[Propertalk] Sermon tips for Luke 4:21-30 - January 31 - Part 4

[Joe Parrish]

We lead South Africa, China, and Russia in the incarceration of our citizens. 
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Each of us has a felony record in God's sight. 
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Living under the heel of Roman Imperial, oppression made the synagogue eager to hear a liberating proclamation for status seekers only. Jesus' message had universal appeal. They wanted to see outcomes quickly as they had heard about in other cities. They had little respect for the crosses they would need to carry in order to be made ready for God's outcomes. When Jesus called into question their faithfulness, they wanted to kill him. Such was Jesus' welcome to the Gospel ministry. 

The proclamation of God's liberating power will often be challenged by the very people God is seeking to liberate: both those who have a "bad" background and those who "think" they do not. 

http://www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/PopupLectionaryReading.asp?LRID=12

Madeline McClenney-Sadler, 2008
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Nazareth itself was not a site of historic or major strategic importance &, thus, did not merit notice in any ancient text apart from the gospel references to it as the place of Jesus' origin. The earliest non-Christian reference is an inscription discovered in the synagogue of Caesarea Maritima that names Nazareth as one of the places in Galilee where the priestly families of Judea migrated after the Hadrianic war [135 CE]. But Nazareth remained a small Jewish village until the 4th c. CE when Constantine constructed a church that became a center for Christian pilgrimages. It was elevated to the status of city in the 7th c. CE. Since the 17th c. the Franciscans have developed it into the largest Christian center in the land of Israel.

http://virtualreligion.net/iho/nazareth.html

Mahlon Smith 
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Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali
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>From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." (Matt 4:12-17 NRSV) 
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Despite the majority of this people in this modern city being Muslim, they always elect a Christian mayor. Nazareth is, after all, the hometown of Jesus. 

http://wiki.faithfutures.org/index.php?title=Proper_4C
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It is worth remembering that it was only the other day, in 2007, we crossed a line.  Since then,  for the first time in human history, more people on the planet live in cities than in the country. 
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My years in conflict mediation have given me a clue.
Some mobs, some crowds, some passionate, vindictively righteous assemblies, can get so enraged, so angry, so violent, so hypnotized by their fulminations that truth, light, and Universal Love, are able to depart from amongst them so swiftly they don't even notice!

http://thelisteninghermit.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/have-you-herd-epiphany-4/

Peter Woods, 2010
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He {Jesus] reminded the scandalized congregation that God forgives foreigners and enemies, crystallized for them in the stories of the widow in Sidon whom Elijah fed (1 Kings 17:1, 8-16) and Naaman, the Syrian army commander whom Elisha healed (2 Kings 5:1-19). But what exactly is forgiveness? As a rich experience that is central to Christian life, forgiveness may be difficult to explain with other words. Randall O'Brien defines it as "the removal of barriers between persons caused by wrongdoing, real or imagined, . as sins are sent away and persons are drawn together in relationships".  

http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/Forgivenessstudyguide1.pdf

Robert B. Kruschwitz
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...the "christological misunderstanding" of Jesus' role and authority is focused in the rejection of the reign on earth according to the law of God which this Messiah has inaugurated.  

http://www2.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/7-1_Justification/7-1_Tiede.pdf

David L. Tiede, 1987
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