A Prayer Against a Familiar Jesus

Lord Jesus, you went home and found that the people who knew you best believed you least. We are afraid that we have become like them. We have heard your name for years. We know the stories. We can list the facts about you the way Nazareth listed your brothers. Forgive us for letting familiarity harden into assumption. Amaze us again.

Restore our expectation. Give us the faith of the villages that had never met you and welcomed you with open hands. Do among us what you could not do in your hometown.

And send us as you sent the Twelve. Strip from us the bags and the backup plans we cling to instead of trusting you. Give us your authority for the work you assign, and courage to shake the dust from our feet when we are refused, without bitterness, and to go on to the next place. Make us light enough to be sent. Amen.