally tried to throw him away by tossing him off the cliff to his death.
As you probably know, the whole idea of “cancel culture” in 21st century U.S. society is a controversial one, and part of the larger problem of hyper-polarization that has become its own kind of political pandemic in recent years. In fact, people are polarized around the idea of whether cancel culture even exists and, if so, what counts and what doesn’t as “cancel culture” versus appropriate consequences for inappropriate public behavior.
But essentially, it’s describing a response of sudden and widespread outrage, usually online, to an offensive statement or work by a public figure, and calls for people to reject that figure and rescind their support of them. The debate, then, is whether such responses to offensive statements are necessary or appropriate, or even whether the statements should be considered offensive at all.
With that in mind, this passage from Luke seems oddly contemporary! So: is Jesus being canceled?!? What does that even mean for the people of his day and for us in ours? This Sunday, we’ll be considering those questions and more as we explore this important and puzzling text. I look forward to being with you, in person or online, as we do so!
Grace and Peace,
J.C.