Debbie:

I John 3:19-4:6
John’s letter continues to remind us that Jesus gave us a commandment to love one another, and that by this love we are known as Christ’s faithful community. Over and over and over again this message of love is voiced in the Gospel. “Believe in the name of Jesus Christ and love one another.” In some ways this sounds very simple—we already claim to be Christians, so believing in Christ’s name should be second nature, and how hard can it be to love one another. Well, we are human and doubts do plague us; people at times make it difficult to love because of how they act, how they treat us and sometimes just because of who they are. But this is part of the struggle and the joy of abiding in Jesus Christ. We grow and learn and rely on God and others as we learn to live more fully as Christ’s disciples. We don’t earn a badge which declares that we are Christians, but we are given grace and with that grace comes responsibility. Believe and love.

Luke 4:14-30
This story about Jesus always amazes me. It is one of the places that I see God’s Spirit working, challenging, encouraging. Jesus speaks the truth in love and is rejected. Human beings by nature do not like to be criticized, especially when that criticism is directed at those who know us or who perhaps have helped to raise us. Perhaps there is an image they have of who that person is supposed to be and they want him or her to stay in that place. But there is more to this story than just telling your hometown how things are going to be. Jesus declared his ministry and mission there among these people and they couldn’t hear it. How often do we need to open our ears and listen more closely to the message, open the eyes of our hearts so that we might truly see, open wide our arms that we might truly accept Christ and Christ’s mission as it is laid out in this gospel account—bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, give sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free and proclaim the year of God’s favor. We are Christ’s people, Christians, and this is our obligation; our joyful obligation to hear these words and live them.