So, That Went Well (Luke 4)

I’ve been doing this Will Preach for Food podcast for almost two years now, and, as the name suggests, I like to preach. I love to read God’s word, try to understand what it says, what it means, and what it means for us today. Preaching is usually a conversation—a public dialog between the preacher, the congregation, the scriptures, and the Holy Spirit. Christians have been gathering weekly to worship for centuries: hearing the Scriptures read out loud, listening to a sermon, singing and praying, sharing communion. This practice is rooted in the Jewish faith. Jesus was Jewish, so Jesus himself grew up going to the local synagogue every week for worship. And he was a preacher. Today’s reading tells about the first—and maybe the last—sermon he preaches in his hometown. Please open your Bible to Luke 4:14-30. And let’s start with a prayer:Lord, speak to us that we may speak in living echoes of your tone. As you have sought, so let us seek your straying children, lost and lone. Oh, fill us with your fullness, Lord, until our very hearts overflow in kindling thought and glowing word, your love to tell, your praise to show. Amen (ELW 676)Luke 4:14-30A reading from the gospel of Luke, the 4th chapter, beginning at verse 14.Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,    because he has anointed me    to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners    and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.Support the show