Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.                                                                                               

Today's Gospel passage makes me feel a bit unsettled and uncomfortable, because the story on the surface seems to show Jesus as being powerless. Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth, and while there, he began to teach in the synagogue. The scripture tells us that the people were astounded at what Jesus had to say; they were utterly amazed, they were dumbfounded, they were at a loss and left gaping in astonishment. Even though in the preceding days and weeks Jesus  had cured a guy with a withered hand, had calmed the stormy sea by saying simply, "Peace, be still," had been to the land of the Geresenes where he drove a demon out of a man, had cured a woman of her twelve-year hemorrhage simply by her touching his garment, and had brought the daughter of Jairus, a synagogue leader, back from the dead, in his home-town of Nazareth, Jesus "could do no deed of power there."

Jesus was unable to do any great deeds of power not simply because the people did not believe, but also because they were unable to envision a reality that was outside their expectations. They were unable to envision the Kingdom of God that Jesus was proclaiming.  I think this story is a lesson in how we as people often respond to change and how the Kingdom of God often challenges us by putting change right in our faces. Our lives are in a state of constant change. We are constantly being moved from one place to another in some way. We move, we change jobs, we get old, we change our minds; and as much as we change, others change around us in the same way and the world around us changes constantly in some way. When things change, when we are confronted with the things we don't expect, we often become unsettled. We might even become anxious. We start to act like the unbelieving crowd in Nazareth who expected Jesus to be the cute little boy they remembered. But he wasn't. He grew up and returned to give them a new outlook on life. But they weren't ready; they weren't ready to accept that things were indeed different. They weren't able to envision the incredible power that Jesus had, they weren't able to see how Jesus was lord and master over sickness, disaster, and even death itself. They were unable to see that Jesus was intensively trying to show them the Kingdom of God, but they didn't believe that it could be. They weren't ready to enter the Kingdom of God. For that matter, are we?

One of the reasons that the crowd was so disturbed by Jesus is because he pushed them out of their comfort zone. He disrupted their world and the way it was supposed to work. They couldn't imagine that Jesus was capable of doing the things he and others said he did. They couldn't imagine a Jesus who existed outside the box they made for him. We aren't so different sometimes, are we? Sometimes we can't imagine a world that exists outside the box that we have created for it. Like the crowd who did not have faith in Jesus's miraculous works, the world often fails--or refuses--to see the movement of God when God is trying to move humanity to a new place. God leads us through our comfort zones, so we have a foundation to move on to something greater, but then takes us out of that in order for us to progress to the next step-to grow. Life in God's Kingdom is just that-life. Things that are alive are constantly changing, constantly growing, constantly evolving. That stops when a living organism dies. That evolution applies to our personal lives as well. We aren't meant to be the same person all our lives. As long as we are alive, God expects us to strive to be something better, greater, stronger. We are not supposed to stay in our person comfort zones; we should constantly be growing, pushing the limits, and challenging ourselves to do better and be better. We should always be striving to be our best and do our best in God's Kingdom.

If we allow ourselves to be open to God's power and movement in the world, then we can follow the second half of today's Gospel lesson. That's the part where Jesus tells his disciples to go out and spread the good news, not worrying what others think. Jesus sent out his disciples and gave them the authority to do the things that he did.  The take-home message for us is to always look for the movement of God in our lives and in the world, as he moves us toward his Kingdom. If we constantly strive for something greater, to be something greater, we can move closer to living in the Kingdom.