This week’s text from Luke’s gospel is profoundly challenging for all of us as we think about the way Jesus chose to live out God’s ministry with humankind as the Chosen One, anointed by God as Messiah. Jesus was invited to read at his local synagogue in Nazareth, following glowing reports of his teaching in other synagogues in the region and his local community wanted to hear him too. He accepted the invitation and he chose Isaiah, 61:1-2 as his text for his preaching. This was the choice Jesus made, where he now begins his public ministry, after his baptism, after his time of prayer and reflection in the wilderness, and after word has spread about his powerful preaching and teaching in the region. It would have been like a fire cracker had been lit, I imagine, in the synagogue on that day!
At St Mark’s we meet to worship on custodial land of the oldest living civilisation in the world. We pay our respects to Kabi Kabi people and their Elders, past, present and emerging, for they hold the hopes, dreams, traditions and cultures of Aboriginal Australia. We acknowledge and respect their spiritual connection to country and their stewardship of the land that now sustains us all.
