Going Home

He left that place and came to his home town, 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 

offence at him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without

 honor, except in their home town, 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. Mark 6:1-13

We have had some interesting discussions of late surrounding the

meaning of home. We have moved a lot, as a theater and clergy

family. We go where we have been called. We recently went to

Baltimore for a funeral and saw many old friends. It was all so

familiar. It was home and it was not home anymore. We have 

learned to make our home wherever we are planted. It is hard,

at times, to return to former homes. Hard to be understood and

hard to understand.

Jesus returned to his hometown, only to be rejected. He no

longer fit there. Once, he was a kid on the street, a carpenter

they all knew. Then, he was a prophet with power and a very

strange following. He not longer fit there. He then sent his

disciples out to do their ministry, uprooting them from their

homes and giving them his power and calling to find home

wherever they went. We all belong to this global village, the

people on the move, the rooted and the dispersed. We belong

by our willingness to be called away from comfort and on to

carrying love to new villages and new homes.

Today, I ask God to help me rejoice in the calling from comfort

to challenge, from known to strange and new. May we all be

joyful explorers carrying love and hope to new homes where we

are sent.