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Sermon for 7th Sunday after Pentecost

First Reading: Ezekiel 2:1-5

 1{The Lord God} said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” 2And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. 3And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. 4The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ 5And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

 

Psalm 123

 1To you I lift up my eyes, to you enthroned in the heavens. 2As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, 3So our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he show us his mercy. 4Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy, for we have had more than enough of contempt, 5Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, and of the derision of the proud.

 

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

 1I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3And I know that this man was caught up into paradise — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows — 4and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 5On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses — 6though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. 7So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

 

Gospel: Mark 6:1-13

 1{Jesus} went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3Is 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. 4And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. 7And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff — no bread, no bag, no money in their belts — 9but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. 10And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

 

Prophet Without Honor

The story is told of a high school student who was struggling with his math homework.  His father was employed in a high-tech engineering industry as a machinist, and as such, worked with complicated math.  One evening the father sat down at the table to help his son with his math homework.  Unfortunately, the father wasn’t a good instructor; dad, it turns out, lacked the needed patience to help his mathematically challenged son.  Add to this the fact that the son couldn’t relate to his father as either a tutor or a teacher.  For the son, the father was the dad who worked around the house with outdoor chores, went to work to earn a living, and liked to take the family to area sporting events.  The dad, in the son’s view, was not a teacher by any stretch of the imagination.

After several attempts to explain the formulas and the process needed to solve the equations to the son, the teenager became frustrated and told his father he would need to seek help elsewhere with a tutor or another student whom he knew to be skilled at high school mathematics.  In this instance, despite the father’s mastery of advanced mathematics, and his skill in his occupation, at home, his status as the father made him a prophet without honor.

In the same community, a young man had been working for an area manufacturer. One day he decided he didn’t want to work in the factory or its office anymore.  He felt called to become an ordained minister.  After talking with his pastor, and after being interviewed by the denomination’s Candidacy committee, the young man was accepted and in time completed all the denomination’s requirements, attended their seminary, and successfully completed his internship in a distant city.

Upon completion of his internship, he decided he wanted to return home to interview for a pastoral vacancy in the area.  The interview went well, but the congregation decided to call a recently retired armed forces chaplain instead.  They told the young man that while they knew him and his family background, they couldn’t see him as their “pastor-per se.”  He would always be seen as one of the kids around town or as an employee at the local manufacturer in town.  This is the situation Jesus found Himself in, in our Gospel reading for today.

The story of Jesus being rejected in His hometown of Nazareth is also cited in Matthew 13 and Luke 4.  This means this event was well known by all the synoptic gospel writers.  In Luke’s gospel, the hometown crowd expects some special consideration in terms of more ministry, miracles, and feeding since He was the son of the community.  In Luke, Jesus refused to limit His ministry to His place of residence.  Instead, Jesus understood Himself as a missionary who sought to save the lost in all the communities in the area (Luke 19:10).  In St. Mark’s gospel, Jesus was rejected simply because He was from the family of a local carpenter or tradesman.

In our gospel reading for today, Jesus is identified as Mary’s son, implying that either His earthly father Joseph had passed, or there was still some suspicion concerning Joseph being His biological father.  Other family issues highlighted in extra Biblical materials questioned whether Jesus had any biological brothers and sisters from His mother Mary.  All this, of course, is unimportant information people use to try and discredit Jesus since they fail to see Him as an authority figure.  Add to this the fact that Jesus wasn’t from a priestly family, nor did it appear that He was being groomed by the religious community to become a priest or prophet in His time.

Jesus’ situation it seems was similar to the man who used to work in the manufacturing company, attended seminary, then wished to become a pastor in that same community.  It’s the people we know that we often reject, simply because we’re familiar with them.  This brings up the question of whether or not familiarity breeds discontent.

This was a saying used by the Greek storyteller Aesop and later by Mark Twain, who used the phrase then added “and children.”  How many of us have seen this in action?  We’ve worked, or work, in a place and observe that if certain changes were made, or if a new piece of equipment was added, things would run much smoother.  A suggestion to this effect is made by one of the employees, but the employee is ignored.  This is especially true if that employee is younger.  Finally, the employer brings in an expensive expert or specialist in the field, who provides the identical solution that the employee has been suggesting for months, maybe even years — but has been ignored.  It happens more often than we want to admit.  I experienced this on many occasions in the early part of my Air Force career.

One example, I can recall vividly, was an issue we had with the optical bench of the LANTIRN system.  To properly boresight the targeting laser of the Targeting pod, we needed to mount a special instrument onto the rotary table of the bench.  The surface of the maintenance bench was a precisely machined, then painted, composite material that was easily scratched.  It was all but impossible to mount and dismount this specialized piece of equipment without damaging the finish on the bench.  This created a corrosion control problem that had to be addressed during the annual inspections.  Repair and the recoating of the machined surface was time consuming and expensive.  The bench would be inoperable for many days while the refurbishing was completed.  This created a maintenance nightmare for small shops with only one or two benches.

During one of the annual inspections while the bench was being refurbished, one young technician suggested that the shop simply add a thin Teflon film to the bottom of the laser boresight assembly.  The reaction from supervision was one of skepticism.  The excuses given were, “It’ll never stand up.”  “It’ll throw off the critical alignment parameters.”  The idea was initially rejected.  However, the Air Force has what’s called a Suggestion program.

Someone can send their suggestion in via this program and the idea must be evaluated by an engineer for their acceptance or disapproval.  Long story short, the engineer tried the suggestion, and it was implemented in all the LANTIRN shops across the Air Force.  Initially, the young technician was a type of prophet without honor.

In this Pentecost season, we as a church are called to explore ways to evangelize and to do ministry in our community as we use the tools, wisdom, and ideas that are within our midst.  However, today’s text is a sober reminder that sometimes our acceptance of ideas and suggestions depends on who’s providing the wisdom.  If we don’t have much faith in a person, then their ideas may be seen as less than helpful in our attempts to reach out and to service in our community.

In Season 3 of Little House on the Prairie, the episode titled “Little Lost Girl,” the little sister Carrie tags along with her sisters for a school assignment; however, Mary and Laura failed to keep a close eye on her.  Carrie wanders off and falls into an underground mine shaft.  The only hope they had of retrieving the little girl was from a drunken mining engineer who knew the coal mines quite well.  The problem was his character remained suspect throughout the episode until the little girl was rescued.

Quite often, until a significant event occurs, we tend to overlook those people, within our community, who do have the gifts needed to further the mission of our church.  Walnut Grove, the little town in the story, didn’t put much stock in the drunken engineer’s ability to save the little girl.  However, he later was able to rescue her, which resulted in a happy ending.  The town’s faith was renewed in the struggling mining engineer.  This brings me to the central question for today: what does our faith in Jesus Christ mean for us?

Is Jesus’ love and mercy enough to compel us to not only live out our baptism daily, but to grow each day to become more and more like Him?  How does His teachings, example, death, and resurrection from the grave, inform us as His disciples?  In Mark’s gospel, Jesus inaugurates the kingdom of God, and to follow Him is to be a part of this kingdom.  Some commentators observe that possibly His hometown of Nazareth wanted a more glorious, visibly supernatural disclosure from God, rather than a regular human such as themselves, whose name is Jesus of Nazareth.

For St. Mark, Jesus became the Messiah as He suffered real human weaknesses, similar to the suffering servant of Isaiah 52-53.  But what happens when this suffering servant narrative isn’t enough?  What happens if the hometown crowd is expecting a “bigger show?”  Many churches struggle with this even today.  Are we sending the message that how we worship is more important than Who we worship?

Are churches trying to attract people to church on Sunday morning with modern technology and tools, and then later informing them that a life of discipleship is actually about suffering, sacrifice, and giving oneself up for the benefit of other people as Jesus said in His mission statement in Mark 10:45?: “For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Is any of our churches, including this one, willing to live with the possibility that people will hear the message of a suffering servant Messiah and respond, “Thanks but no thanks… we want something a bit more flashy and glorious?”  I hope our primary focus, here at Bethel, is on Who we serve, and we’re not being distracted by how we worship.  This is a question that Saint Mark’s gospel brings to the table in this lectionary cycle.

Are there more people out there than we realize who really don’t want a “human Jesus who suffers” and will therefore resist being His disciple, a follower that has been called to do the same?  This just may be a critical Pentecost season question we as people of the faith must reflect upon.  The call and mission of the church is found in Jesus’ statement of service to others (Mark 10:45).  The good news is that Jesus didn’t allow the rejection by the hometown crowd to dissuade Him from His mission.

In the second part of our gospel passage, Jesus moved on to commission His twelve disciples, splitting them into teams of two, sending them to preach the good news, to heal, and to have authority over unclean spirits.  As He sent them out, He commanded them to travel light.  They weren’t being sent to become permanent residents, priests, or clergy.  This reminds us that a missionary is a temporary presence, one who has a different ministry than the resident pastor, who in that day would be the resident rabbi of the community.  Instead, the disciples were to stay at the temporary accommodations offered to them by hosts.  They weren’t to look for a nice hotel or a fancy bed and breakfast with more choices for food and possibly a pool or other accommodations.  They were sent to do their mission and then move on.

Most commentators agree that one message the disciples were to preach at this point was to repent, the same message John the Baptizer preached (Mark 1:4).  If they were refused, then they were to move on and shake the dust off their feet.  This tradition came from a practice of traveling to Gentile lands, then shaking the Gentile dust off their feet before entrance into the Holy Land.  It was as if Jesus knew that His disciples would sometimes be rejected, just as He was by His hometown of Nazareth.  Thankfully, there’s some good news for all of us here in church today.

Sometimes we can do so much, or at least our very best to help, counsel, suggest, and yes maybe even “preach” a little bit to those whom we love.  They may ignore us.  Rather than get discouraged, we’re called to move on and continue the mission God has called us to.  There are people that even Jesus Himself couldn’t reach with His message.  Possibly we can view this rejection as a “seed planted,” and somebody else must nurture it in other ways.

In the opening illustration, the high school student did take advantage of his school’s tutoring services and his math grades did go up significantly!  The father was able to take some boys out to his machine shop and show them some operations to build projects on the machine.  The pastoral candidate moved onto the next state and was very successful at ministering to people who had similar backgrounds to his family.  The other good news here is that God’s hand still works mysteriously, even amidst the rejections in life.

One of the recurring themes of Mark’s gospel is that the kingdom of God is a mystery.  It begins small and insignificant, as mustard seed, but puts forth the greatest branches as it matures (Mark 4:30-32).  God continues to work even when we’re rejected.  In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus reminds us that He knows the feeling of rejection — and it also reminds us to continue on, despite the rejection.  Jesus is pointing us to new life.  This new life takes the form of us being encouraged to carry on because in Mark’s gospel the Spirit immediately moves us onto the next chapter of our mission in this season of Pentecost.

Amen.

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