A love whose breadth causes offence

LUKE 4, 21 -30

In her short story, “Revelation” , Flannery O’Connor introduces us to a character named Ruby Turpin. Ruby who is a large lady enters her doctor’s waiting room and after ensuring that her husband has somewhere to sit and rest his injured leg, she looks around expecting someone to give up a seat for her. Nobody does so until a patient is called in to see the doctor.

By now, however, Ruby has become quite irritated. Still sat next to a rather stylish lady, she begins a conversation into which others are drawn. In that conversation, her worldview begins to come out. That world view is unpleasant and even racist for Ruby looks down on a lot of people. Her words and indeed her unspoken thoughts reveal an unpleasant snobbery which goes to the point of saying her pigs are “cleaner than some children.”

Thankfully, there is one person in the room who cannot bear this hate filled pap. Mary Grace who is a student, blames Ruby for the way that the conversation has developed. And she can take it no longer! In her anger she throws a book at Ruby, hitting her above the eye before leaping on her in an attempted strangulation. Subdued physically by the other patients, she lets out a fiery insult - “Go back to Hell where you came from you old warthog!”

I guess that Jesus’ audience in Nazareth were a little bit like Ruby Turpin. They had in their minds an understanding of who were the insiders and who were the outsiders. Oh yes, the believed in God’s love allright but for them just like Ruby Turpin, it was for them and those who were like them and certainly not for foreigners, peoples of other religious experiences or outsiders often termed as “sinners” which in their view included those with skin diseases that are loosely termed leprosy. You get it? It was like Mrs Turpin’s view, a view as to who was respectable in God’s sight and who wasn’t.

Now in confronting this misunderstanding of God’s love, Jesus may be seen as snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. For whereas, when he read from the Book of Isaiah, words of deliverance as those who had been in exile in Babylon for half a century were beginning to return to their ancient homes in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, we are told all spoke well of him, now as he points to the wideness of God’s love, they are incensed. So angry are they that they plan to throw him over the cliff which is rather extreme! Whilst I may at times drive the good folk of Bideford Methodist Church mad, they have not plotted to throw me over Abbotsham Cliffs - yet at least!

In Holy Communion, we celebrate the amazing love which God has for each of us. We rejoice that we are loved, forgiven and accepted. And yet, it is too easy to narrow down the extent of that love. That is why my favourite hymn is the one that proclaims, “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy.”

For ultimately, as a result of our humanity, which we all owe to God, we are all connected with one another across races, creeds and social backgrounds as children of God. We are enriched and made more truly human by discovering the value in others, including those who might seem distant from us.

A story that illustrates this comes from the wars in what was Yugoslavia back in the 1990s. A journalist in Sarajevo saw a girl walking the street ahead of him, get hit by sniper fire. Before he could do anything, another man scooped up the injured girl and pleaded with the reporter to drive them to the hospital. The reporter got the man and girl into the back seat of his car and began to drive. As they went through the streets of Sarajevo, the man called out;

“ Please hurry; she is still alive.”

A few minutes later he called out;

“Hurry please, my little girl is still breathing.”

And a little later he cried out;

“Quick! My girl is still warm.”

Sadly by the time they arrived at the hospital, the little girl was dead. As the man and the reporter, went to wash their hands, the man turned to the reporter and said;

“Now comes the hardest part. I must find the little girl’s father and tell him what has happened.”

Stunned, the journalist stammered out;

“But I thought you was the Father! I thought she was you child!”

Back from the man came the reply;

“Aren’t they all our children?”

And in those words comes the message that whatever barriers we create, all are connected and precious to the God who is the source of all life.

Back to Ruby Turpin. Being called a warthog, an ugly smelly creature, really bugged her. Yet if you follow the story on, you find that it ultimately leads her to a vision in which she sees a procession in which those whom she had looked down on - the ignorant, the down and outs, those of other races - all have priority over her. And so her vision of the world is changed. The last have become first. And she knows that she like us can only come to God, as a result of God’s kindness.

And now, in kindness, God offers us bread and wine as signs of his life being poured into us. May we be grateful for God’s love and may we appreciate the this gift is for all.


Preached at Edgehill College Communion Service on Friday January 26th 2007