NO MORE SECRETS

Luke 4:14-30

 In the movie "Frozen," Princess Elsa is told by Grandfather Troll that Fear was her enemy.  How she and her parents chose to deal with her situation was the very thing that isolated her from the very person who would who could help her defeat the power of her fear.


That day in the synagogue, Jesus told the people he had grown up around who he was:  the Messiah, being anointed by the Holy Spirit that day in the Jordan sent to bring them God's word, the good news of God's love in action among them.

And then he did something that made them very angry.  He told them to their faces what they were thinking.  "Who does he think he is?  I used to make fun of him in school?  He's no Messiah!"  "He's too good to perform miracles for us, but he will heal gentiles in Capernaum?"  "Did he just compare us to idol worshipping, prophet killing Israelites?"  "Does he know about all those awful things I've done?"

Nobody likes having their secret thoughts put out there before God and the rest of the world.

"Don't let them in, don't let them see, be the good girl you always have to be.  Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know."  ("Let it Go" by Idina Menzel from the movie, Frozen)

 Princess Elsa had literally imprisoned herself, shut herself off from the world and the relationships that could enrich her life.  Oppressed by fear, afraid of what might happen if her secret was found out, she was blinded to the solution of her problem.

Don't let them in, not even God, don't let them see, be the good person we're supposed to be. Conceal, don't reveal the secrets:  the sins, the fears, the hurts and the shame.  Close ourselves off, lock them away in a dark closet in our hearts.  If people knew, how could they ever love us.  If God knew, how could God ever forgive us?

The good news that Christ proclaims to us is that those secrets we carry aren't going to scare him off.  Quite the contrary, Christ came to release us from the prison of those secrets because God loves us too much to let us remain captives.

Instead of being oppressed, weighed down by the secrets we try to hide, Jesus invites us to open our hearts, unlock the closets and let Christ take all our sins, our fears, our hurts and our shame and exchange them for forgiveness, healing, comfort and peace.

This is our good news today:  No more secrets.  Christ has come to release the prisoners, give sight to the blind and liberate the oppressed, and declare to us how much God loves us, secrets and all.





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