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Luke 4: 16-30
Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Rolling up the scroll,
he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?”
He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb,
‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place
the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’”
And he said,
“Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you,
there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Have you heard the story about the rock climber who was scaling a large mountain?
About halfway up… he slipped…barely catching himself with one hand! Dangling on the edge, he looked down, then up, and cried out, “Help! Is anybody there?”
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There was a period of silence.
Then, a voice whispered in his ear, “I am God. Though you cannot see it, there’s a ledge beneath you. Let go and you’ll land safely.”
The climber yells out, “Is anybody else there?”
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This unfortunate climber prayed for an answer…and he got one! It’s just not the answer he expected.
Is there really a ledge beneath his feet? In order to find out, he’ll have to trust and let go.
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In the Gospel, the locals from Jesus’ hometown wrestle with his identity. “Is this not the son of Joseph?” they say.
Could he also be the answer to their prayers? Could he be the long-awaited Messiah?
Like that rock climber dangling from a cliff, God is inviting the Jews to let go of their expectations, to take the risk and follow Jesus. He will lead them to God.
But first they must trust and let go.
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Maybe there’s a lesson in that for us.
Like that rock climber or the locals in today’s Gospel, sometimes the answer to our prayers isn’t what we expect.
“God wants me to walk through that door? He wants me to take that risk? To make that change? “
Suddenly, we’re not sure.
But our safest bet is to trust and let go.
God always places a ledge beneath our feet, even if it’s not what we’d expected.
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Image credits: (1) Alex Honnold, Free Solo (2) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (3) Climbing in Wyoming