Scripture/Sermon of the Day. January 23, 2022
Luke 4:14-21
The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry
14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit,
returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding
country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth
16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought
up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up
to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled
the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release
to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go
free,
19
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the
attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21
Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your
hearing.”
Reflection/Sermon:
I. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus begins his ministry in
chapter four, right after he is baptized by John and then tempted by the devil.
The devil tempted Jesus with money and power. “I will give you the world, if you
will work for me,” the devil told Jesus.
Jesus said he’s working for God, in pubic service.
II. The apostle Paul said there are particular graces
that God gives us. Each of us has different gifts that God wants us to use to
serve others.
A week ago we remembered the birth of reverend Martin
Luther King, Jr.. He had many gifts, but especially, he could speak in public
with incredible power. You can’t learn to speak like that in school. You can
learn public speaking, but you can’t learn to speak with that energy and
charisma and power. That’s something God gave King.
III. King and he knew that he had gifts of
intelligence and powerful speaking — and that he could use these to have a good
and comfortable life. He thought of using his gifts to secure a professorship in
a good university and spend his days enjoying the “ivory tower” of academia.
Smoking a pipe, wearing tweed jackets, soaking up praise from grateful students
who would love his lectures. That was a dream he didn’t share in his “I Have A
Dream” speech from the Lincoln Memorial. It’s a dream he didn’t follow .
IV. Instead, he used his gifts to wake up a nation to
the evils of racism and injustice and inequality and he told us to do better. He
called on us to treat each other with respect and dignity and love.
IT SOUNDS CRAZY, but when King told us to love each
other and treat each other with compassion, a lot of people hated him! Wouldn’t
you call that a symptom of something sick inside of us? There’s an insanity in
our nature that maybe is dormant but it’s there and one of the things that makes
it come out — ONE OF THE THINGS THAT MAKES MANIACAL LUNATICS OF US IS WHEN WE
ARE TOLD TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER!
V. Part of me regrets that King didn’t follow that
other dream so he could have enjoyed a good and long life. Instead of preaching
“I Have A Dream” — he could have written about it. Instead of marching with the
sanitation workers and the bus boycotters and instead of having rocks thrown at
him and fire hoses knocking him down and dogs attacking him and a shopper
stabbing him while he was signing books in Harlem—instead of all that, he could
have safely lectured from a beautiful university.
Wouldn’t that have done as much good? Why didn’t the
holy spirit and Jesus guide King to do that? Or why did Alexei Navalny have go
go back to Russia after Putin poisoned and almost killed him. Why didn’t he
continue to criticize the sociopathic dictator from a safer place? But he went
back to Russia and was arrested immediately and now is in “a corrective labor
colony in Vladimir Oblast” where he is being tortured and may not survive his
two and a half year sentence.
VI. But it seems that God wants us to take these
risks, if they will make the lives of others better. So we see Jesus reading a
passage today from the prophet Isaiah. So far, so good. People are loving it.
“Good news!” He says. “Release to captives, sight to the blind!” Go Jesus!
“Yay!!” People holler. Now if he would just fold up the scroll and leave,
everything would be fine. But no — he has to speak! OH Jesus — watch out! Be
careful!
I’m afraid he’s going to get himself in trouble. Can’t
you feel it? He’s going to say something now and risk his life. Oh no!!!! What
will he say?
Well — I hope you’ll come back next week to find out.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t tell us to love one another. Or you know what’s worse
than that? Telling us that God loves us, every one of us.
Oh Jesus — if you want to live, please don’t say that!