Sermon for July 7, 2024 - The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
The Gospel reading appointed for this weekend has two different stories. In the first story, Jesus comes to his hometown, but there is confusion. Because he teaches with wisdom and performs deeds of power, they wonder, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?”
Then the Gospel reports, “they took offense at him.” Jesus responds with the famous words, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” After the puzzling notation that “he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them,” the passage ends: “he was amazed at their unbelief.”
There is a great deal to unpack in this first story and different avenues to explore; why are prophets not welcome in their hometown? Or why are the people upset in Mark’s story, but the crowds’ response is different in Luke’s parallel story? If we move deeper, we find that the heartbeat of the story is the report that “they took offence at him.” The Greek word for “they took offense” is the same root word from which we get “scandal.”
It is good for us to be reminded, and to remind God’s people, that at the heart of both the Old and the New Testament there rests an inseparable divine scandal.
The scandal of the Old Testament is that God decided to choose one human family and tribe to bless all of the other human families and tribes. In order to do so, God chose Sarah and Abraham, and worked through them and their descendants to bless all of the other families and tribes and peoples of the earth. From the human perspective, that God should do so often seems absurd, unfair, perhaps even unjust. But that is the good-news scandal of the Old Testament. Out of this specific choice would come a descendant through which God would turn the world upside down.
The scandal at the heart of the New Testament is that God chose to become human and live one human life in the person of Jesus of Nazareth; one of Abraham and Sarah’s descendants through the House of David from the Tribe of Judah.
And the New Testament scandal gets worse, or better, depending on your perspective. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, did signs and wonders, taught with wisdom and authority, ushered in the kingdom of God … suffered, was crucified, and rose again. Was crucified! From the human perspective, that God should do so often seems absurd, unfair, perhaps even unjust. But God chose to raise Jesus from death; to demonstrate that in the end God was in control, not the imperial or religious authorities.
The offence of the good news is most intense when we are thinking and talking about the cross. But this passage, in which the people who knew Jesus the best “took offence at him,” were scandalized by him, reminds us that the incarnation of the Son of God itself was and is an essential aspect of the scandalous offence of the gospel.
One might think that if you get to know Jesus better, you will be less scandalized by the gospel. This story suggests that isn’t the case. This story suggests that, perhaps, the better you get to know Jesus, the more you will be scandalized by the incarnation and crucifixion. Perhaps this is because the more time they spend listening to Jesus preach and teach about the Kingdom of God, the more they realize that they are not perfect and require some sort of change in their lives. Perhaps the longer someone sat with him, the more uncomfortable they become. The people who knew Jesus the best did not show him honour or receive him warmly and openly but were scandalized by him. Maybe it doesn’t become less of a scandal the more you know him, it becomes more so because when we cast the reflective gaze of Jesus upon our hearts everyone can find some small part of their life that might require change.
But, with evangelical irony, this only makes the good news better. Because the Holy Spirit overcomes our being scandalized on a daily basis; drowning it in baptism, putting it to death and raising up new life in us every single day. Through the indwelling of Holy Spirit we are given the daily opportunity, the daily invitation to let go and free ourselves from the things that are holding us back from living a life in Christ.
The second part of this week’s reading maps part of Jesus’ response to being rejected by those who were scandalized by him and his message. What does Jesus do after being rejected in his own hometown? He sends out the disciples, two by two, to other towns to teach with wisdom and authority and to do deeds of power. He instructs 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 … ‘Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place’”
Jesus is asking his disciples to travel lightly. He has equipped them with the power to do great things, but only in as much as they still need to rely on others in carrying out the mission of God. Jesus is asking a lot of his disciples and in order to do this, they must learn to be the guests of other people’s hospitality.
Throughout scripture we see hospitality as a fundamental practice to demonstrate love and service to others in need. From Abraham and Sarah welcoming in the three angelic strangers for food, water, and rest to Jesus spending his last hours with is friends around table sharing a basic meal. By hosting others, we demonstrate respect and love towards those who are receiving our hospitality. In offering hospitality we give without expectation of reciprocity, hoping that one day when we are in need we will be met hospitably.
Hospitality also creates disparity between the giver and the receiver. In such giving, there is control; what we give, how we give. Do we offer the best we have or what we feel appropriate based on their social status? And as such, when we go and visit others we carry with us our own expectations, our own preferences for food or drink. We carry on our own anxieties of going into a new place where we are not in control. We carry with us the potential to receive the gifts of the giver with ingratitude or even disdain because it doesn’t meet our expectations.
Jesus’ commands to his disciples are helping them to let go of their sense of control, to trust God, and to receive whatever hospitality that is offered on their journey as a gracious gift of love. They will most certainly not experience hospitality everywhere they go, but they will adopt an open stance so that they see every gift as a gift of God, which then gives us the energy to continue the work of God.
These stories, tied together, give us an opportunity to take measure of ourselves, be scandalized by the Gospel, and cast that reflective gaze of Jesus inwardly to bring to light those areas of ourselves that need change. By letting go of those things that are holding us back, by travelling just a little more lightly, we can then free ourselves to see the world differently where we can trust that God will care for us through the hospitality of others. Letting go and trust. What is it that you might need to let go of and trust that God will care for you?
