1/31/10 Luke 4:21-30
Connie May © 1/5/10
Drawing with permission by Fr. Robert Beck
Link to additional Beck (Choose this weeks column)
Stone, Naomi. A Psalm From My Heart
Rolheiser, Fr. Ron. What is True Religion?
Additional Resources
ENTERING THE SCENE:
Fr. Richard Rohr tells us that: “The prophet first of all shows you the tragic gap (of what is and what should be) and then Jesus teaches you how to stand in the middle and pay the price yourself for its resolution. This is so hard to teach that he finally had to visibly do it on the cross before we could get the point: the horizontal arms of the cross are the two sides of every dilemma, the vertical line is the third way, and the way through.” It is with this full awareness that Jesus steps out into the pain of the world, knowing full well what the response would be. He invites us to join him.
Luke 4:21-30
21Jesus began speaking in the synagogue, “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! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’” 24 I tell you the truth,” 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 down the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: The mere suggestion that the outsider and the outcast accepted God’s prophets before the “believers” enraged those in the synagogue that day. Would Jesus get a better response from us at our churches today?
PRAYER: Realist Jesus, you knew full well what probably would happen once you began opening your mouth, yet you did it anyway. You did it because truth was being held hostage by fear. There are many ways that my fears hold me hostage to my truth. Help me as I risk facing those fears so that I can walk right through them and go on my way. Amen.