Sermon Ordinary Time July

Read: Mark 6:1-13

When I was exploring becoming a minister, I signed up to become a Local Preacher. Part of the process is that the Local Preacher’s Quarterly Meeting interviews prospective candidates. In those days, the deliberations about each candidate were held in camera, the candidates awaiting their fate outside the meeting. At the time that I applied, my parents had just gone through a divorce and our conservative congregation was rife with the hot gossip that Mom had left because of being a lesbian. Inside the meeting someone asked, “How can Greg be a preacher when he comes from a family like that?”

Fortunately for me, Rev. John Borman, who was chairing the meeting, flinches at nothing. I am told that he responded: “If you’ve been around as long as I have, you will know that the most beautiful lilies grown on the foulest dung heaps.”

I was accepted as preacher and started the long journey that brings me here. I wonder what would have happened, had I heard that question myself, instead of second hand some years later. I wonder what would have happened, if John had not stood up for me.

I wonder how many great people have been imprisoned by prejudice, stunted by their parents, their village or their friends. In this country particularly, what greatness lies buried behind mounds and mounds of destructive judgements.

Understanding Jesus’ situation a little better can help make the greatness possible…

Jesus is labelled the “son of Mary”. Not, on the face of it, a slight, but remember we are talking about 1st century Palestine where one was more usually referred to as a son of one’s father. Jesus’ father is in question. No doubt, if Mary had shared her story, that Jesus had been conceived by God, she would have been seen as a nutter. In all likelihood, Jesus’ father was simply not known. What was known, was that it wasn’t Joseph. And so every time a villager met Jesus they were reminded that he was a bastard.

The villagers also ask, “Where did this man get all this?” I am reminded by Sarah Breuer of the nature of this question in her reflection on the lectionary this week.

The culture of Jesus’ day, more so than Western culture today, was influenced by what anthropologists call “limited good”. The idea is simply that resources are limited and in order for their to be an abundance in one place, there has to be a scarcity elsewhere. But this applies equally to ideas, skills, values and so on, not just physical resources.

So the question from the villagers is actually, “How did Jesus come to have so much?” Their jealous question implies some illicit activity by which Jesus comes to his power. Perhaps he has stolen these ideas, perhaps the power he has comes from a nefarious source.

Not only is Jesus a bastard, he is also a thief. Can anything good come from this man? How can he be a teacher?

But Jesus is not held back by such ideas, on the contrary, we see him continue all the way to Jerusalem. What enabled him to rise above these conceptions? I don’t think this was the first time he had encountered such prejudice. Growing up in Nazareth it is easy to see how he may have been conditioned to believe these ideas about himself. On the other hand he may rebelled, in the way that we often do, a reactionary and futile attempt to stand up against the labels; labels we have secretly absorbed too deeply.

Jesus was able to rise above this because he was given - or knew - a different perspective. He believed in the generosity of God. He was not inviting people to help him divide up a limited pie, he was inviting people to a banquet so large that it might spoil for want of more people to enjoy it.

So Jesus invited prisoners, the sick, the poor and hungry to be part of the feast. He commits the double felony of claiming authority and power and then giving it to misfits. As everyone knows, prisoners deserve to be punished for their crimes, God punishes the sick for the sins of the fathers and those who are hungry and poor should get a job.

I have witnessed through the work of SHADE how women who have been told their place –and kept there with violence - from the day they were born have risen above this dominating oppression. They have not given in, nor have they merely rebelled, they have risen above it. And it is amazing how much they have accomplished with seemingly few resources. Liberation has a way of multiplying resources and making new things possible.

What have you come to believe about yourself as a result of the lifelong training you have received in the world? What picture of yourself is Jesus inviting you to appreciate?