Made His Home

Nazareth is a small town on the outskirts of the Galilee region. Matthew tells us it is Joseph who makes his home with Mary and Jesus in Nazareth, but we can’t help but think about this on a bigger scale. 

In Jesus, God literally makes God’s home on earth in a small town, among ordinary people. What began as an almost unbelievable tale - complete with heralding angels and kings from far away lands bearing expensive gifts - continues in a no-frills, inconsequential town filled with insignificant people. 

It’s kind of wild to think about God, incarnate in the person of Jesus, being content to make his home in Nazareth and to live there for 30 years without any fanfare. We don’t know a lot about this 30-year period of time. There’s really only one story in the Bible that gives us any details about what Jesus was like as a child, but mostly there’s nothing about these years. 

This doesn’t mean these are not very important years, however. The Rev. Dr. Sam Wells has spent some considerable time and energy writing and preaching about this. He points out how Jesus spent only week doing for us what we can not do for ourselves. In one week’s time, Wells points out, Jesus suffered, died and was resurrected for our sake. But what about the other 33 years of Jesus’ earthly life.  

Well, we hear a lot about how Jesus spent three years, working alongside  disciples. For three years, Jesus walked with people, doing with them some quite significant things. And yet, Wells suggests there are an additional 30 years during which Jesus was simply with a community of people. Wells encourages us to think deeply about this. 

Jesus spent 

• 1 week doing for 

• 3 years doing with 

• 30 years being with. 

We want to take some time here in the early parts of 2026 to explore what it means for God to be with humanity and what it means for how we are to live our lives in response. Perhaps we’ve overfocused on what we can do for others and maybe even what we do with one another and underestimated just how important it is to be with others and to be with God. 

Join us this Epiphany Season as we welcome the growing light and learn the power of being with.