RBWords

     The scene in today's gospel is Jesus' inaugural preaching in his own home town!  He is invited to "say a few words" and is handed a scroll which he unrolls to a particular passage and reads it.  This passage from Isaiah was widely believed to foretell the Messiah!  Then he has the incredible gall to claim that he is the fulfillment of that passage!  It is important to remember that the vast majority of people in Jesus' time did not know how to read!  He was the son of a local carpenter.  No one had ever seen him go to school.  Where did he learn to read, much less claim to be the one described in the scripture he read?  Who gave him the right to come home and tell the folks that their faith is weak?  They ran him out of town!!!!  Imagine one of the major political candidates starting his campaign in his own home town and being booed and invited to leave?

     Of course, unlike those candidates, Jesus did not make promises that he knew he could not fulfill!  Political theater is one thing.  Preaching the Kingdom of God is quite another!  The people in Nazareth weren't interested in Jesus for who he was, but for what they thought he might do for them as they had heard what he had done in his adopted hometown of Capernaum!  Hmmm....that sounds very contemporary to me in this election season!  We may run politicians out of office when they disappoint us, but we can't run Jesus out of office.  He is the Messiah and Lord of the Universe, after all.  The sad fact is that we do run him out of town quite often when his teachings get in the way of our lifestyle and political choices.  In our current economic situation, on Labor Day 2012, when so many are out of work and cannot support themselves or their families, there are competing political "messiahs" who are making big promises!  Today's gospel should remind us that there is only ONE Messiah and he is not a politican!  AMEN