Advent

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Nathanael asks when Philip tells him they have found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. We ask those kinds of questions all the time. We all snicker if someone says they're from some really country town, with names like Viper or Gravel Switch. Interestingly no one laughs if they tell you they're from Pig Town (which is what the "York" in New York means).

But I think we ask it in different ways, when we doubt, when we fear, when we don't forgive, when we don't repent-- in short, whenever we fall back on thinking Jesus is just a good idea, something other than the Son of God.

p/g