“How To Take It All In?” Ephesian 33:14-22

We’re not really sure how to do it when it comes upon us.   How does one take it all in?   You’ve likely had such an experience, somewhere in your life, perhaps more than once.   The experience that overwhelms, that you have a hard time “taking in.”

It’s the experience one has at the birth of your child.  For months you go through stages of preparation, wondering about it, experiencing the changes in the body, the moods and the relationship with spouse and the extended family, but none of that ever quite prepares you for that moment when the fragile new life is placed within your arms.

How do you take this all in?  This moment?  This feeling?   This awe?  This responsibility? This joy and fear all wrapped up into one?

Or it might be the moment of graduation from school, be it high school, college, or graduate school.  The years of experiences all rolled into that moment of a few steps across a stage, a handshake and a piece of paper (or even empty placard – you get the diploma later!)  It is all handed to you and it is like receiving your whole life.

How do you take it all in?   This moment of going from who you were to who you are about to become?   How do you take in the transition from someone who has had to meet requirements and regimented goals, and who has been told what they can and cannot do up to this point.   This moment when suddenly you are responsible for your own life and advancement, with all the rights, privileges and fears thereof?   You will now be making decisions on your own that will have effect on your whole life!  How do you take that in?

Or, it might be that milestone achievement within a career.   The moment when you hit the pinnacle, when you win the award, when you make the difference you always hoped you would make, and are honored or recognized for an achievement.   You want to dwell there, bask a bit, but you also feel the pressure to move on, to do more.  How do I top this?  Where do I go from here?

Or perhaps the milestone is the moment when your retirement is final, and you move from the regiment of achievement and striving toward measured goals to stepping back or stepping away from what it is that has likely defined your very identity for decades.

How do you take this in?

The relief and joy of not having to punch a clock or file the paperwork ever again, but also that empty feeling of wondering what comes next, and just who and what you are now that you are no longer defined by a job or a title?

It helps to imagine forward sometimes in situations like these.    Try to imagine what it might be like.

You imagine what it will be like to be a parent, take the kids to ball games, Disney, etc.

You imagine what it will be like to finally snag that ideal job, win that award, what you think it will feel like when you are successful.

You imagine what it will be like to finally retire and have all the freedom it will afford.

But all you can do is imagine.  What it will actually look like is never quite what you imagine, and you know that.

In Ephesians the author is trying to get us to use that same kind of “forward thinking imagination” not to consider your future or your own life, but rather God’s love and hopes for you.

“Plant your feet firmly in love and take in if you can all the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love.”   The author says.

How does one do that?  How do you take all that in?

I suspect one does it the same way one does the other kind of creative imagination.   It is a mixture of what you observe in others and what you experience yourself along the way.

“Plant your feet firmly in love” the author implores, but he does so after revealing that he is praying fervently for these people in Ephesus.

So one part of this creative imagination is getting in tune with the experience and observation of others.

They see the graciousness, the love this author has for them in his writings, and that gives them an access point to think about this love of God.

This love that brings the author to his knees, … not in fear or terror, but in awe of the God who loves and who provides all things and blesses.

This is an access point is it not?

It’s not unlike looking to our own parents when your own child is laid in your arms.   They got through this, they did all right, they are there for me… there is richness of experience already placed within me just by being nurtured by them.

It’s not unlike looking across the stage at those professors who taught you, and who beam now at you in pride.  They made this journey themselves and look at where they are!

You can do the walk as well.

You can imagine what lies in your future because of what they have shared of themselves with you.

It’s not knees that they bow, but caps in recognition of what they see in your future as they hand that token of recognition to you.

It’s an access point, not unlike the encouragement of co-workers or well wishes of colleagues who believed in you and who worked beside you to bring you to this future.

None of us gets to see what the future holds ahead of time.

What we are privileged to see is the kind of gift of inner strength that is conferred through love, relationship, and encouragement.

So the author of Ephesians wants us to imagine how much God is pulling for us.

 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

I don’t think we hear encouragement like that nearly often enough.

I think the propensity in our world is to point out shortcomings, and faults, and to evaluate based upon where further growth is required.  When the world speaks, it most often says “do better next time.”

The net result of that is to fall into a kind of scarcity thinking that clouds our vision of the future.

We’re always assuming that whatever it is we need, there just isn’t enough of to go around.

Scarcity tries to make things precious by convincing you that there is a finite quantity of this, and so for you to get yours it must be taken from someone else, denied to someone else.

Gold markets thrive in scarcity thinking.

Diamonds are considered precious because they are rare and difficult to obtain.  DeBoer’s capitalized on that to put one on the finger of every fiancé or wife as a sign of their value or worth, “how much I love you.”

I imagine that it comes as really bad news to DeBoer’s that scientists now understand that there are trillions of tons of diamonds 150 miles down.  They are not rare, just hard to get to.

God will have none of that scarcity thinking.

For God, blessing is expansive, and love is a commodity that increases in value the more of it that is spread around.   For God, the resources of love are unlimited, and potential for more is always increasing, and it is out of the abundance of God’s grace and love that there is more than enough for all.

Ponder that, the next time you get to the end of a nature show and they start the inevitable downbeat trend of how fragile this world is.

That is nonsense.

The earth will carry on quite merrily for at least another 7.6 billion years until it is consumed in the corona as our Sun becomes a Red Giant.   Our demise is not because things running out, but rather because they become too full!  The Sun moving from hydrogen to Helium for fuel, and now too full of Helium to remain its old size and shape!

Whether humankind will be around, or the current flora and fauna configuration, well that’s another matter.

That will depend upon our capacity to move from scarcity thinking to expansive, love filled thinking.   Do we care enough about the wonder of this world to love it, preserve it, or will we fall into the scarcity thinking that drives the acquisition of resources and the accumulation of wealth.

The earth won’t end with us, it will just transition beyond us… which is again not a matter of things running out but rather God being too gracious with pouring out things!

The author of Ephesians invites us to try to get our heads around the expansiveness of God and God’s grace, but not in abstract, but rather in how it applies to you.

The power to work within you!

The power to accomplish abundantly!

The power to do far more than we can ever imagine, and far greater things than we could ever ask for!

This is the invitation today.

Engage in some creative imagination on the limitless love and goodness of God, and how God’s great desire is to channel all of that right through you to make a difference in this world.

We’re really not sure how to take all of that in, are we?

That’s why we’re in this together, and why we have a choice to make every day.

We can join with the voices of this world that turn to fear, scarcity, exclusion and try to use those things to make us afraid as well, and make us cower back, make us lose our imagination.

“Maybe they’re right, maybe there’s not enough…”

Or, we can listen to the author of Ephesians and consider for just one moment the height and depth and breadth and fullness of God’s love for this world, and then look around us at those who have encouraged us, prayed for us, believed in us, and passed this message on to us as a message to be shared with a scared and scarred world.

Can you dare to imagine what it would look like if acted as if God’s love was inexhaustible, and given for all?

Can you dare to imagine living into that future, with your next action, your next decision?

“Walls or Calls?” Ephesians 2:11-22

Christ brought us together through his death on the cross.

The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility.

Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

That’s plain enough, isn’t it?

 

I hope you’re finding Eugene Peterson’s translation helpful as we make our way through the book of Ephesians.

The apostle Paul and those who followed in his writing style were masters of the Greek language with all of its nuance.  In Greek one communicates emphasis by piling up clauses and expanding thoughts.

It never quite comes across the same in English.

We tend to stumble over the jumble of complex sentences and get lost in what the author believes they are making quite clear.

So, it is that the reworking by Eugene Peterson into shorter thoughts helps me immensely as the author tries to speak to this fractured community, where division and distinction and conflict have been so deeply ingrained.

“The cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of hostility.”

I’ve been pondering just that phrase.  From our perspective down range of the events of Jesus, we tend to think of the Cross and the events of Jesus’ Crucifixion as matters for theological consideration.

What did Jesus do on the Cross?  That’s the question we ask.

Was this Atonement by Satisfaction?  God demanding someone or something to make things right?

Was this “Tricking the devil?”  (You can’t REALLY kill God!)   Christus Victor over all?

Was this some Substitutionary action?  Jesus putting himself in our place so we wouldn’t have to suffer like this?

We usually debate the crucifixion of Jesus clinically, and from a safe historical distance.

But try to imagine this story a bit differently.

Try to imagine it from the perspective of an outsider to the situation hearing the story of Jesus for the first time, and then measuring their reaction to it.

“This Jesus was an itinerant teacher, he healed the sick, fed people, cast out demons and proclaimed love, and they did WHAT to him???”

Tragedies tend to unite us, pull us together, give us a unified vision.   Think of the Cross less as something to debate as to how it works, and more as a story of injustice done, a tragedy witnessed, and how you would react to it.

Think of a few recent tragic news stories, and how you reacted to that news.

Think of the news when you first heard it from the border, that a policy change had meant Border Patrol was no longer admitting families and letting them stay together as they processed their request for asylum, but now were enforcing a policy of separation, and removing children from their parents, with no clear plan for reuniting the family.

I’m not asking for a debate about policy, or “rightness” or “legality”… just your visceral response.

Did you think about that?

Did you think, “About time someone took care of this situation!”

Or did you think, “WHAT?”  They are breaking apart families?!

Or, (on a less controversial scale) perhaps you heard the story from Minneapolis of the 14 year old young black man who decided to be entrepreneurial and who opened up a little hot dog stand for the summer in his neighborhood.

Someone called the police on his operation.   He had no food vendor license, after all.

What is your first reaction to that?

Is it “Well they should shut him down such a health risk!”

Or did you think “WHAT???  Kids have been doing lemonade and kool aid stands for years!

That’s what is going on in Ephesians.

You have in the community of Ephasus these two groups of believers.

One set of believers come to the story of Jesus from the perspective of being Jews.  They are well acquainted with the nuance of the law, the demands of the covenant, the dietary restrictions, the festivals, and the keeping of the traditions.

For them, the story of Jesus is one of an insider debate.  Was he Messiah or not?  How did he fulfill the law?  We’re on “this” level in conversation about the events of Jesus, because we have all this insider knowledge from years of being in the tradition.

We’re not Galileans, not emotionally invested in the story of Jesus.  For us this is a question of how he fits into the grand scheme of how God has been at work for generations.

But there is another set of believers who have come to Jesus because of the teaching of the apostles.  They are Gentile outsiders to the community of faith, curious and ready to receive the teachings of Jesus but a little confused by all the other precepts and commands of the old covenant, and not really sure how any or all of that might apply to them.

They know nothing of what is referred to as the “rich history” of God at work with God’s people.  They know only that Jesus was someone who had regard for them in their station in life, and that what he talks about is “good news” to them.

They are like the strangers in the church kitchen, if you will.

They want to help.

They are eager to be involved.

They are willing and ready workers… but they haven’t got a clue as to where anything is usually kept or where anything goes after you’re done using it, and so they put things where they think it would be good to put them.

That, of course, upsets the folks who have used this kitchen their whole life and who KNOW where things ought to be kept, have always been kept!

These two groups end up irritating one another.

Conflict ensues.

Now there are two ways to resolve such conflict of course.

The human propensity is to revert to the restraint of the law.   We can build walls, label the cabinets, scold when we find something out of place, or ban from use altogether.

Walls are easy to erect.

But the author of Ephesians offers another vision of what God has done, which is to build something new.

Not a wall that separates, but rather a new household, a new structure.

This is hard work, of course, but this is what the Cross is all about.

The Cross is a tragedy.  No one should ever die in such a way, we can all agree on that even when we can’t agree on just exactly what mechanism for salvation was happening there.

“The Cross got us to embrace.”

“The Cross “reconciled us in one body.”

That’s the way it is and should be with tragedy, and God knows that.

The Duck Boat sinks and lives are lost and we all pull together, mourning the loss of so many members of the Coleman family.   In southern Missouri, where race relations are not always stellar, this we can agree upon.   No one should have to watch their whole family drown in front of them.

The pictures come from the border, and we hear the cries of the children in the detention centers, and the anquished tears of parents who do not know where their children are or how to contact them, and whether you agree with the policy or not, this we can agree upon. No child should be forcibly taken from their parents in this manner, and no parent should live in the terror of not knowing how to reconnect with their child.

The young black man showing initiative, trying to find a way to earn a living in a North Minneapolis neighborhood with few opportunities before him is reported, and we are in agreement on this.  No one trying to better themselves should have to put up with discriminatory calls or have opportunities taken away from them, no matter what their skin color.

In the face of tragedy boundaries are no longer so important.

That is why you will see hundreds of people from Branson come out to sing and light candles and grieve for strangers they do not really know.

In the face of tragedy, policies and procedures and “letter of the law” are of less concern than the bond of children to parents, and so judges will act, and policies are called to be rolled back, and demonstrations are held and the hard work of reconciliation begins.

In the face of denial of opportunity, the community finds a new way.

Rather than simply shutting down that reported hot dog stand, the police officers called, and the community organizers in the area, and the health department stepped up to say, “you want to run a hot dog stand?  Here let us help you make it up to code.”

The community rallies, a hand washing station is donated, the health department gives the young man instruction, a food thermometer, and then assists him in filling out the proper paperwork to be in good standing, and a young entrepreneur is built up instead of an illegal stand being torn down.

This is what the author of Ephesians encourages these opposing groups to consider.  How can we join in the call to build up rather than resorting to the easy action of tearing down and dividing?

God is using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what God is building.   God used the apostles and prophets for the foundation.   Now God’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together.

What if we decided to look at all the things that tend to divide us as instead opportunities to build something with Christ as the cornerstone?

What if we could look at the Cross as a tragedy again, a terrible thing that should never have been resorted to or implemented?

What if we resolved  to “never again” become so divided over something or someone that we would ever be tempted again to cry “Crucify Him!” or “Get that bum out of here!”

What if (as the author of Ephesians proclaims) we claimed “this Kingdom of Faith” as our home country now?  What if we put everything else that threatens to divide us and separate us in a subordinate position to working for God’s Kingdom.

I will not engage in debates over flags or knee taking, for my citizenship resides with God’s Kingdom, not so much here, and God calls upon me to seek to understand the actions of my neighbor rather than to accuse them or condemn them.

Maybe it’s time we put that bowl (in other words) that we listen to the newcomer to the Kitchen.   They might have something here about where that bowl ought to go, where it might fit better.

I will not debate over Governmental policy, or legality, for my citizenship resides with God’s Kingdom, and so I will instead ask whether what I see is in keeping with God’s call for us to love the neighbor.  I do so recognizing that if I do not love in such a fashion today, it may very well be that the tables may well be turned on me in the future.  That tragedy will be repeated.

What could we build, brick by brick, with Christ as the cornerstone if before we ever picked up a brick to do anything else with it, we thought of the tragedy of the Cross, and how part of what God in Christ Jesus show us is that no one ought to have to go through that… ever again.

“What Am I Living For?” Ephesians 1:3-11

What does it take to get you motivated in the morning?

For some of us it’s that “elixir of life” that flows from the dark grounds, that hot steaming cup of java in our mug.  Coffee.

Others prefer a cup of tea, or some other caffeine delivery system.

“Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my first cup/mug/soda/ etc. – for the day!”

For the author of the letter to the Ephesians however, what motivates is reflecting on the goodness of God.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…”

I can be a little envious of that kind of positive motivation and attitude.

For me, the days seem a bit dark.

The news reminds me of the ongoing litany of what is wrong with this world, and the problems that seem insurmountable.

The “investigative reporters” launches into her hard hitting tactics, microphones are thrust into people’s faces, doors on knocked on, all trying to get “answers” or “results” using strong-arm tactics or public shaming.

Government inquiries degenerate into partisan shouting matches, where personal shaming tactics are employed by both sides, and all sides end up being equally hypocritical in their words, actions and accusations.

The events of this world are clouded in tariffs and retributions, protests and demonstrations, counterpointing rallies and counter-punching arguments played out on the world stage and in rooms where we sense that we have ultimately little access or influence.

We feel sometimes like Aaron Burr in the words of that song from “Hamilton”

“No one else was in the room where it happened, the room where it happened, No one really knows how the game is played, the art of the trade, how the sausage was made, we just assume that it happens, but no one else is in the room where it happens, the room where it happens…”

Indeed, for some the temptation in midst of all of this in the morning is not to get up and find motivation, but rather to want to pull the covers back over their heads and hope it all goes away.

“What am I living for?”

That is a question that can be inflected any number of ways.

For some, like my 98 year old Father-in-Law “What am I living for?”  is a legitimate question of profound wonder.   Having lived a full and rich life, when health is failing, eyes are growing dim, hope is found not in the continuation of this life but in the promises of God.

“Why am I still around?  Why can’t I just exit this weary world?” he wonders.

Of course, that’s a question that also crosses the minds of those who struggle with depression or anxiety, having lived perhaps not a full and rich life, but rather one that is filled with pain and confusion.  Why struggle on?   Why seek to live another day?  Why not end this pain?

Or, you can inflect that question in a way that accentuates the personal element.

“What am ­I living for?  What is my motivation for trudging on?  What is the plan for me in this world?  What is the grand plan, the reason for my continued existence?

Or you can inflect that question in a way that lifts up questions of larger purpose and global meaning.

“What am I living for?”   What is it that I am willing to invest myself in?  What is the difference in the world that I am willing to charge ahead for, to accomplish, or to carry out?

You can also inflect that question as a means of raising awareness or questioning personal motivations and purpose.

“What am I living for?”  What do my actions betray about what I think is really important, or what I acknowledge as being first priority in my life?

Do I work for a living, or do I live for my work?

Am I living for the weekend and some escape, or do I bury myself so much into my work that everything and everyone around me seems to suffer?

So many possibilities about how to inflect and understand this question, and all of them revealing in some way one’s motivation, or some examination of it, which gets us back to this letter to the Ephesians and its incredibly upbeat and positive beginning.

What is it that motivates this author to be so hyper-caffeinated and up-beat about life?

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…”

We might assume it was because he/she lived in a happier, easier time that it is so upbeat, but that’s not the case.   Whether this is written by Paul or one of his followers, the circumstances are pretty much as bleak then as they seem in the world in which we find ourselves right now.

It was written in the midst of Roman occupation of the land, soldiers with spears on every street corner, threat of violence ever present.

It was written in the midst of plenty of “room where it happens” decisions being made – all of which affected people with little or no say in the matter.

It was written when Jews and Gentiles were at odds with each other, and when the matter of following Christ was just as hotly debated, and when polarized sides pummeled each other with competing viewpoints drawn from scripture and from tradition.

The author of Ephesians does not deny any of the complexities of this world, or the real struggles with which we must continually engage.

Nor is he/she afraid of entertaining all those “What am I living for?” inflections that life in uncertain times and circumstances are bound to surface.

No, what the author does instead is to proclaim into the cacophony of all of that — a vision, loud and clear, of God’s intention and activity.

With all wisdom and insight God has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Into a world that is altogether too scattered, loud and conflicted the author of Ephesians proclaims (without a question or shadow of doubt) that God has a plan, and the plan is Christ Jesus.

This is who gathers us up.

This is what pulls us together in the end.

This is what will eventually tie up all the loose ends and will bridge all the gaps that exist between earthly concerns and heavenly hopes and dreams.

It is in Christ Jesus, and in God’s Grace poured out upon us, abundantly, lavishly, that we will find hope and motivation for the future!

We find it not because of anything we have done, or any stand we’ve taken or any activity we have engaged in, but simply because God chooses to pour it out – to lavish such grace and love upon us.

Before the foundations of the world, God had in mind to love us.   Period!

Before we had anything at all that we could claim as our own, God had in mind to give us an inheritance, a legacy of God’s own choosing, this world and all that is in it, as well as all that is beyond it in God’s coming Kingdom.

It’s all for us, all of us!

Before we set out to do anything at all, God had in mind to accomplish in and through us all things, including the redemption of this world, that we might live in it to praise his glory.

With breathless repetition the author of Ephesians pours out on us the assurance that God is good, and that God is here, and that God is pouring out upon us blessings upon blessings.

The author assures us that God is gathering up the pieces that are scattered, those things that we feel are just floating around there out there, unsupervised and uncontrolled.

God is moving in the heavenly realms and on the earthly realms to accomplish what God has set out to do, and guess what, first and foremost in God’s mind is us… you and me… safeguarded in the midst of the cacophony of competing voices of this world.

What motivates you in the morning?

Is it the coffee?

The sense of purpose you long to find?

The duty you feel to others?

The hope to just make it through another day?

Whatever it is that may motivate you, well that’s just fine!  Find your motivation somewhere.

But know this.

God is motivated to enter into your life, and to enter into the messiness of this world.

God is motivated to gather up all things in Christ, and we know that because of the life of Jesus, who did just that, entered into all the messiness of this world to show us love in action.

God in action!

God has always been in action.

God has been sending prophets like Amos and John to call the actions of those who live at the expense of others in this world to account.

Plumb lines have been held up, actions have been measured, warnings have been given, and unheeded, and still grace has been extended.

Words have been delivered, judgments have been decreed, and Christ still sent.

Awful things will happen even to those who bear God’s word and truth and who witness to God in this world.  That is true.

Even Jesus finds that out.

But what is just as true is that love wins in the end, and grace prevails!

Long after all the tin-pot tyrants and the strong-men of this world are nothing more than a byline in a history book, the God of Grace and mercy who sent his son, Jesus will still be at work.

Long after those who thought by denouncing, or beheading, or crucifying they could get rid of God, God continues to lavish blessing upon blessing.

Resurrection is stronger than death.

Love has a longer reach than hatred.

Grace and forgiveness are more powerful than recrimination and blame.

Love has a way of silencing the loud, and the blustering, and the turning in the end to rags those who trust in their own riches.

This is what motivates the author of Ephesians, the sure and certain knowledge that the God who is in this world working in the earthly and heavenly realms for the long haul is not about to be sidelined now — or ever!

Let that knowledge be your morning motivation and carry you all day through.

“Where Did He Get All This?” Mark 6:1-13

It comes as a bit of a shock to us that when Jesus comes home to Nazareth he is greeted not with accolades, but rather a tone of skepticism and offense.   “Where did this man get all this???”   You would think that if Jesus’ message was going to resonate anywhere, it ought to be in his own home town.

We can after all, be a bit obsessive about the “local youth does good” response to things, and we are usually quite proud of “our own.”

High School loyalty, and college alumni associations depend upon this sense of “our own” for recruitment and for fundraising.

Here in Kansas City for instance we celebrate the folks who have gone off to make their fortune and who then come back to share with us.  We are inspired when they come back to support us or speak of us.

The “Big Slick” folks roll back into town, Paul Ruud, Eric Stonestreet, Rob Riggle and company, and we are delighted.

They raise funds for Children’s Mercy Hospital and we fawn all over them.

They throw the switch to light the plaza lights or toss out the first pitch at a Royals game and we clap and wave with approval.

“Aren’t they doing well and doing good!  Our own “home town” heroes.”

Of course, those folks that we love and admire when they are raising funds for charity or mugging for the local news become a little less glamorous if they start to speak out publicly or share their political views.   Then they become part of the “Hollywood Elite” whom we wish would just shut up, concentrate on their acting and not act like U.S. Citizens with an opinion about the state of our democracy, or anything like that.

“Where do they get off foisting their viewpoints on us???”

I think we can use that little piece of insight as a way of understanding this Gospel lesson today.

As I said, it comes as a bit of a shock to us that when Jesus comes home to Nazareth he is greeted not with accolades, but rather with a tone of skepticism and offense.   “Where did this man get all this???”

We tend to forget that the opening salvo fired as Jesus begin his ministry was this: ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’

          We tend to forget that the announcement of the Kingdom of God coming near is accompanied by a call to repentance, and I don’t know about you, but I never really like being called to repent.   Even (and especially) when it may be justified.       

My spouse is a wonderful corrective for me.  I can get a little carried away sometimes in public, or get into a rut, or go off on a tangent and she will call me back.   She can do that with just a look sometimes, or a carefully chosen word of reminder.

That’s a gift.  I realize that here is someone who cares about me enough to correct me or remind me of who I am, or what I stand for in this world.

“You need to not say things like that….”  She will tell me.

“You need to remember you have a collar on, even (and maybe especially)  when you don’t have it on!”

It’s a gift, it really is, but dang it, a call to repentance even by someone who loves you very much never feels like a good thing.

I think that’s a part of what we experience in this Gospel.

Jesus is doing deeds of power, the home-town crowd has heard of them.

He’s gathering disciples, what a great thing, the teacher is collecting followers.   We never imagined it Jesus, you were always just “Mary’s little boy” or “James’ brother.”

Jesus is clearly becoming quite a teacher of wisdom.  The home town crowd has heard of how he has taught with authority and confounded the scribes and Pharisees.

“What a sharp wit, a good mind he has to pepper his teaching with such pithy parables!  Aren’t we all proud!”

But then Jesus comes and speaks to the home town about the Kingdom, and there’s that stubborn “Repent” piece again.  Jesus persists in talking about repentance even here among his own home-town crowd, and that is what they find offensive because… well… no one really likes being called upon to rethink and repent of things!

In order to repent, you first have to give consideration of the things you’ve done, what you may have neglected, and we don’t like self-reflection much.

In order to repent, you have to begin to consider that perhaps your own actions might have been inappropriate in some way, and no one likes acknowledging that they may have done something that wasn’t right, proper, or a good idea.

Indeed, whatever we do always seems like a good idea at the time, doesn’t it?

I’m sure post July 4^th, you could talk to any number of people involved in fireworks related incidents and they would all say, “well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

That’s our nature.  We find ourselves easy to convince of any number of things that (upon further reflection) were really bad ideas but that seemed perfectly good at the time.

It was one thing for Jesus to leave Nazareth and talk to the neighboring communities about their need for repentance.

Lord knows those folks down in Capernaum probably needed a good talking to, a firm shaking up!

But when Jesus comes back to Nazareth with the same message of repentance because of the nearness of God’s Kingdom, that is not so well received!

“Where does this man get all this?” they exclaim.

Well, he gets all of it from this Kingdom that he comes to proclaim, which of necessity sets itself up to work differently than the current Kingdom of this world.

We don’t get a lot of detail in Mark’s Gospel in terms of Jesus’ teaching.

What we do get is an awful lot of action, and the action appears to run contrary to the prevailing structures of this world.

So, if a person is sick, they find healing, and we like that, except Jesus heals all kinds of folks, whether we think they deserve it or not.

If a person is unable to work because of a withered hand, even though it’s not strictly according to the rules, restoration of health is done, even if it is the sabbath.

Make no mistake, Jesus isn’t just doing things to intentionally tick off the Pharisees.   His goal is not just to “make waves” or simply thumb his nose at authority.

No, he is bringing in a Kingdom which will of necessity bump up against the prevailing viewpoint of the current kingdom of Caesar that is in place.

In this Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaims, the care for the individual overrides the rules that are already in place.   This will always draw criticism.

The poor have good news preached to them.  They are not reprimand for being who they are, or labeled as lazy or of less concern than others.

The Lepers get touched, even though it is against the community code to associate with them at all, and by being touched they are healed and made part of the community again, which means those who we threw out we have to deal with again.

The same is true of the demon possessed.   The demons are revealed when Jesus comes into a place, and they scream loudly.   He exposes the powers that prefer to remain hidden, or to operate in secret.  He casts out the demonic leaving those who witness it both unsettled and stuck with dealing with those whom they had previously dismissed.

Sometimes we prefer the devil we know, to the angel with whom we have not yet had experience.  Which is really what the home-town crowd is saying when they ask, “Where does this man get all of this?”

Who is he to upset the status quo?   Call our preconceptions into question?

To entertain who is neighbor, and how people are treated, and who we will associate with and who we won’t is to have to repent of the way you’ve always looked at things and done things in the past.

Jesus will make you do that as God’s Kingdom pinches on the status quo of this world, and it’s exceedingly uncomfortable, even though you know he’s loving you all the while he’s doing it.

I don’t want to have to repent of my thoughts about the “poor.”

I don’t want to have to think about who should and should not get health care, whether it is a universal right or a privilege for those who can afford it, because dang it… Jesus seems to make it a universal right… but that doesn’t work in my well laid established system of health care coverage.

I don’t want to have to reconsider who I label as “leper” today, all those untouchable immigrants, because Jesus is going to want me to welcome them and make room for them, and that certainly bumps up against the desire for well ordered immigration policies and “secure borders” to keep out those whom we are urged to fear.

You see why Jesus offended the home-town crowd?  He’s sharing God’s vision for the Kingdom of God, and it bumps repeatedly into the ability to exclude, or to excuse, or draw lines of difference from others that we find much more comfortable.

This is what is offensive, and it’s the same debate raging in our current situation, the vision of God’s Kingdom bumping up against the Kingdom of this world.

There are no easy answers in the collision of Kingdoms.   And sometimes, people who need to hear what Jesus says most will stop listening.

That’s o.k.   Jesus knows that will happen.  “A prophet is not without renown except in his own country and amongst his own kindred.”

But knowing the home town will not listen, Jesus moves to bypass their rejection.  He instructs his disciples to speak for him with the same message of repentance.

If they won’t listen to me, they may listen to you, if the message of the Kingdom comes from many lips.

Which of course gets us into this matter in our own lives, for we are the “sent ones” now, those whom Jesus says will go out seemingly ill prepared and ill equipped, but who will be empowered to bear witness.

“So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent.”   Mark tells us.

This is the call of discipleship upon you and to me.

We speak of what Jesus has shown us, and sometimes that bumps up against what the world expects or wants to hear from us.

But repentance, self-reflection and consideration must be proclaimed.

The Kingdom has come near, and it will come, and no action of humankind can hinder it for long.

This is what offends the hometown crowd, the call to think about the Kingdom of God coming in our midst and what it will mean for us, right now, and right where we live.