Listening to and applying God’s word takes work

Reader asks if AG’s use of contingency fee layers is legal
July 18, 2012
Hagler-Hearns revisited?
July 18, 2012
Reader asks if AG’s use of contingency fee layers is legal
July 18, 2012
Hagler-Hearns revisited?
July 18, 2012

In the play, “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” William Shakespeare coined a phrase used by the Roman philosopher Publius Syrus, “familiarity breeds contempt.” When I was in campus ministry in the 1970’s, people defined an expert as a person who lived 50 miles outside town. These statements seem to hold true for Jesus when he visited his hometown.

When Jesus turned 30, he left Nazareth and became a Rabbi. He traveled the countryside with his disciples and would teach them and others about the kingdom of God and the true values of life. Early in his ministry, Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth. This was an official visit since he brought his disciples with him. He was not just checking to see how Mom and the family were making out without him.


When he taught in the synagogue on the Sabbath, he received mixed reactions. At first his words and teachings “astonished” the hometown assembly. This astonishment soon turned into contemp. Mark’s gospel says, “They took offense at him.”


You could hear them protesting, “Is this not the carpenter?” “Yes, he built a table and chairs for my house.” Another might have said, “He built a yoke for my oxen.” Still another, “Years ago when Joseph was still alive, he and Jesus built my house. They did a darn good job.”

They considered him “one of us,” a layman, a member of the working class. The villagers failed to see the divine presence in the person of Jesus whom they knew from boyhood.


We can learn a great lesson from this incident.


God revealed himself to us 99.99 percent of time in the ordinary experiences of everyday life. Psalm 19 reminds us that nature reveals God’s presence.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.”

God reveals himself in prayer, in his word, in history, in dreams, in relationships, in love, in events of everyday life. God identifies with the poor and those who suffer. Who would have thought to look for God nursing at the breast of Mary, God in a carpenter shop, God in the back of a fisherman’s boat, God on a cross? The question is, “Do we look for God in everyday life?”

The gospel tells us that the result of Jesus’s visit to Nazareth was he was unable to do any mighty works in that town. The atmosphere was wrong.

A doctor once said of a patient, “He did not want to live and when a person says that, no doctor can save him.” If people are not open to listen to the word of God and apply it their lives, no preaching takes place.

Our churches would be different places if congregations would only remember that they deliver more than half the sermon. In an atmosphere of expectancy, the poorest efforts can catch on fire. In an atmosphere of critical coldness or point-blank indifference, the most Spirit-filled utterances fall on lifeless ears.

Listening to God’s word and applying it to our lives takes hard work. It’s easier to let our minds wonder and think of things we have to do. However, if we have to believe that God wants to communicate with each of us, we have to be open to the many ways God comes to us in life.

The people of Nazareth closed their hearts to the possibility that the Spirit could be leading them in a new and wonderful discovery of God in their midst. Let us open our hearts and look for presence of God in the ordinary happenings of our daily lives.