[Propertalk] Sermon tips for Luke 4:21-30 - January 31 - Part 5

[Joe Parrish]

What reaction would the newly-ordained minister of the gospel get if he implied that the bank president who approved the loan that allowed him to attend seminary was responsible for the foreclosures that are now putting his friends and family on the street?  "Biting the hand that feeds him" comes to mind.

Jesus may well have said at some point that "The truth is, no prophet is welcome on his home turf."  Indeed, prophets are seldom welcome anywhere, as John the Baptist learned.  In the 21st Century, Barack Obama was forced to disassociate himself from Jeremiah Wright's all-to-accurate reading of systemic American social injustice.  Otherwise, Obama would likely not have been elected President.  

http://www.gaiarising.org/2010/01/voice-in-wilderness.html

Sea Raven, 2010
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He said, "Perhaps you are wondering why you got inspiring words from me, but there hasn't been any corroborating evidence of healing here? Well, you should wonder why this is all talk, the same old stuff, and no action. When your wondering leads you to understanding the implications for you and all, I'll move pretty quickly from being a favorite son to a meddling prophet...."

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007/01/fourth-sunday-after-epiphany-c4.html 

Wesley White, 2007
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>From the perspective of the hometown people, God's love should be confined to the Jews. Nowadays, we play similar theological games when we believe that God's love should be confined to Christians, when we believe that God should love Christians more than people of other religions like the Muslims or Hindus. 

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_jesus_rejected_at_nazareth_GA.htm

Edward F. Markquart
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...the challenge to preachers to get beyond what people want to hear us say & thoughtfully, prayerfully, pastorally try to get across what we believe God is trying to tell us about this situation or that. It takes all our communication skills as well as a broad over-arching grasp of what Suzanne de Dietrich once called 'God's Unfolding Purpose' (Westminster, 1960) What appeals to me about that is that God's purpose isn't a closed canon! No-one can put a stopper to it or in it! It's still unfolding,  & always will be. 

http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/laterallyluke/LLK42130EPIPH4.html

Brian McGowan
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...succinctly stated by Joel Green in his commentary on Luke: "It is as though at this juncture they (the townspeople) have filtered his message through their restrictive presumptions about him" (The Gospel of Luke, 216). And, of course, this begs the theological question for us today. To what extent are our views of Jesus "filtered" to "match our presumptions" about him? To what extent do we feel we know Jesus already, that his words and deeds are so familiar to us that Jesus himself loses his capacity to surprise and instruct us?

http://www.drbilllong.com/Lectionary/Luke4II.html

Bill Long, 2007
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What Jesus will do in these verses is, as Joel Green says, to address "the parochial vision of the townspeople directly, countering their assumptions that, as Joseph's son, he will be especially for them a source of God's favor" (The Gospel of Luke, 217). 
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...what is clear is that, in the later words of Luke, Jesus will find his home not in Nazareth but among the "poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind" (14:13).

http://www.drbilllong.com/Lectionary/Luke4III.html

Bill Long, 2007
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A friend of mine returned from an audience with His Holiness the Dali Lama. "When his Holiness speaks," my friend said, "everyone in the room becomes quiet, serene and peaceful." Not so with Jesus. Things were fine in Nazareth until Jesus opened his mouth and all hell broke lose.

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2955

William Willimon, 2004
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