At Home - Third Sunday after the Epiphany

For Sunday, January 27, 2019

Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about

 him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their

 synagogues and was praised by everyone.

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." Luke 4:14-21

I remember returning to my home church years after I had grown up and moved away. 

Our lives were in transition and we were staying with my folks for a spell. My father

was the minister at the church, so I knew the space very, very well. Yet that day, on

my return, I was struck by how everything seemed smaller and very different. Although

nothing had really changed, I had changed as had my perspective.

Jesus returns home after his ministry has begun. He is not the same, although he is 

participating in a way that would be normal and very natural. No longer, though,

does he fit in the role he once inhabited. No longer was he a carpenter's son. He had been

called for more. We are invited by God to understand that we too, are called to be

more than we once were, to be the hands and hearts of a living God in our present

places.

Today, I ask God to help me live in all the transitions and changes, as one who is

called to more and willing to respond. May we know that we are essential to the Good

News of God's love in this world.

Collect

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all 

people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of 

his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever 

and ever. Amen.