A Prophet in His Hometown

2025-01-29

"A Prophet in His Hometown" – Luke 4:16-30 Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, January 26, 2025."When we approach scripture, we ought to do it with the intelligence, wisdom, and insight God has given us. And when we interpret scripture, it should be with the heart of Jesus Christ himself who extended welcome, healed without question, loved with abandon, and calls us to do likewise. "When Jesus preached his inaugural sermon to his home congregation, he made people he l...

"A Prophet in His Hometown" – Luke 4:16-30

Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, January 26, 2025.
"When we approach scripture, we ought to do it with the intelligence, wisdom, and insight God has given us. And when we interpret scripture, it should be with the heart of Jesus Christ himself who extended welcome, healed without question, loved with abandon, and calls us to do likewise.

"When Jesus preached his inaugural sermon to his home congregation, he made people he loved uncomfortable. Perhaps we need to accept the possibility, the nudge of holy discomfort. . . . It’s one thing to look out on the horizon for the someday of God’s kingdom, but it’s another to live boldly in that kingdom now.

"This is where we are called to be countercultural. This is where it gets tricky to be a Christian in the midst of a crowd that values privilege for some and not love and grace for all. Living, extending, testifying to that kingdom now—Jesus never said it would be easy; he never promised we would be comfortable. But he did say we’d never have to go alone. Jesus walks that road before us. Jesus calls us to follow."

Read the manuscript: https://www.spres.org/a-prophet-in-his-hometown/

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