Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 72

Take me with you.

The word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I dedicated you,
a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

The Prophet Jeremiah has been called history’s first individual. When people flocked to leaders who represented only their own values the Hebrew prophet stepped forward to speak a word from God, a word only he could hear. The Lord had sent prophets to Israel and Judah long before Jeremiah; but he in particular experienced a terrifying loneliness in his calling. 

Pop psychologists, using American standards to assess the writings of a 6th century BCE genius, see paranoia in the complaining Prophet. They call him "history's first individual." They are half-right. A culture that prizes individuality -- making every effort to separate the person from family, friends, faith, class, gender and nationality – often produces a human being without connections: frightened, defensive, suspicious and sometimes hostile. He is lost in space, a satellite without a planet to orbit. 

Some social scientists see this tendency heightened since the advent of the Internet, and point to Adam Lanza as a case in point. Isolated by some kind of mental illness, sequestered by a divorced mother and her survivor obsession, abandoned by his father, fascinated by electronic war-games and virtual relationships, nameless in a tightly-knit small town, the boy/man entered a school and murdered 26 adults and children. He had already committed a form of suicide when he destroyed his computer; he had nowhere to go but hell. Such is the fate of one who seeks personal meaning, identity or salvation without human relationships.

The individuality of the Christian is altogether different. The Christian's prophetic call is an intense bond of fellowship with the earth, others and the Lord. It can be a lonely experience, especially when the Spirit compels one to speak a prophetic word. 

The loneliness is intensified by the fierce love which forces him to say the unspeakable. He will be called unpatriotic and treasonous for challenging the majority. He will be described as soft on crime and terror for defending the legal rights of trapped, defenseless prisoners. He will be vilified for speaking common sense.

In today’s gospel Jesus spoke out before his neighbors and family. They were happy to hear the word about him, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” If the Messiah came from Nazareth every Galilean in the world could boast about him. His family would be privileged above all others. His home would draw pilgrims from everywhere.

But they were outraged when he spoke about them:

He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb,‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say,‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’”And he said, “Amen, I say to you,no prophet is accepted in his own native place.

Jesus, like today's individual, could not conform to the expectations of others; but neither could he turn away from his people. He would continually invite them to "Come after me" even as they turned their backs on him.

As we set out for the deep, into Lent and this new year, we need not ask the Lord, "Where are you taking me?" But we might do well to ask, "Take me with you." It might not seem like a safe or easy journey, but so long as The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.