Cliff Loesch July 1, 2007 A Place to Call Home Luke 9:51-62      You know the basic story of Superman.  An infant from another planet was sent to earth right before his own planet was destroyed.  The infant was saved from destruction, but he was now living in a world where he was different from everyone else.  He grew up in a normal and loving family who knew where he came from and knew about his special powers.  But for the most part he kept his secret to himself.  He tried to blend in.  But life in school was complicated at times.  How do you fit in when you can run the length of the football field in less than a second?  The TV show, Smallville, deals with Superman as a teenager and as a young adult and often explores the theme of not fitting in.  Superman went to school and made close friends.  Yet he always held himself back in his relationships.  He never felt like he quite fit in, and believed that others would not or could not understand him completely or even accept him if they knew he was not like them.      We see this same theme developed in the new Spiderman movies.  He carefully guards his identity as Spiderman.  His friends know there's something different about him and are sometimes frustrated by his disappearances and unusual behavior.  But he can't share with them-or believes he cannot tell them-about his special powers.  They won't understand.  So he lives his life doing good-yet living with the private pain of never feeling like he quite fits in.      But it isn't just superheroes that experience this.  Many ordinary people feel the same way: that they don't exactly fit into the world around them and that no one really understands them or knows them.  From time to time I like to type a phrase into the Google search engine just to see what I can find.  I tried it with the phrase, "I don't fit in," and I wasn't really surprised to find that this is a common feeling, a common theme, in the lives of many people.  Lots of people feel that they don't quite fit in, that they're not fully understood at work or at home or in other social settings.       In Luke 9, Jesus said, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."  When we read this verse we often think of the fact that Jesus was an itinerant preacher going from place to place.  He stayed wherever he could and didn't own a house that we know of.  So we usually imagine that Jesus is talking about the fact that he doesn't have a regular house to go to.  And that's true.  But I think there's more to it than that.  By the surrounding context, I think Jesus was saying, "I don't exactly fit in here.  No one really understands me.  My message is not getting through.  I just haven't fully found a home here."      Here is a case in point.  You probably know that in Jesus' day there were Jews living in Galilee, which was up north by the Sea of Galilee.  This is the region where Jesus grew up.  And there were Jews living down south-where Jerusalem is located.  Right between these two areas was Samaria.  And it's well known that the Jews hated the Samaritans, and most of them would not even travel through Samaria to get from the northern area to the southern.  They went around.  But Jesus ignored these silly prejudices and worked to break down barriers.  He always traveled right through Samaria and interacted with the people.  He reached out to them in love and encouraged them to open themselves to God.  You will recall Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well.  That happened in Samaria, and it was a positive encounter with the woman and also with many people from her village.  And although it stretched them, it was likely a good experience for the disciples to see Jesus interacting positively with Samaritans.  Hopefully it helped them overcome their own prejudices.  And you will also remember that when Jesus was asked, "Who is my neighbor?" that he answered the question by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.  It was very significant that he used a Samaritan as a central figure in this story.  Even the Samaritans are our neighbors that we are to love.      Yes, Jesus constantly worked to chip away at these prejudices.  But this trip through Samaria was not as positive.  He was on his way to Jerusalem, and when the Samaritans discovered this, they wouldn't have anything to do with him.  The prejudice and hatred went both ways.  Jews toward Samaritans and Samaritans toward Jews.  And even though Jesus (a Jew) had been friendly toward Samaritans, had ignored the prevailing prejudices, and had sought to create some openness among the two groups toward each other-on this trip through Samaria, the Samaritans refused to receive Jesus simply because he was on his way to Jerusalem.  The old prejudices were still there.  It's as if they were saying to Jesus, "You can be our friend.  Or you can be a friend to the Jews.  But you cannot be friends with both.  You have to choose."  It had to be disappointing and frustrating to realize that his messages of love and respect were apparently not getting through.      And then-as upsetting as the rejection of the Samaritans must have been, Jesus' own disciples came to him and said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"  And by this question, Jesus realized that not only was he not getting through to the Samaritans-he apparently wasn't getting through to his own disciples.  We often think of Jesus' time in the Garden of Gethsemane as a very low point in his ministry-a time when Jesus felt lonely and isolated, perhaps even a time when he was questioning his call and his mission.  But I think this experience in Luke 9 was also a pretty low point.  The Samaritans held onto their prejudices and rejected Jesus.  Then Jesus' own disciples failed to grasp Jesus' message of love and forgiveness.  And Jesus' response to all this disappointment was to say, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."  It seems to me a way of saying, "There is nowhere that I really fit in here.  No one gets me.  I'm not getting through.  I'm simply not quite home here."       OK, maybe I'm stretching things just a bit.  The statement about foxes and birds actually comes in the next paragraph.  As they were moving on to another village somebody came up to Jesus and expressed his absolute, unwavering commitment to Jesus.  "I will follow you anywhere."  Indeed it seems that the narrative has moved on from the Samaritans and the disciples who still seem to be entrenched in their prejudice.  Now we're talking about commitment.  But the two sections really are related.  It's all about commitment, it's all about discipleship.  And when this person said to Jesus, "I will follow you anywhere," Jesus knew where that was headed.  The man said it and he meant it at that time.  But Jesus also knew that the moment something else comes up, the strong commitment would quickly move down the list.  Be it an old prejudice that pops up, or any number of other distractions in life-there are lots of things I suppose that can derail our best intentions.      The objections that Jesus mentions to following him are probably hyperbole: certainly taking care of family is important.  But the point is that almost anything can become a distraction and Jesus places working for the kingdom of God higher than anything.      Do you ever feel like Jesus did in this passage-that somehow all your best efforts seem to be falling short, that you're not getting through, or even that you simply don't fit into the world around you somehow.  You're not quite connecting.  You don't feel at home.  It's encouraging to realize that Jesus himself has been there and that he understands what we're going through.      But can we go a step farther and say that our real home is in Christ?  Can we move to that level of discipleship where we embrace the work-the challenging work, the sometimes-frustrating work, the work that's never done-of reconciliation, of breaking down walls, of inner transformation, and of simply encouraging others to open themselves to God?  Can we find a home walking beside Christ working for the kingdom of God?