"The Hometown Boy"

It has been a successful run for Jesus lately. The carpenter from Nazareth has been making quite a name for himself.

No one knew him at all on that day not so long ago when he laid down his carpenter’s tools to begin his ministry in Galilee after his baptism in the Jordan River.

At his first recorded public teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, people were astounded at what he said. “What is this?” they exclaimed. “A new teaching – with authority!” They were even more astounded when he cast out an unclean spirit from a man who interrupted his teaching.

And that was just the beginning.

In the following days Jesus healed his friend Simon’s mother-in-law of a persistent fever. He healed a man of the dreaded disease of leprosy. A paralyzed man began to walk after Jesus touched him.

Soon word of Jesus’ power was spreading through the region. Sure, there were a few who grumbled and complained that this supposed holy man was seen eating with tax collectors, prostitutes, and other sinners, types that any observant Jew would stay away from.

There was even more grumbling when Jesus broke the law of Moses by healing someone on the Sabbath, the God-ordained day of rest.

But those complaints did nothing to stop the buzz going around the countryside about this man. In those long ago days before CNN and the internet created instant global celebrities, word about Jesus still spread amazingly quickly.

Wherever he went, people crowded around to hear him. Those who were sick also gathered, hoping for a chance just to rub against his clothing and be healed. His strength seemed to be increasing as he traveled.

In recent days he calmed the sea during a storm that threatened to sink the boat he was on. Even more amazing, he seems to have raised a young girl from the dead.

And now, after so many months on the road, Jesus is coming back to his hometown, to Nazareth. We might expect a hero’s welcome for him – sort of a biblical age ticker tape parade.

And indeed, Jesus has been asked to teach at the local synagogue, the very place he worshipped and studied as a child.

On that Sabbath we can imagine that the synagogue was packed with people who had known Jesus all his life. His family, his childhood friends, his teachers and neighbors, all gathered to see and hear one of their own.

Mark gives us no record of what Jesus said that day, but his words must have been powerful. The initial description of the crowd’s reaction is the same as that of the first congregation to hear him in Capernaum.

“Many who heard him were astounded,” scripture says. “They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hand!”

But then the mood begins to change, as people remember to whom it is they are listening. They begin to nudge one another and whisper, “Hey, wait a minute, isn’t this Jesus the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s boy?
“Don’t you remember the time he got lost in Jerusalem when he was 12, how he worried his mother and father sick?

“Look, there’s Mary over there. Why hasn’t he stayed at home and taken care of her, anyway? Who does he think he is, traveling all over the place? Does he think Nazareth isn’t good enough for him?”

Now instead of being proud of the hometown boy made good, the people are offended by what they perceive as one of their own putting on airs.

Jesus immediately senses the change in the congregation’s attitude. He is understandably hurt by this rejection from the people who should know and love him best.

With a mixture of sadness and anger he says to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.”

This man who so recently calmed the seas and raised the dead can do no deed of power among his own people, except to heal a few who are sick. And shaking his head in amazement, Jesus leaves Nazareth to teach in other places.

I can remember as a child thinking how amazing it must have been to have lived at the same time as Jesus, to have known him personally, perhaps to have been his next-door neighbor.

Surely such intimate acquaintance with Jesus would mean never having any questions of faith or doubts about who he was. Surely the people who knew Jesus best would be the first to follow him.

But scripture tells us that is not the case.

Instead of increasing their appreciation of who Jesus is, their familiarity with him blinds them to the presence of God in their midst.

It is easy for us 2,000 years later to hear this story and be amazed at the disbelief of Jesus’ hometown audience.

But my guess is that if we had been there that day listening to Jesus, we, too, would have been murmuring complaints about him.

For we, like the people in Jesus’ hometown, like people everywhere, so often look for God’s presence in the exotic, the far away, the unfamiliar.

We find it hard to believe that God is present right under our noses, in the people and places we see every day.

How often we miss the holy because all we can see is the ordinary. How often we miss the new thing that God is doing because all we can see is the old and familiar.

No wonder Jesus could do no deeds of power among those who held him in contempt. The problem wasn’t with Jesus’ power; it was with the attitude of the people around him.

The power of God’s spirit is always with us, but seldom overwhelms us. Often scripture tells us that God’s power is missed because some person or group has been too self-absorbed and narrow-minded to be attentive, receptive, and believing.

For Jesus to perform miracles within the context of this unbelief would turn him into a mere magician, performing powerful tricks simply to prove to people that he could.

Jesus never performs miracles to convince someone to believe in him. At the beginning of his ministry, he resists Satan’s attempts to tempt him into doing powerful tricks, like turning a rock into bread when he was hungry.

At the end of his ministry, when Jesus is arrested, Pontius Pilate orders him to perform a miracle to prove who he is. Jesus refuses, even though doing so might have saved his life.

Faith is a two-way street. God always offers and invites, but we must be willing and receptive to experience that power and presence.

Faith does not mean seeking out the most exotic spiritual experience, the holiest teacher, the most miraculous deed. Faith does not mean looking for God’s presence only in spectacular events, or even only in church.

Faith is seeing ourselves, and the ordinary people in our families, our neighborhoods, our classrooms and jobs, in a new light. Faith is finding God’s presence in everyday places and events.

Even this regular and so thoroughly familiar Eucharistic celebration of God’s presence is, after all, as Jesus taught us, just a simple meal among friends.

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Readings

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10

All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, “Look, we are your bone and flesh. For some time, while Saul was king over us, it was you who led out Israel and brought it in. The Lord said to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel.” So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years. David occupied the stronghold, and named it the city of David. David built the city all around from the Millo inward. And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows—was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Mark 6:1-13

Jesus came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

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