We touch. We hug. We play. We talk. We sing. We dance. We eat. We do all this and more--together. This is the homecoming, the reunion most of us picture.
But Sunday's Lukan lection on Jesus's homecoming paints a different picture. In Luke's version of Jesus's return to Nazareth, his townmates tried to throw him off a cliff. They found his interpretation of good news to the poor offensive because for Jesus, the poor whom God cared for included those who were not Israelites nor Judahites.
To this day, the bastard from Nazareth who lived his life with and for those whose only hope was God, who challenged the rich to sell everything they have and give the proceeds to the destitute, who defied empire and its life-negating systems, and who commanded everyone who followed him to offer one's life for a friend, remains a very hard sell.
Trump and his ilk will have major problems with this Nazarene troublemaker and his gospel.
*art. "Brow of the Hill near Nazareth" by James Tissot (1836-1902), available at the Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives.
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