David the Shepherd King

David the Shepherd King

2 Samuel 5: 1-5, 9-10 NRSV text
Psalm 48 NRSV text
2 Corinthians 12: 2-10 NRSV text
Mark 6: 1-13 NRSV text

Jesus’ second call to the disciples

We’re at a key moment in Mark’s discipleship narrative.  Mark doesn’t just have Jesus issue a single “call” at the outset of his ministry; there are three stages to it, and represent both the development of the disciples’ relationship to Jesus and a response to events as they unfold.  This is the second of the three moments – the involvement of the disciples in Jesus’ mission.  The Jesus story is the story of the beginning of it all – “the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”.  Disciples are not only followers: they are the ones who receive the Good News as Good News!  And if that seems a rather obvious point, just look at the first pericope in today’s gospel reading: Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth.  This is Jesus’ home town.  The hard fact of the matter is that Jesus’ message of the kingdom – the Good News of liberation from the chains of the Strong Man – doesn’t meet with universal enthusiasm!  This is no mere narrative device of Mark’s.  The opposition was real.  Jesus was crucified.  Mark, more starkly than any other of the evangelists, portrays Jesus’ mission ultimately as a failure.  Jesus dies in bewildered despair – not only is he abandoned by the disciples, but also by the God whom he calls “Abba Father”.

Jesus before the home crowd

Today’s gospel passage, then, comes at a key point: the close of the initial “campaign” based around the Galilee and including a foray into Gentile territory.  Having left the Galilee, Jesus returns to his home town.  It’s clearly the first time that he’s gone back since he began his ministry.  Now, in the synagogue, he’s in front of the “home crowd”.  He teaches on the Sabbath and, as elsewhere, “many who heard him were astounded” (6:2).  This is not an English World Cup performance: Jesus does not disappoint – he amazes!  His teaching is as powerful as elsewhere.  All the things they have heard about him are confirmed.  His wisdom is astonishing.  And that means that any initial scepticism they must have been feeling about the reports circulating so widely has to be revised.

But look at the reaction in vv 2-3: they’re hardly positive!  They come as accusation: “Where did he get all this?  Where has he acquired this wisdom from so suddenly?  And how on earth can he do these incredible things with his hands?”  There’s a wonderful irony, isn’t there, in this last one.  They know Jesus as an artisan.  He’s “the carpenter”!  His hands make things out of wood – they don’t heal and deliver!  The point is, they know him – or they think they do.  That’s why they rush to “place” him: he’s the son of Mary, brother to James, Joses, Judas and Simon, and he’s got sisters (who of course aren’t important enough to be named!).  In other words, they’re saying, “Hey, this guy’s not a mystery!  He’s not even particularly special!”

They move to contain Jesus – to control him.  Calling him “the son of Mary” is a calculated insult.  It reflects the question mark that clearly hung over Jesus’ parentage.  It resurrects all those old rumours: “That Jesus?  Well, he’s not Joseph’s son, is he?  Wonder who his father is?”  Now of course, Mark is probably smiling to himself as he writes – we know who his father is, because Mark told us at the outset!  But the main point here is that their astonishment is not awe, but outrage: “They took offence at him” (v3b).  Jesus’ pronouncement in v4 is not so much a rhetorical move to gain the advantage in an argument as it is a statement of his own realisation of what is happening in his ministry: the Good News will not be universally accepted.  Jesus is marking his own rejection.  His mission means that he will be rejected by his own hometown, his own kin, and his own family.  It is part of the cost he has to bear, and in 10:28-30, will tell the disciples that following him is equally costly.  It will take “leaving house, brothers, sisters, father, mother and fields for the sake of the Good News”. [click to continue…]

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sermon for pentecost 5B

June 28, 2009

Revd Rowena Francis, Moderator, Northern Synod, The United Reformed Church

Revd Rowena Francis, Moderator, Northern Synod, The United Reformed Church

Mk 6: 1-13
Ezekiel 2:1-5
2 Cor 12:2-10

A prophet is not welcome at home

Where is the transporter, the beam me up Scottie of Star Trek fame that can avoid congestion and CO2 emissions and move me from one place to another? Where are the brochures for holidays or moving to the moon on a colony in order to relief the pressure on the earth’s resources? In my childhood it was obvious such things were on their way; they were promised. Now it’s the C21st and still no transporters or possibility of moving to the moon in spite of all the wonderful technology around us that can be used for good or bad. I’m a bit disappointed.

Imagine how the folks in Nazareth felt when they heard that an anointed prophet, maybe even the messiah, was coming to town. They went to synagogue that morning with great anticipation but they were disappointed too. “Where is this Messiah? They promised us a Messiah? That person’s no messiah. He’s a common carpenter. That’s Mary’s Son and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon. Aren’t his sister’s still living right here with us today?”

If I had been there, I too, would have been disappointed. My line of questioning would have been the same: What gives him the right to stand up in church and teach us? After all, he’s no different than me.

A prophet finds it difficult on home territory. Prophets are often experienced as a thorn in the flesh, a right pain by the community; well at least by those closest to them – family and friends, neighbourhood and local town; before they are dead that is. Then it may be good for a blue plaque to be put up and for them to be claimed as a P.R. exercise. Why are prophets difficult – because they will not shut up!  They are in your face. Like, in a family that is entertaining visitors when the child keeps going on and on about why is the house clean, why do we have to wash our hands, say grace – we never do that? So a prophet keeps reiterating the will of God – the need for justice, the need to follow God in obedience, the reality of life through death and not taking after other God’s such as materialism or capitalism or any of the other ‘isms’. A prophet keeps going on about expecting great things and believing in God that the will of God may be realised. [click to continue…]

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hymn for pentecost 5B

June 28, 2009

Ezekiel 2.1–5
2 Corinthians 12.2–10
Mark 6.1–13

Long Metre
Possible Tune Herongate – (H&P 224, R&S 425)

The vision that God sends to us,
Disturbs the things we thought we knew,
This world that seemed so dull and safe,
With signs of heaven is shot through.

But vision is no cause to boast,
It’s meant for all as God’s own gift,
Whether their words are heard or scorned,
Prophets must still their voices lift.

Whenever we in worship join,
We’re called to heed the Spirit’s voice,
E’en though it comes through one we know,
It still demands we make our choice.

For vision comes to send us out,
Though we feel ill equipped and weak,
Into the world that God has made,
Christ’s love in word and deed to speak.

The Carpenter calls us to join,
The work God gave him at his birth,
To add our weakness to his strength,
As he builds heaven upon the earth.

© Alan Hinton 2000
Permission given for use and private distribution, but not for commercial publication in any form.

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