Welcome to our 2nd Annual Homecoming Dinner. This is actually my sixth October as pastor and the church itself has existed for 14 years. The reason it is the second homecoming dinner is because we decided to start having one last year. This year 30 past and present members were invited. Eleven decided to accept the invitation. The rest rejected the invitation.
Rejection can really be hard to take sometimes. I have often been told that someone shouldn’t take rejection personally. Sometimes that is very difficult to do. But one thing about rejection is you are in good company.
Beethoven’s music teacher rejected him as ‘hopeless’ at composing.
The Wright brothers extended an invitation to witness one of humanity’s most historic moments – the first flight in a heavier-than-air machine. Five people turned up, the rest rejected them.
Walt Disney was rejected by a Missouri newspaper for "not being creative enough."
A missionary’s daughter battled an almost uncontrollable urge to run out of a church service and reject what she considered appalling preaching by Billy Graham. She remained and they one day married.
I have felt the sting of rejection. I recall going to a homecoming dinner at the church where I was saved. We were forced to quit going because we moved and the cost of travel became too great. At the dinner, we felt unwelcome and rejected. For a time I was meeting with well-educated men using terminology that I did not understand. I felt like an outsider whose thoughts and opinions carried no weight. So I quietly crept away from them and in the past five months not one brother in Christ has reached out to check on me. I have seen numerous people leave over the past six years, some with legitimate reasons, some with a simple “don’t take it personal”, some just disappearing with no explanation. I have felt the rejection of reading in social media the joy felt by some that have visited or settled in another church. I have felt the rejection of my ministry as the financial support dwindles each month. Yes, I have felt rejection. But so have you.
I pretty much knows everyone story that’s here. I know the struggles you have gone through. I have seen your tears. I have prayed with you. Rejection is a common bond to us all. It is an emotion that we share, in one form or another, with each other.
Some of you may be thinking, “What kind of homecoming service is this? Shouldn’t it be more upbeat and joyful?” Reality is not all homecomings go very well. Let’s read Mark 6:1 “Jesus left that part of the country and returned with his disciples to Nazareth, his hometown.”
Jesus has had a very busy schedule since launching his ministry. He has been teaching throughout Galilee. He has been healing people with migraines and leprosy. He has healed those who were paralyzed and born with birth defects. He has driven demons out of people. He has cured those that were dying and raised those that were dead. And in the midst of this, He constantly had to battle the religious leaders.
So Jesus was tired. He wanted to rest. And what better place than home, his hometown where his family lived and the friends He had grown up with. But not all went well with his homecoming.
Mark 6:2 “The next Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. They asked, ‘Where did he get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles?’”
The synagogue, or church, was not like today’s church. There was no main speaker. The men of the town would gather and discuss scriptures from the Torah. If you had something to add, you would stand and share with the others. Jesus was at a place where He felt comfortable sharing his teachings. He was away from Jerusalem and the persecution that had been following him. So He began explaining the scriptures in such a way that they were amazed.
But not amazed in a good way. Today you may be amazed that something I cooked is more popular than something you cooked. Right now we Panther’s football fans are amazed with their record after they only lost two games last year. Being amazed is not always a positive thing. And this is what was happening in his hometown. Jesus had made them look at scripture in a different way. He the light of understanding that convicted some of them.
Here is the problem. Jesus does not have the proper credentials to be preaching this way. He never studied under any Rabbi that we are told. He never went to Rabbi school. He’s not qualified to be teaching this way. And He certainly has not been to medical school. Therefore, He’s practicing medicine without a license. So what did they do? They turned on the one that amazed them.
Mark 6:3 “Then they scoffed, ‘He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.’ They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.”
They scoffed at him. This meant they mocked him. “Who does he think he is? He’s just a carpenter. He isn’t educated in the Holy things. He hasn’t been part of a rabbi’s talmid. No one has trained him. He’s a construction worker. Look at his hands, rough and callous. Those are not the hands of a learned man.”
They despised Jesus because He was a common worker just like them. They were insulted by his knowledge of spiritual matters. They felt He was equal to them in everyway and could not possibly be inspired by God. This led to a bit of gossip.
“You know he’s the son of Mary. Remember the scandal that took place about 30 years ago? She had not performed the marriage ritual with Joseph before she got pregnant. I heard she slept around on him. Either way he is illegitimate. Why should we listen to him?”
Jesus behavior also brought shame to his family. “Look at James, Joseph, Judas, Simon, his sisters. They all stayed where they belonged. There is nothing special about the. Hey you guys, why do you put up with your brother and all of his crazy talk? You need to rein him in.”
Jesus offended them. He acted as if though He was better than they were. And since they knew him so well, they refused to accept his teachings and believe in him.
Aristotle lived from 384 - 322 bc. For centuries people believed that Aristotle was right when he said that the heavier an object, the faster it would fall to earth.
Anyone, of course, could have taken two objects, one heavy and one light, and dropped them from a great height to see whether the heavier object landed first. But no one did until nearly 2,000 years after Aristotle’s death. In 1589 Galileo summoned learned professors to the base of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Then he went to the top and pushed off a ten-pound and a one-pound weight. Both landed at the same instant. The power of belief in the teachings of Aristotle was so strong, however, that the professors denied their eyesight. They continued to say Aristotle was right.
When Jesus preached to His hometown of Nazareth, they heard His words and they had heard of His miracles. Yet, since they “knew” that carpenters don’t speak like this or do miracles, He could not be the Son of God as He claimed to be. Their preconceived notions about Him were enough to blind them to the truth. And so He was rejected. Is reaction to this rejection?
Mark 6:4 “Then Jesus told them, ‘A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family.’”
Jesus has come home for a homecoming. He has been smacked with rejection. His acquaintances, his friends, his cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, even his own mother, brothers, and sisters, have rejected him. Have you ever felt his despair? And this rejection fell back on his hometown.
Mark 6:5 “And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them.” Rejection hurt them more than it hurt Jesus. They had in their midst the answer to all their problems. They had the one who could heal every physical aliment in their town. Instead, the majority chose to reject him. A few chose to believe and not reject him. They were healed. I wonder if they faced rejection when Jesus left.
Let me close with a story. It’s about a boy named Sparky. It was a nickname given to him by an uncle who loved the cartoon strip “Barney Google and Snuffy Smith.” In the strip was a horse named Sparky.
For Sparky, school was all but impossible. He failed every subject in the eighth grade. He flunked physics in high school, getting a grade of zero. Sparky also flunked Latin, Algebra, and English.
He didn't do much better in sports. Although he did manage to make the school's golf team, he promptly lost the only important match of the season. There was a consolation match. He lost that one too.
Throughout his youth, Sparky was socially awkward. He was not actually disliked by the other students; it was just that no one cared that much about him. He was astonished if a classmate ever said hello to him outside of school hours.
There's no way to tell how he might have done with dating, because Sparky never once asked a girl to go out with him while he was in high school. He was too afraid of being turned down.
Sparky was a loser. He, his classmates... everyone knew it. So he rolled with it. Sparky had made up his mind early in life that, if things were meant to work out, they would. Otherwise he would content himself with what appeared to be his inevitable mediocrity of just blending in with the crowd.
However, one thing was import to Sparky: drawing. He was proud of his artwork. Of course, no one else appreciated it.
In his senior year at high school, he submitted some cartoons to the editors of the yearbook. The cartoons were turned down. Despite this particular rejection, Sparky was so convinced of his ability that he decided to become a professional artist.
After completing high school, he wrote a letter to Walt Disney Studios. He was told to send some samples of his artwork, and the subject for a cartoon was suggested. Sparky drew the proposed cartoon. He spent a great deal of time on it and on all the other drawings he submitted.
Finally, the reply came from Disney Studios. He had been rejected once again. Another loss for the loser. So Sparky decided to write his autobiography in cartoons. He described his childhood self: a little boy loser and chronic underachiever. The cartoon character would soon become famous worldwide.
Sparky, the boy who had such lack of success in school, and whose work was rejected repeatedly, was Charles Schulz. He created Peanuts, and the cartoon character whose kite would never fly and who never succeeded in kicking a football – was none other than that of Charlie Brown.
Schulz once told Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show that in high school he failed "everything" and was chronically lonely, that he had bitter memories of his childhood in St. Paul, Minn., memories of bigger kids who "push you down and knock you over and won't let you swing on the swings that you want to swing on." The experiences left such scars, that Schulz "spoke of these bullies in the present tense.”
Those who read the biography were surprised to discover an amazing fact. Not one of the childhood friends that the writer interviewed "could recall any instance where Sparky himself was picked on," he writes. Although talent going unrecognized was central to the legend Schulz created about himself, in fact his teachers and others regarded Sparky as exceptional.
Let me tell you the positive message presented here today. Rejection is often a reflection of how one perceives themselves.
Rejection can be nothing more than perception. Schulz considered himself a loser who could accomplish nothing. The world perceived him a master cartoonist that accomplished all he set out to do.
Remember that church I mentioned at the beginning where we felt rejection? This sermon made me realize that perhaps they felt rejected by us for leaving. Maybe they were the hurt ones.
How did Jesus respond to the rejection He felt at homecoming?
Mark 6:6 “And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then Jesus went from village to village, teaching the people.”
He did not take it personally. They amazed him. He was surprised by their actions. He was astonished by their rejection. But He was not angry. And He was not hurt. He just moved on, from village to village. He went on with his life and his mission.
If you have felt the sting of rejection from others, it’s time to move on. Being hurt and angry accomplishes nothing. Rejoice that God will never reject you. He has great things in store for each of us. But we must leave rejection behind to move forward.
