July 4, 2021 – Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
“Even Jesus couldn’t always make it happen. God’s power needs to be received as well as given.”
Let us pray. Gracious God, we give you thanks for your presence in this time and place and within each one of us gathered here and in the many locations we are this day. Help us now to open our minds, our hearts, our whole lives, to receive the gift of your living Word for us this day; and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
Today’s Collect Prayer had us praying these words, “Give us the will to serve others as he (Jesus) was the servant of all.” Now I think our usual take on this is quite straightforward. We want to be motivated to want to help other people, to notice and care about their needs. And it seems to us, as I say, pretty straightforward. But in today’s Gospel Reading Jesus illustrates a deeper and more profound understanding of helping or serving others according to God’s will. And if it helps you - take a look at the narrative, it’s on page 4, near the bottom of that page in today’s service bulletin.
So basically, this gospel narrative this morning comes to us in two parts – the first part has Jesus coming to his hometown, which of course is Nazareth. He’s not very effective there, and Mark records these words, “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, in the second part of the narrative, Jesus gives the twelve disciples authority over unclean spirits and sends them out, two by two, entirely dependent on others – not to take any provisions or anything to be prepared for the unexpected; but simply to trust on the hospitality of those they visit. And Mark writes this, “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.” So obviously that went very well.
But wait – think about that for a minute. Jesus sends out his apprenticing-disciples and they have great success; but Jesus himself, the Son of God, “could do no deed of power.” Doesn’t that strike you as a little odd? So as we investigate this further, let’s try to localize these incidents in modern-day Manitoba. It just so happens that our geography works quite well. We’ll use the southern basin of Lake Winnipeg as the Sea of Galilee (or Lake Tiberias), and so that means that our Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, would be – say – Teulon – that little village about 40 minutes north of Winnipeg. Now last Sunday we read of Jesus healing a woman with hemorrhages for 12 years, and raising Jairus’s daughter in a lakeside village. So let’s say Jairus is the leader of the synagogue in Whytewold on the shores of the southern basin of Lake Winnipeg. And after his impressive work Jesus then heads over to Teulon – probably about a 6 hour walk – reasonable enough – that’s his hometown of Nazareth. Now Mark’s Gospel reports that people were astounded, but then people react with comments like, “Didn’t he work in the back room of the John Deere dealership?” Or, “Doesn’t his mom and sister work at the Bigway grocery store in town?” Mark said that the locals took offence at him and he could do no deed of power there.
So then Jesus leaves Teulon and heads up to Inwood, to continue his teaching. He sends out his disciples, two by two, to the other villages – Petersfield, Winnipeg Beach, even Gimli. And they are very successful – casting out demons, anointing and healing lots of people. So what’s happening here? How is God’s power working here, and what do we learn about the way God’s grace is appropriated? For most of us, we tend to think of miracles, healing, deliverance from evil as ‘power over’ someone, other people, situations. Even in our science fiction and fantasy books and movies, power is always presented as ‘power over’. Spiderman ties up the criminal in a spider’s web. Voldemort in Harry Potter calls down dementors to terrorize people. Jedi knights in Star Wars use mental powers to slip by storm trooper inspection stations.
So this is the background we bring to our understanding of power. In this case, God’s power – the expectation that God is all-powerful – and therefore, God can do anything. And if God doesn’t act in the way we expect, we begin to doubt. We doubt God’s goodness. We doubt our own faith. We might even doubt God’s love.
So then, what happens to Jesus in Nazareth, or Teulon? What took place reveals the interdependent nature of God’s power at work. Whether or not Jesus had the power to accomplish great things in Nazareth, he did not do so because of the people’s unbelief. I think it illustrates that God will not and cannot pour out God’s grace and power into a situation unless there is openness – an openness to receive that grace. And this should not surprise us because God’s primary agenda is always to bring about abundant life and relationship to us all. It’s not just to ‘fix’ people and situations, but to bring us more deeply into life-giving relationship in the Holy Trinity.
So this puts a different spin, doesn’t it, on “the will to serve others” as we prayed in the Collect Prayer. Most of us are much more willing to serve others if they want our help, if they respect us, and if they’re appreciative and thank us afterward. But from today’s Gospel we learn that Jesus and his disciples are ready to serve everyone and anyone in God’s name, because all are God’s children. Jesus is amazed by their lack of faith in his hometown, but he carries on anyway. The disciples are probably pretty anxious and uncertain during their first preaching and healing tour, but they enjoy amazing results.
Think about the situations in your own life – past and present – where you had the opportunity to serve, and times where you gave thanks to God when that service bore fruit with a good result. But when it didn’t - when your service was not accepted, or rejected, or even mocked – think of Jesus of Nazareth. In God’s ways it takes two to make something happen – one offering to serve, and another open to receiving that service. And that’s something we should remember, too, when someone is offering to serve us!
When our offer of service – when we think we’re doing what must be God’s will, and it doesn’t work out, or falls flat, or even backfires – it doesn’t bear fruit, remember Jesus’ experience in Nazaeth (or Teulon if you prefer.) Even with the Son of God, grace and healing has to be received as well as given. Service needs to be accepted as well as offered. So as we prayed in our prayer today, “give us the will to serve others” in the way that Jesus did – recognizing and leaving the outcome to God. For it is always God’s power at work.
Amen.
