Good Morning Friends,
Many people during the time of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians thought they were wise and that the things of this Christian God he wrote about were ridiculous. They saw the preaching of the cross as foolishness. As Christians however, we know that preaching about the work of the Holy Spirit is often the bridge to the path of eternal life as we are helped to accept the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus’ sacrifice. We see the challenge of people being receptive to the Spirit in today’s text about Jesus’ teaching and preaching in Nazareth where he was met with disdain. Not much has changed since then. We as Christians need to rely more upon the power of the Holy Spirit than on our own wisdom so we might more fully grasp the deep peace of God. We need to rely more on the Holy Spirit than on the actions of our emotions. The difference is in the power, wisdom and glory of the cross, and that through that main event of all history we might receive the mind of Christ and experience a divine transformation. Today it is not so much about God on the mountain top or God in the Ark of the Covenant but God’s presence on the Altars of the World where we worship at the foot of the cross in the lives of the people we call neighbors and friends. So, this morning we meditate on the presence of the Holy Spirit in our memories and space and stories that define our worship experience but especially in the places where God’s presence has been revealed to us in the places we call home.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 hometown 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 breathe 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…new wine skin for a new reality. And when Jesus returns publicly and personally for us, it will most certainly make a difference if we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to reflect God’s Power in our experience of the scents, sounds, sites and stories of the places we call home. How Are You At Extending Your Experience Of God From A Worship Space To A Worship Place?
Scripture: When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (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)
Message: Luke grouped together reports of three manifestations of the Spirit’s work in Jesus’ life that may instruct us on the way of the Holy Spirit. The first example is the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus at His baptism, that wonderful moment of Trinitarian confirmation of His Messiahship. The second speaks of Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit and being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The third is found in the passage before us, in which Jesus returns from that ordeal in the power of the Spirit to commence His ministry. And here we have an early record of a synagogue service. And it seems that many of the men might be asked to read and preach and that is what happens in today’s text. Jesus seems to have quite deliberately sought out the reading from the scroll of Isaiah. It has been conjectured that this service took place in the year of Jubilee. Each fiftieth year was supposed to be a year of release, when indentured servants were restored to their inheritance, families were reunited, and an opportunity was given to start again. But I doubt that celebration was going to happen given the Roman occupation. Perhaps Jesus deliberately chose where to end the reading for he stops short of the day of vengeance of our God that appears in Isaiah. Now we might think this political correctness but for the Pharisees and scribes it was the exact opposite. What they failed to recognize was that the Lord had not come at this moment to fulfil that part of the Messianic agenda. There was a misunderstanding on their part of the Spirit that was leading Jesus the man for he had not come to destroy but to save. So, the Spirit might be alive in one and not recognized by another. The glad tidings and anointing Jesus preached were more along the lines of a wedding than a war. But the people were confused. Jesus quoted time and time again from prophecy to alert them and us to wake up to the reality that our timetable and God’s timetable might be very different. Our assets and those of our neighbors might be very different. But like today, the people do not always have ears to hear the wisdom of God’s word. And here is where it gets interesting for us, because preaching in Nazareth was difficult for Jesus…. his home. We really should not be surprised that it is difficult for ministers today to preach in a place they call home. Maybe people are still spiritually blinded by what they are familiar with. Maybe people are so caught up in what they think is right that they refuse to accept a transformation that is better. Friends, the gift of Christ requires us to change our thinking and adopt a different kind of logic. We are to observe what God is doing. We are to listen to God in and through scripture but also in the places we live and through the people we meet so God might reveal and send us out with a purpose relevant for the time in which we live. We are to concentrate beyond just hearing the word. We are to have a focused attention that is tuned in to what God wants us to experience and realize that God will reveal something to us if we are chosen for that purpose and at other times conceal it if we do not need it then. We are to take notice and pay attention to the mystery as well as the practicality of love. But especially the love of God in the person of Jesus on the Cross. So, friends, we are to give God a space in our lives and live and love in that space that is beyond a place while still honoring sacred places in our lives. The priority is to walk in the way of the heart of God in our lives. We are to listen as a means of being alert, observant, and perceptive to what is going on within us and around us. We are to have a conscious, willed action to focus attention on God. We are to listen – to learn – to live and maneuver with obedience through the challenges of loving a people, place and purpose. The discipline of developing a heart for God opens for us the gifts of discernment, knowledge and wisdom, which in turn give us new perspectives, fresh insights that God can use to touch everyday lives.
And So, the place in which we stand is often taken for granted and ignored, and our attention has turned to the places of our hearts with greater intensity. I think we are differentiating between place and space, that has much greater influence upon our human experience than once thought. If we are to not dehumanize others, our theology of place should be taken seriously. Community and places build the identity of each other and offer an opportunity to help those who have lost their place in society. It is about extending love to places unloved and giving us a connection and rootedness to experience God. Parents, grandparents, family and friends point out places because a significant event happened. Places mark moments where people were inspired, altered their direction and made critical decisions. Think of national monuments and the pivotal moment in history they interpret for us. Think of what new monuments might be experienced in the story of your place in history. The Bible is replete with these instances. Paul falls off his horse from coming face to face with God on a road to Damascus. Elijah hears the whisper of God in a cave. Moses experiences God on Holy Ground. The Israelites built memorials that became part of their stories. Jesus taught the Beatitudes on a hill, and I can imagine that our stories of our places will be told to the children much like the stories of those who heard Jesus on the hill. Places become significant for us and prompt pilgrimages and retreats, but none may be as influential at the place of the heart we call home. Maybe you have lived in the same house and worshipped in the same church for the last 45 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 listen 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.
Pray we remember the places that matter to us and the impact they have had on our lives. Pray we share on this Labor Day…Neighbor Day the significance of these places where our experience of God has been developed. Pray we realize that these places can invite us to meet with God and others. Praywe have a marriage of our minds with the Messiah. Pray we rejoice in the glad tidings that Jesus brings. Pray we too are anointed with the Spirit. Pray we preach the power of the cross and that Jesus came not to condemn but to save. Pray the name of Jesus is honored for all time in all places. Pray we appreciate the fulfillment of prophecy and the wisdom of God’s word for those of us living now in a time preparing for Jesus’ second coming. Pray we are given a sense of purpose, identity and value as persons as we listen for direction, correction and encouragement. Praywe are receptive to the teaching of Jesus. Pray that when we hear the truth, and we want to hear it. Pray we realize that wherever Jesus resides is the place worthy of living. Pray we do not get so familiar with Jesus that we take Him for granted or worse yet ignore Him. Pray we listen for the movement of the Spirit through the power of the Cross beyond time and place. Pray we believe that Jesus has prepared a place for us in this life and the next.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 