Being a Part of the Jesus Movement

Proper 9B; Mark 6:1-13; St. Paul’s, NC 7/5/2015

Jim Melnyk: “Being a Part of the Jesus Movement”

Author Thomas Wolfe died in 1938.  Two years later, working from an unpublished manuscript, Wolfe’s editor released the novel, You Can’t Go Home Again - a story about a young man who writes a successful story about his hometown, and how the people of that town, enraged by his depiction, turn against him upon his return.  The title has long since entered the American lexicon – and has become an oft-repeated phrase – especially for those who have left behind their small town lives to find success on a larger stage.  It makes me wonder what Thomas Wolfe might have thought about the stories of Jesus coming home again to Nazareth having experienced some degree of renown as a preacher, teacher, and healer throughout the region.

           

One of the things I really like about Mark’s gospel is his willingness to not pull any punches –even if it makes Jesus and the disciples look a bit fallible. 

The people we meet in the gospel – including Jesus – are real – we can identify with them.  Jesus comes home, riding on a bit of a high, I would imagine.  His disciples are starting to come to grips with his unique authority.  He has stretched out withered hands, he has cleansed lepers, healed Peter’s mother-in-law, stilled a storm on the Sea of Galilee, and cast out demons. 

One might think Jesus would be received with the kind of hero’s welcome reserved for hometown kids who have gone off and done well – if we ignore the earlier story in Mark’s gospel about his first attempt to come home again in chapter three.  That’s the story where his mother and siblings come to get him because the crowds were saying Jesus had “gone out of his mind” (3:21) and where Jesus had set aside family ties for what we might today call a family of choice – those who do the will of God being his sister and brother and mother (3:33-35).

But this time things seem to start out on a more promising note – they are aware of his growing fame.  Jesus enters the synagogue and begins to teach, and those present are astounded, wondering where Jesus had gained such knowledge.  But astonishment quickly becomes challenge, and perhaps Jesus is suddenly remembered more for the toddler hanging on to Mary’s robe or the awkward teenager they all knew growing up – certainly as the carpenter or stone mason they had come to know before he had left to hang out with his cousin John out in the wilderness.  How can he be any better or any more knowledgeable than the rest of us, they seem to wonder.  And the crowd’s opening astonishment is bookended by Jesus being amazed at their lack of belief. 

Those of us privileged to hear Mark’s gospel as a whole have an advantage over those in the story confronting Jesus.  We can understand the irony that unclean spirits recognize Jesus for who he is, while his own family, hometown neighbors, and friends struggle with their perception (Joseph A. Bessler, Feasting on the Gospels: Mark, p. 168).

And other than healing a few of the sick in town, Jesus has to shake the dust off his feet and go where his teaching will be received.

It leaves me wondering why in the world Mark would give us not one, but two stories about Jesus running into a brick wall in his hometown.  Why two stories that point to the failure of Jesus to win the hearts of those who perhaps knew him better than anyone else in his whole world?

But maybe there’s a method to Jesus’ madness – or at least to the way Mark tells the story.  Almost immediately, it seems, Jesus sends his twelve closest disciples out two-by-two into the surrounding villages to proclaim the Good News of the coming reign of God.

The disciples are to go out as representatives or agents of Jesus proclaiming his message – preparing the way for his coming.  In ancient times the agent – or the shaliach – of a person spoke with the authority of the one who sent him.  In other words, “A person’s representative is as the person himself” (JANT, Mark 6:6b-13 note).

Jesus acts out a parable with his life, letting his disciples – and letting us know centuries later – that the Good News will not always be accepted – sometimes even by those whom you would most expect welcome.  “Don’t get hung up on those who refuse to hear the Good News,” Jesus seems to be saying.  “I’m not calling you to immediate success in your witness – I’m calling you to be faithful witnesses, so that God’s power might be made alive in you.”  I can almost hear Jesus reminding the twelve as they get ready to leave: “Don’t forget the parable of the sower, my friends (Mark 4:1-9). 

When you sow the seed – when you sow the Good News of the reign of God – there will be times when it won’t take root.  There will be times when it takes root and yet doesn’t flourish.  And there will be times when it takes root and the harvest is so overwhelming it becomes life-changing.”

Jesus sends the twelve out into the surrounding villages with a message of Good News that, after his resurrection, will become the clarion call of a movement that transforms a world.  Jesus says, “Go!” and his disciples respond.  And those of us who know the story realize their journeys from that point forward and throughout their lives will be met with amazing successes and harsh loses.

Preaching during the closing Eucharist for this year’s General Convention, our bishop, Michael Curry – Presiding Bishop-Elect Michael Curry – I’m still trying to get used to that – our bishop reflected on another instance of Jesus sending out the twelve.  Looking at what has come to be called The Great Commission at the close of Matthew’s gospel, Bishop Curry reminds us that the first word of that commission is “Go!”, and that as people baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Christ we are all part of the Jesus Movement, and that means we are being sent out to proclaim the Gospel. 

Michael went on to say, “Jesus didn’t come into the world to leave it as he found it.  In and through Jesus, God changes the landscape of reality from the nightmare it often seems to be, to the dream God intended for the world from the beginning of time” – a dream where there is “plenty good room for all God’s children” to live together as the household of God.  And we are invited to be participants in proclaiming that dream of God.  As they say in the Diocese of Ohio: “Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Change the world!”

But we struggle in that dream – we only have to look at the headlines or our Facebook News feeds to realize how humanity continues to live at a critical juncture in our history.  The recent Supreme Court decision on marriage has ratcheted up anti-gay rhetoric and the refusal of many to heed the Court’s judgment.  The recent calls for the removal of confederate battle flags on public properties have ratcheted up racist rhetoric and violence.  Battle flags are suddenly selling like hotcakes. 

We’ve seen the cruel graffiti in our own town, the KKK flyers making the rounds again, and around the South AME churches have been burning.  While some fires are being considered accidental – others are not – and those of us who are old enough remember church burnings and bombings in the south as part of the vicious response to the Civil Rights Movement.  We have to be willing to speak out – there is no room in the Gospel for such violence of word and deed.

Bishop Curry reminds us: Some of us are young, and some of us carry AARP cards.  Some of us are Republicans, and some of us are Democrats.  Some of us label ourselves theologically conservative, and some label ourselves theologically progressive.  Some of us are black, some white or yellow or red – but whatever the color of our skin, we are all created in the image and like of God, and all of us – all of us – if we have been baptized into Christ, are part of the Jesus Movement and we belong to God.

And my friends, there is no room for hate in the kingdom of God – that has got to be our message.  There is no room set aside for second class citizens in the kingdom of God.  As Bishop Curry says, “There is plenty good room for all God’s children” – in this world – and in the kingdom of God.  We have died to the brokenness of this world and been made alive in Christ! 

We have a Gospel to proclaim and that Gospel is exactly what the word means – it is “Good News” – Good News for a broken world – it is Good News for a world that is hurting – it is a promise that God is a God for all people – that God is a God who proclaims forgiveness and new life.  As author Max Lucado writes, “God loves [us] just the way we are, but [God] refuses to leave [us] that way” (quoted by Michael Curry).  It is Good News when we don’t respond to the brokenness of our world with our own form of brokenness, and it is Good News that God refuses to leave us a broken mess when we do fall apart.  It is Good news that there is wholeness in this world, and it is Good News that God refuses to leave the world a broken mess when it does fall apart, and as followers of Jesus – as part of the Jesus Movement – God calls us to join in that transforming work.  Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Change the world.

We may not always be successful.  We might not always be able to go home again when we leave behind our brokenness in exchange for the dream of God – but we can be faithful, and on our best days we do succeed.  We are followers of Jesus.  We are part of the Jesus Movement.  Go into the world and proclaim Good News!  Go into the world and proclaim that in God hatred and human pettiness have met their match!  Go into the world and bring healing.  Go into the world and proclaim the love of God.