For the week of February 2 – Celebrating the presentation of Jesus in the Temple
Morning Prayer: O God of all the prophets, You knew us and chose us before You formed us in the womb. Fill us with faith that speaks Your word, hope that does not disappoint, and love that bears all things for Your sake, until that day when we shall know You fully, even as we are known by You. Amen. (Lectionary Prayers)
Opening Hymn: #110 A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
- A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
our helper He amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal. - Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing,
were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His name, from age to age the same, and He must win the battle. - And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him. - That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours, thru Him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
the body they may kill; God's truth abideth still; His kingdom is forever.
Psalm 71:1-6
71 I’ve taken refuge in You, Lord.
Don’t let me ever be put to shame!
2 Deliver me and rescue me by Your righteousness!
Bend Your ear toward me and save me!
3 Be my rock of refuge
where I can always escape.
You commanded that my life be saved
because You are my rock and my fortress.
4 My God, rescue me from the power of the wicked;
rescue me from the grip of the wrongdoer and the oppressor
5 because You are my hope, Lord.
You, Lord, are the one I’ve trusted since childhood.
6 I’ve depended on You from birth—
You cut the cord when I came from my mother’s womb.
My praise is always about You.
Prayers of Intercession: Thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayers for those dear to our hearts. We now pray as You have taught us: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: Soup-er Bowl of Caring Tackled Hunger with donations of $155 and 167 items to remedy food and nutrition insecurity by those who use The Blessings Box.
Offering prayer: Compassionate God, who sees beyond our boundaries and loves without limit, we bring these offerings with grateful hearts. Use them to proclaim Your good news, heal the broken, and extend Your love to all, especially those we struggle to accept. Transform our gifts into a beacon of hope and inclusion that reflects the boundless love of Christ in every corner of our community. In His holy name, we pray. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of preparation: #568 Christ for the World We Sing
- Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring, with loving zeal;
the poor, and them that mourn, the faint and overborne,
sinsick and sorrow-worn, whom Christ doth heal. - Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring, with fervent prayer;
the wayward and the lost, by restless passions tossed,
redeemed at countless cost, from dark despair. - Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring, with one accord;
with us the work to share, with us reproach to dare,
with us the cross to bear, for Christ our Lord. - Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring, with joyful song;
the newborn souls, whose days, reclaimed from error's ways,
inspired with hope and praise, to Christ belong.
Scripture: Luke 4:21-30 (CEB)
21 He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.”
22 Everyone was raving about Jesus, so impressed were they by the gracious words flowing from His lips. They said, “This is Joseph’s son, isn’t it?”
23 Then Jesus said to them, “Undoubtedly, you will quote this saying to Me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. Do here in Your hometown what we’ve heard You did in Capernaum.’” 24 He said, “I assure you that no prophet is welcome in the prophet’s hometown. 25 And I can assure you that there were many widows in Israel during Elijah’s time, when it didn’t rain for three and a half years and there was a great food shortage in the land. 26 Yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to a widow in the city of Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 There were also many persons with skin diseases in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them were cleansed. Instead, Naaman the Syrian was cleansed.”
28 When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with anger. 29 They rose up and ran Him out of town. They led Him to the crest of the hill on which their town had been built so that they could throw Him off the cliff. 30 But He passed through the crowd and went on His way.
Message: Pastor Becky
Betrayal – a wrong assumption – a misunderstanding – what causes a great joy to turn to murderous rage?
Jesus has that audience in the palm of His hand. All eyes were on Him, they were listening to Him intently. They rejoiced at the message of His pronouncement, “Today, the scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.”
Jesus is the hometown boy. There is a sense of local pride. Their thinking is one of ours. He knows us, we are connected. He is out there representing us. They are cheering about the good things that can come from small towns.
We understand hometown pride. When our student athletes come back after competing on higher levels, we welcome them home. We hold parades and rallies, we celebrate their accomplishments as our own. We take on being an active participant. We behave as if it was us on that field, court, or track. We tie ourselves to their accomplishments. We claim a special relationship based on geography, culture, or distant familiar background. They belong to us and because we believe and behave under that guise, we are more than disappointed when we realize – the “win” wasn’t reserved for us.
This is the assembled thinking. They have connected Jesus to themselves, naming Him as Joseph’s son. They situate Him as their own. They embrace this launching of Jesus’ ministry, because they believe it was for them, which it was. It just wasn’t confined to them. This message of the good news is going out to all people.
Jesus continues to teach and in continuing He challenges their first assumption. Jesus isn’t Joseph’s son; Jesus is God’s son. This good news isn’t just for them, it’s for everyone. There are no limits, boundaries, exclusions to who will benefit from this mission. For Jesus, all is all.
Jesus shows them where God has already showed up in the lives outside the covenant: the widow in Elijah’s time and Naaman in Elisha’s. The folks of Nazareth hadn’t seen the fullness of God. They thought that the covenant God made with Israel limited God to Israel. God can not be limited, God has promised other tribes and clans the blessings of prosperity and presence. Think about Ishmael, God promised Hagar that God would be with him. Yet, even as God is with others, God has been faithful to the covenant with Israel to be their God. But it has never been just about them.
In the same way, Jesus isn’t limited to just those who claim faith in Him. God sent Jesus – the Incarnation of God – to reconcile the whole world to God. Jesus was sent to our enemies, to our friends, to our loved ones, to us, and to those who are strangers to us.
Jesus lifting up the stories of God caring for the widow and healing the Gentile general Naaman are the lived out examples underpinning the commands to love God and love your neighbor. For those in Nazareth, the widow and Naaman would have been out of bounds, they were not included in the covenant. What they are struggling with, what is making them so angry is that God did act on their behalf. God did protect, God did heal without any allegiance to God, it was God’s nature to act. Jesus is trying to show the vastness of God’s grace, God’s desire to see all made well. This is what angered them. This is why they turned on Him. He was convicting their hearts and their beliefs.
Jesus, the truth of God, is standing before them. He was offering them the launch point of His mission. But they didn’t accept Him. Instead they got mad, mad enough to kill Him that day. The message of the good news, not the words, but who would benefit was too much for them. In their anger, killing the messenger was the response, not parades, not revivals, not fellowship meals – murder was.
We have to watch where we want to kill Jesus and where we already have. We have the ability to lift people up, to usher in the Kingdom of God, yet in our denials of the vastness of God’s grace, we destroy ourselves and those around us. We need to be careful of how we hold our relationship with Jesus. It isn’t something to hold over the heads of others. We aren’t competing for grace. God’s grace is more than abundant for everyone. There isn’t a set number of those to be in the population of heaven. We need to be mindful of how we may prioritize ourselves over another or how we condemn another out of fear or ignorance. All of these are ways we kill Jesus.
We have the teachings of Jesus. We have to study and take seriously Jesus’s claims of who He is. And we when get angered or appalled at what Jesus is asking of us, we need to remember who God is. Amen.
Closing Hymn: #261 Lord of the Dance
And I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun,
And I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth.
At Bethlehem I had My birth.
Refrain: Dance, then, wherever you may be; I am the Lord of the Dance, said He.
And I’ll lead you all wherever you may be, and I’ll lead you all in the dance, said He.
- I danced for the scribe and the Pharisee,
but they would not dance and they would not follow Me;
I danced for the fishermen, for James and John;
they came to Me and the dance went on.
- I danced on the Sabbath when I cured the lame,
the holy people said it was a shame;
They whipped and they stripped and they hung Me high;
and they left Me there on a cross to die.
- I danced on a Friday and the sky turned black;
it’s hard to dance with the devil on your back;
They buried My body and they thought I’d gone,
but I am the dance and I still go on.
- They cut Me down and I leapt up high, I am the life that’ll never, never die;
I’ll live in you if you’ll live in Me; I am the Lord of the Dance, said He.
The blessing: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you this week.
