Between Sundays for Week of February 3, 2025
What happened? One minute Jesus was giving his inaugural address written by the prophet Isaiah and all the people who heard it were amazed at the gracious words coming from his mouth! And the next, the very same people were filled with rage and ready to hurl him off a cliff. What happened in that synagogue?
Throughout his ministry, Jesus was abundantly faithful to the teaching and tradition he had received. The problem isn’t what Jesus said. The problem centered on the people who heard it, and I don’t just mean those people in Nazareth. The problem is us.
The truth of what happens in that synagogue in Nazareth, what happens at Bethlehem when we gather for worship, and what happens in every place God’s people gather to heard God’s word is that the gospel pierces the illusions of the good life we’re living and calls us to face the ways we remain bound to sin. The good news makes us squirm. It brings us to our knees and calls us to confront the ways we’d rather continue with the status quo than be formed more fully into Christ’s body for the sake of the world.
The people in the synagogue became enraged with Jesus, because his message called them to examine their lives and their assumptions about the limits of God’s grace. We become fearful, and ashamed, and enraged by the gospel for the very same reasons. When faced with the good news of God’s love for all, we have to admit that we’d rather keep looking at this world through our eyes of judgement rather than through Christ’s eyes of compassion. We’d rather use our feet for our own purposes than to bring Christ’s good news of abundant life to this world. We’d rather use our hands for lashing out than blessing.
Giving ourselves to live as Christ’s body in the world is hard . . . impossible really. Our only hope for approaching such a task is through the power of the Holy Spirit that fills us in our baptism. The gospel doesn’t call us to save the world, Jesus has already done that for us. The gospel does call us to join Jesus in the murky places of our own lives where we share in the work of embracing God’s ever widening circle of grace. That is the way where Jesus leads and where we seek to follow.
Thanks be to God!
P.S. Watch Sunday’s service and view past services on the Share in Worship page of BLC’s website!
P.P.S. If you’re wondering how to support those impacted by the California Wildfires, Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) is one option. Your gifts equip LDR to respond to communities affected by wildfires and related disasters. Gifts to “U.S. Wildfires” will be used in full (100%) to assist those affected by wildfires until the response is complete.
If you’re wondering how to support immigrants, Global Refuge (formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services) is the ELCA’s partner for this important ministry.
Patty Chaffee
Family Faith Formation Coordinator
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Ponderings
I wonder sometimes if Jesus recited the words of Psalms as he went about his ministry. The Psalms have provided language for prayer for God’s people for millenia. Psalm 71:1-6 is the Psalm assigned to accompany Luke 4:21-31 in the Revised Common Lectionary from which we most often draw our weekly readings.
In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me and save me.
Be to me a rock of refuge,
a strong fortress, to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.