It is homecoming season. Homecoming celebrations on college and high school campuses are taking place all around us. These events usually include activities like dances, parades, bonfires and of course, football games. The University of Missouri is often given credit for hosting the first homecoming festivities in 1911. For several years Mizzou had played their rival Kansas in Kansas City, but when league officials made a rule that all football games would be contested on college campuses, then football coach and Athletic Director, Chester Brewer, invited alumni to “come home” to Columbia to cheer on their team against their rival. There is considerable debate about whether or not this was the first homecoming event, but Brewer was not shy about claiming to invent the celebration for decades after.

As I sat in the stands recently at a high school homecoming game I couldn’t help but think about Jesus’ own homecoming in Luke 4. If you are following along with Wallula’s fall reading plan you read about this homecoming yesterday. Jesus returns to Galilee and then more specifically to his hometown of Nazareth, Luke says, “in the power of the Spirit.” Jesus is just where He and His Father want Him to be! Jesus shows up to synagogue, reads from the prophet Isaiah, claims to fulfill the Messianic passage and then He preempts the people’s appeals for Him to heal folks and perform miracles. He does this by pointing to two miracles in the Old Testament, one by Elijah and one by Elisha. Both of those miracles benefitted Gentiles (people who were not Jewish). This riles the crowd up so much that they drive Jesus out of town and towards a cliff with the hope of throwing their hometown hero off a cliff… What a homecoming!?

I think we read a story like that and think, “what in the world were those people thinking? How did they miss who Jesus was and what He was about?” We read that story in Luke 4 and think, that would never be me.

Folks, we live in a world where kindness, gentleness, self-control, hospitality,  and grace are traits on the decline not the increase. Last night was the Vice Presidential debate. I only caught the last several minutes of the discussion, but the talking points after the debate centered on how shocked people were that the candidates were cordial towards one another! The politeness was shocking! Think and pray about how you are treating folks around you. Consider how you can be a little more loving, a little more kind. Please don’t let differences of opinion or differing political ideals, or poor driving skills keep you from showing the love of Christ. Let’s walk around in the “power of the Spirit” by allowing His fruit to show up in our lives.

I believe that I would never throw Jesus out of town, but the times that I’ve spoken harshly to someone, when I’ve thought about how I could get back at the guy who cut me off in traffic, when I’ve failed to put others before myself… maybe I’ve been guilty of chasing Jesus towards that cliff?

Because of Him,

Lance

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you? He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

        - Matthew 25:44-45