Can anything good come out of Nazareth? I don't think so!
This sermon was preached by David Burkhill-Howarth on July 9th 2006 at St Andrew's.
Mark 6 1-13 ?Nobody likes a smart aleck? We don?t like them do we? We just can?t get on with them. In fact we can positively hate them. Nobody likes a smart aleck. The one who tells us what to do, or knows all the answers. The one who seems to act as if she or he is in some way better than the rest of us. Particularly if the person concerned used to be ?one of us?. The readings for the fourth Sunday after Trinity sketch a profile of a messenger of God, someone called out from the group to speak God?s word to those people. They also describe the rejection that those messengers had to endure. Those chosen by God are compelled by the force of their call. Those to whom they are sent, respond to their message. But usually they respond, not with ?Wow, thanks for that?, more often than not it?s ? ?Who does he think he is?? A prophet is not always one who looks into the future, but more often is someone who has insight into the present. Thereby modifying the future if their recommendations are followed. It was not, or is not, difficult to accept prophets or preachers when they have a bland or affirming message. However, when they criticize the community and challenge it to repentance and reformation, the messenger is often rejected along with the message. Jesus was amazed how close-minded the people of his home village were. He had to go and work elsewhere, and he sent his disciples out in pairs.
Christ?s behaviour broke a number of inherent and important assumptions of his community. Here was the son of a carpenter. Himself, in fact, once a carpenter. Their imaginations could not therefore recognise any other possibility. Once a worker with wood, always a worker with wood. They resented him because he was now outside the boundary of their expectations. His newly recognised, at least by some, capabilities and capacities were a threat to their existence. Actually, we're not so very different from those people in Jesus' home town. Oh, we believe in Jesus, all right. After all, here we are, sitting in church on a Sunday morning. We know that the boy from It's all too easy to say, ?That couldn't happen here. That might happen somewhere else, but not here.? But don?t we too live in the danger of rejecting prophets who have uncomfortable words for us. Don?t we also live in the danger of stereotyping Jesus. Haven?t we made him so familiar and ordinary that we are unable to perceive how he truly lives and operates in our midst? And if we let ourselves fall into that trap, it could well be written of us, ?He could do no deed of power there.? Not because God doesn't have the power, but because our own fear prevents us from believing in it, from accepting it; in our lives and in the lives of our congregations. How sad, how incredibly terrible, it would be, if it were said of us, ?He was amazed at their unbelief.? But we do have a choice. Jesus asks us to believe that ?nothing will be impossible with God?; not in our lives, not in our towns, not in our churches, not in our committees. No matter what the obstacles may seem to be. What would happen if we chose to open our minds and our hearts, to banish those negative thoughts. To look at what we all can do rather than what they can not do? What would happen if we prayed, ?Lord, we believe; help our unbelief?? What would happen if our faith opened the way for God's power to be at work in Tarvin? So who are the modern messengers and prophets? The good news, or perhaps it?s the bad news, is that they are all of us. We?re all messengers and prophets, whether in word or in deed, to everybody else. You?ll notice that I mentioned that might be bad news for us. When God wants to deliver a message that will rearrange our world view and change our way of thinking, as often as not the message comes through someone we find difficult to listen to or take seriously. Just as it was with Christ. Mark sees Jesus as embodying his own teaching so that teacher and message are one and the same thing. We sometimes talk about how the medium is the message. The idea didn?t originate with modern advertising agencies. Mark caught onto that a long time ago! He saw the people of When God speaks through those we know well, we have great trouble hearing what they are trying to tell us for two main reasons. Firstly, we know them well enough to believe that they need to hear the message as much as we do. This is no news to preachers, we know that we are talking to ourselves as much as to anybody else. But our failure as preachers to fully embody the message we proclaim doesn?t negate the message; it just means that we must try harder, and also, in turn, listen to other peoples? words. The second reason we have trouble hearing what others are saying is that we generally expect people we know to say the sort of thing they?ve always said. When we hear someone we don?t know, we expect to be surprised and enlightened by their thoughts and recommendations, but we don?t like being surprised by those we thought we had neatly packaged. When someone we know suddenly becomes the messenger of God to us, we often think, ?This isn?t your job. It?s not your place to tell me this. Get back in your box!? If they start to exhibit gifts which had never been suspected, it annoys us, like it annoyed the Jewish congregation all those years ago. Should they now be, in our eyes, ?above their station?, we may become their harshest critics. One of the things of which we need to keep reminding ourselves, is the need for a willingness to hear the voice of God coming from among the people. We need to listen, with open minds and hearts, in order that together we might discern what God is saying to us. And what God is saying to us, may well be through those from whom we least expect to hear it. Categorising people is a grave inhibiter of our growth, and that of other Christians around us. Often those who think they are on familiar terms with you, know hardly anything about the miracle that is really you! Or the path that you are on. Or the support and encouragement that you need. Any community unfortunately has the power to cramp style and diminish possibilities; and the average church is no exception. The wet blanket thrown by those who think they know you, can be stifling. Do people imagine they can completely understand what you are, by what you do, or did, for a living? What?s more, why do people think they can grasp your potential just because they can slot you into a particular family group? Why is it that people presume to know you by having lived next door to you, or gone to school and college with you? God may be speaking to us through the forthright young man who we know only too well, and on whose grazed knees we used to put plasters. But now he has grown up with far more knowledge than humility. God may be speaking to us through the quietly spoken middle-aged lady who is polite enough not to argue with the group even when she really is in the right. God may be speaking to us through the young woman who, like Christ, knows what it means to be broken and rejected. God may be speaking to us through the visitor, the one whose vision is not hindered by how we?ve ?always done things around here?. The one thing we can be sure of is that God is speaking to us. All the time, in many different ways; and it certainly isn?t up to us to give God guidelines about who to use as messengers! Just as they classified, and fenced in Jesus, so people today rarely encourage developing gifts, or give gracious affirmation for accomplishments. Often we have to dare to be what Christ wants to make of us in spite of the people who think they know us. As I see it, fostering low expectations is one of the devil?s most canny, subtle, and successful strategies. But possibly the most important warning of all is - don?t classify yourself. Sometimes we slip into the habit of placing ourselves in those same little boxes. We must walk away from your self-imposed restrictions. We ALL are someone very special, on a journey with Christ where things do become transformed, often through us. I can do no better than remind you of the words of Nelson Mandela. ?Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves ? Who am I to be ? brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous, (and we can add ? a prophet)? Actually, who are you not to be any of those things? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears and doubts, our presence automatically liberates others. There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.? Who knows, we as the prophets of Christ in Tarvin, may someday have acceptance in our own land. And, I would add that we have no right to deny that state of grace to others, who may also be messengers of God, proclaiming the gospel of Christ. AMENFirst century individuals defined themselves in terms of their social and religious groups. The essential aim in life was the recognition as belonging to the group, as shown by others of the same ilk. Any hint of uniqueness, deviation from the typical, or unpredictability, was not welcomed. Those people were immediately a threat to the social cohesion of the community if they didn?t toe the party line. The group was unique, not the representative of the group. And doesn?t that sound very familiar today. Whether it?s a club, or a community, or a congregation, or a committee, peer pressure and recognition is very important. It?s called social capital nowadays. And the necessity for conformity often overrules more mature and considered reaction towards what someone is trying to do.
So why did they reject the messenger? Because they knew him too well. There used to be a piece of folk wisdom that said, ?No man is a hero to his valet.? His weaknesses and foibles and character are too well known. To use the words of the 1662 service, ?from whom no secrets are hidden?. More generally, people say that familiarity breeds contempt. Often those who are familiar with us over the years, take us for granted and don?t expect changes in us, they can be contemptuous of us. And by us, I mean everyone of us, not just those with blue scarves or dog collars.