In the name of the holy, glorious, and undivided ☩ Trinity. Amen.
I remember when I was going through the discernment process to be ordained as a priest and was serving as an intern at a church in Winston-Salem. I was asked to lead a program around questions related to end of life issues. One of my duties was to help people in preparing a document about their intentions so that their families wouldn’t have to be making so many important decisions as they were in the grieving process. Naturally, part of the discussion involved questions about cremations, caskets, and funeral homes. So I asked a local funeral home to come and do a presentation at this parish.
They asked me how many people to expect, I said “maybe 15 to 20.” When I arrived early to help set up, the funeral home director had brought 20 packets of information and enough coffee and doughnuts for 20 people. As an intern in the discernment process, this was the first sort of ministry-related project that I had ever led, and so I was excited about the program that I had put together. When the hour had come for this conversation to begin though, there were two parishioners there. We decided to give everyone a “few” more minutes. A “few” turned into about ten, and we still had two people there. The two dozen doughnuts and jugs of coffee seemed to be staring at me, taunting me. I was embarrassed for thinking that 15 to 20 people would show up. I was disappointed that only two showed up. I was despairing that ministry might be harder than simply leading people to water.
What do you do when you are disappointed? How do you handle having doubt? When you run into opposition, how do you respond? Where do you go once you have felt despair? If you’ve ever cared about anything, loved anyone, or had an opinion, then you know what it means to be disappointed. Whether it’s something as trivial as a recipe not coming out the way you had hoped or something as severe as having the doctor say “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing else that we can do,” to be human is to know disappointment.
In this morning’s passage from Mark, Jesus has arrived in his hometown. Surely, rumors had reached Nazareth that Jesus had been healing people, casting out demons, and teaching provocative things about God. Jesus meets resistance, opposition, and doubt. The people of Nazareth are wondering how it is that Jesus, who they saw grow up, is now doing these sorts of things. Where our text said that “they took offense at him,” the Greek verb is scadalizo. They were scandalized by Jesus’ actions. Other ways to translate that word include “to make someone stumble” or even “to lead into sin.” It’s not merely that they were surprised by Jesus, but rather they were shaken to their cores.
And so they’re trying to make sense of what is going on. They ask “Where did he get all this?” They say “Isn’t he a carpenter? Since when do carpenters cast out demons?” “Isn’t this Mary’s son? No one else in the family seems to have this sort of power, so what is going on?” They’re encountering something new, and they’re doing their best to understand it in terms of their experience. When we put things into boxes, we can get a grip on them. When we label something or someone, we can wrap our minds around it. For one, this is a cautionary tale for us – we ought to be careful about what labels and boxes we use for other people, and especially for God.
One of the courses that I took at Sewanee this summer was called “Images of God in the Bible.” It’s easy to forget, but there are many ways of seeing God in Scripture – God as father, shepherd, and king are some of the more well-known ones. But God as rock, bread, and clothing are just as prevalent in Scripture, but are rarely used. And even when we use common images of God, like father, we tend to stay at the surface level. Generally, we take what we know about fathers and apply it to God. But Scripture has so much more to say, if we’ll let it. In Scripture, God’s fatherhood is portrayed as nurturing and vulnerable, but this is covered up when we superimpose cultural assumptions of masculinity on top of a Biblical image. In short, any name or image of God becomes idolatry when we take it too seriously or definitively. God is bigger than the box of human intellect or language, so we need to be careful about what boxes we put God into.
As you may know, right now the General Convention of The Episcopal Church is meeting in Austin, Texas. One of the central discussions that they are having is about how to include more expansive language about God in our prayers, after all, praying shapes believing. I’ve read through all of these proposed changes. Some of them I really don’t like. Some I could see falling in love with. But that isn’t the point – the point of reconsidering how we think of God isn’t finding which particular names and metaphors we are most comfortable with, but rather it’s about ensuring that we haven’t enclosed God in a box of our own making.
Have you ever been labeled in a way that you didn’t like? Whether it’s being called an insulting name or being put in a constricting box, it’s not fun. It adds insult to injury. Jesus has come home and isn’t greeted warmly, but rather with doubt. He has every reason to be disappointed in their reaction to him. And then on top of that, they’re telling him that he’s just a carpenter – stick to table making and leave religion to the professionals. It’s a disheartening place to be.
Mark records that with the exception of a few healings, “he could do no need of power there.” This says something about the importance of receptivity. You can only receive when your hands are stretched out – but that’s a vulnerable position. When your hands are outstretched, your defenses are lowered and you might not receive what you were hoping for. The people there were not expecting to see the power of God manifest in Jesus, and so they didn’t see it.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, was once speaking to a group of skeptics that said when it seems as if prayer is answered with a miracle, that it’s simply a coincidence. And Temple brilliantly responded – “Well, what I know is that when I pray, coincidences happen; when I don’t, they don’t.”
What is that you expect God to be doing in your life? Watching you from afar? Making a list and checking it twice to judge you? Being a companion on the way? Expectations matter. In the other class that I took at Sewanee, the professor said that the purpose of the Gospels are to teach us to be “on hand for that which is at hand.” In other words, it’s about getting us to open our eyes to the grace of God all around; about enabling us to respond to the coming of God’s reign. And so it really is a question about readiness.
Because Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, are you ready to live generously for God and others? Are you ready to love your enemies, and forgive those who wrong you, and pursue peace? Are you on the lookout for opportunities to love and be joyful? God is extending to you the offer of mercy, peace, and grace. Let those with eyes to see, see it; those with ears to hear, hear it; and those with hearts to love, love it.
Mark records that “Jesus was amazed at their unbelief.” We’ve considered the dangers of putting God into a box and limiting our expectations. But the question remains, what do we do with our disappointment? This passage from Mark would be incomplete if we stopped here, rather, we have to keep reading to see that “Then Jesus went about among the villages teaching… and sent the disciples out two by two.” Jesus was questioned and rejected; nevertheless, he persisted. Like the sower in the parable that Jesus tells, Jesus continues scattering the seeds of the Kingdom. Some seeds fall in good soil and some don’t. Jesus doesn’t seem to be too concerned about that, rather his interest is in getting the seed out there.
We would do well to pay attention to this example. Jesus doesn’t seem to be overly worried about his reputation, his success rate, or the return on his investment. He’s got a message to share – the message of God’s love and he’s going to keep teaching and enacting that message. So often those of us who follow Jesus neglect this example. If we run into any resistance, we stop. If anyone has something negative to say, we back down. If anyone is offended, we are tempted to tone down the Gospel. If we encounter failure, we change our course. We do everything but keep on going, trusting that God is with us.
We are not responsible for the outcome of our ministry, only the faithfulness with which we approach it. Whether it’s our capital campaign, our work at Rowan Helping Ministries, or teaching the faith to our children – we have to realize that the results are simply out of our control. The sooner we can give up that illusion of being in control, the sooner we’ll have to really put our whole faith and trust in God, and the sooner we’ll find God’s amazing grace. We might fail in everything we do, so let’s at least fail faithfully. Let’s devote ourselves to loving God and neighbor, to prayer, to breaking bread, to baptizing people into the faith. We will certainly encounter reasons to despair and be disappointed, but the call of faith is to persist.
At nearly every step of his life, Jesus encountered opposition and disappointment. People didn’t like his teaching, they questioned his authority, his own disciples didn’t understand him, his own people rejected him, his government executed him. And yet, on the third day, love sprang forth again. It reminds us that one of the holiest words in our faith is “and.”
So take courage and be persistent in faith, because there is always an “and.” People had negative things to say about Jesus, and he kept going. Jesus was crucified, and he rose again. God can be seen as our father, and we can call God "mother." Our expectations may be too low, and God will still surprised us with grace. In life you will run into failures and disappointments, and God is with you still. You will encounter resistance, opposition, name-calling, and you are still and always a beloved child of God. Thanks be to God for persistently pursuing us in love, for always inserting an “and” before a period.
