Scripture and Questions for Study and Reflection:

Read Luke 4:14-21.

1. Today’s sermon title is “There’s No Time Like the Present.” What does that title mean to you in the context of the Advent season and your discipleship journey?

2. How can we know that Jesus is present with us in our present-day lives? What Scripture verses attest to this truth?

3. In his book, “The Redemption of Scrooge,” Rawle says, “The past is a memory and the future is a dream, but the present is now, and now is when everything happens...God lives in an eternal now.” What do you think he means by that? Do you agree? Is this comforting?

4. In today’s passage from Luke, Jesus reads from Isaiah. How can these two ancient Scriptures reflect / reveal a “present” reality for us today?

5. What does the Spirit of the Lord anoint and send Jesus to do according to today’s passage? How does this compare with what Jesus anoints and sends us to do?

6. What did Jesus mean when he said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”?

7. Read Matthew 28: 19, Acts 1: 8, Matthew 25: 37-40 and John 14: 12-14. How do these passages reinforce the message from today’s passage?

8. Is the Spirit of the Lord on/in us too? How do we know? (Hint: read John 20: 21-22)

9. Sometimes it can be scary to embrace the ministry and mission Jesus has anointed and sent us to continue. What did you think about the way Pastor Mick quoted FDR and Romans 8: 31 to help us overcome our fears?

10. How can worry, doubt and distraction get in the way of us fulfilling our mission? How does the presence of Jesus help us overcome these things?

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.