I first acquired the little book in the sixth grade, but it saw little use until friends got hold of it in the ninth. It had been meant for photos, but it quickly became a place to collect the comments and signatures of my friends. I came across it a few years ago. As I perused those pages —some sweet innocence and some more sophisticated— memories flooded back to me. Here were the uniformly pleasant, even complimentary, things my friends wrote.
Until I came to the very last page.
There, penned in the firm hand of my favorite uncle was this: "Don't let this stuff go to your head! I changed your cotton-picking diapers! Uncle Ken."
Ahem.
No one knows you quite like the folks back home.
They have seen you interact with your parents at various stages in your life, watched you play with the neighborhood kids, observed each awkward stage of your transit from childhood to adult. They know your father, your mother, your grandparents. And now, whatever your present circumstance —you're grown, have a job, are a parent, live somewhere else— they still see you as the person (child) they once knew.
And, as I am sure we all know, that can lead to problems.
We see this kind of thing in Luke 4:14-30, a story that was split between last week’s Lectionary and this week’s. It's the tale of when Jesus meets the hometown folk. They just cannot see him for who he is. To them, he is the brother of siblings who still live there. Many of them, no doubt, observed his passage from babyhood to teen and beyond. There was simply nowhere in their minds for the adult Jesus. Before them was this, this ... man ... who presumed to read scripture in His hometown synagogue, and then to have the temerity to instruct his former neighbors!
He shows up, dazzles everyone with a startling announcement, and then, just when people are starting to think maybe he really can do some of those amazing things they’ve heard about, he proceeds to insult the entire congregation —implying God would rather reveal his miracles to outsiders than to people like them. What a slap in the face!
Joe’s kid. Mary’s boy.
I can’t help but wonder if we still do this. Do we have Jesus tucked away in a nice pigeonhole ... one that is more comfortable for us? It’s easy to just see Jesus from one angle, to regard Him as supporting one particular viewpoint or other, looking a certain way, sounding a certain way. The home folk completely missed the miracle that stood before them and among them.
And all because they thought they knew him.
Which Jesus do you know?
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Different versions of this reflection appeared in 2010 and 2012.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (February 3, 2019)
Here is the link to a table of readings for the Epiphany Season: https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//lections.php?year=C&season=Epiphany
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Luke 4:21-30
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Join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We meet at the Waco “egg and I” restaurant and the fun starts at 8:00. I can't promise any miracles, but I'm pretty sure no one in our group ever changed your diapers
Enjoy the week!
Steve
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