Death is terrifying for those who do not have faith in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He has conquered death, and it is hope for all those who die, they will be raised by Him to new life. Is there better news than to know that we have hope for eternal life in Him?
But this is only true for those who truly believe, who want to follow after Him. Who is merciful to others, who walks humbly, and who gives life to the needs of the least of our brethren. When Jesus spoke up in the temple and said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and He has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He goes on to talk about healing, liberty, signs and wonders.
The thing is, if we have faith, as little as a mustard seed, we can do greater things than He. For He has promised and has empowered us to do so. Yet are we living lives of little faith, doing nothing to help our brethren? Perhaps it is time for us to wake up from our slumber, and to demonstrate that our God is alive. Bringing hope by healing, signs and wonders demonstrating the joy of the Gospel to be found in Jesus our Lord. Amen
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First reading
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Do not grieve about those who have died in Jesus
We want you to be quite certain, brothers, about those who have died, to make sure that you do not grieve about them, like the other people who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus: God will bring them with him. We can tell you this from the Lord’s own teaching, that any of us who are left alive until the Lord’s coming will not have any advantage over those who have died. At the trumpet of God, the voice of the archangel will call out the command and the Lord himself will come down from heaven; those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise, and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds, together with them; to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall stay with the Lord for ever. With such thoughts as these you should comfort one another.
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Gospel
Luke 4:16-30
‘This text is being fulfilled today, even as you listen’
Jesus came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:
The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips. They said, ‘This is Joseph’s son, surely?’
But he replied, ‘No doubt you will quote me the saying, “Physician, heal yourself” and tell me, “We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own countryside.”’
And he went on, ‘I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.
‘There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town. And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.’
When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away.
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