Proper 9B/Ordinary 14B/7 after Pentecost, July 4, 2021

Prayer
Remove from before our eyes, O God, the veil that hides your splendor, and flood us with the light of your Holy Spirit, that we may recognize your glory shining in the humiliation of your Christ and experience even in our own human weakness the sufficiency of your grace and the surpassing power of Christ's resurrection.  We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Mark 6:1-13

"Would you agree that we are living in a world that is more and more characterized by unbelief? If so, doesn't it feel as if we are living in a Nazareth-world ? a culture that is, at best, disinterested in Jesus?"

Commentary, Mark 6:1-13, Mark G. Vitalis Hoffman, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

"Whether among the travellers or among those who stayed in their community, Jesus called people to be and bear good news for the poor. No wonder the established power structures of family and land and religion saw only madness and did their best to tame him and his followers. The judgement of history is probably that they have at least succeeded with most of his followers to this day."

"First Thoughts on Year B Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 6, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"By attempting over and over to make him ‘the Messiah,’ people were missing the point of his message, which was that the Reign of God was present and that they all were invited to participate in it."

"Mission Grounded in Rejection," D Mark Davis, raw translation and exegesis/questions, Left Behind and Loving It, 2012.

"Is there some area – some regret we can't get over, some grudge we can't let go, some hurt that has come to define us, some addiction that imprisons us, some anger that has taken hold of us – that we are having difficulty entrusting to God?"

"Something to Do," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Last week the crowds loved this guy, this week they reject him in his home town.  Those who knew him the best, who saw him growing up, those who he perhaps counted as friends - they reject him. He is not able to do any work there in their midst. He is completely "dumbfounded." (Joel Marcus, Mark, vol 1, 377).

There are several powerful themes. The first is that the gospel is not easily heard by the insiders. This is true in the religious authorities and in his closest relatives.  The second theme is that God is at work here, just like the prophets of old.  The third is Jesus' rejection. He is rejected by the demons. He is rejected by the religious authorities. He is rejected by gentiles. He is rejected now by his own people.

God is patient. God is at work. Even though he is rejected here he is not fully without power to do miraculous things.  God in Jesus continues to make his way to the ultimate rejection and crucifixion. But it will be at the cross that he is victorious. 

The message this week is clear to me. God is at work in the world around us. God is at work wether we see it or do not see it. God is at work outside the walls of our churches and outside of our communities. In point of fact some miraculous things are happening inside, but the great work is being done out in the world.  The whole of creation is marching steadily towards fruition of the kingdom of God and his reign.  It is at work and miracles and works of power are being done by God through the power of the Holy Spirit as we speak.

The question is not unlike the dumbfounded Jesus might have posed to his hometown family: cannot you see what I am doing here? Do you not know me?  Don't you want to come with me?

What would it be like this Sunday to preach the newspaper and illustrate where God is at work in the world? Or in music, art, or film?  Where is the language of grace breaking into the culture?  What would it be like to show and highlight those places where the church is following Jesus and is actually out there and working with his miraculous power to change creation?  Yes, that is the inspiration and call to see again for the first time that we need from the pulpit this week. Inspire us to get out there an stop looking for Jesus to be the tame Jesus of our sanctuary.  Inspire us good lord to follow you out into the world and help us to see you at work and to join your efforts there!

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

"And how long was the whole great circus to last? Paul said, why, until we all become human beings at last, until we all 'come to maturity,' as he put it; and then, since there had been only one really human being since the world began, until we all make it to where we're like him, he said - 'to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ' (Ephesians 4:13). Christ's to each other, Christs to God. All of us. Finally. It was just as easy, and just as hard, as that."

"Paul," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"It may be timely for the preacher to focus less on individual experience and more on a congregation's collective experience."

Commentary, 2 Corinthians 12:2-10, Sally A. Brown, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"Gratitude and generosity - two virtues that acknowledge we are not all strength and independence, but also (and very basically) weakness and dependency - prepare us for better adjustment in situations of loss."

"Declining with Grace," Robert C. and Elizabeth V. Roberts, (other resources at)"Aging," Christian Reflection, The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2003.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Buried in the reading for this week is a real gem. Paul writes, "'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."

As an Episcopalian this passage from Corinthians reminds us that we are broken and fallen creatures. Our reason is deficient to understand the divine intent its fullness and that we are always powerfully controlled by our ego and selfish desires. In this I know I am weak. I do things I do not wish to do - Paul claims. So my weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions (done to me and inflicted by me) and calamities are so very real. So very real are my weakness that I am saved solely by the grace of God. God's grace is sufficient.

We has Christians struggle though because while we understand that God's grace is sufficient for me - it is rarely sufficient for you.

Today, as we think and ponder the culture all around us we might be challenged to truly accept God's sufficient grace for ourselves and for others.

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10


"With all the difficulties of this text, it is important that the juxtaposition that the text itself gives us of David's coronation, his conquering of Jerusalem and this oddly prominent prohibition of the blind and the lame from the house (of the LORD) be held together."
Commentary, 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10, Samuel Giere, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"How do we know that God is with us? It all starts with our naming at our baptism."

"David Becomes King," Faith Element Discipleship System, "Setting the Bible Free," 2012.
Commentary, 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10, Ralph W. Klein, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

"...the lectionary choices this week, following on from last week, result in a picture of the kingdom moving from Saul's death to David's crowning as a relatively smooth transition. The David who graciously laments the deaths of Saul and Jonathan appears this week as the natural heir. The intervening chapters present a much more complicated, interesting, if sanguinary, tale."

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10, Pentecost 5, 2009, The Old Testament Readings: Weekly Comments on the Revised Common Lectionary, Howard Wallace Audrey Schindler, Morag Logan, Paul Tonson, Lorraine Parkinson, Theological Hall of the Uniting Church, Melbourne, Australia.

Oremus NRSV Text

David is now in Hebron. He is recognized as the leader and publicly anointed by the heads of the tribes of the tribes of Judah. This is important as it reveals the unification of the people...a unity that will not last long as a split will occur after David's reign. Saul tries to mess this up by having Abner create a kind of figurehead leader in Ishbaal. Too bad for him, for as they fighting breaks out it will be Ishbaal who will be one of the casualties. In the end, seeing the future potential, he is murdered by a few of his own folks. David though is quick to act and has the assassins killed for having murdered a "righteous man." David is eventually made king and he sets up a new city as a unifying capital for the province. There is a lot of trash talk and David's army prevails. As the narrative of the king goes this is a key chapter in the building of a unified kingdom and the wooing of powers and supporters.

Then David does a weird thing and prohibits the blind and the lame from worshiping with everyone else. Now we well remember this passage:

For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose … –Leviticus 21:17

Now, we know that when David came to take Jerusalem from the Jebusites they taunted him saying that the lame and blind could beat this guy! It is possible that the text is a play on words where by David is mocking the Jebusites themselves, but the Leviticus quote makes this unlikely. The truth is that such people were seen as unclean and so in context his pronouncement is not particularly odd - though it is odd to our modern hearing. But that is because living in the West does weird things to you and we think everyone should be able to go everywhere as free individuals and have largely cast off any sense of holiness codes like this one.

Also, as Christians we remember that Jesus goes to the Temple and undoes this prohibition.  After throwing out those who have made a living on religion we are told:  “Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.” –Matthew 21:14

Ezekiel 2:1-7

"Preachers may "understand" this text too quickly -- as in, Yes, I get it: The preacher is called, like Ezekiel, to proclaim a hard word of God to a recalcitrant people..."
Commentary, Ezekiel 2:1-5, Fred Gaiser, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"Passages like this one can lead in two very different directions."
Commentary, Ezekiel 2:1-5, John C. Holbert, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

Oremus NRSV Text

The prophet says that he has received a word from God, to stand up and listen. God has sent the prophet to the people with a message. And, well, it isn't good. The people are rebellious and in need of a prophet. They, like their parents, have transgressed. "When you are done, Ezekiel," God says, "They will know a prophet has been in the midst of them."

God invites Ezekiel to fear not. He isn't very hopeful as he says to Ezekiel, "though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions!" God promises Ezekiel that God will be with him all along the way.

I wonder sometimes if after preaching to our people if they think that a prophet has been among them? Who are the rebellious in our own midst? 

Now, I am not talking about fussing at your people. I have in mind here something more akin to what Walter Brueggeman offers in his book, The Prophetic Imagination (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001).

When I ponder what the ancient prophets in Israel are doing as we have them in the text, I arrive at this judgment that will serve as my guiding thesis: prophetic proclamation is an attempt to imagine the world as though YHWH—the creator of the world, the deliverer of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ whom we Christians come to name as Father, Son, and Spirit—were a real character and an effective agent in the world. I use the subjunctive “were” because such a claim is not self-evident and remains to be established again and again in every such utterance. 

The key term in my thesis is “imagine,” that is, to utter, entertain, describe, and construe a world other than the one that is manifest in front to us, for that present world is readily and commonly taken without such agency or character for YHWH. Thus the offer of prophetic imagination is one that contradicts the taken-for-granted world around us.

So, to answer what rebellion looks like, is to see clearly what in the world around us is acceptable/unacceptable within our society but is wholly unworthy the kingdom of God. I am thinking here of the separation of families at the boarder of the US. It can be all kind of legal to do so but, does this action represent the kingdom of God - the rule or riegn of God? And, if it doesn't how will you, like Ezekiel approach this.

Again, Brueggeman:

At the outset, it is clear that this way of putting the matter refuses two common assumptions. On the one hand, it rejects the more conservative assumption that the prophets were predictors, those who tell the future, with particular reference to predictions of the coming Christ. On the other hand, this thesis refuses the common liberal assumption that the prophets were social activists who worked to establish social justice. It strikes me that the ancient prophets only rarely took up any concrete social issue. 

More important to them than concrete social issues is the fact that they characteristically spoke in poetic idiom with rich metaphors, so that their language is recurringly teasing, elusive, and evocative, with lesser accent on instruction or didacticism.

This Sunday may not be a Sunday to preach prophecy but to actually preach about what it means to be a prophetic preacher, prophetic listener vs a rebellious one, and the meaning of being a prophetic witnessing church.