A scandal is brewing in the hallowed halls of Academe. It has to do with test scores given to our young people. A West Virginia doctor noticed sometime back that all 50 states claim that their students score above average on standardized test scores. That, of course, is impossible for everyone to be above average. Someone has even given this scandal a thoughtful name the Lake Wobegon effect. Lake Wobegon is author Garrison Keillor's mythical town where "All the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."

Obviously, by definition it is impossible for everyone to be "above average." Average is what most people are. Nobody, though, wants to admit it.

In a General Electric survey some years ago, the average person surveyed placed themselves in the 77th percentile. That is, their view was that their performance on the job exceeded that of 76% of their associates. In fact, only 2% of the respondents placed themselves as below average. Everybody is in the top half of the class. Everyone is a star.

What has Jesus got to do with the LakeWobegon effect? Just this. How can I look across this congregation we who have so much, who are so well-fed, so well-clothed, so surrounded by the good things of life how can I look across this congregation and tell you that Jesus came to save the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed? That's not us! We are winners. We are stars. We're all above average. This is one text we can skip over. It's for someone else.

Still, it's there. Maybe we ought to listen.