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Luke 4:21-30

Jesus Walks Away

January 30, 2022

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Lectionary Year C

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ASK (a.k.a The On-Ramp)

Good morning!
Have you ever been playing a board game where you were doing really well but after a couple of bad turns you were suddenly in last place?
Or maybe you've been playing a video game where you were stuck in a place and kept doing really badly?
Has either thing ever happened to you?
When that has happened to you, did you ever get so frustrated that you quit playing and walked away?
Yeah. Me too.
After you stopped playing the game and walked away did you stay away from the game forever? Or did you come back at some point and try again?

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

In today's scripture story, we hear that Jesus was having such a bad day, that he quit and walked away, too.
The day started out nice enough -- he had returned home and was with the people he had known as a child. They were excited about him being back home.
They were so excited that they asked him to teach them in their worship service.
But once Jesus actually started teaching in worship, the people quickly became upset with the things he said.
In fact, they were so upset with him that they tried to hurt him.
That’s when Jesus decided that he had had enough and he walked away.

SHARE the Good News (a.k.a. The Destination)

If I had had a day like Jesus did in today’s story, I'd definitely want to quit and walk away, too.
And I think it’s good to know that even Jesus had to take moments where he needed to take a break – where he had to walk away from what was happening.
But, here’s the thing to remember: Even though Jesus walked away in today’s story, Jesus didn’t quit forever.
Just like you didn’t quit playing board games and video games for forever, Jesus didn't quit sharing God’s love, healing, and forgiveness.
And, because Jesus didn’t quit even when things were very difficult for him, we have all these stories of his life and his teachings that help us to know why and how we can live God's better way just like Jesus did.
As we learn to live God’s better way, we also learn how to walk away from a bad day without letting it stop us from living and sharing God’s better way – just like Jesus did.

And that’s the Good News for today. Let’s pray.

CLOSING Prayer

This is a repeat-after-me prayer.

Dear God,
Dear God,

Thank you for Jesus…

…who shows us…

…how to keep choosing your way…

…even when we’re having a really bad day.

Thank you and amen

Originally posted January 16, 2013

Updated on January 3, 2022

Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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NOTE TO NV: If you want to redo this one – start with a checkers board. Talk about the game starting with excitement and you think things are going well until just one or two bad turns. And once those one or two bad turns happen, then you quit the game, maybe even have a tantrrum. Then make an analogy to how the jesus story is like playing a board game like checkers (or monopoly) where everyone starts out excited, and then one or two bad moves later – by the congregation – then no one wants to play anymore. Good news is that though Jesus walks away for the day, he doesn’t quit. Ending stays that same.

The reason to consider changing it is because Jesus’ bad day had nothing to do with him. The story is about why the people didn’t like what he was saying…but…at the same tiime, that’s difficult to get across to kids.