RonBlog

Sunday 8th July.2012 Sixth Sunday after Pentecost Sentence Of Jesus, many said, ‘What is this wisdom that has been given to Him? What deeds of power are done by His hands!’ Mark 6: 2 Collect O Lord our God, You are always more ready to bestow Your good gifts upon us that we are to seek them, and more willing to give than we either desire or deserve; in our every need, grant us the first and best of all Your gifts, the Spirit that makes us Your children. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen Old Testament Lesson 2 Samuel 5: 1 – 5 and 9-10 All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, "Look, we are your bone and flesh. For some time, while Saul was king over us, it was you who led out Israel and brought it in. The LORD said to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel." So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years. David occupied the stronghold, and named it the city of David. David built the city all around from the Millo inward. And David became greater and greater, for the LORD, the God of hosts, was with him. Psalm 48 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised: in the city of our God High and beautiful is His holy hill: it is the joy of the whole earth On Mount Zion where godhead truly dwells, stands the city of the Great King: God is well known in her palaces as a sure defence. For the kings of the earth assembled: they gathered together and came on They saw and were struck dumb: they were astonished and fled in terror Trembling took hold of them, and anguish: as on a woman in her travail Like the breath of the east wind: that shatters the ships of Tarshish As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts: in the city of our God, which God has established for ever. We have called to mind Your loving-kindness O God: in the midst of Your temple As Your name is great, O God, so also is Your praise: even to the ends of the earth Your right hand is full of victory-let Zion’s hill rejoice: let the daughters of Judah be glad because of Your judgements Walk about Zion, go round about her and count all her towers: consider well her ramparts, pass through her palaces That you may tell those who come after that such is God: our God for ever and ever, and He will guide us eternally Epistle 2 Corinthians 12: 2 – 10 I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows-- was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong. GOSPEL Mark 6: 1 – 13 Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offence at him. Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honour, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. © New Revised Standard Version of the Bible Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. All rights reserved NOTES ON THE READINGS Old Testament When modern readers look at this story of David, they need to realize that here was a person who became very much the favourite, the idol of the nation. Partly this unfolded because David was one of the little people, so to speak, one of them. His reign contrasted greatly with that of Saul, who started off well but sank into insanity and folly. David was never a saint, but he did have great care for his people. You will be aware of the fact that the Hebrew expectation of Messiah stemmed from this time of David, which was around 1000BC as a rough guide. David’s reign was somewhat propagandized (as was the psalm if you think about it!) and idealized. But as someone once said, we live more by our myths that we do our realities. Psalm I think I have been rude enough about the psalm already Epistle This is one of those passages that reveals quite a lot about the Apostle, and while it may sound a little kinky or weird, I have to say that I have encountered people – in my lifetime – whose experiences are not all that dissimilar. Such people are a little fey, and while I would not put a lot of weight on his description, I am fascinated by what follows: there seems to be that great leveller for the Apostle that stopped him from ‘going over the top.’ Huge debate has raged often about what it was – Paul’s thorn in the flesh. All manner of ideas and guesses have been offered, and the real point lies in the fact that it kept his feet firmly on the ground. The final outcome, as he describes it here, is fascinating. ‘My strength is made complete in weakness’ Jesus tells Paul – and one has to say that this rings very truly indeed. Whenever the Church has been strong, it has been very much the opposite. Strength becomes pride, becomes destructive and contra-Gospel. And the opposite is true also. One of the aspects of life that present-day Christians need to absorb and understand, that just as at present in this culture at least, when the Church is really remarkably weak, then the search is on to get back to basics, to grass-root Gospel, and while that makes us weak, it also makes us far more relevant. DO not fear, is a Biblical common comment. GOSPEL As we saw last week with Jesus’ healings, we encounter a Person very much ahead of His time in attitude and action. Today’s Gospel underlines that foresightedness and clear direction, and my first comment on that is to wonder then why the Church of God, in this day and age as in others, is so hung up in the past, backward looking, lacking both initiative and foresight, and certainly not facing the future as it shapes up in front of us. Small wonder, then, that the majority of people in our culture are not listening. NOTES FOR A SERMON Something has become quite a relatively common event over recent years – where people in and of the Church keep wondering why there seems to be an increasing lack of response to the Faith. It is a worry for some, as nothing like this drain has been part of their experience, it would seem, and any sense of hope for the future tends to be fading. However, I have been trying to push the proverbial wind uphill, pointing people to a series of realities, most of which sound foreign to them. One very real starting point for such a discussion, surely, is today’s Gospel. What makes the impact of this story rather greater is the fact that it is pinpointed to the place where Jesus grew up, where people knew Him, were familiar with Him, and many of them may well have been childhood mates. Now one might say that familiarity breeds contempt, but seems to me that the issue runs rather deeper than that. Here lies an outright and very deep-seated rejection of a person they thought they knew, the real reason being rather deeper than that. There was nothing out of the ordinary for a male member of the synagogue to be given the right to read from the Scriptures and to preach to the congregation. No doubt such a privilege was not offered to any Tom, Dick or Harry, but would be to someone respected or well-known or well-attached. There is an interesting Jewish conundrum that applied in situations such as this: if a person was not well known or had not visible accreditation then there were grounds for rejection. One needed a fairly solid basis to be accepted as a person of some value. So when one’s background was known, then acceptance was really only a matter of course. But here the situation was reversed; in spite of our Lord having been known, along with His family, people turned their backs in droves. One is left wondering why! Well, not really, if one understands the human capacity for reversing normality if it means heading in an unfamiliar or uncertain direction. You will recall another incident in the ministry of Jesus when His own family members came to try and lead Him home and out of danger, because they feared for His sanity. (Maybe it was a case of fearing for the insanity of His potential hearers.) But they were fairly sure He was off His rocker, and they were feeling somewhat under pressure to get Him out of circulation. ‘Tis a funny thing that! One might wonder why something as inoffensive as ‘religion’ could become a threat to anyone! However, the Gospel has rather more kick to its impact that anything just lovey-dovey! All that talk of the Kingdom, and the direction one takes to respond to the Kingdom is not exactly an easy path to follow or an easy choice for people to make. And there lies the real issue. The Gospel, the Kingdom, is about the huge issue of finding a viable response to the vast tangle in human relationships brought about by the dysfunction in relationships that tends to disfigure our lives and our familles and nations. It is not an easy option to follow, and – like any religion, one supposes, - it can be distorted easily from something designed and meant to be reconciling, into something harsh and divisive. Most religious history, and that includes (in spades!) Christian history, is scarred deeply with all manner of horrific events and ugliness, and there is no hiding from that. In fact, one of the things one learns from looking back over 2,000 years of Christian history is not just that mentioned above: there is a constant rise and fall graph of the strength and weakness of the Christian Church, with a sad commentary when what we may call the peaks appear. The reality is that when the Church is strongest, it is actually at its weakest. Strength then is seen as power and control, and that is the absolute antithesis of the Gospel. Repeat – antithesis. Oddly enough when the Church is weakest, it is far more likely to reflect the Gospel more truly, serving instead of ruling, caring instead of dogmatizing, reflecting the character of the Father rather more clearly. When was Jesus at His weakest – if I can put it that way? The answer is ‘on the Cross.’ That Cross is the symbol of utter rejection by the populace of the time, glad to get rid of One Who was pointing to the need for radical change, away from self-serving to self-giving. And that was far too much for those with a power base to protect. One would like to spread one’s wings rather wider to get the picture clearest - but if there is one thing that reverberates so totally constantly throughout the latter part of the Old Testament and all through the New it is that matter of justice, truth, integrity and compassion. But we live in a world where self-aggrandizement is the order of the day (as it has been often right back as far as Amos, or even Cain and Abel!) And when one lives in a world like that, one can expect that the Faith and the Church will get little other than ‘bad press.’ Mind you, in all honesty. One has to say that quite some of the present criticism is justified, as some Christian clergy and others have been guilty of the most disreputable misbehaviour and evil. While none of us are perfect, Charlie Brown, least of all me, there have been utterly shameful things perpetrated on the young, the old and the female of the species. What am I saying? That in spite of the faults and failures of human Christians, the Faith remains the most positive and effective answer to the world’s issues. Religion and politics not only DO mix, but MUST mix, but not by being pressed on people. Each of us are free to choose, even to choose foolishly, but I live with the conviction that when and whenever the Faith is lived and preached honestly, there will be people who will respond and become disciples of He Whom to me is the only One Who makes sense of life as we live it. The first Bishop I had when we came to South Australia close to 50 years ago, wagged his finger at me, staring through his one good eye, and demanded that I never play the numbers game. I’d sort of apologized in advance that the congregation where we were may be quite small at the service when he was present, and he was not interested in numbers. Ever since, I have tended to see things the same way. The Church may shrink for a while; the Faith will not. But the shrinking also has its uses, from where I sit. The ‘problem’ for the Church right here and now is to re-examine its teaching, its preaching, its actions and attitudes, to get back to grass-roots and to the Biblical faith. Leave the rest to God, O.K?