Mark 6 1-13 sermon - Saint Mark Presbyterian Church

1 1shake off the dust the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time July 5, 2015 Mark 6: 1- 13 This week, we start off with a homecoming of sorts. Jesus comes home to Nazareth, a town of about 300 people, historians think, so it s the sort of place where everybody knows everybody. According to Jewish custom, any Jewish male could be invited to speak in a synagogue and Jesus, a local boy come home, accepts the invitation.

2 At first the reaction to his speech is amazement. Here he is, a tekton, which is translated as carpenter but really might be better translated as construction worker. That word referred to anyone who worked with his hands building things. The amazement at the words and power of this local boy quickly turns to suspicion. The ones gathered in the synagogue know who Jesus is: a construction worker, son of an undistinguished local family.

3 And we know, from our reading a couple weeks ago, that even Jesus family thinks he s gone a little crazy. They label Jesus not by his father, as was the custom, but by his hinting, in a vulgar way, at illegitimacy. And so they dismiss him- he couldn t be a prophet, because he s just a lowly carpenter. All too often, we are tempted to do the same, reducing someone who challenges us to a single attribute about that person whether skin color or age or orientation in order to dismiss them and thereby fail to receive the wholeness of the person God has created and redeemed and offered to us as a gift.

4 Here Jesus speaks one of his most famous lines: a prophet is not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own Prophets have notoriously have it bad because they say the hard things. Prophets don t shy away from what they feel called to say, even when they know it will get them in trouble. And what Jesus was saying to the crowd gathered in that synagogue was no different.

5 His message over the weeks was this: the kingdom of God is coming and it will look nothing like you think it will. And it was more than what he was saying: it was also what he was doing. He was healing people with one touch, casting out demons and calming a storm with just his words, eating with sinners and calling outcasts to follow him, breaking down the status quo every step of the way.

6 2 But people could not hear what Jesus had to say, because it wasn t what they expected to hear from him. And I think that still rings true today. The expectation that I ve bumped up against most recently is that I shouldn't talk about race and racism because I am a privileged, upper middle class white girl. I think those are exactly the reasons I should be talking about race and racism.

7 Because I want to take responsibility for the racism that infects me and my culture so that I can be part of breaking the cycle. Because I have benefitted from racist structures, I have long been blind to them and I feel like I can be blind no more. Like any person speaking out, I ll 1make mistakes and I ll be afraid, but I feel like I can t not speak anymore. Jesus, a lowly construction worker, was different than what they expected a prophet should be, and so the people of Nazareth dismiss Jesus with contempt.

8 This episode in Nazareth is a turning point in Mark. Jesus hometown, his family and the leaders of his people all reject him. After this, healing and exorcisms come only with some sort of struggle. After this, Jesus never enters a synagogue again. 2 And after this, Jesus sends the Twelve out on their own. They are no longer observers and followers but speakers and doers of the word.

9 They are charged to go out depending wholly on others hospitality; radically dependent on charity. Such life presumes radical faith: you are doing what God has called you to do, and God, through the care of others, will take care of you. After emphasizing the unbelief in the first half of the text, I find it surprising that it is not what Jesus emphasized in the second half. The towns the disciples are to visit are not judged based on whether they believe the disciples or whether they are morally upright; but whether or not they welcome the strangers in their midst.

10 Since one of a host s first duties was to see to the washing of a guest s 3 - See more at: # Placher, William. Belief: A Theological Commentary (Mark). Westminster John Knox Press, 2 Louisville, KY 2010. Pages 89-91. Placher, 91. 3 3feet, the disciples dusty feet themselves testify to the failure of the town s hospitality. So Jesus encourages the disciples to take that dust and shake it off; I picture Simon Peter or James taking off a sandal and shaking it in someone s face.