“Then Jesus began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:21 

After the baptism of Jesus, He began his mission in life which is to proclaim God’s “kingdom” is now here, he goes around telling others this news. What does it mean for us to now be living in this “kingdom”? How can those around us tell that our lives reflect this reality? A faithful steward not only has an intellectual understanding of this reality, but actually lives it out. 

What is to be done is “to bring good news to the poor, release the captives,” bring “recovery of sight to the blind,” free “the oppressed,” and proclaim “the Lord’s favor.” It announces what Jesus will do in his public, ministry; and it announces how he will do it. As followers of Jesus, we can also choose to be persons who embody such aims in our actual day to day activities. The beginning of the Galilean ministry can represent, therefore, not only the message of Luke’s Gospel, but the shape of our lives in faith.

 Prayer: God of all mercy, your Son proclaimed good news to the poor, release to the captives, and freedom to the oppressed:  anoint us with your Holy Spirit, so that all people may be free to praise you in Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Rector’s Corner: Why did Jesus go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day to worship?

In the Anglican Church, “Worship, whether in formal ritual, personal devotion or in the activity of our lives are oriented, in love, toward the one who first loved us, in an offering of praise, adoration and gratitude. In so doing, we open ourselves to the working of God’s transforming grace and become ever more fully who we are intended to be.”

Worship is the heart and pulse of the Christian Church. In worship we celebrate together God’s gracious gifts of creation and salvation, and are strengthened to live in response to God’s grace. Worship always involves actions, not merely words. “To consider worship is to consider music, art, and architecture, as well as liturgy and preaching.

Liturgical unity is expressed by our faithfulness to an authentic core shaped by our invitation into the life of the Holy Trinity, the witness of the Holy Scriptures and the historic faith as expressed in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.

The resurrected Christ whom we worship, and through whom by the power of the Holy Spirit we know the grace of the Triune God, transcends and indeed is beyond all churches. Baptism and Eucharist, the sacraments of Christ’s death and resurrection, were given by God for all the world.

The great narratives of Christ’s birth, death, resurrection and sending of the Spirit, and our Baptism into him, provide the central meanings of the trans-cultural times of the Church’s year: especially Lent/Easter/Pentecost, and Advent/Christmas and Epiphany.

In all of these, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Eucharist.  (Introduction: On Christian Worship, Anglican Church of Canada)