My Thoughts and Jesus’ Thoughts
Luke 4:22-30
May the Word of Jesus Christ be revealed to us with the Holy Spirit and may your grace be poured into the hearts of the people in this Spirit–filled sanctuary! Amen.
I would like to start with by posing a few questions… just listen to the questions and quietly reflect upon your answers. Okay, the first question: Do you think that you are truly a Lutheran? Obviously there are people whose background is not Lutheran, so perhaps a better question would be: Do you think that you are deeply rooted in Christianity?
Let me ask the second question. Do you think that you are a deeply–rooted Japanese, American or a certain ethnicity? Even more specifically…do you think you are deeply–rooted in a certain city or state? For example do you consider yourself an Angelino, a Californian, a Texan, a Bostonian or any sort of specific identity?
Please keep the thought of which identity you have in your mind, meanwhile, I would like to dive into the Gospel text. Two weeks ago, I attended the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr service and have been reflecting on his life’s work (of racial equality) and death. When I think about what is happening in this country, Racism is still prevalent across the United States and people of all races, regardless of identity, are struggling with racism. I believe, these issues are directly related to the Gospel text that we are reading today.
The region of Galilee was originally where Gentiles were living. When I read a history book, I learned that the Jewish presence was stronger especially after the Israelis were released from Babylon.
When Jesus appeared in Galilee, there were people who converted to Judaism and of course there were still many Gentiles as well. It seems that the area was ethnically diverse and the Jews by birth and Jewish leaders were segregating themselves from the Gentiles and even converts. Therefore it may be said that they were oppressed or in bondage.
Jesus proclaimed that people oppressed are freed today. This proclamation filled with the Holy Spirit was very meaningful and powerful. For the people that received the power of the Holy Spirit, it was very good news.
However, the Jews and Jewish leaders were uninterested. They started to say, “Isn’t he simply Joseph’s son? Why could he proclaim that the people in bondage would be freed?”
Jesus found that the Jews were very narrow minded. He saw that they were hoping that Jesus would bring benefit for the Jews and not for anyone else. However, Jesus brought some stories that explained how God and Jesus, thought about this issue.
He went back to the story of Elijah. To summarize, Gentiles were saved in the story. The point of the story was that God’s thoughts were not narrow– minded only concerned with benefiting a single ethnic group. God’s thoughts are deeply–rooted in God’s salvation story for all people He created.
However, Jews did not like these stories. Therefore, as many of you know, Jesus would be crucified and die, but on the third day, he was resurrected. Even though the Jews, and for that matter any ethnicity or any group of people, tend to envision their own wants and needs and have individualistic thoughts. God’s inclusive thoughts and his everlasting love has never failed or disappeared.
I would like to go back to the question in the beginning of this message, the identity question. What identity do you have? When thinking about the story and you look deep within yourself, are you content with the word of God benefiting only yourself, ethnic group, or a certain population? What is God saying to us about our own identities today from the Gospel of Luke? What Jesus talked about in the synagogue in Nazareth 2000 years ago are topics that have been repeatedly read and reflected upon by the Christian church throughout its history.
Over thirty years ago, I did not think that I would go to a seminary, but I had some friends who were studying at a seminary. One of them was finishing his Master of Divinity and his ordination was happening within a few weeks. He shared what he was thinking…I was expecting that he would tell me about his firm faith. And he did, but it was a little bit different from what I was expecting. What he said was Christian theology is something like this: There have been occasions that I believed my thoughts were right, however God always tells you that you’re not right. It was very interesting that the person who would be called in a few weeks was saying that his thoughts were always wrong. I believe what he was trying to say was a human being’s thoughts are always wrong.
The story written in Chapter 4:21-30 and what I shared today allows us to ponder about the nature of our Christian identity. We Christians are guided to think about Jesus’ thoughts and actions rather than just rely upon what we think. Amen.
Pr. H. Adachi
