BROADCASTS.com

Day 2\xa0

Reflect\xa0
1. What were a couple of things that caught your attention since you prayed yesterday?\xa0
2. How has God or how might God deepen your desire for our congregation to be a picture to the world of God\u2019s shalom?

\xa0

Imagine\u2026 Being a Foretaste

"[Jesus] went to Nazareth\u2026 and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue\u2026 He stood up to read\u2026: \u201cThe Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord\u2019s favor.\u201d (Luke 4:16\u201319)\xa0

Jesus comes to his hometown and speaks the word of Isaiah but not before others have spoken in the book of Luke.

There have already been three strong voices in Luke's gospel that have sounded a particular chord. Mary declares in her Magnificat that God will bring down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the humble, that he would send the rich away empty but fill the hungry with good things. John the Baptist's dad, Zechariah, declares that God will redeem his people and save them from the hands of their enemies and all who hate them. At the birth of Jesus, the angelic army's words declare, "Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace among men on whom his favor rests." This heavenly host looking at the world, its brokenness, and its desperate state, declare God is coming into the world to war against all that has gone wrong.

Then Jesus comes to his hometown. He speaks a very popular, hopeful passage. Speaks the passage--sort of. Jesus cuts Isaiah 61 short, ignoring a part about God's vengeance. Then he adds words from Isaiah 58 about releasing the oppressed. Isaiah 58 is the great passage that speaks of the kind of fast God wants, where the hungry are fed, the captives are released, and the chains of injustice are broken.

Jesus declares what the kingdom will be like. In the declaration, he calls his followers to join him in giving the world a taste of God's shalom wherever they are.\xa0

Prayer Ideas. Dear God\u2026
- open our ears to hear the Spirit\xa0
- let us hear your pleasure in what we do\xa0
- let us hear your imagination for giving a foretaste of shalom to the world\xa0
- give us a holy imagination

Daily Reflections (to take with you as you keep your eyes, heart, and spirit open during the day)\xa0
1. How did you reflect on being a foretaste during the day?
2. Where did you experience a foretaste of God\u2019s shalom today?\xa0
3. Were there moments when God gave you insight into how our congregation could be a foretaste?