First United Methodist Church
July 7th, 2024
Rev. Lauren Hall
Cultivating Joy: Connections
Think about the last time you received an invitation. It may have been for a formal occasion such as a wedding, or a birthday, or an anniversary. Or perhaps it was for something more informal like attending a movie or going out to eat. Sometimes the invitation is so subtle that we may not even recognize it. Our participation is implied simply because we know about the event. This often happens in the church – we announce that a particular event is happening, and everyone is invited, but no individual invitations are handed out.
Regardless of the occasion, however, when we are invited to do something, we have the opportunity to accept that invitation, that is, to participate in the event that we have been invited to, or reject it. When we do accept we are intentionally connecting with others in an effort to build a relationship.
The passage that we read today from Mark offers us an invitation to participate in Jesus’ ministry with the world. Up to this point in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has been extremely busy traveling about the countryside teaching and healing and performing miracles and he has developed quite a following. People travel with him and everywhere he goes, news about his activities is shared with anybody who will listen.
Then without warning, Jesus goes home. But this time, when Jesus teaches in the synagogue, rather than being received as a hometown hero, Jesus’ listeners question his wisdom and authority and wonder how Joseph’s little boy could possibly have the ability to do all the things that are being talked about.
Now when you think about it, Mark had to have a specific purpose when he included this particular story in his gospel. I mean, he didn’t have to tell his readers about a time when Jesus seems nearly powerless. But it stands in such sharp contrast to the previous chapters where Jesus’ power – over illness and evil spirits and even over death itself – seems so nearly limitless that it makes you stop and think about what Mark is asking us to consider.
And here’s what I think. This story gives us a glimpse of how God acts in the world and what ministry in the name of Jesus might look like. We frequently focus only on the rejection of Jesus in his hometown. In fact, the subtitle of this section in my Bible says, “The Rejection of Jesus in Nazareth.” And while this detail should not be completely disregarded, if we stop there, we make this a story about Jesus, not us, and we overlook the possibility that there might be an underlying invitation to become participants in God’s work in the world to a degree far greater than we might imagine.
Now, don’t get me wrong – this is a story about Jesus. But I used to make the mistake of thinking that every story in the Bible was about Jesus. ONLY. And what that does is erase any commitment I might have in living out the gospel in my everyday life.
[It places me here and Jesus here – we are disconnected].
When we read the Bible it’s important that we search for the invitation that Jesus offers us through the text. Today’s gospel reminds us that our willingness to be a vessel for God’s love and healing in our own lives and in the lives of our neighbors is important.
This doesn’t mean that we as humans have any effect on God’s grace or God’s freedom to elect. But it does invite us to think about the character of our lives. Do we, from day to day, have a desire to participate in God’s work to bless and care for creation or do we resist this opportunity? Does our distrust of Christ’s full authority in our lives make a difference in how God’s power to heal and care for us takes expression?
Think about it. Up until now, a dominant feature of all the stories Mark shares is the keen desire of those petitioning Jesus to be healed and restored. Yet in this story, all the bystanders can see is the Jesus that they grew up with. Trapped in their comparisons and complaints, they are not remotely interested in receiving his blessing. And so they miss out. Jesus cannot do ministry in a place where people refuse to receive him. Even Jesus cannot believe it.
Considering this makes space for the possibility that God actively enlists us in God’s work. This does create the unfortunate, and sometimes tragic, possibility for resistance, certainly, but it also invites our partnership and, in this way, makes holy (to use a Wesleyan word) our daily activities and actions in the world.
God shares God’s ministry of reconciliation and healing with us, which means that each and every day we have before us the opportunity to be channels of grace and mercy to people and to a world desperately in need of grace and mercy.
This passage sets the stage for making sense of the story that follows, as Jesus equips and commissions his disciples to carry on his ministry. They go out in pairs and they do not take their own provisions but rather depend on the hospitality of those they meet. And while some will receive them and be blessed, others will refuse their ministry and blessing. Shaking the dust off one’s shoes is traditionally interpreted as a matter of cursing those who reject you, but perhaps in this story it falls somewhere in between washing one’s hands of responsibility for another’s faith and acknowledging that grace must be received in order to be effective.
In other words, we cannot force someone into a relationship or to accept our invitation. If and when we are rejected, don’t allow that rejection to become dust on our feet. Shake it off and move on.
Our text this week reminds us that our actions matter – not as works that earn God’s favor, but as a response to God’s holy invitation. To be the light on the hill we talked about a couple of weeks ago, we need the world to see our light, to see the places where Christ has made a difference in our lives and to see how Christ has interconnected, or to use a modern and trendy word, intersectected, with our everyday being.
In our Baptism, God chooses us not only for salvation, but also for purposeful lives here and now, and every day we have a choice between resisting God’s activity or partnering with God’s intent and action to bless and care for the world.
We are called to shine God’s light beyond our own church family with intentionality. Through that intentionality we cultivate joy for ourselves and others. Whether we respond to current events with acts of kindness and compassion or with moments of unkindness, selfishness, or indifference, what we do matters. And our response has the potential to be holy or tragic. Jesus has invited us and equipped and commissioned us to be agents of God’s grace. As disciples, the challenge before us is whether we are willing to accept Jesus and accept this invitation. Amen.
