Re-arranging the furniture

'Re-arranging the furniture' is shorthand for 'taking what you have always known and giving it such a new spin that you are liable to crack your shins against it'.....with the accompanying howl of pain.

Re-arranging the furniture is not about 'something entirely new' but rather, it is the process where that which is known is somehow presented in a new light, with a new perspective and, as a result, with new implications and expectations.

This is what Jesus is about in Nazareth when he points out to the hometown folks that the God who loves them loves others as well.  Where the folks in Nazareth were accustomed to sitting in the chair called 'covenant' God was focused on the granting of mercy - to Israel to be sure, but also to all others God had created....even the enemies of Israel. 

You could hear the howl of murderous anger of the hometown folks - this was not the God, nor the covenant, nor the outcome they had anticipated nor wanted.  Or to paraphrase Fred Craddock, 'they were an either/or people with a both/and God.'

We will trip over this one again and again in our journey of faith.