Luke 4:14-21        Rejected in Nazareth

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      “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me . . . . ”  Jesus, you must have said this.  Luke couldn’t have made it up.  So, Jesus, to me your awareness, your boldness, your presence so intense, you should have known.  What did you expect?  They would love you, or they would hate you.  It sounds like you deliberately went into dangerous waters and provoked them with your talk about the foreigners God blessed.  What was that all about?  Why? I think you knew they couldn’t take these words coming from the local boy, Joseph and Mary’s son. You were surely cracking open the shell of their familiar religion, their tradition, opening it up to the whole wide world.  

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      Lord Jesus, teach me when to be bold, no matter what the consequences.  I am much too cautious, too careful, too eager to have people love me to take such chances as you did.  Give me some of your spirit’s fearless clarity.