For the Revised Common Lectionary readings, we get the rest of the story of Jesus returning to Nazareth and teaching in the local synagogue; unfortunately, it does not go well. We also get a passage that we often hear during weddings but has more to say to us when we read the whole passage and read it in the context of the rest of 1 Corinthians. If this were not enough, we also get Jeremiah's call story.
You will find some of my thoughts and reactions to these stories in italicized text. I would love for you to share your first impressions from and questions to these passages in the comments below so that we can continue the conversation.
Jeremiah 1:4 - 10
4 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
6 Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." 7 But the LORD said to me,
"Do not say, 'I am only a boy';
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you.
8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,
says the LORD."
9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me,
"Now I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant."
- Does Jeremiah 1:7 change much if we look at it as this?
“But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, (insert excuse here); for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.’”
- The early part of the Jeremiah reading suggests that the Lord may also have had a particular calling in mind for us when the Lord created us. Do we sense that we were “born to do” something?
- Jeremiah 1 reminds us that the youngest among us are also sent out as the Lord’s messengers and ambassadors. Sometimes, they are sent to us, their elders.
Psalm 71:1 - 6
1 In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.
3 Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you.
- Sometimes, we question whether a young child can truly have faith. Psalm 71 suggests that our relationship with the Lord can begin even before we are born.
1 Corinthians 13:1 - 13
1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
- Is it possible to have faith outside of love? What does faith without love look like? Is it a form of escapism: “I have everything that I need, and the rest of the world can go to hell!”? Is it something like James 2:19 hints at: “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder.”?
- Reading 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 together suggests that our spiritual gifts will come to an end (at our deaths?) but faith, hope, and love will not die. Therefore, these things are greater than our spiritual gifts.
- “Seeing in a mirror dimly” doesn’t mean much to us because we have high-quality mirrors in our homes. A better sense of Paul’s metaphor comes from trying to decipher details as we look at a reflection in a polished piece of metal. Mirrors in the ancient world were usually a piece of polished brass or bronze.
Luke 4:21 - 30
21 Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" 23 He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" 24 And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
- The people of Nazareth are greatly offended by the idea that the Messiah might be sent into the world for Gentiles as well as Jews. The people want the Messiah to be for them alone. Do we hesitate or resist the Lord’s calling to ministry when that ministry is for the benefit of people not like us and/or for people outside of our community/state/nation?
- What are reasons that families or congregations reject their children when they return home? Come home with a significant other that is not the same race/nationality; Come home with a significant other that is the same gender; Express a political belief system that contrasts with the family/congregation; Personal failure that the family/congregation cannot forgive... what other reasons can you add to the list?
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