Mark 6:1-29
Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied
by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the
synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
“Where did this man get these things?” they
asked. “What’s this wisdom that has
been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son
and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at
him.
Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without
honour except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He
could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people
and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Then Jesus went around teaching from
village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he
began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure
spirits.
These were his instructions: “Take
nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your
belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a
house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place
will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off
your feet as a testimony against them.”
They went out and preached that people
should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people
with oil and healed them.
King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were
saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous
powers are at work in him.”
Others said, “He is Elijah.”
And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like
one of the prophets of long ago.”
But when Herod heard this, he said, “John,
whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”
For Herod himself had given orders to have
John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because
of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,
whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful
for you to have your brother’s wife.”
So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was
not able to, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to
be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly
puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.
Finally the opportune time came. On his
birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military
commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came
in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.
Herod said to the girl, “Ask me for
anything you want, and I’ll give
it to you.” And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give
you, up to half my realm.”
She went out and said to her mother, “What
shall I ask for?”
“The head of John the Baptist,” she
answered.
At once the girl hurried in to Herod with
the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a
platter.”
Herod was greatly distressed, but because
of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he
immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and
brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave
it to her mother. On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a
tomb.
Message: “Doing the Right Thing”
Will you pray with and for me? Holy One,
open our mouths to speak your praise and our ears to hear your wisdom. In all
your names, amen.
Rejection. It's painful, and no one likes it.
We've all faced it--the person who didn't want to date us, the job we didn't
get, the part in a play we didn't get, the friend who turned away when we
needed help. It hurts because someone we care about--whether a potential boss,
a friend or a date--has, in effect, said they don't want to be around us, wants
us to go away. It probably isn't put in quite those terms, but that is what it
boils down to, isn't it?
Jesus, the disciples and John all face
rejection in this reading. The people who knew Jesus best didn't think he had
any good word for them. They sneered at him. The disciples were warned that
some towns would not listen to them, and would treat them roughly--rejecting
them. And poor John the Baptizer--he was not only imprisoned, but was executed
at the whim of a young woman he probably did not even know.
Most of us won't have to face what John
did--execution--but maybe we have experienced what Jesus and the disciples did.
When have you felt rejection because you were speaking up for truth, or for a
different reality, or because you were inconvenient? It's awfully easy for that
rejection to rear its ugly head. Because, let's face it, we've been on the
other side of that fence--we have rejected someone, at least once or twice in
our lives, haven't we? We looked at them and said, "That's not a smart
person," or a good-looking person, or a nice person, or a strong
person--and so we decided we did not want to be friends with that person. Maybe
it was a new boss, or a family member's new significant other, or even--another
church member. Rejection based on appearances.
How many of you saw the movie "Legally
Blonde," with Reese Witherspoon? It's not a difficult or deep movie, as you can
guess from the title! The main character, Elle, is a beautiful sorority girl at
a California university. When her boyfriend dumps her, she decides to follow
him to law school, so she can try to win him back. No one really expects her to
do well at law school, even the admissions committee who are--straight
men--struck by her beauty and seeing a way to fill the quota of women admitted
to the school--but she turns out to have a talent for law. She opens herself up
to her full potential. There's a sequence early in the movie in which she
is shown on the first day of class at Law
School with a little notepad and a pen with a feathery end to take notes in
class--and everyone else has a laptop. The next day, she comes into class with
an Apple computer in bright pink. She is adapting to law school, but she does
so in her own way. Not a boring black or silver laptop for her! The point is,
the admission team, her professors, and
most of her fellow students didn't really think she had what it takes to go
through law school--and she proved then wrong.They snubbed her and laughed at her
West Coast glamour girl style; they were judging her based on their first
impressions--and so they rejected her.
Have you ever had the experience of meeting
someone and not liking them very well, only to have them "grow on
you?" My son Ben had a friend like that in kindergarten. He and another boy,
Nathan, argued and actually had a fight one day on the bus--and then became
close friends and still are friends today, 20-some years later. If we let our first impressions rule
what we think of people, we will miss out on friendships and possibly even love
and relationships--whether friendships or something more.
So that rejection thing cuts both ways,
doesn't it? We are rejected and we reject others. In fact, Jesus tells his
disciples to expect it when they go out into the world to spread the good news
of God's love.
It's a risk we take when we offer people an
opportunity for something new, for change. Often the immediate response is
"no," without further thought or discussion. Sometimes that
"no" comes from a place of fear or anger--"things are just fine
as they are, I don't need any changes in my life," "but if I change,
I might lose my job, my home, my partner, my family..." It's why some LGBT
people have such difficulty coming out. There is a fear of how things will
change, even if the changes will be good. I know I was terrified of coming out
to my mom and sisters, even though I knew they would not reject me--or I was
pretty certain of it. It still meant a change in our relationships, and I had
no idea what that would look like.
For Jesus' neighbours to accept what he was
preaching meant they had to accept that this person who had grown up in this
town was now a crazy teacher, wandering around leading what seemed to be a
cult. They would have had to accept that he had, in fact fulfilled biblical
prophecy, and to admit that they were wrong. But they knew him when...when he
was a kid, a youngster, a brash teenager... I think of the art teacher at one
school where I worked in the library. He wore an ascot scarf--almost never a regular
tie--and his name was Claudio. He had taught in the system for many years, and
one of the other teachers said to me once, "I knew him when he was plain
old Claude." So there's a sense of that for Jesus' neighbours--they knew
him when...
The townspeople that the disciples met and
preached to would have had their belief systems turned upside down, too. And
Herod--well, you can guess how happy he would be to upend his life--divorce his
wife and be more observant of Jewish religious law.
It's that change thing again.
Because what was Jesus preaching? He was
saying that faith, relationships between a person and God, and between
individuals, was more important that society's rules and distinctions and
prejudices. What does he say are the two greatest commandments? To love God
with all your soul, body and mind, the second, to love your neighbour as you
love yourself. That is why he kept company with people who were often regarded
as riff-raff. It's why he turned down everything he was tempted with--political
power, religious power, spiritual power. Jesus was much more interested in meeting people where they
were, being in relationship with them there, and caring for them as they were.
And his relationship with them led them to face change.
We don't know how often people were able to
accept that challenge--the disciples did, Mary and her sister Martha
did, others clearly did. But Jesus kept putting it out there, offering a
relationship of love and faith that was based on his relationship of love and
faith with God. This was a relationship so full and deep that Jesus was willing
to die for it--and, in fact, did die for it.
Here in Canada, in 2016, we are rarely
called on to demonstrate our faith in ways that might evoke rejection. There
have been a few times--such as the struggle over same-sex marriage. But no one
was in physical danger--which cannot be said for Christians or LGBT people in
many parts of the world.
The other reason for rejection is
familiarity. That's what caused the townspeople to reject Jesus--"Yes,
we've heard it all before," as well as, "Don't try to tell me how to
live my life, I knew you before you could walk;" aka the Claudio effect.
Do we do that sometimes? Ignore that call
Jesus is making on our lives, because we've heard it all before? Because we
know what Jesus wants, but it requires too much change, more than we want to
deal with? "Later, Jesus, after my kids are all in school,"
"I'll talk about Jesus to some other friends, these would think I am a
freak," or I'll work for you Jesus when I retire." And so on.
But the reality is that responding, being
in relationship with Jesus, will cause changes, yes--but so does life--and those
changes will be for the better--better relationships with others, a greater
peace with ourselves, and on and on. I am not a fan of the prosperity
gospel--turn everything over to Jesus and life will be perfect, you'll win the
lottery and get the partner of your dreams...that seems to their promise--that
once you decide to follow Jesus, that decision will make your life perfect.
No, it won't. Look at the apostles. Granted
we don't know, really, what happened to most of them, but we do know about a
few. And when you think about it, they did not have it easy. Paul talks about
it, how he was shipwrecked, received lashes, was kicked out of towns...
And many of them were executed by the Roman Empire, because they refused to bow
down to the Roman gods. That's not exactly a life of wealth and ease!
But what it does do is reinforce and lift
up the power of a relationship with God. Those apostles clearly had a sense of
God's, of Jesus', continued presence with them. That is what enabled then,
indeed pushed them, to continue their lifestyle of traveling to share the news
that God wanted a loving relationship with humans, above all other things.
Relationship with God and others, above all
things--above career, above possessions, above fame, above power. Relationships
and acceptance, mutual respect.
They can bring about tremendous changes==are
we willing to accept and welcome the challenge, to be in relationships of love
and mutual support with everyone? In all God's names, amen.
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