Mark 6:1-13
May the words of my mouth be acceptable to you, O Lord, and encourage us to be ‘sent out’ to spread the Good News. Amen.
We heard in the Gospel:
Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. (Mark 6:1-3)
He was REJECTED by the people who knew him the most – his own hometown! His own neighbors refused to accept his teaching. Imagine if you went home to visit and everyone said:
“We know exactly where you come from, boy! Remember your place!”
As my grandmother used to warn me when I got high and mighty:
“Don’t get too big for your britches!
Jesus went back to preach and teach in his own hometown, and the people there—his own neighbors—refused to accept his teaching. They were listening to the message; they knew he was speaking with wisdom and acting with the power of God, but they rejected him anyway! They got hung up over His social status – he was one of them, not some famous rabbi or theologian. He was a common person, with whom some of them had played, went to school and, even got in trouble.
Ordinary people doing extraordinary things - Jesus was indeed doing some extraordinary things, though he was quite ordinary. He was healing people; he was driving out demons; he was challenging the status quo and confronting the religious establishment.
The people in Jesus’ hometown acknowledged this or at least some of this. They said,
“What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands.”
So what was holding them back? Why couldn’t they join in and be part of the movement of Jesus’ teachings? Why couldn’t they participate with Jesus in what he called the kingdom of God?
They rejected him – afterall,
“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, and
are not his sisters here with us?”
Then Mark added,
And they took offense at him.
They took offense.
Why?
Because they knew his family; because he was a carpenter by trade; because he was so ordinary. How could someone so ordinary be so extraordinary? And this astounded them.
The text says that Jesus was
“amazed at their unbelief”
They could not believe because they could not see, and they could not see because they couldn’t get past how ordinary Jesus was. They couldn’t get past their limited worldview, their narrow vision of reality, and so they couldn’t believe that Jesus could be more than a boy from Nazareth!
But, being rejected did not stop Jesus from following his mission on earth - he kept preaching and teaching his disciples how to follow in his footsteps after he was no longer on the earth. The disciples were not ‘getting it’, but he never gave up – he kept on teaching and preaching and healing.
We all face rejection in our lives, sometimes because of some skill we lack, because we say something that isn’t mainstream, or we support others who may not be a member of ‘the gang’.
What can we do when we face rejection?
Clebe McClary is a wounded Vietnam Veteran who lost an eye and an arm fighting for our country. He had an acrostic he lived by: F.I.D.O. He said it stood for “Forget It and Drive On.”
• Bad things happen in life, he said, and when they do,
F.I.D.O: Forget it and drive on.
• You meet some bad people in life, and when you do,
F.I.D.O: Forget it and drive on.
• You don’t succeed in a task; then,
F.I.D.O: Forget it and drive on.
F.I.D.O: Forget it and drive on.
Theodore Roosevelt once said,
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat” [1].
That same advice applies to each of us – as we try to live in the way Jesus wants.
Even if we don’t recognize them, we have prophets/disciples/apostles in our very midst – they are not always famous or noteworthy or even members of the uppercrust. They may be the person sitting next to you or living on your block.
Prophets tend to be misunderstood by people of their own time and place because they are always calling people to see beyond that time and place. As an example, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is almost universally loved and quoted today by people of all walks of life and political persuasions. However, when he was alive and working for civil rights and against the war in Southeast Asia, he was continually investigated by the FBI, and was called a communist and many other names by many, many people.
When God calls people to be prophets, they seldom become the most popular residents in the neighborhood. They may even be the very young, teens or senior citizens – people we would normally not think of as ‘prophet’ material. Prophets have been, are and likely will continue to be misunderstood. At times they are threatened, slandered and even killed for their trouble.
Jesus directed his disciples to travel from village-to-village teaching, preaching and healing – he knew that they were still untrained and would not always be successful, and people would not always be receptive. When people rejected the prophet, the prophet should go elsewhere, taking the power and the healing and Good News of God with them. In case of rejection, He told the disciples:
Shake off the dust and go on (Mark 6:11)
Or in the words of Clebe McClary:
F.I.D.O: Forget it and drive on.
In some ways, each one of us is a prophet/carrier of Jesus’ message of love.
We need to wake up, shake our neighbors in the pew out of this disbelief. God is at work in the world, saving, transforming, rescuing, even if we cannot see it. We have to ask ourselves:
“Where are we stuck?
Where are we blind?
What is it that keeps us from seeing God at work in ordinary people doing extraordinary things?
What are we missing?”
When we can see ourselves as a beloved child of God and everyone else is just as beloved, then we see and live in reality. Seeing is believing, and seeing is also loving. If we see, we will love. If we do not love, then we do not see and believe.
In life, some of us often feel we don't have a very important role to play. What we do seems so insignificant. It isn't; every Christian has an important part to play in those numerous "little things" we do every day.
Let's renew the way we look at our homegrown prophets. Let's give our young men and young women/elders and those seemingly ordinary people among us another look, another chance. What an opportunity we have to build ‘prophets’ and enrich lives.
I leave you with three questions:
• Who do you think of as prophets today?
• How might God be calling you to proclaim God’s Good News?
• How might God be calling you to be a prophet?
Let us pray:
Dear God, thank you that you use ordinary people like us to do your work on earth. Help us to realize that our part—no matter how small—is a vital part of the whole picture. Open our eyes to your grace at work everywhere. Open our eyes to the gifts of all, so that the richness of your kingdom can become our reality. Amen.
[1] Knute Larson, “Dancing With Defeat,” Leadership, Fall 1993, 104-107
Delivered at Saint John's Episcopal Church, Columbus, OH; 4 July 2021
