Rev. Dr. Kristin Adkins Whitesides, pastor of First Baptist Church in Winchester, Virginia, begins today’s sermon with a story about her ordination. She was ordained at her home church. Her father preached the sermon and the people who had watched her grow up in the church surrounded her to affirm her. Her baby picture even appeared on the cake at the reception. She says that it reminded her “that even though I was now a ‘reverend,’ the people gathered in that room knew me from before all of that.” Perhaps that is how Jesus felt in today’s passage from Luke 4:21-30 when he preached his first sermon in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth. His message was unexpected. In response, his friends and neighbors tried to throw him off a cliff. Whitesides wonders what it would be like to have Jesus preach in our churches today. Would we behave any differently than his friends and neighbors in Nazareth?
Manuscript available: click HERE