Luke 4:16-30

                 Hard hearted

           16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the Sabbath day. And he stood up  to read; 17 and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." 20 And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." 22 And all spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; and they said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" 23 And he said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, `Physician, heal yourself; what we have heard you did at Caper'na-um, do here also in your own country.'" 24 And he said, "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Eli'jah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land; 26 and Eli'jah was sent to none of them but only to Zar'ephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Eli'sha; and none of them was cleansed, but only Na'aman the Syrian." 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. 30 But passing through the midst of them he went away.

       I can't help but think of the politics that are going on right now, what with the Presidential election not too far off. Without trying to incite anyone, I am reminded of the recently concluded Republican convention. So many words were spoken and the reaction was fairly swift - all lies! I am sure the same thing will happen when the Democrats have their convention. There will be demonstrations and analysis from the usual rabid 'news' organizations.

       The other observation from this reading is that we are quite often skeptical of answers, advice or solutions if it doesn't come from a source that we deem acceptable. Does one have to have a PhD to solve one of life's problems or mysteries? Can the simplicity and love of a child have the insight into something we find too complex to handle?

        Does anybody listen to each other any more? Did they ever? Why is it that we refuse to listen? 

       Lastly and most importantly, are we as hard hearted with God as we are with everyone else in our lives. I would find it hard to believe that we  are not.

         A wise person once advised me, God gave us two ears and only one mouth for a reason.

        We would be wise to spend a great deal more time listening and less time being hard hearted.