We’ve seen them too often, the images of religious people screaming, ranting, protesting, attacking, their faces contorted, eyes bulging, fists raised. And here is just such a scene near the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, in the synagogue in his hometown, after he tells the people he’s not likely to be doing any miracles there.
When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. (This Sunday's gospel reading is here.)
An over-reaction, perhaps? Or did they feel he had blasphemed, claiming to be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy? Or offensive, reminding them of times when God’s favor had rested upon outsiders rather than the people of Israel? We don’t know exactly what so infuriated them, but it surely had something to do with their expectations being dashed. I dare say that when people’s religious hopes and expectations are not met, they experience a more profound let-down than when facing other disappointments.
Why else would our congregations so often be the ground for such conflict? Because people bring to faith communities unspoken, unnamed, often unconscious expectations of finding the perfect family, the one in which you are perfectly seen and accepted and affirmed, and all your needs are met. God's supposed to do that for us. And when that doesn’t happen, people often get angry, and that anger can be directed at clergy, at fellow-congregants, at others who share the building. At its heart, though, it's an anger that God has disappointed us.
Jesus’ fellow townsfolk just acted out more clearly and obviously the rage many feel toward a God who allows suffering to go on, evil to flourish, peace to fail. We want God’s miracles, damn it! As well we should. I believe God wants us to pray for God’s power to be unleashed.
We just need to pray and release. Pray with fervor and realize there are many factors involved in how the answers to our prayers will be manifest. I do not believe God will undercut his gift of free will. Humans are free to choose their course, and that inevitably inhibits the realization of God's will. We might say the miracles are when we are enabled to choose the good, choose against our own self-interest. That’s how God’s power to transform gets worked out.
Let’s not judge those rage-filled congregants of Nazareth; at some time or other many of us might have been in their shoes. We can only wish they could have seen past their own desire and expectations to discern the Holy One in their midst. But he was too familiar; they couldn’t see him as God. Let’s not make that mistake.
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