Our family went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole last night at the dinner table. For reasons I already don’t remember, we started looking up famous people who had attended our high schools and the high schools Margaret might attend next year after we move. My high school had Bill Nelson, a congressman who also traveled to space during the shuttle program. Phil’s had a member of the 1924 US Olympic soccer team. Geneva doesn’t have a page of famous alumni, but we came up with a couple from our own memory, including the recent Olympic triathlon medalist. In Pennsylvania we found a couple of football players and the author of The Devil Wears Prada.
Hometown hero stories are fun, aren’t they? When our heroes that we’ve known since they were “this small” come home the local newspapers and television stations come out to take pictures and interview them. There’s a sense of pride and excitement. Maybe they get to wave to the crowd from the middle of the football field during half time!
Jesus came back to Nazareth just such a hometown hero.
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patiently, he also helped some other children make their way safely to the top. Even after his little boy had reached the high platform he kept helping the others, spotting them so a potential fall wouldn’t be so dangerous, giving a hand to steady them if they got a little wobbly. Another dad came jogging up when he saw his daughter getting some assistance. He thanked the first dad and apologized for not being there, but the first dad simply smiled and shrugged, “Hey, we’re all in this together!” 
The Song of Zechariah found in Luke 1:68-79, are some of the first words the priest uttered upon the birth of his son, John, the cousin of Jesus, the one we know as John the Baptist. Zechariah had been made mute by the angel Gabriel at the start of his wife’s pregnancy because of his fear and disbelief, but when the child was born and Zechariah and Elizabeth named him John as Gabriel had instructed them, his tongue was freed and filled with Holy Spirit John’s father, Zechariah, spoke this prophecy. Listen now for the words he proclaimed.
For Some Reason 