At the beginning of this past week, as everyone anticipated the Fourth of July, my local newspaper ran some interesting and little-known facts about our country’s beginnings.  Here’s an example:  how many Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776?

 

Two.  John Hancock and Charles Thomson.  The final writing of the Declaration was not finished until late in the afternoon of July 4.  Hancock and Thomson signed the document before it was hastened to the printer, and the other 54 signatures were added over the ensuing three months.

 

I hope you all had a good Independence Day celebration.  And in the midst of the fireworks, picnics and flag waving, we may have taken a moment or two to remember those 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

 

Some of the men who put their names to that document have taken on mythic, god-like status: John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson.  But the 56 men who signed the document were not gods, but mere mortals who paid the price for their act of heroism.  Have you ever wondered what happened to some of not-so-well-known signers, like Carter Braxton, Thomas McKean, John Hart, Francis Lewis, and Thomas Nelson, Jr.?

 

Five of the 56 were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.  Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.  Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.  Nine fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. 

 

These men of means and education had security, but they valued liberty more.  When they signed the Declaration of Independence, they knew full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.  But standing tall and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." 

 

It can be difficult – even dangerous -- to be a visionary, to maintain our integrity and to stand up for our convictions when others are against us, sometimes defiantly so.  Just this past week, Enron founder Kenneth Lay died of a heart attack.  He was awaiting sentencing after being convicted last month of fraud and conspiracy for his part in the Houston-based company's collapse into bankruptcy in 2001.  You may remember who first brought the improprieties at Enron to light – a woman by the name of Sherron Watkins, who was Enron’s Vice President of Corporate Development.  Several years ago, Time Magazine named Watkins, along with Coleen Rowley of the FBI and Cynthia Cooper of Worldcom, as “Persons of the Year.”  These women, of ordinary demeanor but extraordinary principles, took huge professional and personal risks to blow the whistle on their respective employers – and in so doing, they helped remind us what courage and integrity are all about.  They may not have put their lives on the line, like those who signed the Declaration of Independence, but these women put pretty much everything else at risk: their jobs, their health, their privacy, their sanity. 

 

The main characters in our Scripture lessons this morning also knew what it was like to stand up in the face of opposition.  Ezekiel, Paul, and Jesus were all prophets.  These days we use the word prophet to describe a person who predicts the future.  But the biblical definition is one who speaks for God.  Of course, this can be a dangerous role, and prophets who truly spoke for God were usually killed. 

 

Ezekiel was called by God to be God’s spokesperson to Israel.  It was a tough assignment, for the people of Israel -- God’s “chosen” -- had devolved from being an actively devout nation, to being a country divided, to finally being a “rebellious house,” to use the words from today’s Old Testament lesson.  Into that morass Ezekiel stepped, delivering messages from God that Jerusalem was doomed unless the people repented and turned back to God.

 

The apostle Paul had been sent by Christ to spread the Good News of the Gospel, but he found that responding to God’s call brought him – as he described it – “insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.”  In the previous chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul has detailed some of the troubles he has experienced: beatings, imprisonments, sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, and worries about the problems of the churches.  Paul doesn’t say who has given him all this grief, whether they are critics within or outside the church.  But the point is clear: it’s not easy to be a servant of God, especially in the face of indifference, opposition, hostility and rejection from those to whom one is sent. 

 

Jesus was received time and again with hostility, but in the Gospels we most often see his opposition coming from the religious and governmental authorities.  What a surprise, then, to read in this morning’s Gospel passage that Jesus is rejected by the people who know him best – his family and friends in his hometown of Nazareth.

 

This is likely the first time he has come back for a visit since the beginning of his public ministry.  He has recently performed a number of miracles – stilling the storm, healing the woman with the hemorrhage, and restoring Jairus' little daughter to life.  Now, searching for some rest, Jesus journeys back to his own hometown of Nazareth.

 

He holds a public lecture at the synagogue and everyone turns up.  Of course they turn up -- this hometown boy has gone off to the big city to study, and now they want to see what he’s become.  And Mark tells us that they are all impressed by what they see.  The boy has grown up well; he speaks eloquently; the things he has to say are fresh and exciting.  No doubt the people feel proud, knowing that Jesus’ success also reflects on them; no longer will people ask, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" [John 1:46]!

 

But the good will doesn’t last long.  It probably starts with one comment from one malcontent, and before long, everyone’s chiming in with a complaint or disparaging remark.  “So he thinks he’s better than us now, does he?”  “Who does he think he is, coming in here and telling us how to live?” 

 

Why do the people of Nazareth reject their native son?  Perhaps it’s because they know him too well.  We all know the saying, “familiarity breeds contempt,” from one of Aesop’s fables [“The Fox and the Lion”].  Variations of the maxim have also been attributed to Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Mark Twain, who noted “Familiarity breeds contempt – and children.”

 

But why does “familiarity breed contempt”?  I suspect it is because when we get to know people well and when we see them day in and day out, year after year, we get to see them in all their humanity – we see not only the good, but also the bad and the ugly.  Over time, minor irritations that we could dismiss individually become lumped together and develop into major baggage.

 

Jesus was no mystery to the people of Nazareth; he was raised there.  The Gospel of Luke [2:40] tells us that, born with the limitations of a baby, he “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom.”  We can almost hear the townspeople saying, “I wiped his snotty nose when he was a kid and now he thinks he can tell me a thing or two, does he?”  “We taught him everything he knows right here in this town.”

 

It can be difficult to be a spokesperson for God.  Despite the obstacles Ezekiel faced, despite the fact that his audience was “a rebellious house,” he became one of the major prophets of the Old Testament, inspiring 250 generations of Jews and Christians with his wisdom and with his call for inner renewal. 

 

In spite of the opposition the Apostle Paul faced, he discovered that God's grace more than compensated for the barriers, impediments and handicaps to his ministry and mission.

 

And despite the rejection Jesus encountered in his hometown, he continued his mission of bringing the Kingdom of God to people on earth.

 

And the same can be true for us.  We are called by God to step out with courage and integrity for our faith.  We may even face disapproval and criticism for our beliefs.  But in the words of Mother Teresa, “God calls us not to be successful; God calls us to be faithful.”  And God will grant us sufficient grace in our weakness so that, as modern-day prophets, we might spread the Good News of Jesus Christ and show others a new life, a new heart, and a new spirit.  Amen.