6th Sunday in
Pentecost – Year B
Holy
Trinity, Raleigh
Centennial Celebration
Mark
6:1-13
Going
Home – Or Just Going
It was a red letter day in
Nazareth. The excitement was palatable. Everyone, even those who had to travel a great
distance, had made the journey back. There
was great excitement. The local boy had
come home. He was at the synagogue,
teaching.
He had become quite the celebrity
since he left. He had healed the sick,
he had calmed the storm. There were even
stories of him have raised a child from the dead.
Everyone was filled with
anticipation. It was a red letter day. Then
something went wrong. What they hoped
would happened did not. What they were
anticipating simply did not occur.
I wonder if I was the only one
who cringed, just a little, at yesterday’s celebration lunch, which it was
suggested that somewhere around 11:30 this morning the Sharon Freeze and the
other members of the Centennial Planning Teams could relax. Knowing the appointed Gospel text, I realized
that our expectations and even the purist of anticipations has the potential to
run aground on what actually happens when God’s people gather around the Word
of God.
It seemed like a simple thing,
there in Nazareth, when Jesus finally comes home and he finally returns to his
hometown synagogue. Ninety minutes or so
and everyone can just relax. But it didn’t
happen that way.
Why didn’t it? What went wrong? And more to the point – how can we make sure
that this, our red letter day doesn’t go wrong?
Look again at the story. The verses expose where the missteps were
taken. The sentences expose why this day
was doomed from the moment the crowd began to think about what was going on.
If I were in Clemson, with the
college students, whom I know well and who have come to know me – I would give
a long, uncomfortable pause about now, allowing them to search and struggle a
bit. Sometimes, at the end of such a
pause, I would entertain suggestions –
and with each I would acknowledge the insight and validity of the reply. Sometimes, I even change what I was thinking
of saying, when one of the answers is more helpful than the one I had in
mind. Do you still need more time? Have you located, in these short six verses, a
possible explanation for why things didn’t go well in Nazareth that day?
Look at verse 2 and 3. As you re-read those, remember the overall mood which has been given to the events of yesterday, today, and the Centennial year being concluded. It is the message which I was very carefully (and repeatedly) instructed to address. Enough of a pause: That day in Nazareth didn’t live up to expectations because those who gathered were more interested in looking backward than they were in looking forward. They chose to skip over Jesus’ words, discussing instead the years that Jesus had lived among them as the carpenter’s son. The red letter day was ruined when the folks gathering in God’s house looked to their past rather than hearing where the Word of God was inviting them to go.
On that greatly anticipated day
in Nazareth, things did get off to a good start. Jesus is teaching, and those who hear him are
astounded. Other places in the
scriptures it is said of Jesus that “taught as one who had authority,” not like
some hired scribe or preacher. Jesus
begins to teach in the synagogue, and they are taken with what it is that he has
to say.
It is dangerous to be critical of
the writer of the Gospel, but this another of those times when I would like to
have had some of the content of what Jesus teaches. If only Mark had included what the teacher
had said. Think of how easy that would
make my job. I would have Jesus’ lecture
notes; I could stand in front of the class and just read them. But if the content of Jesus’ instruction were
included here we might miss the Word of God being revealed here. The Word of God is no so much content as it
is an experience of God’s hopes and God’s desires. Remembering and repeating what God has said
in the past is the way we open ourselves to the invitation of what God seeks to
say to use in the now.
Things went wrong that day in
Nazareth because the people who were initially taken with the way in which
Jesus made the Word of God present in their lives, shifted out of the moment
and sought to understand how this invitation to be present with God could arise
from the same little boy whom they all knew as the carpenter’s son. In trying to understand how Jesus could
astound them, they looked to his roots and to his past – ignoring the
significance of what was happening to them right now; ignoring how these events
(these words being spoken) were to impact their future.
When I got the invitation to
share this day with you, (and let me say that there are few times in my
ministry when I have been more honored) I turned to the lectionary to see the
appointed lessons. Upon first reading, I
wondered why the appointed Gospel text for today covered two rather significant
events. The first six verses of our
reading are this story of Jesus and the disastrous celebration in
Nazareth. Then there is that second
story, the story contained in verses 7 to 13.
Do you remember what happens there?
In this second half of today’s
gospel reading, Jesus gathers the twelve and he sends them out. He tells them that they are to go to the
surrounding villages and that once there they are to proclaim a call to repentance;
they are to cast out demons, anoint the sick, and cure those with disease.
The focus of the folks in that
synagogue in Nazareth had been to look at the past, at the relationships which
were familiar. Jesus’ emphasis is for
them to forge new opportunities; for them to move forth from where they are to
where they might be.
I had not realized, until
yesterday, why this was the weekend selected for these celebrations. If my understanding is correct, it was 100
years ago yesterday (to the day) that this faithful fellowship met for the
first time. How symbolic, that yesterday’s
thanksgiving for the accomplishments of the past 100 years would fall on the
same calendar date as the original gathering.
More symbolic still, is that it on this, the first day of the new century,
is the day that we gather here around the Word of God and the gifts of God’s
grace. You were a bit lucky that July 7
and July 8, 2012 fell on a Saturday and a Sunday. But you have taken full advantage of this
opportunity.
Yesterday, on the day when you
celebrated the past 100 years, you spent most of the time talking, and telling
stories, and celebrating all that had occurred.
For those here today that were unable to be present yesterday, there was
the obligatory invitation for folks to stand if they had been baptized at Holy
Trinity, confirmed here, married here.
The master of ceremonies did a masterful job of helping identify folks
who had been a part of this community for only a few years – and welcoming
them, as well as celebrating those who had been here for upwards of sixty or
even seventy years. Very well done. Very impressive.
That was yesterday – the last day
of the old century. Today is the first
day of the new century. How wonderful
that on the day which launches the faithful community forward, the format of
the gathering is to to praise God, to worship, and to be fed at God’s Holy
Table. Well done! That is the way to move into the future – not
with the pridee of one’s own success nor the arrogance of humanly conceived plans
– but with a plea that God would bestow upon us his goodness and his mercy and
his grace.
And God will. God always does.
God never abandons those who turn to Him with sincere hearts and earnest pleas.
That is really all that I have to
say, and I realize that I ought to simply sit down. The Word of God has been spoken here today,
among God’s people. If I were in
Clemson, among those students whom I have come to know and how have come to
know me, I would wait right here, for an “Amen.” Let me try it again. Let me try it again. I am done.
I really ought to sit down…. ….but
there is just one more thing I would like to call to our attention. It is about this thing we refer to as the “future.”
Here is what we know about the
future, about the only thing we know about the future: the future is not the past. We know that the future will look very
different from the past. But that is the
way we would prefer it. I don’t mean to
ignore the pasts which were shared with a loved one who now lies in their grave
awaiting resurrection. How many days in
the future might we be willing to give for just one day in the past to tell our
wife how much we love her, or to tell our father how grateful we are? I don’t mean to ignore such emotions. Such emotions are attached to our personal
past, rather than our shared past. The future,
toward which we are moving will look very different from the past – and that is
what we want it to do – to look differently.
We what it to be different. We seek
a future in which the hopes and promises of God become a reality for us and for
all who share God’s planet.
The future won’t look anything
like the past. But that is okay. We don’t want a future which is little more
than a re-hashing of the past. We want
it to be the future.
I was gifted with an image this past week. A presenter at the Campus Ministry Conference
at Yale showed us pictures of teams training for the Olympics. One team was rowing; the other was
paddling. Most of us have seen folks
rowing. They look so sleek and
impressive and in sync with one another as they pull on their oars and slice
through the water. They look so
smooth. Paddlers are different. I am sure there is as much coordination and
teamwork involved, but they look chaotic and even frantic. But here is the difference between rowing and
paddling: rowers are looking backward -
paddlers are looking forward.
If you want it to look smooth and even, look back. But if you look forward, things are more
likely to seem chaotic. But looking
forward is the only way to see the future toward which we are moving.
The challenge is to set our
hearts at ease as we live into this great unknown. The difficult thing is not to be scared out
of our wits as this unknown future opens before us.
So long as they looked forward,
things were okay. They were better than
okay. They were great. Remember that as long as the folks in that
synagogue in Nazareth were looking forward, things were okay. Things fall apart when they began to look
back, to see how this carpenter’s kid could have come to posses such
insights. Things fall apart when we
forget that it isn’t the wisdom of the speaker but the power of the Word which
makes the invitation astounding.
Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran
Church has a wonderful and powerful history.
It is a history to which I am heavily indebted. It is a history which has prepared you to
ask, “What might God be calling us to in the future.” Keep your eyes on that mission, and whatever
happens is bound to be wonderful.
Amen.
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