Familiarity and contempt. “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Mark 6: 3 We don't always mean to treat people with contempt. But sometimes, because we think we know them so well, contempt sneaks in through the back door. We find ourselves dismissive, ridiculing, refusing to trust, or simply denying who someone is or who they are becoming. This is clearly part of the problem that Jesus faces in his hometown. People that he had grown up with, who had known him for a long time, just could not wrap their heads around the idea that he could be a great teacher let alone the messiah. They looked at him with the eyes of familiarity rather that the eyes of faith. Sometimes the same is true for us when we have had our lives changed by Jesus. People remember the old us and are tempted to see this new “us” as a passing phase. Perhaps, like me, you are guilty of treating someone else this way. We dismissed the claims that they have changed, and we are simply waiting for the other shoe to drop. We are using the lens of familiarity instead of faith. I wonder what might happen if we were to surrender the contempt that can creep in with familiarity and ask for the grace to see others the way Jesus does. What miracles might appear before our very eyes? How might we treat others differently if, by faith, we could see who they are becoming. Will we choose familiarity and contempt or faith and grace? Blessings,
Matthew+ O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP p.230) | 
