Living by Kingdom values?

Luke 4: 21

²¹Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

Read Luke 4: 16-30

We look forward to so many things in life: jobs, family, promotion, a bit of extra money to pay for those everyday day bills, a house if you’re homeless, a job if you’re workless and belonging if your rejected or isolated from community. These are some of our hopes and aspirations for better times and more secure days. The early disciples of Jesus who read and heard the gospel of Luke were people just like us, they had hopes too. The day they heard this passage in Luke 4 about Jesus teaching in Nazareth must have been such a wonderful day for those who had ears to hear. All their hopes for a vision of a future free from oppression and violence had arrived and were fulfilled in Jesus. The poor, the blind, the captive and the oppressed were now part of a divine liberation plan that has been implemented and put into practice. It’s today the day has arrived. I ask myself ' if we have in our generation of disciples have forgotten this story?'.Do we just live in the hope of a better tomorrow or do we live and act in the sure reality that the Kingdom of God has arrived. Jesus began this great sermon by saying the He was the author and fulfillment of these liberation scriptures recorded in Isaiah. Today is the day that we can live out the reality that all debts are paid and that we all have a place, a sacred space to belong. The question is will we live by this reality. Will we tell those around us by our lives that the age of inclusion started with Jesus that day 2000 years ago and we will live in the light of that reality today! There are no more outcasts for those who live by Kingdom values. Every human being is included in the offer of liberation to live as God created us to live in solidarity with Him and with each other.