The Sixth Sunday after Trinity
Preached at Saint Saviour’s, Pimlico, London
July 7, 2024
O God, who hast taught us to keep all thy commandments by loving thee and our neighbour: Grant us the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to thee with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Ezekiel 2:1-7
2 Corinthians 12:10
Mark 6:1-6
Before sitting down to write a sermon, I often check my back catalogue. I look at what I have said in the past, to see how (or if) my earlier thoughts on the passages appointed for a particular week have changed over the intervening years. I look to see if I have exegetical notes that could still be helpful, and to some extent I do this so that I don’t repeat myself (too much). Some sets of readings always point me back in the same direction. Some sets of readings yield something new each time I look at them, especially in new contexts, and with the passage of time – both the time that passes for everyone, like major world events, and for the time that passes as I grow older and, have experienced more and more of life. This Gospel, particularly the first half of the story in which Jesus meets resistance from his own kith and kin, is particularly illustrative.
The last time I seem to have preached on this set of lessons was in 2006. I still lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was serving at the Church of the Advent in Boston. It was my second week as curate there and I was just beginning to introduce myself to the congregation, and I chose to preach from a personal, autobiographical perspective. Although I had lived there for quite a while, and it was not my home town, I reflected from the perspective of my imagination and from my own experience on the question of what it means to preach to the people who know you best, to the friends and family with whom I had grown up. I made no claim to be a prophet, but found a place where I resonated with the text as a way of understanding just how vulnerable it feels to preach the Gospel, especially to people who know you well, who will judge you based on their memories of and feelings about your younger self.
Just eighteen months later, I did find myself as a preacher in my home town, and those worries were, indeed, there as I began my ministry. Seventeen years later – with a very few exception – these themes are no longer pressing on me in the same way. Rather, these days I am struck by the vulnerability that we all feel just sharing with someone that you go to church, let alone saying, “yes, I am a Christian.” Now, Christians do and say a great number of stupid and downright dangerous things that foster our bad reputation, but there is more to it than that. If just acknowledging your faith and its importance to you feels risky, imagine how hard it is to speak openly of the Gospel, its priorities seemingly in direct opposition to many of the values of the world at large. Politics and theology aside, I remember how last year when Kate Forbes was contesting the S.N.P. leadership what an issue her Christian faith became and how much resistance she faced because of it. Putting our Christian values out there for all to see and saying that they have a direct correlation with how you live your life and how you organise your relationships with others is risky, and it takes courage and support to do, and do consistently.
This is where today’s gospel can be a help and encouragement to us. After Jesus’ experience in Nazareth, and the troubles with his family, he and the disciples, “went about among the villages teaching.” Mark tells us that before they set off, Jesus “called to him the twelve, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.” There are several important things happening here. Jesus has already decided that the disciples are ready to spread the message of the coming Kingdom of God. Jesus tells them to go, and to carry with them the imprint of his own authority. He is the source of this Good News, he sits at the centre of it, and has set it in motion, and the disciples go out marked with the stamp of Jesus’ approval, giving them also the power to heal people and drive away “unclean spirits.” The disciples didn’t decide to do this on their own. They are part of something bigger than themselves, as are we. Our baptism, our having been marked as Christ’s own for ever, gives us that authority, as well. We are acting, then, as agents for God in Christ when we decide to share the Good News that Love has entered into the world, put death to flight, and is bringing about the Kingdom of God in which God’s priorities of love will trample the designs of the powerful and selfish, self-interested men who rule here now. This means that we are never alone in our witness – spoken or unspoken in our deeds.
Jesus also gives his disciples some further advice. In addition to telling them to pack light, he tells them, “Where you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. And if any place will not receive you and they refuse to hear you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet for a testimony against them.” These words should give us all both solace and courage to, in our own way, in our varied contexts, share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Jesus acknowledges that his message, his Good News will not be accepted by everyone we meet. In fact, many people will reject it and, as far as we, the bearers of that Good News, are concerned, we don’t have to worry about it too much. We can leave it to God and to others to continue to turn the hearts of those who reject our overtures. We can rest assured that when we aren’t received with open arms and kind words, and feel we have done our best, we can without guilt or scruple shake it off and move along. This should give us the courage to try, as it is no reflection upon ourselves if we face rejection or indifference.
It may not feel great, and you might even alienate people, but it is worth it to show forth into the world God’s love in word and in deed. I think this is what Saint Paul is getting at in the passage from First Corinthians that we heard earlier: “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” When we allow ourselves to be vulnerable to others, risk rejection, even ridicule, when we make ourselves “weak” in the eyes of the world, we are doing exactly what we are called to do.
Know then, my friends, that like the disciples, Saint Paul, and all those who have followed in the life of the baptised, we are loved, supported, nourished, and authorised to be bearers of God’s love into the world and show forth the light of Christ in those places where it is so desperately needed. “So [the disciples] went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.” Perhaps we will not cast out demons and we leave it to the professionals to heal the sick of their afflictions, what we will do is let people know that they are called to repent, turn their lives around (for that is what repentance is in its purest meaning, and embrace the Gospel of Love.
Andrew Charles Blume ✠
Mousehole, Cornwall, England
The Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, 29 June 2024
© 2024 Andrew Charles Blume