Today, we hear of an incident that
occurs at the start of Jesus' public ministry.
Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth. He proclaims his understanding of his mission
and ministry in words taken from the prophet Isaiah. Even though the crowd gathered in the
synagogue initially had its eyes all fixed on Jesus, as they spoke well of him
and took in his gracious words, this warm welcome quickly turned to violence as
they cannot get beyond their perception of Jesus as just an ordinary local boy,
the son of Joseph. Jesus' description of
his mission is similar to the mission to which he later sends out his
disciples: to proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand; for them to cure the
sick, raise the dead, and to cleanse those afflicted with demons or
disease.
So, how do we see the good news of
God's kingdom operating in our lives & in our world? Is it purely spiritual? Do the poor, the oppressed, and the outcasts
of the world rejoice in the Lord and his word, and then just return to the
suffering, poverty, and despair of their lives here on earth without any change
at all? One of my favorite professors
from seminary, Dr. Stephen Shippee, used to always say that there is a tension
in the proclamation of God's kingdom – it is proclaimed in the here and now of
our earthly existence, with some elements of God's kingdom already here. But, there is a quality to God's kingdom that
is not yet here, that will be fulfilled only in the future when Christ will come
again. So, we can say that God's kingdom
is “already here”, but it is also “not yet”.
How do we proclaim in our lives that
God is truly present among us? We are
called to have hope, we are called to prepare, we are called to work for peace
and justice in the midst of so much in our world that goes against our faith as
we wait for the fulfillment of God's kingdom.
What are we doing to transform ourselves and our own lives of
faith? What are we doing in our lives to
transform our world?
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