worship preview

Generally speaking, playing for the home crowd produces positive results.  For example, almost without exception, sports teams have a higher winning percentage when playing at home than they do being on the road.  A case in point is the current NBA season where 27 out of 30 teams have won more games at home than away.  This higher winning percentage constitutes what's called the homefield advantge.  This advantage exists because hometown fans usually provide support and encouragement that lifts the team's performance.

 

I say hometown folks usually provide support and encouragement because there are exceptions.  One of the most glaring examples is captured in Luke's gospel when Jesus returns home to teach at a synagogue.  The homecoming starts off on a positive note but quickly turns nasty.  The gospel narrative is included below. As you read the story, I would encourage you to ponder the dynamics of the story.  You might reflect on these questions: what makes the home crowd so angry with Jesus?  what principle lies at the heart of their contention with him?  why do you think Jesus presses this point so directly with them? does the issue at the heart of this story still exist in our modern day context?  what is the challenge contained in this passage for followers of Jesus?

 

My hope and prayer is that this worship service would help us gain a deeper understanding and commitment to the reality Jesus expresses in this passage.  By grasping and living this principle, we can, by the grace and power of God, change the world for the better!

 

 

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

 ¹⁴Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. ¹⁵He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

 ¹⁶He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. ¹⁷The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
 ¹⁸"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
      because he has anointed me
      to preach good news to the poor.
   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
      and recovery of sight for the blind,
   to release the oppressed,
    ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

²⁰Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, ²¹and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

 ²²All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.

 ²³Jesus 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. ²⁵I 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. ²⁶Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. ²⁷And 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."

 ²⁸All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹They 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. ³⁰But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.