“No Prophet Arises from Galilee” by Melanie Rigney

 “No Prophet Arises from Galilee” by Melanie Rigney

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent 

But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge,

        Searcher of mind and heart,

Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,

        For to you, I have entrusted my cause! (Jeremiah 11:20)

O Lord, my God, in you, I take refuge. (Psalm 7:2a) 

Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, “Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” (John 7:50-52)

Piety

Jesus, you showed the world that good could come from anywhere. 

Study

Many of you probably did the same things I did during the summer between sixth and seventh grade: took part in the library’s summer reading program, went swimming, did some neighborhood babysitting.

However, I doubt you spent a chunk of every day worrying about what would happen at your new school. The junior high I was entering, Axtell Park, was said to be the worst of the four in my hometown. Kids put LSD into unsuspecting classmates’ oranges. Kids beat up teachers. The stories seemed all too believable when there was a break-in at the school office that summer, strewing papers and office furniture everywhere. 

But Axtell Park it would be. There wasn’t the money or inclination to send me to Catholic school, and the public-school boundaries were set in stone.

In my three years at Axtell Park, I never saw a teacher beat up, and no one ever put LSD or any other drug, not even an aspirin, into my lunch. Some of my classmates dropped out the second they could, after eighth grade, but most of us went on to do all right in life as moms, dads, nurses, truck drivers, musicians, firefighters, ministers, engineers, you name it. At least one currently serves in the State Legislature. 

It turned out a lot of good things came out of Axtell Park. I did all that worrying for nothing. I just had to set aside the rumors and gossip. Similarly, the people of Jesus’s time found themselves better served if they could set aside that belief that no prophet arises from Galilee and that no good thing could come out of Nazareth. Good and God, Jesus taught us, can be found anywhere.

Action

Offer a preconception about a place or person at the altar.

Image: By John Hain from Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/tribalism-antagonism-opposition-1201697/