Sunday, January 30, 2022: Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Luke 4:21-30
Jesus began to speak in the synagogue at Nazareth: “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.
Such beautiful readings for today! First the passage from Jeremiah which speaks of God’s call to Jeremiah to serve, then the passage from Corinthians which is all about love, then the story of Jesus reading in the synagogue at Nazareth and almost getting thrown off a cliff.
Reflecting on these three Scripture passages together suggests that is no easy thing to serve God’s people. When the Lord told Jeremiah, “You will speak whatever I command you,” Jeremiah balked, saying he was too young to speak. God’s assurance that, “I am with you to deliver you” gave Jeremiah the confidence he needed to live into God’s call to be a prophet.
And the passage from Corinthians reminds us, in part, that we never have the whole picture – we only understand a little. “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face” (1 Cor. 13: 12). None of us understand completely God’s plans for us – we only live into them a little at a time.
In our reading from Luke, Jesus is starting to understand what he has been called to do, because after reading about God’s call to the prophet Isaiah, he said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke tells us Jesus went in to say some difficult things to the people of his hometown that made them angry and want to kill him.
Jesus understood that being called by God doesn’t mean he would be universally loved. By speaking the truth in love, Jesus was at times rejected and persecuted, and eventually he was murdered.
Responding to God’s call to us doesn’t always mean sunshine and roses. There might be joyful times when we are in sync with the world, because we know we are doing what we are meant to do, but there are other times when it is just downright hard.
But just as God promised to with Jeremiah even though he was afraid, so God promises to be faithful to us no matter what happens. God’s presence with us gives us the courage to do things we never thought we could do.