Where Do You Live And How Are You Listening?
Good Morning Friends,
Undoubtedly you are aware of the past, present and potential future of the places where you grew up. Maybe like Jesus you have lived in multiple places. Jesus lived in both Capernaum and Nazareth but really had no place to call home except for the love he found at Bethany. Perhaps you associate with Nazareth and are resistant to Jesus or the town of Capernaum and are more responsive to Jesus. Undoubtedly you have a home town and find in it an identity both good and bad. But the earthly place you come from is no guarantee of failure or success. You see, today’s scripture is symbolically about our identity in relationship to the place we breath spiritually. Jesus announces his ministry in Nazareth and the result was initially not so great. However, in Capernaum the response was much better but still ultimately failed. Figuratively we each typically reside in one of these two places in a spiritual sense. But then Jesus gives us a third alternative. And when Jesus returns publicly and personally for us, it will most certainly make a difference if we have a sense of it. Where Do You Live and How Are You Listening?
Scripture: But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NRSV)
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.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Luke 4:16-30 (NRSV)
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
John 14:1-3 (NRSV)
Message: Maybe you have lived in the same house and worshipped in the same church for the last 40 years. But there is a problem with getting complacent in the sameness of life. We begin to think we know something, but things change. We forget to listen to Jesus with an open heart. We might hear the words but we are not always processing God’s love and truth and authority. Sometimes we are listening with a closed heart that ignores Jesus. Sometimes we are listening with a resentful heart hating him. But there is a lot of difference between listening and hearing. When we listen to Jesus we are to hear his love, we are to hear his truth… we are to hear his authority. In today’s text, it is clear what the Nazarene community thought of Jesus. He was just a man and they rejected his message of change. Regardless, Jesus, in the reading of Isaiah, had indeed received an anointing to bring good news to the poor and proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. That meant change that the people of Nazareth were not prepared to face. That is why they hated Jesus. That is why they treated him with spite and vengeance. That is why they became violent and sought to kill him. And all this is a chilling foreshadowing of the Cross. But what is most amazing is that Jesus’ words were still true and filled with love and authority. Because, for the poor, the cross became the promise of eternal riches. For the imprisoned and oppressed the cross became the promise of eternal freedom. For those blinded by their own sin, traditions, and pasts, the cross became the promise of eternal light. The cross was the marker of our hatred for and rejection of Jesus but also the marker of our salvation. Friends, how we view our origins, how we view Jesus and view the cross and our own life and death is important in the scope of eternity. For death is often seen as a separation, but it is really a going home. For the Christian, it will be a place of responsive love…peace. For the unbeliever, it will be a place of rejection. In today’s text men sought to kill Jesus, but could not. At the cross Jesus died, three days later he lived. Know that Jesus had authority to teach, love, and to live on. So, how will you listen? So, where will you live?
Pray we are receptive to the teaching of Jesus. Pray that when we hear the truth we want to hear it. Pray we realize that wherever Jesus resides is the place worthy of living. Pray we not get so familiar with Jesus that we take Him for granted or worse yet ignore Him. Pray we have a strong faith. Pray we understand that Jesus did not just come and live on earth but is going to return. Pray we comfort one another in the reality that Jesus is coming back. Pray we have faith, hope and love. Pray we experience a miracle. Pray we have the sure hope that we will be reunited at the return of the Lord with those we love. Pray that until Jesus returns we actively engage in Kingdom work for the glory of God. Pray we believe that Jesus has prepared a place for us in this life and the next.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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