Sermon for July 8, 2018 – Preached at St. Brigid’s Rio Vista
Proper 9B – RCL
Jesus came to his hometown, and his
disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and
many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this?
What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being
done by his hands! 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. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without
honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own
house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands
on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.
Then he went about among the villages
teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave
them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for
their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to
wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter
a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome
you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on
your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that
all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who
were sick and cured them.
Today’s Gospel lesson feels a bit like the assignments from
various classes – particularly my college literature classes. The two stories that Susan just read could
lead one to do a compare and contrast analysis.
But I will refrain as I am fear such a dry analysis would put us all to
sleep on a warm summer Sunday!
It seems strange that we have this story about Jesus being
rejected by those who know him. It seems
strange that rejection causes him not to be able to do the many acts of power
that we have been hearing about in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus at first impresses the people with his
wisdom. They want to know just where he
received this wisdom. After all the last
time they saw him, with his brothers and sisters, he was just Jesus the carpenter. Now he is Jesus the wise. It reminds me of a scene out of the Lord of
the Rings where we see Gandalf the Grey fall to his certain death only to
return latter as the wise Gandalf the White!
There has been a change in Jesus that is both awe inspiring and a
little off-putting at the same time. The
people in his home village do not applaud his knowledge and insights into
scripture. They offer a total unbelief
that this Jesus of Nazareth can be anything other than the son of a carpenter
and therefor a carpenter himself. They
will not listen to Jesus and now Jesus can do nothing in that town. Except – Except he does heal a few sick
folks.
It is unfortunate that we sometimes treat people the same way
Jesus town-folk treated him. If we hear
great insights from our neighbors or witness great acts of unexpected love from
the people we know well we can be dismissive.
We want to get our theologically correct interpretations from those who
have a collar – who have gone to the right seminary and have a piece of paper
that says we know what we are doing.
Preaching here in Rio Vista might even give me some pause since a
certain Deacon here has known me since I was just a boy – Rik, the son of a brick
mason! The crazy kid who was willing to
climb up on the roof of the church to fix leaks and clean out the leaves that
accumulated between the church nave and the bell tower at St. Paul’s
Benicia. How dare I stand up here and
interpret scripture?
However, I know your Deacon has been recruited herself by the
Holy Spirit and has been known to spread God’s Love with wild abandon. And she is unlikely to be like the people in
Nazareth who rejected Jesus.
This story in Jesus hometown also makes me wonder why. Why couldn’t Jesus do deeds of power in
Nazareth. Is God only able to work his
Love on people that will accept it. This
passage can lead us to some dangerous places.
Can God only work when we let God work?
Do we really have the power to limit God’s wondrous Love? Does free will allow us to limit God? We can head down some dangerous theological
paths here.
David Lose –
a preacher I follow – said, “Mark records that, because of their lack of
belief, Jesus can do no acts of power (except to cure a few people which, of
course, if you’re one of those people cured is no small matter!). Why? While
Mark doesn’t answer this question, I wonder if it simply reflects that we are
participants in God’s work in the world to a degree far greater than we might
imagine.”[1]
The second part of our Gospel seems to bare out David’s
thoughts. The disciples are sent out in
pairs to declare God’s dream of Love to the people in the surrounding
towns. They are told that they are to
stay only where they are welcomed and where people want to hear them. And when they find these willing participants
they too find out that they can cast out demons and heal the sick.
David Lose said “this isn’t a judgment
about God’s power in the abstract, but rather about our willingness to be a
vessel for God’s love and healing in our own lives and in the lives of our
neighbors. Nor is it a verdict on the ultimate irresistibility of God’s grace
or God’s freedom to elect. I am not, that is, trying to draw conclusions about
the content of our salvation but rather about the character of our lives. Do
we, from day to day, have a desire participate in God’s work to bless and care
for creation or do we resist that? And do those decisions make a difference in
how God’s power to heal and care takes expression?”
This Gospel is about God pursuing us to be partners in God’s
quest for a society that is radically different from the world in which Jesus
walked – a world view of power that is still very much with us over two
millennia after God walked this earth in human form.
We still think that power is a zero-sum game. We still think that Love is a zero-sum
game. That if we let someone else have
power it somehow diminishes our power.
That if we let ourselves love those we find unlovable there will not be
enough love to go around.
Jesus – in
sending out the disciples shows us that God’s Love is not a zero-sum game. Jesus has created a franchise that is
spreading the Good News of God’s dream to more people than one individual can
do. The disciples are proving that God’s
radical love can come from many sources.
This is the Good News. God
is creating franchises to spread God’s Dream to everyone. The good news is that God is pursuing each
and every one of us to be part of this crazy franchise. The Holy Spirit will pursue each and every
one of us to join in this dream of turning society right side up again. She
will continually invite you to open your heart to God’s Love and invite you to
spread that amazing love to all of God’s creation.
It is also scary news – God the Holy spirit will pursue us until
we say yes. When we accept God’s call we
will be changed. We will start seeing
the world differently. And our
countercultural call will see us living and loving differently. The Holy Spirit will drive us to actions that
are upside down from where we thought we would be going. We might even find ourselves loving those
with whom we disagree!
And that is certainly not how much of our society operates these
days. All you have to do is read the
newspapers, participate in any social media platforms and you will find people
demonizing the other. Demonizing the
immigrant. Demonizing those who feel
that we should welcome the stranger.
Our call as the Episcopal Branch of the crazy Jesus people is not
to demonize but to love. It can be scary
to pray for and offer God’s radical love to those with whom we radically
disagree. It can be hard to show God’s
love to people who we feel are damaging God’s creation and creating
incarceration centers for some of God’s beloved children. However, as crazy as it sounds we are called
to love those with whom we disagree.
We are indeed called to take a stand against injustice and
oppression. We are called to welcome the
stranger into our midst, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit those
in prison. We are called to take actions
that radically sow love and that means taking on systems that do the
opposite. To call out actions that hurt
God’s beloved creation, to work to reverse policies that harm God’s creation
and exploit our fragile earth.
We can disagree with actions of people, but we are still called
to offer God’s radical love to everyone. And like our Gospel reading today God’s
love may be rejected by those whom we offer it.
Our call is to work for a world where God’s dream can come to fruition. Here.
Now. Not in some faraway place we
call heaven.
You see God’s love is not a zero-sum commodity! It is not
diminished when it is shared. God’s love
is not finite. It is infinite. There is enough love and healing power for
all of God’s creation. David Lose
reminds us that “God invites [us] to a life of holiness rooted in everyday acts
of kindness that are simultaneously so ordinary as to be easily overlooked yet
extraordinary in the difference they make to those around them. But God does more
than see [us], God also blesses [us]. Blesses [us] to be a blessing and works
through [us] to love, bless, and care for this world.”
You may never know when the Love that you share will change the
world. A simple smile and hello to a
homeless person may change their day in extraordinary ways. You may never know the true impact that
sowing God’s radical Love will have on our world. But when you do share God’s Love healing
happens and God’s dream of a different society – a right-side-up society continues
to grow.
