Luke 4:14-21....Jesus is the Pattern for our Ethics

 3rd Sunday after Epiphany: Neh 8:1-12 Ps 113 1 Cor 12:12-27 Luke 4:14-21  "Jesus is the Pattern for our Ethics ( as was His custom-ethos or ethics)"

WORDS OF WISDOM

“Feeling good about ourselves is essential in our being able to love others.”

FRED ROGERS  ( he was a Presbyterian minister , and we could learn from how he applied his faith to apply ours in some good way)

The I Corinthian ch . 12 reading talks about this in a very graphic way, " the members should have the same care one for another.

26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."

We may want to say it this way.  Jesus is the pattern for our ethics.  In Luke the word custom, " as was His custom" is the greek word ethos.  "The Greek verb "ethó" primarily means to be accustomed to or to be in the habit of doing something. It implies a repeated or habitual action, often reflecting cultural or personal practices that have become routine". biblehub.com Luke 4:14 greek

What are our customs or habits?

----These reveal our heart in some fashion, don't they?

In Pulpit Digest William H. Willimon used this illustration; "Philip Haille wrote of the little village of Le Chambon in France, a town whose people, unlike others in France, hid their Jews from the Nazis. Haille went there, wondering what sort of courageous, ethical heroes could risk all to do such extraordinary good. He interviewed people in the village and was overwhelmed by the ordinariness. They weren't heroes or smart, discerning people. Haille decided that the one factor that united them was their attendance, Sunday after Sunday, at their little church, where they heard the sermons of Pastor Trochme. Over time, they became by habit people who just knew what to do and did it. When it came time for them to be courageous, the day the Nazis came to town, they quietly did what was right. One old woman, who faked a heart attack when the Nazis came to search her house, later said, 'Pastor always taught us that there comes a time in every life when a person is asked to do something for Jesus. When our time came, we knew what to do.'"

Years ago when the western U.S. was being settled, roads were often just wagon tracks. These rough trails posed serious problems for those who journeyed on them. On one of these winding paths was posted a sign which read: "Avoid this rut or you'll be in it for the next 25 miles!"

"A habit is something you can do without thinking--which is why most of us have so many of them. "

"Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time." Mark Twain.

2.  Some of us made resolutions for the New Year.  This is not a bad idea , if we actually try them, step by step,  as Twain says above. The Word is prominent in our texts for today as well. Nehemiah 8:9  "all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law."  Instead of thumbing our nose at God and His Word, people would do well to attend the Worship of God and Reading of His Law. 

Instead our houses are sometimes actually not built on a good foundation, but on sand!

Of course our Lord took the Word , and applied it to all in the synagogue that day He entered His hometown.  He was the fulfillment of Isaiah and said so " This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." Luke 4:14 No one had ever applied it that way before . He is the Christ, the Son of God, God the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.   We need to help these people who may have beautiful Church buildings,  but crummy theology.  We are the people who can.  Without the everlasting Son we cannot enter heaven.  The Word tells us this directly in so many many many places!

3.  Lastly remember what Jesus said in vs 18 and what He said He fulfilled, "  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised..."  That would take a whole sermon to talk about these things.....but we are to do these things thru Him . Jesus is the pattern for our ethics as we said in the beginning....

Amen.