What good can come out of Nazareth? Come and See!

God was absurdly un-strategic when he entered the world. People expected to find him as a King in a palace, or at least born into a wealthy, well-connected family.  Instead, he was born in a barn to a dirt-poor father and mother who were bewildered and exhausted.

Then the family moves to the small unremarkable town of Nazareth which was likened to a one stop-light town in the middle of Wisconsin.  “What good can come from Nazareth?” is the question in the gospel.  Obviously nothing great can come from such a small, insignificant place.

God same to us stripped naked and smelly.  Over and over it appears that God plays the fool.  God is, however, showing us that he is not to be found only in the nice and pretty and organized life and in exotic spiritual experience, but also in the gritty, daily grind of our lives.  Some people spend their whole lives searching for God when He is right under their noses in their own humanity.

In loving and honoring and caring for each other in all of our human difficulties and failings, we have found God.  The humanity of Christ is found in the humanity of each other – and we need to nurture and cherish it in whatever form it takes.