The Gospel
Luke 4:14-21
Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
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, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
"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,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
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. Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
The Sermon
Paul is right. He is writing to the
congregation in Corinth and his message is that they need to come
together. There is infighting. There is distrust. These people just
are not getting along and Paul makes an analogy that hits the nail on
the head.
He refers to the church as one body and
says like a body, they are all connected. When one person is hurting
everybody is effected. His message to the people in Corinth is still
as important in our churches today. We all need to use our gifts to
work together and keep our church healthy.
If we had one person who did everything
at St. Andrew's it would not be very long before our church would
begin to decline. All of you have important contributions to make and
I love it when you all chip in and fill in when you see something
needs done. No one in our congregation is more important than anyone
else. Me most of all. I value you and I love that you use your
gifts to make our church strong and healthy.
In this gospel reading from Luke we
hear that Jesus is beginning to make a name for himself. He goes to
his home town of Nazareth, enters the temple and is given a scroll
from Isaiah to read. If you read this passage as a stand alone piece
you would think that things went very smoothly at this temple visit.
What you will hear next week is that it did not. The people of his
home town were judging him as a carpenter's son who had no pedigree.
They wanted him to prove his worth by performing miracles.
Pre-judging happens a lot. We tend to
be judged not by who we are but by where we have come from. When I
went to high school I had a history of being a pretty good student
who did his homework and didn't get into trouble. That was not how I
was looked upon however when I first got there. I had had a brother
who was there four years before me and his reputation was different
from mine. Generally on the first day of class I would get a
sideways look from the teacher and sometimes a comment that I should
watch my step.
Some of you may have had similar
experiences in your life. You may have been pre-judged because of
someone in your family or for any number of reasons. Lets talk about
that a little bit. What are some of the pre-judgements that we make
about others before we get to really know them. Could it be their
last name, the color of their skin, the clothes they wear, the way
they talk?
These pre-judgements are another name
for prejudice. I am guilty of making snap judgments about others and
it is something I need to continue to work on.
Jesus was pre-judged because he was the
son of a carpenter.
We are Christians and as Christians we
follow Christ's teachings to pray together, to praise God and to love
one another regardless of their pedigree.
Blessings,
Fr. Fred
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