9th July 2006Fourth Sunday after Trinity
Fr Julian Browning
Mark 6 : 1 - 13
And he called unto him the twelve and began to send them forth, two by two.
Jesus comes from outside the little world we control, our 'country', he
comes from the God who is Alpha and Omega
Travelling light is an art. If you go to the check-in at Terminal Three, you can see
how few people have mastered the art. We're the same. We do not travel light
through life. But Jesus has told us to take nothing for the journey. We travel with
leather monogrammed cases which grow heavier with the years, one labelled My
Opinions, another labelled The Obsessions I'm not quite ready to get rid of yet, and
so on, a sort of overloaded Pilgrim's progress which is very hard work because it's all
about me and not about God. Perhaps we need a new start. This is the season for
ordinations when trembling deacons and priests start a new leg of their journey. As
Jesus sent forth the disciples into the surrounding villages, so the bishop gives each
deacon a copy of the New Testament, so we can see the baton of this strange
contrarian religion of Christianity being passed down the line from the apostles to us.
At these large ordinations, which do go on a bit, I find myself thinking of the Walrus
and the Carpenter. “...four young Oysters hurried up, All eager for the treat: Their
coats were brushed, their faces washed, Their shoes were clean and neat – ”
Expectant, but no idea what awaits them at the other end of the beach. So keen, so
neat, and these newly commissioned disciples will be going to parishes where they
are trusted, loved and encouraged. But if they are wise, they will travel very light, as
Jesus tells them to do, because they, and we, travel a dangerous road when we try to
live and preach the Gospel. We must expect to be rejected, sent packing, stifled,
dumbed down, derided. Any number of fates await those who try to preach a Gospel
so at odds with the world, so opposed to the values the world holds dear. Today's
Gospel is about rejection. Being rejected by those who know us. Jesus being rejected
by those who know him. That old proverb turns up several times in the Bible, a
prophet is not without honour, but in his own country. Familiarity breeds contempt.
In Jesus' village they got all offended and opinionated, and we do the same
sometimes, thinking well, isn't this Jesus the carpenter, son of Mary, brother of
James and the rest of them, and that's all there is to it? And this familiarity obscures
the fact that Jesus comes from outside the little world we control, our 'country', he
comes from the God who is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, he comes
with urgency into our lives, to save and to forgive and to heal.
Human nature doesn't change much. Hundreds of years before Jesus, God sent the
prophet Ezekiel to speak to the people of Israel, who were being even more difficult
and disobedient than usual. How do you get people to stop in their tracks and listen?
What will get our attention, when most of the time we are totally absorbed in a world
which has little time for God? God gives Ezekiel the power to speak the divine word.
God is going to speak through Ezekiel. When God spoke to me, a spirit entered into
me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. God tells Ezekiel, you
shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God'. Ezekiel is to be the channel of God's
voice. Ezekiel is given the power to speak on God's behalf. That's what a prophet
does, he or she makes us listen to God. So, says God, whether they hear or refuse to
hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet
among them. That should be enough. We can choose to hear or we can choose not to
hear, but be in no doubt: there has been a prophet among us, the greatest of them all,
Jesus the Son of God. God's a realist. God warns Ezekiel that the most likely
outcome is that his people will not listen, they will choose not to hear. Ezekiel's
mission will be about as pleasant as sitting on scorpions, says God. They are a
rebellious house; be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks. The
simplicity of life, the travelling light, which Jesus encourages you and me to adopt, is
not the same as naivete. It is a stance taken up in a hostile world. It is the uniform of
the Christian. The sandals, most commentators are agreed, are probably optional.
What is essential is our trust in God to provide.
He will provide, because it is He who is sending us out into the world. Jesus not only
gives us directions, but he also gives us the power to do the same mighty works that
he has done. That is what the church was and is, people called and commissioned by
Christ to preach repentance. For that we need to travel light. If I could give those
ordinands another book I would give them The Pilgim's Progress. In that story
Christian travels from the City of Destruction towards the Celestial City. And on the
way he meets all manner of folk, good and bad, travelling along the same road, and
one by one they fall away because there are terrible dangers either side of the road,
such as the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and clever traps for church people like
the City of Fair Speech where Religion in his silver slippers walks the streets in the
sunshine, and all the people applaud. The odds are stacked against the pilgrims, as
against Ezekiel, as against the disciples, and in the end only two of them make it,
Christian and his friend Hopeful. But we are Christian and Hopeful, and our very
weakness is God's opportunity to show his strength, and his forgiveness, and his
love.