Loading...A vortex is defined as A mass of whirling fluid or air, especially a whirlpool or whirlwind. I felt caught up in the Polar Vortex all week. Some of my family lives north of Chicago. My parents kept me informed of every whirl. My sister-in-law just went dark. On Wednesday morning Aidan and I drove to Danville in it so he could take a college tour of Centre. He spent two hours walking around in it while I sat in the admissions office lounge snuggled up with some knitting.
The polar part of the Vortex this week is what made the news because air that usually stays at the pole came to Chicago, Kentucky, and places that just don’t understand the purple part of the weather map.
The family and friends of Jesus just don’t understand the compassionate part of him when he comes home for a visit to Nazareth. His reading of scripture takes them to a place on the map they do not want to go: the place where God heals indiscriminately.
When you reread today’s passage from Luke along with the bit from last week’s reading of chapter 4 you see what a cold blast this must have felt like for those who felt warm and snuggly with their own interpretation of scripture.
When Jesus reads Isaiah and then tells the stories from the Book of Kings, he reminds everyone of the uncomfortable truth they already knew but liked to omit or redact or situationalize. Situationalizing is my personal favorite way of treating the truth when I feel a cold gap between who I want to be and who I am.
For some, reading the law and the prophets in the synagogue felt like a triumphal exaltation of might, even domination, and a recounting God’s promises being fulfilled. All that victory sounds especially important to ears who have been made meek, experienced oppression, and for whom promises have been compromised.
When Israel got rich and instituted a king, as predicted, Israel forgot all about the promise of God and what triumph looks like in God’s kingdom. Israel fell to the punishment God had promised would come as a consequence. Even there in the midst of punishment God reaches out in mercy, but without distinguishing between friend or foe. If God is willing to heal a Syrian leper, whose side is God on anyway??
If Elijah, the mightiest prophet of all time is sent to live with a widow in Zarephath of all places — ( I mean I hear people talk about Zarephath the way I hear people talk about Hart County).
The people who in Luke chapter 4 verse 22 who speak well of Jesus try to toss him off a cliff in verse 29. It only took 7 verses to go from warm and fuzzy to cold blooded. A quick mood swing if I ever heard of one. Bi-polar behavior?
I remember on a long car trip one summer with my kids. My youngest son Joseph was 9 at the time and had been in the backseat for 9 hours on a 12-hour drive from Oklahoma City to Bowling Green.
We were all feeling a little road weary with travel-tummies. But Joseph hadn’t said a word. He was playing with the toys his grandparents had given him during a long visit where we had all eaten food we don’t normally eat and slept in beds that didn’t bring us rest. Joseph had seen no need to change his clothes the entire visit. Until the 9th hour of the car ride when without warning from the quiet back seat came a wail, “WHAT IS THAT SMELL??” “I smell urine!!!” “Stop the car!! Stop it now!!”
Joseph was experiencing a full panic attack as his mood went from focused-and- content to disturbingly disturbed. I pulled into the first gas station where he jumped from the car, rummaged through the trunk for clean clothes and ran into the gas station to change.
Joseph had smelled like urine for at least two days. No one could convince him to bathe or change his clothes. To this day I do not know why his olfactory senses chose Interstate 40 as the place to notify him that it was time for a change. But change he did.
The only warning the good people of Nazareth have that change has arrived is the phrase Jesus speaks “...but the truth is…” It comes like a blast.
No one wants to hear what’s Jesus says next. Jesus and Nazareth are on opposite poles of when it comes to loving people serving people. Jesus says God loves and serves all. Nazareth just wants God’s love and serving for Israel at the expense of others.
As one writer says, the truth always blesses (John Claypool Mending the Heart). In the case of the car ride the last three hours were far more comfortable for us all. In the case of Nazareth the mass of whirling air that nearly hurled Jesus off a cliff eventually sweeps him to the storm on Good Friday. The cross is the ultimate convergence where high pressure meets low pressure. The result is a vortex of Love.
