ROME IMPROVEMENT 7/4/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 6:1-13

Last week, when Jesus returned from the land of the Gerasenes, the crowd gathered around him beside the sea. Jairus came and begged Jesus to come to save his daughter. The crowd impeded Jesus on the way to Jairus’ house and a woman with a hemorrhage was made whole. Jesus finally arrived at Jairus’ house after Jairus’ daughter was dead, but, at the end of the account, the young girl was walking about, and Jesus told her family to give her something to eat.

This week, Jesus returns to his fatherland where he encounters pushback concerning his place among the hometown people.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

He left there and came to the fatherland of him, and his disciples follow him. Sabbath, having been created again, Jesus started to teach in the synagogue. Many, hearing him, were shocked, saying, “From where [do] these [teachings] come, and what [is] the wisdom having been given to him? And the powerful deeds that come into being by his hands? Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the womb-sharer of James and Justus and Juda and Simon? And are not his female womb-sharers here with us?” They were scandalized in him.

And Jesus was saying to them, “No prophet is without honor (celebrity?) except in the fatherland of him, and in his relatives and in the household of him.” And he was not able to do any powerful deeds there. But on a few feeble he laid his hands in caring, and [Jesus] was amazed at their disbelief. [And so,] he was going around the villages teaching.

And he calls before him the twelve and began to send them two-by-two and gave to them the authority over the unclean spirits. [Jesus] charged them in order that they should take nothing for the journey except a walking stick only—no bread, no bag/bindle, nor a money belt, but, strapping on sandals and not to put on two tunics.

And [Jesus] was saying to them, “Wherever you would enter a house, there remain until you would leave from there. And whatever place would not receive you, nor hear you, be walking away from there. Shake off the dust from under your feet as a witness to them. So having gone out, they proclaimed in order that all should repent/change the way they think about the world.  And many demons they were casting out and were anointing many who were sick/feeble/infirm and laid hands upon them in caring.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

There are clearly two parts to this week’s reading. (1) The crowd discounts Jesus’ authority, and (2) Jesus sends the twelve into a disbelieving world of ministry. Less obviously, this passage prepares us for kingdom banquets to come—one of obscene worldly power for a privileged few and another more common meal of abundance for many. The first is in a palace where death is the program, and the other is in a deserted place of new creation living.

The two parts of this week’s passage set the stage for the banquets to come. There is the questioning, disbelieving community, and there is the faithful, following community. What at first glance appears disjointed gives continuity to what will follow.

In the background, the identity of who Jesus is continues to present a challenge. If this is the hometown boy made good, then why are they offended by his teaching, wisdom, and mighty deeds? If this is the bodily resurrected Christ, then there might be some reason for them to wonder at his presence— “We knew you when you were one of us. We mourned when you were crucified. Who do you think you are? Trying to tell us that you are the one we have known? We know you to be a carpenter, a worker with wood, but you come speaking parables and poetry, singing songs of hope. You assume the authorship of life, but we suspect that you are a plotter, conniver, and insurrectionist.

What might our response be to the bodily resurrected Jesus in our lives? Will we have faith and believe? Or will we scoff and suspect? It can’t be both ways. In these thirteen verses, Mark forces the choice.

Will we, with the crowd, continue to bind the strong man as we hang onto only what we know? Or will we trust and go into the world around us, there bearing witness to the liberating world of the resurrection and the hope-filled possibilities of God’s reign in our midst?

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

A friend of mine, who went on retreat to a Lakota reservation, went with a sense that he was going to bring something to the people on the reservation. Things did not go the way he had thought they would, and so he was surprised one day when he and his group were talking with some of the Lakota people.

Part of their conversation that day included this from a Lakota person, “You come to us with your cup full thinking that you have something to give. We wish that you would come with your cup less full so that you had some room in your cup to receive.”

When we enter into relationships believing that our status in that relationship will always be the same, we prevent our relationships from growing. When our expectations of those around us remain constant, we reject the possibility of change. When we believe that we have the abundance that others need, we deprive ourselves of receiving from the abundance of others.

We have been taught as children that it is better to give than to receive, but we need to learn to be present with one another and be willing to receive what others can give. When we learn to receive the hospitality of others, we also learn how to be hospitable to those around us. We can’t be the only ones talking in the room. Sometimes we need to listen.

If it is only about what we bring to the altar, then we can’t appreciate the gifts Christ brings for us. We are called to come with our cups half-full, so that there is some room to receive. Then we can share what we have together.

HANGING THE TRIM

Jesu, Jesu, help us to receive the gifts from our neighbors we have in you.