FOURTH SUNDAY  January 31, 2010

Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19  Psalm: 71   1 Cor 12:31–13:13  Luke 4:21-30 

Our reading starts out with God prophesying through Jeremiah, telling him of his call. Jeremiah has been chosen by God.

Jeremiah has been chosen even before he was born.

Jeremiah has been chosen to speak God’s word. But

Jeremiah will face contradiction and opposition.

If Jeremiah is going to speak God’s word and if he is going to bring good news, why should the people get angry, why should they fight against him.

We get the answer in the Gospel and in the message of Jesus: A prophet is not accepted in his own town and village.  The Gospel is a continuation of what we heard last week. At that time, the villagers were proud of the son of the village who had become famous. He had done wonders in other parts of the country and people are speaking highly of him. The Spirit of the Lord is upon him to bring the good news. The blind see, the lame walk, the poor have the good news brought o them.

2. But then Jesus tells them two things, which jar their comfort zone. The first makes them uneasy. The second makes them angry. Jesus has picked a passage that is well known to all those in the synagogue. It referred to the Messiah. It would be like asking Canadians, which is the hockey goal they most remember? Without hesitation, they would say the 1972 goal by Henderson against the Russians. Now Jesus takes this most famous passage form Isaiah which describes the work of the Messiah, Jesus says that he has done the work, and “I am the man.”

 His fellow Jews accepted the fact that Jesus was famous. He had done wonders but then so had other magicians. He had travelled a lot. He had gone to  Jerusalem. They had heard of his encounter with the Scribes and Pharisees. He had spoken with authority unlike they did. But acclaiming to be the Messiah was too much. It was pushing the envelope. They could remember the time when he had grown up in the village. He had come from a respected family. But they knew his cousins and relatives. How could this one now claim to be the Holy One of God?

Then Jesus raises the ante as they would say in poker. He quotes two other well known scripture stories of Elijah and Elisha. One is of a court official and the other a widow. Both were not of the Hebrew community. They were gentiles and foreigners. As such they had no part in the promise the Lord God had made to the chosen people: the Israelites. But now Jesus says to them, if the people of Nazareth will not accept the fact that he is the Messiah, the Lord God would open salvation to people of all nations, even non-Israelites.

Jesus is calling for faith.

Jesus was demanding faith from a people who chose to believe in what they could see, what they could touch, what money could buy.

Jesus was calling for hope. He wanted hope from a people who wanted immediate pleasure: eat, drink and be merry. There was no room for hope, because they did not look to the future. They did not hope for eternal life.

Jesus was asking for a people to love.  These people could not love, because their only radio station was WIFM. – What’s in it for me. It is an individualistic society, that would love those who loved them, and no an inch more.

Now Jesus is asking them

to trust, to take a leap into the dark.

To hope – look to the future where these is eternal life.

To love – which has no room for hatred or bigotry,  but love, - which sets all people free.

If they do not do this, they are going to loose their status: as a special nation, a people set apart. They will loose their title of being a Distinct society.

This however, pushed the  people over the edge – or rather, they were so angry that they wanted to push im over the edge of a high mountain near by.

Happy or sad, we are all facing the same tasks today. There will be the same fatal traps that face Jesus in the desert when he was faced with the temptations: of pride, of lack of trust in a providing God, with a promise of glory and honour but at the price of integrity, family and friends.

Like Jeremiah, and like Jesus, we too received the “Spirit that anoints” – at the time of the baptism. We too were called to be priest, prophet and king. We fulfil that prophetic role in the way our lives unfold in faith, hope and love.