Remembering the Past...
        Planning the Future

    Park Christian Church
                                                                    (Disciples of Christ)

July 5, 2009

Scripture:         Mark 6:1-13

Sermon:           “Tough Crowd”

            We will continue on with the stories of Jesus found in Mark’s gospel this morning.  Last week we found Jesus somewhat overwhelmed with the needs of broken and hurting humanity as he traveled about in the region of the Galilee.  He was called on to save a dying child who then happened to die before he could arrive.  In the midst of this a desperate woman reached out to only touch his cloak as he walked through a crowd, hoping to find healing for a condition that haunted her for twelve years.

            Jesus’ ministry was just getting off the ground in those days.  Word was spreading quickly in that region about him.  Neighbors told friends about what they’d seen and heard.  There was a buzz about this Jesus.

            Now, all of this was taking place in a place we call Galilee, which happens to be where Jesus had grown up.  Galilee is pretty far removed from the hustle and bustle of the city of Jerusalem.  It’s pretty far removed from the Temple then, too.  You might say that folks looked down their noses at this place.  It was a simple place with simple people.  So much so that others said that nothing good can ever come from Galilee.  And wouldn’t you expect that God would be doing something big, like saving the world, from the center of all things—Jerusalem?

            The gospels would have us believe that God started this saving out in the backwoods.  The Galilee was to most people like some folks think of Appalachia.  You see what I’m getting at?

            Well, even at that, not everyone in the Galilee was excited about Jesus—especially those who had known him all his life.  And that is where we pick up the story this morning.  Let’s read together Mark 6, verses 1 through 13.  You can find it on page 55 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.  This is the word of the Lord…

            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 not 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.

            Tough crowd.  That’s what comedians call a room full of folks that won’t as much as crack a smile, let alone laugh.  Tough crowd.  There may even be a heckler or two making life that much more difficult.  Here you’ve got somebody who’s put together an hour’s worth of jokes and stories to entertain people, and five minutes into the act you can practically hear the crickets outside.  And if it goes on too long, the crowd will start getting antsy and totally turn on the performer.

            Comedians.  Songwriters.  Actors.  Even, preachers!  The whole thing can go sour.

            There is a songwriter that I really love, Peter Case.  And he once wrote a brilliant line about being heckled at a concert one time.  He said, “only request I heard all night is, ‘can you sing far, far away?’”  Tough crowds.

            Jesus got back to Nazareth, as Mark tells the story, and laid what preachers call an egg there in the pulpit as he preached to the home congregation.  Tough crowd that morning.  Folks started snickering and whispering to one another.  Right there while the sermon was going on.

            Now, I’ll give you a great deal of credit.  Whenever I’m struggling up here, you just kindly let your eyelids get heavy and wait it out.  Never had a heckler before.  Friends of mine in the ministry have told me about being heckled, though.  And that’s a tough crowd when their doing it in church.

            Billy Graham’s daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, was once invited to speak at a convention of church pastors.  Well, as you might know, there are many men in the ministry who do not believe it the role of women to ever speak of spiritual things to men, even if it is the daughter of the great Billy Graham.  And when she got into the lectern of that convention center, she said, “many of the 800 church leaders present turned their chairs around and put their backs to me.  When I concluded my message, I was shaking.”

            Jesus didn’t have quite the same problem.  Folks could not come to accept that he had any special authority, either.  But, the reasons were different for Jesus and Anne Graham Lotz.  Turns out that the good folks in Nazareth just knew Jesus too well.  And that got in the way of seeing him any differently.

            They said, “Oh, come on, now.  He’s just the carpenter.”   “Isn’t that Mary’s boy?”  They said, “This is the same Jesus that used to play little league with my son.”  And, “I remember changing his diapers.”  “What makes him so special?”

            And that ought to be a reminder to you that folks remember all of the little ways and big ways that the life you live speaks louder than the words you speak.  The messenger is often more important than the message as far as people hearing it goes.

            The message and the messenger.  The messenger can get in the way of the message, it seems.  Especially if people know the messenger too well.  They remember the days when...And that is exactly what happened to Jesus in his hometown.  They knew too much.  They were too close.

            I was waiting on my wife to arrive at the airport one time.  It’s a great place to people-watch.  And sitting there as people walked by, my attention was captivated by this very large man in military fatigues.  When I say very large, he had muscles everywhere, and must have stood six foot eight.  Just a bulking specimen of the human body.  He was the kind of man that nobody could overlook.

            And he walked confidently in his black boots with a stride that made me think the folks in Iraq must have taken notice.  That’s where he was coming from.  His family was waiting at the end of the walkway with signs.  “Welcome Home, Son.”  “We’re Proud of You 101^st Airborne.”

            It was a great thing to watch.  This family ran to embrace the man, each one touching him and telling him how much they loved him.  And the last one of the bunch was this short little woman, who reached up and pinched his cheeks.  She said, “Give your mother a kiss, Pookie.”

            Now, this soldier was not traveling alone, and when his comrades heard the nickname “Pookie,” they all just let him have it.  And Pookie said, “Aw, mom.  You got to quit that, now.”

            She said, “You might be gallivanting all over the world, soldier.  But, you’re my son.  And don’t you ever forget it.” 

Who you are to some folks, and who you have always been, can color the way some people are always going to see you.  Who you are.  What you’ve done.  The history of the messenger can get in the way of the message sometimes.  And there’s probably not much that you can do about it.  Jesus sure couldn’t.

            So, as he started to send out his disciples to proclaim the good news and do the ministry of healing the world, he warned them about the things that will turn people away from what they were doing.  Disciples of Jesus are going to have problems reaching others, just like Jesus did.  What Jesus learned at home is that people are going to remember your past if they know anything about it.  And it can get in the way.

            But, Jesus was very interested in this relationship between the message and the messengers.  Very interested.  So much so that he sat his messengers down and gave them very specific instructions on how to dress, what to pack, and how to act.  And it’s all very Spartan, isn’t it?

            Jesus said, “You can bring a stick with you.  It might help you walk.  But, don’t pack a lunch for the road.  Don’t bring money.  You’re going to have to rely on the charity of others.  Don’t pack a suitcase.  Don’t even bring a change of clothes.  You go out and do this like you actually trust that God is going to provide for you.”

            Now, what does that mean?

            In the Galilee, folks lived some hard lives.  They were mostly on the edge of poverty.  And they didn’t have a great deal of power to determine their own futures.  How are you going to send disciples out to speak of good news to those people?  They trust everyday that God is going to provide for them.  So, they can see if one of Jesus’ disciples believes this.  Is he carrying his lunch in case no one feeds him?  Is he carrying money to get a roof over his head tonight?  Or does he believe God will shelter him?  Does this disciple’s own life line up very well with the things he is claiming to believe?  Did he come here driving a shiny new car in order to tell us how God can bless us?  Or is he coming here to demonstrate the God understands the complexity of life and how it gets folks caught up where they can’t get out?

            Ah.  Do you see what is going on here?  Jesus knows that folks are watching the messenger just as much as listening for the message.  And it is not just that the messenger can overshadow the message.  Jesus is saying that the messenger is the message.  The messenger is the message.  Your very life communicates what words will never accomplish.

            Warren Nash puts up a sign out in front of the church every now and then that says “Your life is the only Bible some people will ever read.”  Your life is the only Bible some people will ever read.

            The messenger is the message.

            What does it mean, for example, when one person in public office condemns another for marital infidelity when all the while he is doing the same things and worse?  What does it mean as we watch these charades?  One will champion morality and family values and the things that we all want to believe in and build our lives upon.  And in doing so he condemns the public sins of another man.  And we find out sometime later that this “champion of virtue” is nothing of the sort.  The messenger is the message.

            On the other hand, what power we have to preach the good news by living out its values and virtues!  What power we have to be the message.  Like St. Francis would say, “preach the good news at all time.  When necessary use words.”

            Just a few weeks after September 11, 2001, there was a fire at an Islamic mosque over in Lexington.  Did you hear about that?  Burned to the ground.  Now, I can tell you the fire was started by lightning.  But, in the days following the blaze, the assumption was that someone had tried to send a message.  “Your kind isn’t welcome here.”

            Tense days, you remember.  And I was standing in line at a grocery store waiting to check out.  The cashier was wearing a head scarf and clearly she was Muslim.  She went from one customer to another.  And it seemed like no one was going to so much as say “hello” or “thank you”.  Just awkward.  Tense.  And surely the man in front of me wasn’t.  Redneck if you ever saw one, this guy.

            She scanned all of his items, looked up, and asked him if he wanted paper or plastic.  He said, “It don’t matter to me, little lady.”  And when the whole transaction was completely, he said, “I think the word is ‘shukran’.  Is that the word?  The one that means ‘thank you’?  I think that’s the word.  Shukran.  But that’s all I’ve got.  You have a nice evening.”

            What message is your life speaking?

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)