I have checked the records, and over my years here at St. David the King, I’ve given more than 400 different homilies. I put in the word “different” just because I realize that to many of you, some of those 400 homilies probably ended up sounding kind of similar. But really, they were at least intended to be different. And in all those years, I’ve never, I think, had anyone walk out or get angry because of a homily. I have seen a few people rush out during a homily carrying a child, so I assume it was the child who needed to leave, but it may have been an…

We have images in our mind of Jesus preaching, and in those images, the preaching is usually going over very well. There are paintings of the sermon on the mount where Jesus is addressing an enormous crowd, somehow without benefit of any amplification, and everyone in that crowd of thousands is rapt in attention, hanging on his every word. But Jesus, of course, unlike most of the rest of us who stand up here and preach, he wasn’t always concerned about his preaching being well received and generally liked. When he needed to, he could provoke strong reactions. Of course, people could be spellbound and inspired by his teaching, but…

Today’s gospel shouldn’t really be separated from the gospel reading we heard last week; it’s Part Two of a story that is all one. Last week, Jesus stood up in the temple in his hometown, to read the scriptures at the liturgy, and he read from the prophet Isaiah, who told people that he’d been sent to proclaim freedom and good news to captives, and it picks up today, when Jesus tells his listeners that Isaiah’s prophecy is being fulfilled right in front of them. They clearly don’t understand that he is talking about himself, because it says that his audience is pleased at his eloquence, the same way that…