Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hear the fist sermon Jesus preached?
We heard part of it when Isaiah 61 was read this morning. In Luke's gospel, shortly after His baptism, Jesus goes to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, reads from Isaiah 61 and then is seated. Luke says everyone was waiting to see what he might say concerning the text. Their eyes are all fixed on him, waiting. He does not disappoint them and His commentary on it was to say, "This scripture is being fulfill today." He could have added, "before your eyes, even as we speak." Apparently He didn't need to as the people understood the implication and began muttering to themselves to the effect of "who does he think he is?"
Not only did Jesus? words not go over well, but the congregation tried to throw him off a cliff immediately after the sermon.
I prefer our custom of having coffee and cake.
What Jesus is saying is "this is why I have come...to bind the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom and release for those in slavery."
You would think a message like that would be wildly popular. Who wouldn't want to hear a message of freedom?
It all depends on which side of the bars you are standing, I suppose.
Jesus said to a man who was . . .
Dr. Harold McNabb
- Details
Another of the common jokes of our time begins with a person receiving the news from his doctor that he has only days to live. Here is one version:
A man went in for his annual checkup and received a phone call from his physician a couple of days later.
The doctor said, "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you."
"What's the news?" the man asked.
"Well, you have only 48 hours to live."
"That is bad news!" said the shocked patient.
"I'm afraid I have even worse news," the doctor continued.
"What could be worse than what you've already told me?" the patient stammered.
"I've been trying to call you since yesterday."
God tells Isaiah, "Cry out!"
"What shall I cry?" asks Isaiah.
"All flesh are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field."
God says to Isaiah, "Go up on a mountain and call out to the people, ?Here is your God, coming with power."
In the early part of the book, that announcement would have been an announcement to bring terror, but not this time.
God says, "He comes like a shepherd who gently leads his flock and holds them close to his heart."
Isaiah forty begins with the words, "Comfort, . . .
- Details
It's December 24, 1914. The day has dawned bright and sunny, if cold, instead of the miserable rain which made life more miserable in the stinking mud of the Western Front of WW1. Along a 27 mile front from Ypres to the La Basse canal, British troops and the German troops, at times less than 100 yards apart heard something amazing. The guns fell silent and here and there at first, they heard the sound of carolling. The songs would be picked up from men in the opposite trenches and before long, men who hours earlier would have killed each other were celebrating Christmas Eve, and in one case, engaged in a friendly game of soccer. The famous "Christmas Truce" of the First World War was hardly more than a momentary blip in one of the world's most bloody conflicts. But it happened.
And the world still waits for evidence that the Prince of Peace is upon the throne of God.
But we wait in hope, because Jesus has come and has offered us the hope which comes from feeling His love.
When I worked at counselling, a young woman came to see me. She had the usual litany that comes from a life of abuse: alcohol addiction, a series of broken relationships, lack of confidence and a deep lingering pain from the center of her being. She came to talk to me over about three years. Not weekly, but . . .
And the world still waits for evidence that the Prince of Peace is upon the throne of God.
But we wait in hope, because Jesus has come and has offered us the hope which comes from feeling His love.
When I worked at counselling, a young woman came to see me. She had the usual litany that comes from a life of abuse: alcohol addiction, a series of broken relationships, lack of confidence and a deep lingering pain from the center of her being. She came to talk to me over about three years. Not weekly, but . . .
- Details
In a small Jewish town in Russia, there is a rabbi who disappears each Friday morning for several hours. His devoted disciples boast that during those hours their rabbi goes up to heaven and talks to God.
A stranger moves into town, and he's skeptical about all this, so he decides to check things out. He hides and watches. The rabbi gets up in the morning, says his prayers, and then dresses in peasant clothes. He grabs an axe, goes off into the woods, and cuts some firewood, which he then hauls to a shack on the outskirts of the village. There an old woman and her sick son live. He leaves them the wood, enough for a week, and then sneaks back home.
Having observed the rabbi's actions, the newcomer stays on in the village and becomes his disciple. And whenever he hears one of the villagers say, "On Friday morning our rabbi ascends all the way to heaven," the newcomer quietly adds, "If not higher."1
One of the most persistent forms of humor of our time is built around someone arriving at the pearly gate of heaven only to be met by St. Peter who poses some test or challenge to the person as to why he or she should enter. Most are quite amusing. One of my favorites is a man who is told that his life will be examined and he gets so many points for each good deed he has done and . . .
A stranger moves into town, and he's skeptical about all this, so he decides to check things out. He hides and watches. The rabbi gets up in the morning, says his prayers, and then dresses in peasant clothes. He grabs an axe, goes off into the woods, and cuts some firewood, which he then hauls to a shack on the outskirts of the village. There an old woman and her sick son live. He leaves them the wood, enough for a week, and then sneaks back home.
Having observed the rabbi's actions, the newcomer stays on in the village and becomes his disciple. And whenever he hears one of the villagers say, "On Friday morning our rabbi ascends all the way to heaven," the newcomer quietly adds, "If not higher."1
One of the most persistent forms of humor of our time is built around someone arriving at the pearly gate of heaven only to be met by St. Peter who poses some test or challenge to the person as to why he or she should enter. Most are quite amusing. One of my favorites is a man who is told that his life will be examined and he gets so many points for each good deed he has done and . . .
- Details
On July 25, 2000, Air France Concorde flight 4590 on July 25, 2000, which crashed on take off in Paris. One hundred passengers, nine crew, and four people on the ground were killed when the Concorde banked, went into a stall, plunged to the ground, and exploded on impact in a fireball.
The cause of the crash was a 16-inch strip of metal found on the runway that burst the aircraft's tire, and the debris from the blowout ruptured a fuel tank in the aircraft's wing. With the plane on fire the pilot could not halt the take off; he planned to make an emergency landing at Le Bourget airport a minute's flying time away.
As investigators sought to discover the reason for the accident, they listened to the tapes of the pilot's conversations with the control tower. His last words as he fought to save his stricken craft were, "Too late."1.
"Our oil is run out", "the door is closed", and "sorry, I don't know you". Words of Jesus in the parable of the wedding attendants. It's too late.
William Barclay says that a casual visitor to Palestine in the early part of the 20th century would have witnessed the scene which Jesus describes in his parable. A wedding celebration was not a matter of . . .
The cause of the crash was a 16-inch strip of metal found on the runway that burst the aircraft's tire, and the debris from the blowout ruptured a fuel tank in the aircraft's wing. With the plane on fire the pilot could not halt the take off; he planned to make an emergency landing at Le Bourget airport a minute's flying time away.
As investigators sought to discover the reason for the accident, they listened to the tapes of the pilot's conversations with the control tower. His last words as he fought to save his stricken craft were, "Too late."1.
"Our oil is run out", "the door is closed", and "sorry, I don't know you". Words of Jesus in the parable of the wedding attendants. It's too late.
William Barclay says that a casual visitor to Palestine in the early part of the 20th century would have witnessed the scene which Jesus describes in his parable. A wedding celebration was not a matter of . . .