Home Coming

Gospel: Luke 4: 16-30

We human beings do not like facts that contradict our dominant narrative, especially when that narrative is favorable to ourselves.  The idea of God having a chosen people is a favorable one to those who count themselves in that chosen class; not so much for those who are shunned and excluded from being chosen.  This, of course, begs the question as to whether we invented the idea of chosen people as a way of excluding others or whether it really was from God.

Jesus gives us an answer to that dilemma in today's Gospel.  He returns to his native town in a grand homecoming and expectation.  He uses the occasion to remind them that God loves everyone, and he uses stories from the tradition to highlight that fact.  This caused such a violent reaction in his home town that they even wanted to kill him.  

Why is it people have such violence against the idea of God loving everyone with equal ardor? We see this negative reaction to the idea in our present times as well.  If people of religion find the idea so offensive, they cannot wonder then that few and fewer people want to belong to a club where exclusion and hatred of the other is central to the creed and where its members express that hatred freely.