Jeremiah 1: 4-10; Luke 4: 21-30

I recently read about the “Jerusalem Syndrome” (in the journal “Homiletics).  The Jerusalem syndrome refers to the people who come to Jerusalem to dress and act like Jesus or another Biblical character. Millions of people have toured the famous city which has been home to many sacred events.  There is so much history in a very small space.  But is said that about 50 plus visit there to engage in delusionary behavior every year.  They assume they are a character from the Bible come back to life.  Of course we know mental delusion is no laughing matter per se, but we human beings sure are funny, no matter where they are on the mental health spectrum.  We all have our odd behaviors, most of which we would not want to share with others.  Quirkiness runs throughout all of the human race, and that brings me to an anecdote about a man who came to see a therapist and who claimed he was God and needed some help.  The therapist asked him to sit down and the therapist urges him to tell his story by starting from the first moment. “Sure,” said the patient: “In the beginning I created the heavens and the earth.” Those are the kind of people who make their way to Jerusalem every year. And it’s true, I have seen them.

I also read about the Nazareth Syndrome (in the same journal).  Like the Jerusalem Syndrome it isn’t a real disorder.   It instead has to do with rejection.  You see Jesus goes back to His hometown in the north of Israel and He reintroduces Himself to the small city people among Whom he grew up.  But it becomes a terrible experience.  The townsfolk won’t accept Jesus as the Messiah Whose coming is foretold in the text from Isaiah he reads out loud.  The townspeople in fact think that Jesus has a kind of Jerusalem syndrome.  They think he is delusional or in the very least pretentious.  Who is this carpenter to think that He is the Messiah? How dare He? So the people he shared His hometown with actually wind up running Him out of town.  It is absolutely a shocking passage.  They even come close to hurling Jesus off a cliff.  This causes Jesus to exclaim:  “No prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.”

So what is the Nazareth syndrome?  The Nazareth Syndrome is the experience of not being heard by the people we are closest to.  This also brings us to Jeremiah Who refuses to listen to His God also.  Even when God clearly speaks to Him to call to the profession of prophet, Jeremiah begins by disagreeing and discounting God’s calling.  Even God gets subjected to the Nazareth syndrome.  So, friends, what does that have to do with us?  Simply, you and I also subject those closest to us to the Nazareth syndrome.  There are people close to you, in your family, among your closest friends who are well-intentioned and who know you well.  But often you don’t like what they have to say to you about yourself.  There is an old Hebrew tradition of seeing a spouse as a mirror.  You see yourself in what they tell you in verbal or non-verbal ways.  But this is also true of other family members and close friends.  They become mirrors to us.  Sometimes they’re wrong. Maybe they’re just angry.  Some may not be insightful, but more often we don’t like we see.  The point is that even they may not bring the message in a very kind or diplomatic way, there is a message in there somewhere.  We have spoken already of the relationship of Henry Ford and his son Edsel, how the father wanted the son to be ruder and shrewder and the son wants the father to be kinder and more modern.  I mentioned how Shakespeare’s Macbeth spiraled into darkness and madness was not well-served by a life partner who fed his darker side.  We talked about the most popular sitcom on television, Modern Family (ABC), which is really always about the same thing in the end: how the members of that chaotic family see things they want to correct in the other members of the family but never quite go about it the right way which leads to drama that gets resolved at the end of the episode.  There is something prophetic in everything they wish to say to each other, but they are lacking in restraint and communication skills to do it right.  It’s really the truth about all of us isn’t it?  We mean well most of the time, but we don’t know how to deliver the message.  The words and the timing are all wrong.  So it really isn’t all the fault of the person who doesn’t want to hear the criticism, it is all the fault of the person who delivers the criticism.  It is the bumbling by one person and the refusal to be corrected by another that leads to the Nazareth syndrome (which- again- isn’t a real syndrome at all).   So friends, what is it that we can learn here? People are God’s gift. Somebody close to you probably has something prophetic to say to you, something that may make you a better, more graceful and more gracious person.  My suggestion: try their input on like you try on a coat at your favorite Department store.  If it fits wear it. If it doesn’t don’t.  May God help us become better people.