Luke 4:16-21
 
At the end of the 2008 blockbuster film Iron Man, Tony Stark is conducting a press conference. He is reading from a carefully produced script in which he will deny unequivocally that he has any connection with the mysterious superhero called Iron Man. Yet, at the press conference, Stark is confronted with unanticipated questions. He tries to explain that he could not be a superhero: “That would be outlandish and . . . fantastic. . . . I’m just not the hero type, clearly.” Then, after reflecting for a moment, Tony Stark goes on, “The truth is . . . [pause] . . . I am Iron Man.” Pandemonium breaks out and the movie ends.
Yes, it was quite a shocking confession for Stark to admit to being Iron Man. Jesus did something even more astounding in Luke 4. One Sabbath day, He was in his hometown’s synagogue. Jesus read from the beginning of Isaiah 61, “The spirit of the Lord is upon Me. . . .” At the time, this passage was treasured among Jews as a prophecy of the coming anointed One, the Messiah. He would be empowered by God’s Spirit to transform the world, especially for the poor, captives, blind, and oppressed. Many Jews in the first century yearned for the coming of God’s special representative, who would set them free from Roman oppression and establish the "year of the Lord’s favor.”
Reading from Isaiah 61 was not particularly stunning. But what He said next was truly shocking: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (v. 21). In effect, Jesus said, “I am the anointed One from Isaiah’s prophecy. I am the One who will bring freedom, salvation, and favor. I am the One.” At first, the listeners were impressed. But, before long, pandemonium showed up as they tried to throw Jesus off a cliff (Luke 4:28-30). Jesus’s neighbors were ultimately shocked by what He had said, and they were not happy.
Let Jesus’s reading from Isaiah sink in. Throughout the centuries, followers of Jesus have tried to figure out exactly how Jesus fulfilled the messianic words of Isaiah and other Old Testament prophets. Jesus did not, after all, do what many expected him to do: raise up an army to expel the Romans from Judea so that He might reign over God’s earthly kingdom. What, then, did He accomplish? How did He fulfill the messianic job description found in Isaiah?
As we study Scripture carefully, especially the Old Testament prophets, and the teachings and works of Jesus, we see that Jesus certainly offers salvation to those who are spiritually poor, captive, blind, and oppressed. But Jesus also proclaimed and inaugurated the reign of God on earth. He came to offer deliverance to those who were physically poor, captive, blind, and oppressed. His messianic work was not limited to a spiritualized or metaphorical way. It was far more widespread and far more invasive. Ultimately, as Jesus broke the power of sin through His death on the cross, He brought not only individual salvation, but also the full peace of God, including justice, reconciliation, and restoration. (i.e. Ephesians 2)
To be sure, the world-changing work of Jesus has begun. We not only rejoice in this work, but Jesus continues to do these works today through those who follow Him. The complete reign of God will come only through God’s own effort. We don’t make God’s kingdom come. But, as we wait for the fullness of the kingdom, we can and should join in the life-changing, world-changing, kingdom-extending mission of Jesus today.
The mission of Jesus has everything to do with liberating people in today’s world. Wherever people are victims of prejudice, racism, and/or unjust systems, Jesus and those who follow Him faithfully are working for their liberation and flourishing. There are still poor who need good news, captives who need release, blind who need to see, and oppressed who need freedom.
The work before us isn’t finished. Yes, the flagrant evil of sin was abolished, but “freedom for prisoners and the oppressed” is still very much a work in progress. Recent events in our country have pointed out just how far we have to go when it comes to defeating racism and its permeating implications.
Through His death on the cross, Jesus conquered sin and brought us into new life. Individually, we are saved by God’s grace through Christ and received in faith. Yet the death of Christ also brought peace to a broken world. It forged reconciliation between divided and hostile peoples. It made possible the experience of God’s peace in this world, a peace infused by justice, shaped by love, and embodied in unity. We who follow Jesus celebrate what He accomplished on the cross. We also commit ourselves to join His mission on earth until God’s kingdom is complete and all things and all peoples are united in Christ. Today, we follow Jesus both in our celebrating and our striving.
 
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your gift of salvation. Help us, Lord, to also follow You in Your mission. Help us to finish what You have begun. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Through us. For Your glory! Amen.

Luke 5:8-11
 
Today’s passage happens by the “Lake of Gennesaret,” also known as the Sea of Galilee (Luke 5:1). At the word of Jesus, Simon and his crew dropped their nets. Instantly they caught so many fish that their nets began to break. Seeing this, Simon Peter fell down before Jesus, saying, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (v. 8). But Jesus responded, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people” (v. 10). So when the boats landed, Simon Peter and his partners, James and John, “left everything and followed Him [Jesus]” (v. 11).
The striking thing in v.  is the initiative Jesus shows in calling Simon Peter, James, and John. He still calls disciples today. We hear His calling in different ways: through preaching, reading the Bible or the Gospels, the witness of a family member or colleague. No matter how it begins, following Jesus isn’t something we initiate. It is our response to the initiative of Jesus in our lives. It is acting in obedience to the One who calls us (v. 10).
I’m struck by Simon Peter’s response to Jesus’s miracle and Jesus’s response to Simon’s response. Seeing how many fish had been caught when he had failed only hours earlier, Simon knew he had witnessed a miracle. No doubt he sensed in Jesus God’s own holy presence and power. Simon knew his own moral defects and felt sure that he did not belong with a holy Man like Jesus. But Jesus was not your ordinary holy man. He did not withdraw from sinful people. He sought them out. He hung out with them. He brought the Good News of God’s Kingdom to them (Luke 5:32). Indeed, He called them to follow Him and join His mission. This was good news for Simon. And it is good news for us. It means that we don’t have to clean up our lives in order to say “Yes” to Jesus. We don’t have to make ourselves perfect before He calls us, as if this were even possible.
Jesus knows everything about you and me: the good, the bad, and the ugly, and He is not deterred. He calls us to follow Him, not because we’re perfect, but because He loves us and seeks our partnership in His mission. In responding to His call, we will find the desire and the power to renounce sin. But this comes in response to the gracious call of Jesus, not as a prerequisite for receiving that call.
Simon and his partners “left everything and followed Him” (v. 11). Like Abram (Genesis 12), they left everything behind so that they might actually follow Jesus. Are we supposed to do the same if we are going to follow Jesus?
Most of us won’t be called far away to join Jesus in Kingdom work. For us, following Jesus is something we do in our familiar cities, families, and workplaces. Yes, we will follow Jesus even if we work at McDonald’s. To be sure, following Jesus still requires plenty of leaving behind. Jesus will ask us to leave our comfort zone, discard our worldly values, unjust practices, prejudicial biases, selfish materialism, and inborn “me first” attitude. We will come to see our whole life, including our daily work and everyday relationships, as contexts in which can follow Jesus faithfully.
 
Lord Jesus, thank You for calling me into relationship
with You and into Your service.
May I live today for the praise of Your glory! Amen.

Genesis 12:5-7
 
Abraham had a family and was dwelling in a place and making the most of life as he knew it. We may love jazz and the dynamics in a good narrative but in life (in mine, in Abram’s) disruption causes tension and we cannot fast forward or skip chapters.  God told Abram (Genesis 12:1) to pack and go, telling him to travel from what was familiar to a new place with new circumstances.
We have the benefit of hindsight but sometimes we forget the broad implications of when God changes things. Packing to leave town for an extended time is difficult enough. Moving the entire family to an unfamiliar place would be daunting at least. This isn’t the first time God moved things along. Genesis 11 gives us another lesson of “pack up your stuff and head out” after God’s presence at a building inspection of the Tower of Babel sent humanity out with confused languages. And now Abraham is headed without a whole lot of instruction. With a lot of people and possessions to encounter a place and a people (and a language) that he has never seen before.
The gods of the ancient era were regional for the most part. If you worshiped a Mesopotamian god you probably did not worship one from Egypt, etc. Abraham traveled from Ur to Haran to Shechem and after some 900 miles found that Yahweh was not relegated to regions. He cannot be contained by human borders or human hands. He showed Abraham that He was with him because He had already been there.
Do you hear the sound wandering through the land? The sound of God saying “I’m with you”” Does the idea of moving to a new place or new circumstance scare you? It would be nice to have the theophany experiences of Isaiah, or Moses in the cleft of the rock. But it is just as effective and sufficient that you recognize His presence in the new place that He calls you. Perhaps He is moving things where they need to be in order to move everything where it will be in glory. When God shuffles you from the known to the unknown, the Scriptures remind us that omnipresence is God’s character as much as a characteristic. Spring will come and it will not be difficult for God to show you that He is with you because He has been there.
 
Gracious God, in life’s journey we will have changes and disruptions and new opportunities. As we journey, strengthen our hearts to sing in thought and deed like the hymn writer:
Where He leads me I will follow,
Where He leads me I will follow,
Where He leads me I will follow,
I'll go with Him, with Him all the way.
Thank You that You go before and with us all the way.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Psalm 103:11-18
Ash Wednesday (3/5) is the first day of Lent. The ritual in an Ash Wednesday worship service is the imposition of ashes. The person who imposes the ashes repeats a paraphrase of Genesis 3:19, something like “You are dust, and to dust shall return.” The ashes represent the dustiness of mortal and sinful human life. They are a visual reminder that we will die someday.
Psalm 103 expresses wonderfully the profound truth of Ash Wednesday. V. 11 affirms “so great is His [God’s] love for those who fear Him.” V. 12 adds that the Lord “removed our transgressions from us,” as far as the East is from the West. Verse 13 reveals that “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him” All of this is good news, for sure, the good news that is fully revealed in Christ.
Then, v. 14 adds, “For He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.” How are we dust? In the first place, we are dust because God formed us “from the dust of the ground,” into which God breathed “the breath of life” (Gen 2:7). Human beings were “dusty” before they sinned. But after the first humans sinned, they brought death upon themselves and all who would descend from them, including us. God says in Genesis 3:19, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Now our dustiness signifies, not only our createdness but also our fallenness and ultimate mortality.
When Psalm 103 says that God has compassion on us because “He remembers that we are dust,” both senses of dust are in play here. God knows how we were once created by God’s hand. This is the good part of being dust. And God also knows how our sin has corrupted us and, in a sense, killed us. This is the bad part of being dust. Yet it’s a part we mustn’t overlook or deny.
God knows that, because of our sin-induced mortality, our days are “like grass” (v. 15). We will wither and die, just like the flower of the field. How different is the love of God! As verse 17 affirms, “But from everlasting to everlasting [is] the Lord’s love.” God’s love remains even after we sin. God’s love prevails over sin and its consequences. As it says in the New Testament letter to the Romans, nothing in all creation “will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:39).
On Ash Wednesday, we focus on our dustiness, mortality, and sinfulness. But we do so not to grovel or sulk. Rather, by remembering that we are dust, we prepare for the good news of Jesus' bodily resurrection and, indeed, our bodily resurrection. God, through the Spirit, will one day “give life to your mortal bodies” (Romans 8:11).
On that day, when our perishable body puts on imperishability and our mortal body puts on immortality, we will rejoice in the victory of God over sin and death (1 Cor 15:53-57). But on Ash Wednesday, even knowing the good news that is coming, we pay attention to the bad news. We confess our sinfulness. We remember our mortality. We realize once again how much we need God and God’s grace. Yes, we know that this grace is coming. But today we focus more on our needs than the glory of God’s coming grace in Jesus Christ. We will celebrate God's grace in Christ Jesus more fully in the future.
 
Gracious God, during Lent, we’re reminded of the bad news of our sin and the mortality it brings.
Yes, we are dust and to dust we shall return.
 May I walk closely with You, Lord Jesus, in this season of Lent. As I do by Your grace, may prepare myself for a deeper and truer understanding of Your sacrifice on the cross, and for a more joyful and transforming celebration of Your resurrection.

Matthew 4:1-2
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
 
As we follow our church’s theme of Rise Up and Build, one of the spiritual practices we can use to help us grow closer to God is the practice of fasting. Fasting involves intentional refraining from food for the purpose of spiritual growth. Within the traditional church calendar, Lent is observed as a time of fasting in preparation for Easter. Perhaps we can engage in this practice during this upcoming Lenten season?
 
What is Lent?
Lent is the forty days, excluding Sundays, that precede Easter. This year, Lent begins on Wednesday, March 5 which is also known as Ash Wednesday. During this period of time, Christians abstain from certain foods or practices in order to prepare themselves for Easter. You may have overheard coworkers or friends who have said they were abstaining from dessert or soda during Lent. These are common ways to practice fasting.
 
Why observe Lent?
The purpose of observing Lent are multiple but one of the main purposes is to remove something in order to make room for God. We subtract something from our lives in order to add more of God into our lives. If one chooses to fast from Facebook, this allows a person to add more time with God. If a person fasts from purchasing boba drinks, it allows a person to give more to those in need.
 
But not only does Lent allow us to add more of God, the act also helps us to remember the suffering and brokenness we experience in our lives. We are reminded of our frailty, our sinfulness, and our hopelessness if God did not rescue us. Lent and fasting actually gives us hope as we see how God brings life in the midst of death as demonstrated by the resurrection. The meaning of Lent is spring and so Lent shows us how new life comes forth from winter.
 
How to observe Lent?
To be clear, Lent is not for us to gain God’s additional favor nor is it to punish ourselves because we have sinned. Lent and fasting is a means by which we make more room for God, notice God, and draw near to God. We can observe Lent by fasting from certain foods or activities during the period of March 5 to April 19. Here are some examples of things one can give up during Lent:

• Give up social media
• Give up a favorite drink, candy, or dessert
• Give up buying new clothes
• Give up watching movies, YouTube, or TV shows

 
Lent can also be about adding something new to our daily routine. Here are some examples one can commit to:

• Commit to reading a chapter of the Bible each day
• Commit to spend regular time with a friend or family member
• Commit to daily quiet and meditation on God’s Word
• Commit to a daily prayer walk
• Commit to donating to a charity

 
My prayer for us is that as we observe Lent, our hearts would begin to notice more of God’s movement around us and that we would draw near to Him in fresh ways. May you experience deeper joy and contentment in God as you practice Lent this year!