Sending Forth 7-4-21
Sending Forth
Psalm 123; Mark 6:1-13
Psalm 123
To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.
Mark 6:1-13
He left that place and 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.
Prayer - Lord Jesus, we have gathered here this day in order that we might better understand you and your will for our world. On this day, when we remember our nation’s founding and its freedom, help us to listen for your word as the scriptures are read and proclaimed; help us to meet you in the communion in bread and wine. Above all, convince us, that the greatest deed we can render our country is to be your faithful disciples. So like your disciples, send us forth into the world, bearing witness to your grace, mercy and peace – amen.
It’s the Fourth of July, the day when we celebrate our national independence, the founding of our republic. We celebrate the day when a group of very talented people—the so-called founding fathers—gathered together and took the risk of founding a new republic. The national day of independence is, for most people, a day to get off work and to enjoy the delights of summer. Sometimes, amid the fireworks, the vacation trips to the beach or mountains, the Fourth of July is a time to step back and take stock of our nation. If we do that, then we often give thanks for the blessings of this democracy. Sometimes, if we are in a reflective mood, we might give a critical assessment to our nation: How can we be better as a people? What might our nation do to be a true democracy with blessings for all?
Here in church, with this morning’s gospel set before us, I propose that we reflect upon the founding of the Christian church. Because that is what I hear celebrated in this Sunday’s gospel from Mark 6. Let me put this in context: Jesus burst forth on the scene preaching that God’s realm is coming near. He has been teaching about that coming kingdom. He performed signs and wonders to indicate that the time for a change of administrations has come. He is going head-to-head with the powers-that-be: religious, governmental, and demonic.
Jesus’ ministry was off to a strong start and I expect he was eager to share with the people who had raised him – not just his mother and brothers and sisters but also the neighbors who had kept him when his mother was sick, and the shopkeepers who had let him run errands for them, and the old men who had leaned on their old sticks in the heat of the day and told him stories that made his hair stand on end. He was their son, too, so of course he went home to them, to share the good news that dwelled in his soul.
I can imagine they had heard of his doings around the area, the miracles that he had engineered. He was their hometown boy who had made good, perhaps they wanted to give him the key to the city. I can imagine his hometown folks were excited to have him at the synagogue, each of them taking credit for the fine young man he turned out to be. At least until they heard what he had to say – Mark doesn’t tell us what Jesus said that morning, but it was strong enough to astound them and to make them wonder who’s kid was he anyway, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary . . . ?”
They knew good and well whose son he was, but by calling him Mary’s son they cast doubt on his parentage. No one knew for sure if Joseph was the father of Jesus, so their question regarding his lineage was actually a slur. They took offense at this Jesus, the unlikeliest person they knew who could command demons to leave and dead children to run play with her friends. It was Jesus’ first big failure, the only time in all four gospels that Jesus was unable to do something. His own people rejected him and he got the message. Jesus was as offended by the people’s closed minds and hearts as they are offended by his teachings – not too different than today I would guess.
Jesus responds to the crowds’ rejection by sending out the twelve disciples – those who followed him – you know, people who are fishermen and laborers and tax collectors and even those who would betray him. Unlikely people each and every one. It’s rather amazing that these twelve disciples, who haven’t distinguished themselves by the demonstration of their wisdom in understanding anything Jesus has taught them, would be mandated by Jesus to do the very same things in ministry that he had been doing. These twelve, rather poorly prepared, misunderstanding disciples are sent forth as Jesus’ traveling, empty-pocketed emissaries. These less-than-stellar underlings performed exorcisms, cured the sick just as Jesus did and were met with the same type of opposition as Jesus did. Who was going to accept the miracles and words of such unlikely people?
Jesus turned to these twelve ordinary people and calls them and sends them out into the world to do the very same things he has been doing. He is sending them out to proclaim and to call people to transformed living. He’s sending them to go head-to-head with the demonic and to perform acts of healing. He’s sending them out, just as he sends you and me out to engage with people who may believe differently, to engage with people who are broken and afraid to remind them they are not alone.
This is a rather remarkable moment in the Gospel of Mark. Mark’s Gospel begins with an introduction of Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God. With an opening acclamation like that, we expected some amazing signs and wonders. But did we expect that the same Messiah, the Son of God, would then turn around and delegate his messianic, saving, world-transforming work to this group of ordinary people?
And by the way, as we have seen in Mark’s Gospel, these disciples are very, very ordinary. They misunderstand Jesus from the very first. They never seem to get the point of his teaching. When Jesus performs some miraculous act, they seem as befuddled and baffled as the crowds who clamor after him.
Maybe you are thinking that Jesus has waited until the sixth chapter of the gospel to call these disciples—vetting them, observing their behavior, discovering their talents until he was at last ready to call them. Forget it. These disciples moved from dumb to dumber. They remain clueless, stumbling along after Jesus, all the way to the end of the gospel. Mark seems to go out of his way to demonstrate that the reason they were chosen to be disciples is not their gifts, their talent.
And I am saying that we are to watch closely because what we are seeing here, in Jesus calling to himself and sending out from himself these Twelve, we are seeing the birth of the church. Our founding as God’s people. This scene ought to be the equivalent of the church’s Constitutional Convention.
This story is the rationale for why we are gathered here this Sunday. In fact, even though you may not have been consciously aware of it, this story of Jesus calling and sending of the disciples explains why you are here this morning. Those first disciples are the precursors for all of us.
We in the church have a tendency to believe that God works solo. Maybe you thought that because God is omnipotent and omniscient, God does anything God wants all by God’s self. This God who comes to us as Jesus Christ calls ordinary and unlikely people to work with him. Jesus, the great delegator. The Savior who chooses not to save the world by himself.
Why is it that God continues to send forth the most unlikely people to bring his message of love and grace? Why do you suppose God doesn’t pick the most religious, the most powerful, the most eloquent to shout God’s message from the mountaintops? Who would have sent forth a carpenter’s kid from Nazareth to be the Messiah? Who would have sent forth a shepherd to fight a giant and become the leader of the land only to see him broken by his own desires? Who would have imagined a simple nun leaving her mark on the world through her ministry to the sick and homeless? Who would have imagined a Hindu lawyer facilitating a non-violent protest for independence in India that would inspire a Black minister in the South to bring about civil rights in our country? Who would have imagined that an ordinary person from NC pastor a great little church in Mansfield, TX? Why in the world would God send some of the most unlikely people to share the good news?
When I think about the people who have made a difference in my. life, in my faith journey, most of them were just ordinary people who God sent forth to serve. The most influential person in my faith journey was my grandmother on my father’s side. Widowed when my dad was two and my aunt four, my grandmother raised them through the Depression, relying on her faith and God’s grace to provide for them. She shared her faith readily and unashamedly and it made an impression on me growing up. She was the first person to let me know that I would become a minister one day when I was 13 years old. There are many who wonder what she was thinking today as much as then.
Ernie Davis and Pete Carruthers – both were youth pastors at First Presbyterian in Gastonia who cared for me and other teenagers. They both shared grace and guidance when I was struggling with my sense of identity, my sense of worthiness as a teenager. They embodied God’s grace to me in a way that helped me on my journey. Fred Bishop was a retired banker in Asheville who became a friend and faith mentor when I was a young adult. Fred taught a young adult Sunday School class and he too embodied God’s grace to many of us. Dan Festa was a chaplain at MCV where I did my training. Dan took me under his wing and offered me wisdom and guidance as I learned the art of hospital ministry. Dan provided me with a theology of pastoral care that has informed much of my ministry over the last 25 years. Doug Dickens is a seminary professor and Clinical Pastoral Education Supervisor who I worked with for a number of years providing training to seminary students who were considering chaplaincy as their ministry. Doug too taught me about pastoral care and being authentic in ministry. And you, this church have influenced my growth as a pastor over the last year. You have given me the opportunity to share my faith journey – sharing in ministry leadership as we have moved through Covid and are trying to figure out how to be church moving forward. God sent forth ordinary and unlikely people to move me, an unlikely person, on a faith journey, on a mission to make God’s kingdom more real today. And I suspect God has done the same with you.
I will say that you are here because Jesus put you here. You may have reservations about Christianity. There may be things you don’t understand and beliefs that you are unsure if you can affirm. Maybe you have problems with the way the church is organized or led. But you are here not because of what you believe, feel, or think about the church and its ministry. You are here because Jesus put you here. Some way or another, he found a way to call you. Just like he called those first disciples.
Perhaps you have reservations about your own gifts and abilities to do the work of proclamation, healing, and demon exorcism that Jesus assigns to you. Don’t worry too much about that. Your authorization rests not in your own abilities and talents. You are doing this work because Jesus has sent you. He has assigned you. You are a disciple, not first because of your faith in him, but because of his faith in what his love can do working through you.
Ordinary and unlikely people are the ones God sends forth to do extraordinary things in this world. God doesn’t need us and God isn’t inhibited by our faith or lack thereof. God is going to accomplish what God intends with us or without us; yet, God has found that doing those things is much easier when ordinary and unlikely people are sent forth as messengers, as vehicles, as God’s eyes and ears, hands and feet.
What is at stake here isn’t a matter of God’s ultimate purposes or our eternal destinies. What if, the gospel writer this morning is inviting us to contemplate the possibility that we have something to do, that we have an important role to play in the manifestation of God’s kingdom. What if God is once again inviting the unlikeliest of people, you and me, all of us, to play a role in sensing, experiencing, and making known God’s will and work in the world? Wouldn’t that be a miracle – God sending forth the unlikeliest of people to make God’s kingdom more apparent and more real today – wouldn’t that be a miracle – it is – thanks be to God – amen.