Thomas Wolfe penned the immortal words, “You can never go home again.” Our Gospel documents that truth in a unique way.

Early in his ministry, Jesus and his disciples made a tour through his hometown. The people in Nazareth were unable to accept him as the inspired Teacher. Their judgment was limited to how they had always known him: a child, a young man, a carpenter, a local boy. They were unable to see him as Jesus the Rabbi and the Christ to be. And so they rejected him. It was on that occasion that Jesus proclaimed, “A prophet will always be held in honor except in his home town, and among his kinsmen and family.” I find it interesting that this proverbial saying comes at the time of year when thousands of young men and women are taking leave of their hometowns. They are moving on to make bigger dreams come true.

Many of you have just celebrated the graduation of your sons and daughters, some from high school, some from the university. Now they are taking a short rest-stop in the hometown. They are anxious to move on to the careers of their choice. Over barbeque in the backyard you share with them. As a parent you want to be brought up to date on what has really been making your children move, particularly if they have been away. But most important of all, you want to hear about their goals, their ambitions, where they visualize themselves to be going. And they want to tell you because their life revolves around the tomorrows. You compliment them, you praise them, you do everything in your power to make them feel that you believe in them and that they will succeed in what they have chosen to pursue.

That is not what we heard in the Gospel. The hometown people rejected Jesus. They did not accept him, even in the Synagogue. The moment Jesus appeared in the Synagogue to read and speak, it seems like the place became a noisy hall. “Where’d he get all this? If that’s who I think it is, why he is the one who helped build our house. Oh, yes, he made our furniture. I am sure he is the one who repaired my plow. I know his family. His brothers and sisters, his relatives are all members of this Synagogue. He used to sit beside us here in these pews. Hey, we can’t have this!” The atmosphere of rejection tells Jesus he can never go home again. He is not the same as he was in those earlier years.

I attended an ordination of two young theologues recently. At the reception, a person from each home parish presented each of them with a gift and delivered a speech of acceptance, wishing them well as they go forth into their ministry. How would they have felt had there been no reception, no gift, no speech of acceptance? They would have been taken aback. They would have been hurt. They would have been distressed. Was Jesus taken aback? Was he upset? Was he shocked? I am sure he was! But was he defeated? No. Even though he may have felt immobilized, he was not defeated. What was the secret to the manner in which he handled it? He had several options. Go home and be a self-indulgent cry-baby. Hit the road and be a rough, hard-nosed cynic. Continue to make himself available to others. He chose the latter.

I will paraphrase what I see him doing: “I believe my task is God-given. I must give it a good trial. Whatever it takes to do the job, I will do it. If people reject me, I refuse to waste my energy in anger and self-pity. I’ll keep moving on. Somewhere, someone will feel the conviction that moves me. They will respond.” This thing about not being accepted in one’s hometown is a perennial phenomenon.

The Wright Brothers workshop in Dayton, Ohio, was restored in 1988. Years ago, no one believed that they would ever get their flying machine off the ground, especially their father who was a minister. He said that if God wanted people to fly he would have given them wings. Wilbur and Orville, looking to the future, not the past, went to North Carolina, where they would not be treated as the local boys, to test their dream.

I have been a Lawrence Welk fan. As a child, Welk knew music was his calling. In his teens, he bought an accordion, but he had to work four years on his father’s farm to pay for it. He rented a local opera house and tried to sell concert tickets. Failing to get an audience in his hometown, he decided to go on the road. His father told him he wouldn’t last six weeks. Welk has millions of appreciative fans. I am saying, when you move to a new stage in life, you can’t afford to look back. You have to look ahead. You have to move on. And you can’t afford to have people around you who continue to treat you as “little John” or “dear Jane.” That would be nursing and coddling the cradle image.

What makes it work? I am going to use a familiar word. When you hear the word, you will know why I say there is a potential problem with it. We have overused the word. It has become so much a part of our Ônatural’ vocabulary that it can lose its power. But it is still the best word I know. The word is Belief.

The secret of the way in which Jesus handled the hometown rejection is summed up in one word, belief. Belief in God. Belief in yourself and others.
Belief in the future. Jesus was convinced that his task was God-given and God-inspired. Belief gave Jesus power to survive in face of the setback. Belief gave him power to respond in a positive way. The positive response kept him in contact with the creative love of God, the love which soars high over prejudices and narrow judgments that seem to have guided the people of Nazareth. The creative response enabled him to see over this insurmountable mountain to a continuous road ahead. Although it must have felt like a failure, he was convinced God had bigger and better things for him as he looked to the future.

You and I can make this work for ourselves, too. Believe in yourself. And be sure you have friends surrounding you who believe in you. If nobody you know believes in you, then search for some who do. Dale Carnegie used to tell the story of a man who had once been a good salesman but had fallen on hard times. Nothing seemed to go right for him anymore. Finally, someone got acquainted with him enough to see his potential. He bought the man a new suit. Immediately his attitude brightened. Within a few days he was on the way back to a successful career. People who believe in you will help you to live up to your self image. People who believe in you will help you expand your self image. And it is no coincidence that Jesus had just selected his twelve closest friends who would continue at his side.

Take children as an example. Say to a group of children, “We’re gonna play cowboy.” Before you can take the next step, they’ve got themselves in the roles. They are ready to go. We adults do it, too, perhaps a bit more subtly. The point is, you have to imagine yourself doing what you want to do. If you want to be a Jackie Robinson athlete, an Arnold Palmer golfer, a Bob Hope comedian, a doctor, a nurse, a computer expert, a science research specialist, a teacher, a priest; if you want to succeed as a single parent; if you want to recover, or help someone recover, from chemical dependency whatever you want to do, you have to imagine yourself doing it.

Once you start, it isn’t all going to be peaches and cream, either. You can expect setbacks. You can expect opposition. You can expect temptation. That is life. The secret: keep your life steady around belief, belief in God, belief in yourself, and belief in others. That belief will empower you to make whatever adjustments life demands. You can never go home again. Life demands that you move on. A problem at your job, tension in your marriage, an unexpected health problem, a betrayal by your best friend and all the other things we could name when any disappointing thing happens, please be aware: the first temptation is to go into your bedroom or the bar or some other place and coddle yourself in self-pity. That is a voluntary invitation to all kinds of dependency problems. The second temptation is to look back in nostalgia: “Why can’t it be like it used to be? Why does it happen to me now? What did I do to deserve this?”

You’re wasting your energy coddling yourself in self-pity, anger and cynicism. It won’t work. Someone once asked Abraham Lincoln why he wouldn’t replace a cabinet member who constantly opposed him. Lincoln told the story about the farmer who was trying to plow with a very old and decrepit horse. Lincoln noticed on the flank of the animal a big thistle caught in the animal’s hair. Lincoln started to pull it off and the farmer said, “Don’t remove that thistle, Abe! If it wasn’t for the sticker, this old horse wouldn’t move an inch!” That means, treat your problems as challenges. People who are difficult to work with, problems that seem insurmountable notice how they keep you digging inside yourself for greater strength. In the end, you accomplish great feats, not in spite of, but because of your problems. That is God’s way to make you strong. Finally, there is that perennial issue: where is God when you feel rejected, disappointed, and problems seem insurmountable? Here’s how I try to handle that. When I pray, God offers me several options. There is always the slight possibility that he would lift my burden and carry it away. Another option, he may give me a stronger back to carry it myself. Or still another option, he helps me find another way to carry it. He either takes away the problem or he helps me solve it, live with it, bear it. So what? you say. In either case, my prayer is heard. Belief works. Either way, God has responded to my need. Belief works.

So don’t look back in nostalgia. It only puts you deeper into what would imprison you. Look ahead and believe. Believe in God, believe in yourself, for you can never go home again.