Good morning…
We spent our final night on the calming shores of the Sea of Galilee before beginning our journey up to Jerusalem. On the way, we stopped in Nazareth and gathered together on the top of Mt. Precipice, a place we could totally envision Jesus standing himself right above his hometown.
We read a moving Scripture passage as we looked out for miles in all directions.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority (Luke 4:16-32, NIV).
As we stood on the brow of the hill right above the town of Nazareth, we could envision Jesus being threatened by the angry hometown crowd who did not perceive his power and authority. By God, he was sent elsewhere.
On the bus ride to Megiddo, Steve and I discussed a question. “Will our own kids need to leave Atlanta, sent elsewhere to be used by God, for their powerful potential to be fully actualized?”
We drove into the crowded city of Jerusalem and were met by thick traffic, much like in Atlanta, Georgia at rush hour. With a tad of nostalgia I said, “We aren’t in Galilee any more.”
Now, I unpack Steve’s notes as we look toward the day ahead.
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Day 6 – Thurday, March 10 – Notes from Rev. Steve Allen
Bethlehem- Matthew 2, Luke 2
Garden Tomb Mark 16, Matthew 28
Promenade
The word of the day is qadosh, which means holy. To be set apart. To be set apart for the purposes of God. In Exodus 3:5, Moses is alone with God. “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
What does the word holy mean to you? Is there anything “holy” to you? A thing? A place? An element? We’ll read the story of Moses and the holy ground. Why does God want Moses to take off his shoes? Might he be inviting Moses to participate in the process of becoming holy? Holiness requires our willing involvement. When we set apart, prioritize with passion, that which God has already made holy, together we experience holy moments. God can do whatever God wants, but God seems to value our participation in the process.
Today we go to Bethlehem where we see the joining of God’s greatest act and the human participation required to bring about the birth of Jesus. In Bethlehem, God used Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, wise men, even an innkeeper. All were needed for the holy drama to unfold in Bethlehem.
Holiness isn’t something done to us; it’s something done with us. It’s a joint effort between God and his people. Nowhere was this truth more evident than in the tiny town we visit today.
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“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2, NIV).
…Sue…
