Phenomenal!

A backwoods preacher liked to show off his superior learning to the congregation by using big words in his sermons. On one occasion, a member of the congregation told the preacher that his use of the word “phenomenon” was not understood. “I’ll clear it up in my sermon next Sunday,” the preacher promised. When Sunday came, he told the people that he’d been asked to explain the meaning of the word “phenomenon.” Then he said, “If you see a thistle, that is not a phenomenon. And if you see a bird that sings, that is not a phenomenon. If you see a cow, that is not a phenomenon, either. But if you see a cow sitting on a thistle and singing like a bird — well that is a phenomenon.”

In today’s Gospel Lesson, Luke describes a phenomenal event in the life of human history’s ultimate Phenomenon (spelled with a capital “P”): the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus had walked up a mountain to…