Sunday, 12 July 2015
Compassion - A Sermon by Kevin Bright
Mark 6.30-34 & 53-56, Ephesians 2.11-22
I was recently fortunate enough to have a few days to explore the city of Bologna. After walking many miles ticking off various tourist sites I was ravenous and spotted a nice deli.
‘Un panino con prosciutto crudo e pomodoro’ I asked the man using my very basic Italian, (a Parma ham and tomato sandwich). The first thing I had to do was decide which type of bread I would like, then I wondered if he had got fed up with my poor Italian as the man walked away but to my relief it was only to put on those blue gloves required to meet food hygiene standards. Next he got the big shoulder of ham and walked it over to the slicing machine, which he switched on and then adjusted the cutting blade several times before producing some wafer thin slices. Next the ham was walked back to the fridge with my slices resting on the machine. Now don’t get me wrong I’m a big fan of the slow food movement but I only wanted a sandwich, it felt like my blood pressure was rising and I was beginning to wonder why everything is so far apart, was he not expecting a customer today, what does he do when there is a queue? He then checked that I wanted tomato, I guess it had been so long since my initial request that he couldn’t remember. As he walked to the end of the shop to pick up two tomatoes my heart sank and what seemed like minutes passed. The tomatoes were individually washed and sliced before being carefully placed on the roll. The prosciutto was added then the roll was placed on a piece of paper and off he went again, it was all taking so long that I thought perhaps he now needed a siesta, but no he came back with a neatly cut piece of tape to seal the paper wrapping and to finish it was placed in a little bag! Well that’s the express version as otherwise I won’t get around to mentioning God and Jesus today.
As I watched the conclusion to this laid back process I began to smile, everything was clean and fresh, carefully prepared and it dawned upon me that I didn’t actually have to be anywhere at any particular time. I needed to slow down and relax when the opportunity was there and the roll was delicious, much better than anything you would buy in a supermarket.
So many of us feel the need to get everything done quickly and move onto the next thing. Even those of us who may not be rushing from one place to the next often feel the need to fill every moment.
Today’s reading follows the sending out of the disciples in pairs by Jesus, you will remember the discussion last week about him instructing them to shake the dust from their feet in the places where they are not made welcome. Then Mark’s gospel tells of the brutal execution of John the Baptist. After that , we get to today when the disciples return from their first missionary journey and are excited to share the news of their journeys. We heard that they ‘told him all that they had done and taught.’ It’s almost as if the disciples were like children with a good school report for their father. Jesus can empathise with the hard work they have done and all they have been through and responds by saying to the disciples, 'Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.'
But the crowds spot them heading of in the boat and hurry on ahead of Jesus and his disciples arriving in the wilderness before them. Now if you were seeking some peace after a lot of hard work and stress, if you even took the trouble of going by boat, how would you feel to arrive at the destination only to be greeted by hordes of people? I have to say that this thought crossed my mind when my cousin arranged for a hundred or more to spring a surprise 70th party on my auntie, what if she just wanted a quiet night out with immediate family?
Anyway if I were one of the disciples I’m sure I’d think to myself enough is enough, I need some ‘me time’ so please can you all leave, but Jesus sees it differently. He looks on the hurrying crowds like the people were sheep without a shepherd. They were “coming and going” and “had no leisure even to eat’. My sandwich maker would be appalled.
Jesus didn’t look upon these people as a nuisance, an unwelcome inconvenience preventing the quiet time he had planned’ he had compassion for them’ because the compassion of God dwelt within him. Whilst it emphasises the shortcomings of many of us ready to focus on our own needs and unwilling to see the needs of others when the time doesn’t suit us it is also a very hopeful message for our relationship with God.
At least one newspaper reported that British tourists on a Greek island complained that their holiday was ruined by the fact that dishevelled refugees who had fled persecution in North Africa were visible in some areas frequented by people who were there to enjoy themselves. Our natural instinct maybe disbelief at how heartless some people are but there is no doubt that many suffer compassion fatigue because of so much dreadful news from around the world. As a coping mechanism many of us block out the fact that each tragedy affects a human body just the same as ours. I guess a lot of us hope to escape reality for a while on holiday and aren’t ready to accept that we have travelled to a place where we come face to face with it instead.
The hopeful message for us is that Jesus was showing how God feels to people who are lost, who don’t know what to believe in or who to follow. People who sometimes get so used to rushing from one thing to the next without really taking time to stop and think.
Perhaps amongst the ‘many things’ Jesus taught the people gathered was about the dangers of rushing from one situation to the next just because that is what everyone else is doing. We can easily get caught up in ways of living which aspire to conform or even exceed the way of the crowd without stopping to think about what really matters. Sometimes we need the courage to step out of the crowd and follow a different course which we know to be better.
If the people were able to take this on board they would become less sheep like, following the flock without any long term plans and more human, able to think for themselves and lead their own lives.
When we take some time for rest and peace we can sometimes see things differently. Away from the treadmill that never stops we are able to stop chasing after more and able to see what we already have, literally we can count our blessings. There is even the possibility of experiencing grateful contentment.
There’s certainly no fun in struggling to meet our daily needs or provide for a family but at the opposite end of the scale what some people will call success others may view as self enforced slavery.
God wants us to take time for rest, time to meet with him, time to appreciate our food and every other aspect of the world he created.
We heard Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians challenging us to think about our bodies.
Of course spiritual thoughts and experiences are wonderful but God came to us in the flesh to show that our physical bodily lives are also central to our relationship with him.
How we treat them, what we do with them all matter. Every individual human across the globe starts and ends their bodily life in the same way even though where the body is born can make a great difference to our life chances.
Paul wants us to think about why we exclude some people from certain things because their bodies don’t look like ours. Perhaps different skin colour, perhaps bodies without the physical capability we have. Then there are bodies which stop working as well as they once did what’s our reaction? Compassion, exclusion, indifference?
In this case the message to the church in Ephesus is that God wants the former Jews and gentiles to come together as a single family in Christ. Gentile Christians were once like foreigners to Israel but because of Jesus they now equal members.
The former Jews were challenged to think beyond the temple in Jerusalem as the place where they could meet God. This was radical stuff for them as it was at the centre of their Jewish lives and rituals but Paul wants them to understand that God wants his home to be in our hearts and minds and bodies, whatever their differences may be.
It’s a reminder as to why our bodies are so important and how they offer the most wonderful possibility to let others become aware that God can dwell in us. When we are moved to compassion and kindness God can be seen at work in us as he was when Jesus took pity upon the crowds that pursued him. The irony is that some of us need to do less in order to realise this potential.
Amen
Kevin Bright
12th July 2015
Compassion - A Sermon by Kevin Bright
Mark 6.30-34 & 53-56, Ephesians 2.11-22
I was recently fortunate enough to have a few days to explore the city of Bologna. After walking many miles ticking off various tourist sites I was ravenous and spotted a nice deli.
‘Un panino con prosciutto crudo e pomodoro’ I asked the man using my very basic Italian, (a Parma ham and tomato sandwich). The first thing I had to do was decide which type of bread I would like, then I wondered if he had got fed up with my poor Italian as the man walked away but to my relief it was only to put on those blue gloves required to meet food hygiene standards. Next he got the big shoulder of ham and walked it over to the slicing machine, which he switched on and then adjusted the cutting blade several times before producing some wafer thin slices. Next the ham was walked back to the fridge with my slices resting on the machine. Now don’t get me wrong I’m a big fan of the slow food movement but I only wanted a sandwich, it felt like my blood pressure was rising and I was beginning to wonder why everything is so far apart, was he not expecting a customer today, what does he do when there is a queue? He then checked that I wanted tomato, I guess it had been so long since my initial request that he couldn’t remember. As he walked to the end of the shop to pick up two tomatoes my heart sank and what seemed like minutes passed. The tomatoes were individually washed and sliced before being carefully placed on the roll. The prosciutto was added then the roll was placed on a piece of paper and off he went again, it was all taking so long that I thought perhaps he now needed a siesta, but no he came back with a neatly cut piece of tape to seal the paper wrapping and to finish it was placed in a little bag! Well that’s the express version as otherwise I won’t get around to mentioning God and Jesus today.
As I watched the conclusion to this laid back process I began to smile, everything was clean and fresh, carefully prepared and it dawned upon me that I didn’t actually have to be anywhere at any particular time. I needed to slow down and relax when the opportunity was there and the roll was delicious, much better than anything you would buy in a supermarket.
So many of us feel the need to get everything done quickly and move onto the next thing. Even those of us who may not be rushing from one place to the next often feel the need to fill every moment.
Today’s reading follows the sending out of the disciples in pairs by Jesus, you will remember the discussion last week about him instructing them to shake the dust from their feet in the places where they are not made welcome. Then Mark’s gospel tells of the brutal execution of John the Baptist. After that , we get to today when the disciples return from their first missionary journey and are excited to share the news of their journeys. We heard that they ‘told him all that they had done and taught.’ It’s almost as if the disciples were like children with a good school report for their father. Jesus can empathise with the hard work they have done and all they have been through and responds by saying to the disciples, 'Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.'
But the crowds spot them heading of in the boat and hurry on ahead of Jesus and his disciples arriving in the wilderness before them. Now if you were seeking some peace after a lot of hard work and stress, if you even took the trouble of going by boat, how would you feel to arrive at the destination only to be greeted by hordes of people? I have to say that this thought crossed my mind when my cousin arranged for a hundred or more to spring a surprise 70th party on my auntie, what if she just wanted a quiet night out with immediate family?
Anyway if I were one of the disciples I’m sure I’d think to myself enough is enough, I need some ‘me time’ so please can you all leave, but Jesus sees it differently. He looks on the hurrying crowds like the people were sheep without a shepherd. They were “coming and going” and “had no leisure even to eat’. My sandwich maker would be appalled.
Jesus didn’t look upon these people as a nuisance, an unwelcome inconvenience preventing the quiet time he had planned’ he had compassion for them’ because the compassion of God dwelt within him. Whilst it emphasises the shortcomings of many of us ready to focus on our own needs and unwilling to see the needs of others when the time doesn’t suit us it is also a very hopeful message for our relationship with God.
At least one newspaper reported that British tourists on a Greek island complained that their holiday was ruined by the fact that dishevelled refugees who had fled persecution in North Africa were visible in some areas frequented by people who were there to enjoy themselves. Our natural instinct maybe disbelief at how heartless some people are but there is no doubt that many suffer compassion fatigue because of so much dreadful news from around the world. As a coping mechanism many of us block out the fact that each tragedy affects a human body just the same as ours. I guess a lot of us hope to escape reality for a while on holiday and aren’t ready to accept that we have travelled to a place where we come face to face with it instead.
The hopeful message for us is that Jesus was showing how God feels to people who are lost, who don’t know what to believe in or who to follow. People who sometimes get so used to rushing from one thing to the next without really taking time to stop and think.
Perhaps amongst the ‘many things’ Jesus taught the people gathered was about the dangers of rushing from one situation to the next just because that is what everyone else is doing. We can easily get caught up in ways of living which aspire to conform or even exceed the way of the crowd without stopping to think about what really matters. Sometimes we need the courage to step out of the crowd and follow a different course which we know to be better.
If the people were able to take this on board they would become less sheep like, following the flock without any long term plans and more human, able to think for themselves and lead their own lives.
When we take some time for rest and peace we can sometimes see things differently. Away from the treadmill that never stops we are able to stop chasing after more and able to see what we already have, literally we can count our blessings. There is even the possibility of experiencing grateful contentment.
There’s certainly no fun in struggling to meet our daily needs or provide for a family but at the opposite end of the scale what some people will call success others may view as self enforced slavery.
God wants us to take time for rest, time to meet with him, time to appreciate our food and every other aspect of the world he created.
We heard Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians challenging us to think about our bodies.
Of course spiritual thoughts and experiences are wonderful but God came to us in the flesh to show that our physical bodily lives are also central to our relationship with him.
How we treat them, what we do with them all matter. Every individual human across the globe starts and ends their bodily life in the same way even though where the body is born can make a great difference to our life chances.
Paul wants us to think about why we exclude some people from certain things because their bodies don’t look like ours. Perhaps different skin colour, perhaps bodies without the physical capability we have. Then there are bodies which stop working as well as they once did what’s our reaction? Compassion, exclusion, indifference?
In this case the message to the church in Ephesus is that God wants the former Jews and gentiles to come together as a single family in Christ. Gentile Christians were once like foreigners to Israel but because of Jesus they now equal members.
The former Jews were challenged to think beyond the temple in Jerusalem as the place where they could meet God. This was radical stuff for them as it was at the centre of their Jewish lives and rituals but Paul wants them to understand that God wants his home to be in our hearts and minds and bodies, whatever their differences may be.
It’s a reminder as to why our bodies are so important and how they offer the most wonderful possibility to let others become aware that God can dwell in us. When we are moved to compassion and kindness God can be seen at work in us as he was when Jesus took pity upon the crowds that pursued him. The irony is that some of us need to do less in order to realise this potential.
Amen
Kevin Bright
12th July 2015
Sunday, 5 July 2015
Trinity 5: Contempt, scorn and derision
“We have had more than enough of contempt, too much of
the scorn of the indolent rich, and of the derision of the proud.” says the
Psalm we read today.
Like most of the Psalms, we don’t know what context these
words were written in or for, but the passion in them is obvious .The Psalm is
at least 2500 years old, but it could have been written at any point in
history. These could have been the words of someone forced to enter a Victorian
workhouse – deliberately humiliating places, designed so that people would do
almost anything to avoid having to enter them. They could be the words of
someone who has to resort to a foodbank today; however well and humanely they
are run, no one uses them for fun. It is hard work to be poor, and depressing,
and tiring and complicated. It makes everything more difficult. It is harder to
access and benefit from education. You have fewer opportunities and less
protection from risk, so it’s harder to try new things. But to add to all that
you also have to contend with those who have never been there, or who have but
have escaped it somehow, and who are often all too ready to sit in judgement,
to assume that those who have
less are less; less valuable, less hard-working, less careful, less conscientious.
The contempt, scorn and derision the Psalmist complained of 2500 years ago is
just as prevalent today as it ever was; you only have to take a look at the
tabloid press to see that.
It was interesting to read that Psalm today alongside the
other Bible readings we heard, because they too had things to say about
poverty. St Paul and Ezekiel both discover that God is with them in times when
they are poor in spirit , battered down by life. God’s strength is made perfect
in weakness, says Paul. In the Gospel Jesus tells his followers to choose material
poverty deliberately. He sends them out on their first mission, with nothing
but the clothes on their backs and a stout stick. No bag, no money, no bread. No
back up if they find themselves homeless, nothing to smooth their way if it all
goes wrong and they have to buy themselves out of trouble. I have heard of
travelling light, but this is something else. …
My guess is that very few of us would be happy setting off like this
anywhere, no matter how resourceful and adventurous we are, let alone to do the
challenging task of preaching and healing. It would seem irresponsible, asking
for trouble. But Jesus is clear. It is as if he is saying “if you get the
baggage issue right the message will follow.”
Why is this? Preachers will often explain it by saying that
it is about the disciples learning to trust in God rather than in their own
strength. That’s a valid and valuable point. But I think that there may be more
to Jesus’ instruction to the disciples to take nothing on their journey than
simply this. I believe he is trying to break the very deeply rooted link that
we all tend to make between material success and the blessing of God.
As the Psalmist said it is easy for people to look down on
those who are poor. We lazily assume that if life is going well for us it is
because we are cleverer or stronger or more hard-working than those who seem to
be failing. There’s nothing wrong with wisdom, strength or hard work, of
course, but the link between those qualities and worldly success is often less
clear and constant than we might like to think. Why do people rise or fall in
the world? The truth is that it is often just as much by luck as judgement.
Success is affected by the family we are born into, the people we encounter
along the way, the good weather that
ripens a vital crop or the bad weather that destroys it. Political instability,war and unjust trading practices tilt the playing field so that some have it
easy while others struggle.Billions of people around the world who work harder
than most of us could ever imagine still live their whole lives in dire
poverty.
We might be able to
overcome a bad start if we have other gifts we can use, like physical strength
or intelligence, but these things are handed out by a genetic lottery; it is no
reflection on our intrinsic worth if we have, or don’t have them. The fact that
some manage to pull themselves up by their bootstraps doesn’t mean that
everyone can – you have to have some bootstraps, for a start. It isn’t fair that it should be so, and we are
all called to right injustice where we can, but there will always be some who
fall between the gaps; it might be others, it might be us, now or in the
future. So it is also important that we learn to talk and think about poverty
in ways which don’t demonise or reject those who find themselves stuck in it.
When Jesus sent out his disciples with nothing it was one
way of breaking the link between economic and personal worth. Effectively he
sent them out as beggars; they would be
dependent on the good will of those they worked among. That has to have been
tough. They weren’t wealthy people, these fishermen and tax collectors, but as
far as we know they weren’t destitute either. I’m sure they took pride and
comfort in being able to provide for themselves and their families. Going out
with nothing was a huge challenge to them, not just in material terms, but
because it made them look at themselves afresh. It forced them to discover how
much of their sense of self-worth was tied up with having a decent income and a
secure background and the respect of those around them. There’s no promise in
this passage that they would always find a welcome on their travels – if there
was Jesus wouldn’t need to tell them what to do when they weren’t welcomed.
This wasn’t a test of their faith in God, designed to show them that if they
believed firmly enough they would always find themselves with a three course
meal and a comfy bed at the end of the day. It was a confrontation with
reality, with the insecurity and fear that stalks human life and which we all,
sooner or later, have to deal with.
It mattered that they sorted this out, because they would
certainly face opposition and hatred later. Many were arrested, tortured and
killed for their faith – they lost everything, including their good names. It
was the same for Jesus. We tend to think of Jesus and the disciples as good
guys, but to many at the time they were dangerous blasphemers, bad influences
whose needed to be silenced. The story that the Gospel reading began with gave
us a glimpse of this danger.
Jesus had been preaching in his own home town. The people
who heard him were astounded, but evidently not in a good way. “Who does he think
he is?” the crowd asked. He was just a carpenter – not someone who had been through
the theological training of a Rabbi. What was more they described him as “the
son of Mary”. People in that patriarchal culture would usually have referred to
people as sons of their father, not their mother, even if the father was dead.
To call him the son of Mary implies that that there is something distinctly
questionable about his parentage. Mark’s Gospel, the earliest one we have,
doesn’t have any stories about Jesus’ conception or birth. It doesn’t mention Joseph
at all or any other father. We have to
wait for Matthew and Luke’s Gospels for the familiar Christmas stories. Mark
doesn’t seem to have heard of the Virgin Birth. It is reasonable to assume that
Jesus’ neighbours in Nazareth thought he was illegitimate – that’s the
implication of what they say here. That would have been a cause of stigma at
the time. Whether it was true or not is neither here nor there – it was what
people believed, and maybe what Mark believed too. His birth was only the
beginning of Jesus’ humiliation, though. He would go on to die a shameful
public death on the cross, a means of execution deliberately designed to
humiliate and to expose criminals to mockery.
So if Jesus’ disciples thought that following him would
bring them honour and respect, and that this would be proof that he was sent
from God, they needed to think again. For their own sake, as well as the sake
of those they would be ministering to, they needed to learn that material
success and popular acclaim weren’t signs of God’s blessing, and that lack of them
weren’t signs of God’s curse.
“Blessed are the poor,” said Jesus. We are very used to
those words, but they weren’t obvious at all to those who first heard them. It
was a message that had an electrifying effect on those who first heard it
though. The crowds who flocked to Jesus, and those who made up the early church
were disproportionally made up of the poor, slaves, women and others who would
have been disadvantaged in their world. They knew good news when they heard it, and
the news that they – even they - especially they – were blessed and loved by
God was like water in a desert. They found new dignity in following Jesus’ way.
They discovered the truth that set them free, that they were of infinite worth
to God, however much contempt, scorn and derision the world heaped on them.
It is a message which is as important now as it was then. It
is important whether we think of ourselves as poor or rich in the world’s terms,
because the truth is that all of us are both at some stage. Sooner or later we
all have to face situations in which we don’t have what we need, whether that
is money, health or status. However charmed a life we may seem to lead none of
us is invulnerable. Whether we are rich or poor, contempt, scorn and derision
are no part of God’s view of us, and they should be no part of our view of
others, and no part of our view of ourselves either when trouble strikes.
Instead we are called to open our hands and hearts to one
another, in our need and in our riches, in our weakness and in our strength, so
that together we can rejoice in and share the limitless generosity and grace of
God. Amen
Trinity 5: Contempt, scorn and derision
“We have had more than enough of contempt, too much of
the scorn of the indolent rich, and of the derision of the proud.” says the
Psalm we read today.
Like most of the Psalms, we don’t know what context these
words were written in or for, but the passion in them is obvious .The Psalm is
at least 2500 years old, but it could have been written at any point in
history. These could have been the words of someone forced to enter a Victorian
workhouse – deliberately humiliating places, designed so that people would do
almost anything to avoid having to enter them. They could be the words of
someone who has to resort to a foodbank today; however well and humanely they
are run, no one uses them for fun. It is hard work to be poor, and depressing,
and tiring and complicated. It makes everything more difficult. It is harder to
access and benefit from education. You have fewer opportunities and less
protection from risk, so it’s harder to try new things. But to add to all that
you also have to contend with those who have never been there, or who have but
have escaped it somehow, and who are often all too ready to sit in judgement,
to assume that those who have
less are less; less valuable, less hard-working, less careful, less conscientious.
The contempt, scorn and derision the Psalmist complained of 2500 years ago is
just as prevalent today as it ever was; you only have to take a look at the
tabloid press to see that.
It was interesting to read that Psalm today alongside the
other Bible readings we heard, because they too had things to say about
poverty. St Paul and Ezekiel both discover that God is with them in times when
they are poor in spirit , battered down by life. God’s strength is made perfect
in weakness, says Paul. In the Gospel Jesus tells his followers to choose material
poverty deliberately. He sends them out on their first mission, with nothing
but the clothes on their backs and a stout stick. No bag, no money, no bread. No
back up if they find themselves homeless, nothing to smooth their way if it all
goes wrong and they have to buy themselves out of trouble. I have heard of
travelling light, but this is something else. …
My guess is that very few of us would be happy setting off like this
anywhere, no matter how resourceful and adventurous we are, let alone to do the
challenging task of preaching and healing. It would seem irresponsible, asking
for trouble. But Jesus is clear. It is as if he is saying “if you get the
baggage issue right the message will follow.”
Why is this? Preachers will often explain it by saying that
it is about the disciples learning to trust in God rather than in their own
strength. That’s a valid and valuable point. But I think that there may be more
to Jesus’ instruction to the disciples to take nothing on their journey than
simply this. I believe he is trying to break the very deeply rooted link that
we all tend to make between material success and the blessing of God.
As the Psalmist said it is easy for people to look down on
those who are poor. We lazily assume that if life is going well for us it is
because we are cleverer or stronger or more hard-working than those who seem to
be failing. There’s nothing wrong with wisdom, strength or hard work, of
course, but the link between those qualities and worldly success is often less
clear and constant than we might like to think. Why do people rise or fall in
the world? The truth is that it is often just as much by luck as judgement.
Success is affected by the family we are born into, the people we encounter
along the way, the good weather that
ripens a vital crop or the bad weather that destroys it. Political instability,war and unjust trading practices tilt the playing field so that some have it
easy while others struggle.Billions of people around the world who work harder
than most of us could ever imagine still live their whole lives in dire
poverty.
We might be able to
overcome a bad start if we have other gifts we can use, like physical strength
or intelligence, but these things are handed out by a genetic lottery; it is no
reflection on our intrinsic worth if we have, or don’t have them. The fact that
some manage to pull themselves up by their bootstraps doesn’t mean that
everyone can – you have to have some bootstraps, for a start. It isn’t fair that it should be so, and we are
all called to right injustice where we can, but there will always be some who
fall between the gaps; it might be others, it might be us, now or in the
future. So it is also important that we learn to talk and think about poverty
in ways which don’t demonise or reject those who find themselves stuck in it.
When Jesus sent out his disciples with nothing it was one
way of breaking the link between economic and personal worth. Effectively he
sent them out as beggars; they would be
dependent on the good will of those they worked among. That has to have been
tough. They weren’t wealthy people, these fishermen and tax collectors, but as
far as we know they weren’t destitute either. I’m sure they took pride and
comfort in being able to provide for themselves and their families. Going out
with nothing was a huge challenge to them, not just in material terms, but
because it made them look at themselves afresh. It forced them to discover how
much of their sense of self-worth was tied up with having a decent income and a
secure background and the respect of those around them. There’s no promise in
this passage that they would always find a welcome on their travels – if there
was Jesus wouldn’t need to tell them what to do when they weren’t welcomed.
This wasn’t a test of their faith in God, designed to show them that if they
believed firmly enough they would always find themselves with a three course
meal and a comfy bed at the end of the day. It was a confrontation with
reality, with the insecurity and fear that stalks human life and which we all,
sooner or later, have to deal with.
It mattered that they sorted this out, because they would
certainly face opposition and hatred later. Many were arrested, tortured and
killed for their faith – they lost everything, including their good names. It
was the same for Jesus. We tend to think of Jesus and the disciples as good
guys, but to many at the time they were dangerous blasphemers, bad influences
whose needed to be silenced. The story that the Gospel reading began with gave
us a glimpse of this danger.
Jesus had been preaching in his own home town. The people
who heard him were astounded, but evidently not in a good way. “Who does he think
he is?” the crowd asked. He was just a carpenter – not someone who had been through
the theological training of a Rabbi. What was more they described him as “the
son of Mary”. People in that patriarchal culture would usually have referred to
people as sons of their father, not their mother, even if the father was dead.
To call him the son of Mary implies that that there is something distinctly
questionable about his parentage. Mark’s Gospel, the earliest one we have,
doesn’t have any stories about Jesus’ conception or birth. It doesn’t mention Joseph
at all or any other father. We have to
wait for Matthew and Luke’s Gospels for the familiar Christmas stories. Mark
doesn’t seem to have heard of the Virgin Birth. It is reasonable to assume that
Jesus’ neighbours in Nazareth thought he was illegitimate – that’s the
implication of what they say here. That would have been a cause of stigma at
the time. Whether it was true or not is neither here nor there – it was what
people believed, and maybe what Mark believed too. His birth was only the
beginning of Jesus’ humiliation, though. He would go on to die a shameful
public death on the cross, a means of execution deliberately designed to
humiliate and to expose criminals to mockery.
So if Jesus’ disciples thought that following him would
bring them honour and respect, and that this would be proof that he was sent
from God, they needed to think again. For their own sake, as well as the sake
of those they would be ministering to, they needed to learn that material
success and popular acclaim weren’t signs of God’s blessing, and that lack of them
weren’t signs of God’s curse.
“Blessed are the poor,” said Jesus. We are very used to
those words, but they weren’t obvious at all to those who first heard them. It
was a message that had an electrifying effect on those who first heard it
though. The crowds who flocked to Jesus, and those who made up the early church
were disproportionally made up of the poor, slaves, women and others who would
have been disadvantaged in their world. They knew good news when they heard it, and
the news that they – even they - especially they – were blessed and loved by
God was like water in a desert. They found new dignity in following Jesus’ way.
They discovered the truth that set them free, that they were of infinite worth
to God, however much contempt, scorn and derision the world heaped on them.
It is a message which is as important now as it was then. It
is important whether we think of ourselves as poor or rich in the world’s terms,
because the truth is that all of us are both at some stage. Sooner or later we
all have to face situations in which we don’t have what we need, whether that
is money, health or status. However charmed a life we may seem to lead none of
us is invulnerable. Whether we are rich or poor, contempt, scorn and derision
are no part of God’s view of us, and they should be no part of our view of
others, and no part of our view of ourselves either when trouble strikes.
Instead we are called to open our hands and hearts to one
another, in our need and in our riches, in our weakness and in our strength, so
that together we can rejoice in and share the limitless generosity and grace of
God. Amen
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