February 9 | Luke 5:1-11 | Homemaking Jesus calls his disciples to a life that leaves their temporary home to help go and build a new one. There is so much in this text: A great teaching moment, a great catch of fish, great doubt, and a great line, “now you will fish for people.” Studying this test will help us see that we make our home by walking and following Jesus.

February 2 | Luke 4:21-30 | Hometown What Jesus does in the synagogue is too much. The people cannot handle it. It is so off-putting they riot against Jesus to hurl him off a cliff which leads Jesus to declare, “No prophet is accepted in a prophet’s hometown.” This scripture is the underbelly of what it looks like to refuse to think deeply about the theology of home.

January 26 | Luke 4:14-21 | Home Free In one of the most provocative teachings in all the gospels, Jesus stands and reads from Isaiah in the middle of a worship service. People are floored by what he says and even what he does not say. This singular moment defines his ministry better than any other text in the gospels and it is built around the fact that Jesus is ready to set people free as well as become the fulfillment of one of Israel’s most important prophecies.

January 19 | John 2:1-11 | Homemade Jesus’ first miracle in the Gospel of John is turning water into wine. He’s at a wedding reception in Cana and the party runs out of wine, so Jesus fixes the problem by making more wine than the party needed. Multiple themes emerge within this story, none more important than Jesus brews the new idea that in God’s home, there will be abundance, not scarcity.

January 12 | Luke 3:21-22 | Homebody When Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened and God said, “This is my Beloved.” Henri Nouwen believes this is the same message God says to us at our baptism. Our baptism sets a trajectory and tone for the deep, deep truth of who we are in Christ: A beloved child of God. By claiming this beloved-ness, we are creating a home from within. When we’re baptized, we are welcoming Christ into our inner lives.

January 5 | Matthew 2:1-12 | Homeward Jesus is born! Magi come from the East to honor and give global credibility to Jesus as King. The story takes many turns but what is fascinating is that God appears to the Magi in a dream and tells them to go home another way showing us that God cares very much about how we are getting home.

February 16 | Luke 6:17-26 | Homesick Jesus heals everyone up and down the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had diseases and unclean spirits, and Jesus healed them all. After he healed them, he spoke what is essentially Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, and what we see is that part of Jesus’ healing and teaching is that he has come to help heal and bless the homesick.