Carla Pratt Keyes, pastor of Ginter Park Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia, begins today’s sermon with the poem “Lycanthropy of a Black Boy,” written by Richmond’s Poet Laureate, Roscoe Burnems. Keyes connects this poem to today’s passage from Luke 4:14-21, Jesus’s sermon in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth. Keyes says one of her Seminary professors pointed out that a primary question in Luke is that of “who needs attention and compassion.” She continues, “That idea came back to me when I heard Roscoe Burnems’ poem. I imagine Jesus pointing to seven-year-old Jeremiah [the boy in the poem] and saying, ‘That’s who. He needs my compassion today. He is why I’m here.'”
Manuscript available: click HERE