“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵ I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. ²⁶ Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.²⁷ And there were many in Israel with leprosy^[a] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.

Luke 4:21-30

It is challenging coming back home when you are from a small town. You may get mixed reviews. Some people are glad to know that a person from their hometown is doing well in the world. They take pride in their success. I'm from Boone, Iowa, founded by Daniel Boone's son. Mamie Dowd Eisenhower was born in Boone. We turned her modest house into a museum because good people come from Boone.

Jesus made his way in the wider world and people crammed into the synagogue to hear him. They are amazed that he has become an eloquent speaker and teacher. Isn't that Joe and Mary's boy? So, why did Jesus decide to poke the hornet'snest, saying,

And you will tell me, 'Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'" ²⁴ "Truly I tell you no prophet is accepted in his hometown."

Maybe Jesus attended his class reunion the night before and encountered the chasm that can grow when you move away. I went to seminary in Boston, struggled with culture shock, and all the jokes about being a hick from Iowa who doesn't know how to pronounce Worcester. (Frankly, Bostonians should not make fun of anyone's accent.). I thought maybe I made a mistake, but I stuck it out. I became a graduate assistant and found my place. People forgot I was from the fly-over territory.

But then you go to the class reunion and discover many of your friends haven't changed much. Off-color jokes about fags and wetbacks aren’t funny anymore. If you speak up and say something, the reaction is, "Oh, so you have been to seminary now. Just because you know big words like "exegesis" doesn't mean you are smarter than us."

Growth often creates cognitive dissonance with your past. On the one hand, my bedrock values about community, hard work and respect are very Iowa. On the other hand, we must adapt and change as the world moves like lightning strikes. Doing this well often causes conflict back home.

Something lit a fire of indignation in Jesus, and he needed to speak. Notice the turning point from when all speak well of him to all being furious with him. He tells two stories of healing from the prophets Elijah and Elisha, where they performed acts of healing for foreigners, a widow from Sidon, and a general from Syria. Why did that make people so furious?

The context is that Israel had tensions with Syria and Sidon. Sidon was Canaanite territory, and they worshiped Baal and made human sacrifices in the Old Testament. The infamous Jezebel was from Sidon. Many conflicts simmered with the Syrian region, including the fall of Northern Israel to Assyria seven centuries before. Why is Jesus talking about mercy for lepers and widows from Sidon and Syria? What next, Jesus, will you tell us to love our enemies? (That is the lectionary reading in three weeks!) The story they know is that the messiah is supposed to liberate them and restore Israel. But Jesus edited story—one of healing and love that crossed boundaries.”

So, his hometown people are ready to throw Jesus off the cliff. He could have said love your neighbor, healed a few people, and gone on to Capernaum, but he had to go there. I've heard that people can get upset when you venture into conflictual social issues from the pulpit. We just had a modern-day re-enactment of this scene at the National Cathedral as Bishop Budde called for mercy for immigrants, LGBTQ people, and others who are afraid of persecution. Half the country sees her as a saint, and half want her fired and censored.

I would like to look at her words not through the lens of partisanship, but the context of the churches Bishop Budde represents. Nearly all denominations have statements on immigration dating back decades. These documents have been debated and voted in at Synods and contain the theology and mission of the wider church. This week I read numerous denominational statements on immigration from Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, UCC, and Southern Baptist Churches. They all agree that immigration is a complicated issue, and the church has a unique role in the national debate.

Did you know church agencies are the largest US nonprofit group doing resettlement work with immigrants and refugees? We resettle 70 percent of refugees in the country. Financial support for these ministries is the most significant budget items for humanitarian relief ministries. When denominational leaders speak out on these issues, it isn’t partisan, its our mission. Church leaders represent the people working on the front lines doing the daily work to find housing, food, and clothing, teach English as a second language, and provide job training.

Every denomination I searched has a statement on immigration. The Southern Baptists have many ministries for ESL and basic needs for immigrants. The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission emphasizes balancing compassion with respect for the rule of law. In a recent statement, the SBC pushed back on the issue of ICE agents entering churches and programs, saying:

"[The President] is right to fix our broken immigration system ... but it must be done so without turning churches into wards of the state or expecting pastors to ask for papers of people coming through their doors. The unintended impact of this change will be that many law-abiding immigrants will be fearful to attend our churches." https://apnews.com/article/religion-churches-trump-immigration-crackdown-sanctuary-2746fa5c80aa8e2ce6db878e0d6e1c24

I noticed strong similarities between Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, and UCC statements. They all call for comprehensive reform of a broken system to address the root causes of migration. They support family unity, a clear path towards citizenship, and respect for the human rights of all immigrants and refugees. There are no denominations that support a mass deportation of immigrants. Bishop Budde spoke for her church. The Episcopal Church Government Affairs Office statement focuses on values and principles. The first line of their statement on immigration is, "The Episcopal Church champions and advocates for humane policy towards migrants because of our belief that every human being is a child of God and must be treated with dignity.” These values have come into conflict with all the last three presidential administrations, regardless of party. Many denominations supported lawsuits around the treatment of immigrants during the Obama Administration. All leaders have blind spots, regardless of party, and the church must speak truth to power regardless of who is in charge.

Returning to Jesus speaking in Nazareth, he models that we must have the courage to speak our convictions. But we must also take great care in how we do this. It is not an invitation to condemn people who disagree with us and rant at people on Facebook. Later this month, our text will be "Love your enemies." Something I appreciate about Bishop Budde's style is her focus on the central themes of the faith. She focused on mercy and human dignity and did not wander off into personal condemnation or the weeds of accusations. The best thing we can do is stick to the central themes of our story and invite and implore everyone to join us in the bigger story.

This point became clear to me after reading Yuval Harari's history of the human race, called "Sapiens." Harari notes that people's ability to move from wandering hunters and gatherers to larger civilizations is based on a shared story or myth. People cooperate when we agree on the story we are living; The story might be a common God or spiritual belief, the divine blessing on a king, or a shared Constitution of government. Finding a shared story creates possibilities such as peace, trade, problem-solving of complicated challenges, and a society that can tolerate and affirm diversity. Without a common story, there is not trust. When the dominant narrative dehumanizes and assigns blame to others out of our perceived tribe, society will break down. Cooperation falls apart, problem solving grinds to halt, and resources go to conflict and violence rather than human progress. Nothing is more important than the quest to tell stories that unite us.

Jesus knew that telling a better story—one of mercy, inclusion, and love—would get him rejected by the people who knew him best. But he told it anyway. The church today faces the same choice. Will we tell a story worth living? Will we speak a truth that heals, even when it’s unpopular?

Our faith stories emphasize God's great love for all of humanity. God challenges us to love as we are first loved. When we get fearful, frustrated, or anxious, we can lose the thread of our story. As a writer I understand this challenge. I can get stuck on a word choice. I worry about my internal critic who says my words aren't good enough. Maybe no one wants to hear my story and it doesn't really matter. I can move forward when I ask, "What is this story about?" Have I told a story worth hearing, worth living? If not, edit and refine before sharing.

Friends you are the living embodiment of the story of God's love. Your life is the only Bible many people will read. Tell the story with all your heart.