WHY PROPHETS CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN – Part III (an Epiphany message)

And now we might ask, “where is Nazareth today?” O yes, it exists in Israel-Palestine today and draws many religious pilgrims who wish to honor the Jesus who made it famous. I have been there as have many of you.

But where is a contemporary “Nazareth”, the “hometown” of Jesus, the place where the people have known him from his infancy? Well, could it be that we are “Nazareth”, that is, the church and the Western culture where Jesus has “grown up”, so to speak, and where he has become sometimes all too familiar, sometimes even breeding contempt.

Hometown folk want their people to fit in, to not rock the boat, to preserve the status quo and maintain the peace, to go along with the powers that be, to not instigate change that would be disturbing and upsetting, to not be whistle blowers on corruption and cover ups and preemptive wars.

Hometown folk at home with themselves resent the Nathan’s of the world pointing fingers at the adulterous David’s saying, “Thou art the man” or the John the Baptist’s shattering our comfortable self-esteem by calling us vipers because we profess religion but deny it’s power in self and society; or prophets like Jesus critiquing his hometown folks – folks perhaps like some of us, critiquing us for a lukewarm faith and a contentment to let the church remain a sleeping giant, and a callousness to the horrendous suffering of the innocents and the cruelty of people to people.

The prophet’s life is not easy. They usually cannot go home again, but when they do and when people receive them with openness and expectancy, miracles happen. New forces mount against crime and corruption. New efforts are made for justice and peace. The economically oppressed are blessed by a new business started from a vision an entrepreneur gained in church. The distraught and fractured families gain a zest which takes them beyond stalemates to soul mates. Healings of minds and bodies occur in unexpected ways, from revitalized research and rededicated medical practice and earnest prayers.

Sometimes prophets can go home again. Jesus we would welcome you here again to your true home – the church. With faith, trepidation and expectancy, we welcome your piercing insights, your divine comfort and words of wisdom, your healing power and your trumpet of hope, your zest, your energy and vitality, your boundless grace and unfailing love.