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,
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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!