Sunday, July 8, 2012

Mark 6:1-13 - Vote For Jesus


            I attended Yale Divinity School at a time when the notion of women pastors was a fairly new concept for many people.  Though the United Church of Christ has ordained women for 150 years, longer than any other denomination, many local Protestant congregations had never heard a woman preach or seen a woman celebrate communion.  However, Yale University, striving to be at the forefront of theological education, made all of us females feel for three years that women in ministry was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
            So – I felt pretty good about myself when I, a newly ordained minister, was invited to lead worship at my home church in New Jersey.  I preached a scintillating, stimulating, dynamic, and entertaining sermon – first rate, if I do say so myself.  And the congregation seemed to agree.  As people left the sanctuary, I heard many “nice sermon, Reverend” comments, all of which just made me feel so good.  “I’m cool.  I’m cool.”
            However, one of the very last people to approach me was a slightly built elderly woman in a navy blue dress with large white polka dots.  She took my hand and said two things to me. 
            The first was this: “You know, I was sitting in the back row, and I could hear every word you said.  You speak like a man.”  That kind of brought me down a notch, but it was nothing compared to her second heartfelt observation:  “With girls like you up there,” she announced, “we don’t need ministers.”  So much for the hometown advantage!
            Hometown folks can be a tough crowd – no doubt about it!  They certainly keep you humble.  So – I think I know a little bit of what Jesus was feeling that day when he came back to his hometown synagogue in Nazareth. 
            Fresh from some pretty spectacular healings – from the unnamed woman with the 12 year flow of blood to the actual raising from death of the daughter of Jairus, who was a synagogue hotshot in Galilee, 30 or so miles to the northeast – Jesus probably felt pretty darn good about himself as he made his way home. 
            Now Nazareth was a small agricultural town with a population of around 300 at the time Jesus lived.  It was a fairly settled place and once there, people did not move around very much.  Therefore, many of the townspeople knew Jesus, remembered him from his youth and early adulthood – and were glad to see one of their own returning.
            As was the custom, when the Sabbath rolled around, Jesus and his family attended services together in the synagogue.  It was a proud day for the carpenter’s clan because Jesus had been asked to speak.  Now, not just anyone could get up and preach or teach.  You generally had to have some sort of training, usually an apprenticeship with a local rabbi. 
            That most likely was not the case with Jesus, so when he spoke, an exception had clearly been made.  Apparently he had been recognized as both competent and worthy.  But make no mistake.  He was not the chief worship leader.  He probably only shared a five minute reflection or very brief homily.
            However, that being said, as Anglican priest Peter Fisher writes, “The people in the synagogue were amazed at Jesus’ teaching. They all thought they knew who he was. What he said appeared to them to have genuine insight; it would have been clear and straightforward. It would have been honest and open. The regular guy had not been away that long, but he had come back and He was different…Those who listened, really listened, and were open to Jesus’ words were the ones who were really amazed.”
           And so it was that the trouble started.  What with all their really listening, some of the congregation actually heard what Jesus said.  And there was the rub.  Maybe he was a bit uncompromising in his views.  Maybe he spoke a few truths that they did not really want to hear.  Maybe his message made folks feel a tad bit uncomfortable.
            So was it really all that surprising when one old curmudgeon turned to his buddy in the back row and whispered, “Who is this guy anyway?  He’s just a carpenter, a repairman.  Who does he think he is telling me how to live my life?” 
            That did it.  The scene was set, and the grumbling spread rapidly.  “He’s just Mary’s son, right?  An illegitimate nobody.”  That particular remark, of course, was politely questioning Jesus’ parentage (which, as you will remember, was once a source of great shame).  The rumors had never really been forgotten.  Someone was again bringing up that awful scandal around his mother’s pregnancy 30 years ago.  Conceived by the Holy Spirit – what a joke!
            “Who is he, a bastard son, to tell me how to live my life?  Why should we take notice of him?”  And the grumbling grew while more and more people in the congregation took offence at Jesus.  In short, they shut him off and paid him no mind.
            Now you did not have to be a rocket scientist to see the handwriting on the wall – and Jesus told them so in no uncertain terms:  "A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child."  How frustrating it must have been to come home to this!
            And between Jesus’ frustration and the stubbornness (some would say faithlessness) of his own people – the hometown crowd – Jesus could not do much there in Nazareth.  His miraculous powers seemed to have left him for the moment.  Oh, he accomplished a couple of simple healings – rashes disappearing, coughs subsiding – but nothing that reflected the reputation that had preceded him. 
            For himself, Jesus was amazed at the villagers’ reaction – the scoffing, the disbelief, the feeling that he could never shed the past here in Nazareth.  He would always be just the carpenter’s son with no skills beyond those afforded by a hammer and nails. 
            Maybe it was then that the enormity of this life journey he was embarking on, this journey, which in the end was meant to be a ministry of transformation, became crystal clear to him.  There really was so much to do and so little time – particularly given the stubbornness and faithlessness of most people.
            Perhaps it was at that moment that Jesus realized that it was not humanly possible for one man to accomplish all that needed to be done.  Perhaps that is why he sent out his disciples, the ones who were even then just learning from him.  Even as he himself moved onward to other towns and villages, so the disciples went out two by two to preach the good news of repentance and reconciliation. 
            “Just go,” Jesus instructed them.  “There is so much to do, so little time.  Do not take a lot of baggage.  Just go – preach the good news and heal the pain and brokenness you find along the way.  Just go.”  And they did.
            According to a survey done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, nearly 80% of Americans consider themselves to be Christian, to be disciples, followers of Jesus.  That being said, one could argue that this nation is a “hometown” for Jesus.  I mean, with 80% of the population claiming to stand for what he stands for, surely we are “his” people, the hometown crowd.   America would vote for Jesus, right?
            Right?  But what about Jesus’ off the cuff remark in Nazareth, the one about prophets not being respected in their hometowns? What does that remark mean in America – with 80% odds in Jesus’ favor? 
            Therein lies the paradox.  As environmentalist Bill McKibben notes, “America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior.”
            Is that true?  To what extent does our national agenda dovetail with Jesus’ agenda?  What are Jesus’ expectations, his platform, anyway? In the version of the story that we just read that is found in the Gospel of Luke, that writer tells us that the Scripture Jesus read in the synagogue that Sabbath morning came from the prophet Isaiah.  “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free.”
            In a nutshell, that is Jesus’ agenda, his platform.  Of course, he expanded on those ideas in a couple of other telling Bible verses – like “Blessed are the peacemakers” from the Beatitudes, “turning the other cheek” and the business of clothing the naked and feeding the hungry in the parable of the sheep and the goats, both in the Gospel of Matthew, culminating of course in “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Non-violence, reconciliation, and charity – that is what Jesus stands for.  Non-violence, reconciliation, and charity:  would America vote for Jesus? Let’s take a quick look….
       “Good News to the Poor” - Did you know that the United States ranks virtually at the bottom of developed countries in government foreign aid as a percentage of national budget (we give away about 1.5%)?  Foreign aid includes medical and food supplies in Africa, disaster earthquake disaster relief in Pakistan, and a response to the fact that 40% of the world’s population live on less than $2.00 a day.  Is this good news for the poor?  Did America vote for Jesus?
            And there is that business of "turning the other cheek"As Bill McKibben notes,  “We are…the most violent rich nation on earth, with a murder rate four or five times that of our European peers. We have prison populations greater by a factor of six or seven than other rich nations…(and) we're the only Western democracy left that executes its citizens, mostly in those states where Christianity is theoretically strongest.”  Did America vote for Jesus?
            And how about "Blessed are the peacemakers"? - In contrast to the 1.5% that goes to humanitarian aid, 20% of the federal budget is dedicated to defense spending.  That’s $683.7 billion!  The 2009 U.S. military budget accounts for approximately 40% of global arms spending.
The 2012 budget is 6-7 times larger than the military budget of China and is more than the next twenty largest military spenders combined. The United States and its close allies are responsible for two-thirds to three-quarters of the world's military spending (of which, in turn, the U.S. is responsible for the majority).  How much is enough – and did America vote for Jesus?
            And finally - "Love your neighbor as yourself” - McKibben goes on to say:  “Although its rhetorical power has been dimmed by repetition, that is a radical notion, perhaps the most radical notion possible. Especially since Jesus, in all his teachings, made it very clear who the neighbor you were supposed to love was: the poor person, the sick person, the naked person, the hungry person. The last shall be made first; turn the other cheek; a rich person aiming for heaven is like a camel trying to walk through the eye of a needle. On and on and on—a call for nothing less than a radical, voluntary, and effective reordering of power relationships, based on the principle of love….what Jesus meant is the most deeply potent political, cultural, social question.” 
            Did America vote for Jesus?  Though Jesus spoke of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, have we defended Jesus’ platform when the safety net is cut away from “the least of these” both locally and globally?  Though Jesus spoke the language of non-violence, have we aspired to be anything less than the most powerful military presence on the globe?  Have we really loved our neighbor as much as we love our affluent lifestyle?
            Are we hypocrites here in the United States – saying one thing and doing another - like the villagers in Nazareth?  Of course we are – all of us – you and me too.
            That being said, is there hope for us?  I believe there is – or I would have left the ministry shortly after the woman in the navy blue dress with white polka dots reminded me that hometown crowds are tough.  You see, I believe that hope lies in churches like ours – moderate small churches that really can make a difference.
            As Bill McKibben notes, “Even the first time around, judging by the reaction, the Gospels were pretty unwelcome news to an awful lot of people….(However, if the church can take) seriously the actual message of Jesus, (that) should serve at least to moderate the greed and violence that mark this culture... If some modest part of the 80 percent of us who are Christians woke up to that fact, then the world might change.”
            Whether or not America would vote for Jesus is perhaps not the question right now.  The real question is would YOU vote for Jesus in your own life?
            To what extent are you willing to live day to day the message of Jesus in your own lives? To what extent will you be changed when you leave this place today?  To what extent will you be like the disciples who went off and lived the Gospel message on a wing and a prayer rather than be like the scoffers of Nazareth?  
            I have great faith in the potential of the church – and in each one of you in this particular church – to be a radical change agent in the world.  And I also have great faith in this nation of ours – the hometown crowd, flawed as it is - to significantly impact a global transformation if we  - beginning with you and I - take the gospel message of non-violence, reconciliation, and charity seriously.
            If you are wondering how we might go about that in this church, then stay tuned for some information on a mission trip.  Tom, Bonnie, and I met this past week, and we would really like to take a group to Maine Seacoast Mission in Cherryfield in Washington County next summer.
            Anyway, I have decided that Jesus has my vote.  But how about you?  Do you vote for Jesus? 
           

           

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