Advent Reflection: God is Present with Our Neighbor

In today's text, (Luke 4: 14-30)  I hear Jesus telling the people whom he is physically with (God with us) that God is also present with our neighbor. I sense an invitation to consider that God's abundance necessarily means that there is room for someone else, other than us, to also be blessed by God. Our willingness to accept the breadth of God's abundance means that we can dispel our notions of scarcity that keep our fists clenched.   -Rev. Ruth T. West, San Francisco Theological Seminary   (from Advent Reflection, Blessings Just for Us?)