Community Church Sermons

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B - July 9, 2000

"Good News, Bad Preaching"

Mark 6:1-13

Sandy and I have a running debate going about which of our families is crazier than the other. She can point to the idiosyncrasies of the people on my side - and there are many. And I can bring up the idiosyncrasies on hers - and, in my humble opinion, there are many more. In fact, so aware are we of the strangeness that exists among our relatives that we immediately identify with Jeff Foxworthy when he talks about the oddities of his family. He describes his mother as the creature from the cold cream lagoon; his father as the one who taught him the meaning of the word "sensuous" - sensuous up, would you mind getting' me another beer?; and his relatives showing up at the airport for a family trip to Hawaii - with Piggly Wiggly bags for luggage - an event he describes as the Clampetts go to Maui.

One of God's little jokes on us is to put us into these family groups where we know something is odd about everybody else without ever realizing they feel the same way about us! Many of us live in families like the one described in the Woody Allen movie Annie Hall. This guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doc, my brother's crazy. He thinks he's a chicken." The doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn him in?" The guy replies, "We would, but we need the eggs."

Do you have family members whose sense of themselves is a bit distorted? Welcome to the club. In fact, welcome to Nazareth. Welcome to the family of a woman named Mary.

One hot summer day, Mary's oldest son comes home. Isn't married. Doesn't have a job. With him are twelve weird guys he met up at the lake. They don't have jobs either. Her son told them to quit their jobs and come follow him. And they did. And tagging along with this scruffy crew is a strange assortment of equally scruffy people - prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners.

Do you get the picture? Wouldn't you love to have your kid come home with a crowd like that?

And they all show up at Mary's house one afternoon, and knock on the door. And her son calls out, "Ma, I'm home!"

You can only imagine the family's reaction! I can mentally hear one of Mary's other sons - she had four other boys you know, and at least a couple of daughters - asking his brother, "So…what are YOU doing these days, Jesus?"

"Oh, healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead. Stuff like that."

Then chimes in one of Jesus' friends, "Don't forget to tell 'em about the walkin' on the water thing, too!" He introduces himself as Cephas and then mysteriously whispers, "I'm the rock upon which your brother is going to build his church! Yee-haw!"

Now St. Mark, who writes about this odd hometown reunion, describes the event this way. Upon hearing from Jesus first at home and then in the synagogue, the neighbors ask, "Where did this man get all THIS? What is this….this…wisdom…that's been given HIM? Where did he get this supposed POWER? Isn't this the CARPENTER, Mary's SON - James, Joses, Judas, and Simon's BROTHER?"

St. Luke adds the fact that, after Jesus got finished preaching to the home crowd that day, they tried to throw him off a cliff! This is why insurance premiums are so high for preachers. Sometimes, you see, the Good News comes across as pretty bad preaching! Mark, puts it this way: "They took offense at him."

And not only the church people and the neighbors. His family, too. They thought Jesus was off his rocker. So Jesus finally shrugs his shoulders and says, "A prophet is not without honor - except in his own hometown, and among his own relatives, and in his own house." And Jesus - with his motley crew of unemployed followers - leaves town, marveling at their unbelief.

Now, before we turn on Jesus' family, and the people of Nazareth for rejecting the Lord, let me challenge you with a thought: Jesus is still rejected today by we the members of his own church, by we the members of his own family.

And our rejection of Jesus comes in much the same form as it did back then. Many of us do not want a Jesus who is larger than our own hometown understandings!

Leonard Sweet writes, "Faith in God is dangerous thinking. Even more, faith in God is dangerous living."

And it is dangerous precisely because faith calls us into a new neighborhood, a new hometown. It is called the Kingdom of God, and this new neighborhood of the kingdom is constantly clashing with the old neighborhood in which we have lived all our lives.

And this invitation to the new neighborhood - the Kingdom of God - often comes across to us like it did to the people of Nazareth. The Bible may call it Good News, but to us - entrenched as we are in the old ways - it may seem at first to be just plain bad preaching. And we, too, sometimes feel like throwin' the preacher off a cliff.

My friend and colleague Ron Miller tells about inviting Tony Campolo to preach at his very wealthy church in Watchung, New Jersey. Ron says Tony got into the pulpit, read the passage where Jesus says it's easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for rich people to make it into heaven. And then - to a hushed and shocked congregation - Tony spent the next hour explaining to the people that, if he was them, he'd start figuring out how to give all his money away to the benefit of others before it was too late. Ron says, the next day, the church phone started ringing off the hook, and the people on the other end of the line were growling. They were growling because they didn't like preachers talking about money. You don’t do that in Watchung, New Jersey. They were growling because they didn't like being told their wealth could easily get in the way of their salvation. You don't say things like that in Watchung, New Jersey. And they were growling because he took a whole hour to make the point. Apparently, you don't preach for an hour in Watchung, New Jersey.

But what's most amazing to me about the whole episode is that Tony Campolo didn't really say anything new that day. Jesus' spoke about money and wealth more than about any other topic. Jesus warnings to wealthy people - about losing one's life while gaining the world - are well known. This preacher didn't say anything that Jesus hasn't already said. And not only did Jesus say these things, but he sometimes took a whole day - let alone an hour - to say them!

You see, it may have seemed like bad preaching, if your life-orientation and commitment is to the religious, sociological, economic neighborhood of Watchung, New Jersey. But if you are a resident of this new neighborhood Jesus calls the Kingdom of God, it is a Good News message that resounds with great hope and opportunity for those in need, and with great joy and power for those who learn to imitate the generosity of God! You see, it just depends on which neighborhood you choose to live in.

That day in Nazareth, the tension between God's neighborhood and the peoples' hometown neighborhood became almost palpable. How clear it was that Jesus lived in one neighborhood, and they lived in another! His was a neighborhood of inclusion where even sinners are welcome. Theirs was a neighborhood where exclusion was not only practiced, but was a central part of their religion. His was a neighborhood in which forgiveness is freely given to all who ask, theirs was a neighborhood where, if forgiveness is given at all, it has to be paid for with temple sacrifices and rituals. His was a neighborhood where the poor are blessed and lifted up. Theirs was a neighborhood where wealth was admired and rich people considered blessed. His was a neighborhood where God cares about people and rushes to their aid, theirs was a neighborhood whose god punishes people, and whose misfortunes in life are the proof of God's anger. His was a neighborhood where men and women, rich and poor, Jews and Gentiles walk together and take care of each other; theirs was a neighborhood where the only people who had a voice were rich, male Jews. All others - women, the poor, and Gentiles - were required to be submissive - as to the Lord.

And when Jesus brought his new neighborhood into the old neighborhood where he'd grown up, they took offense, and tried to throw him off a cliff.

And many people do the same thing today.

But let me ask you, "What neighborhood will YOU choose to live in?"

If you think you're ready to make a commitment to the neighborhood of the Kingdom of God, or if you're at a point where you sense a need to renew a commitment you made earlier, you will face almost unbelievable culture shock..

You will need to learn to love others like you've never loved before. You'll need to learn to forgive - everyone. You'll have to learn to exclude no one from God's grace, or from God's hope, or from your friendship.

If you dare to live in Jesus' neighborhood, you'll have to get a new financial plan that is in accordance with God's will. You'll have to build a new set of values, and learn all over again the difference between right and wrong as God defines it. You'll have to face life's cultural movements, like the release of the new Harry Potter book, by asking tough questions about how things like magic and witchcraft fit into God's neighborhood in which we are called to face the realities of life, and where life's difficult problems - like poverty, like racial hatred, like disintegrating relationships - cannot be overcome by the mere wave of a wand or the chanting of a magical spell. And we will need to ask ourselves which of the two neighborhoods is the healthier one in which to raise our children. Oh, if you're going to live in Jesus' neighborhood, you're going to have to learn how to differentiate between wooden nickels and eternal truth. And most importantly, you're going to have to be willing to come and meet a new God.

Lloyd Ogilvie tells the story of a spiritually troubled man who turned to his pastor for advice. After listening to the man at great length, the pastor asked him to describe what he felt was the deepest need in his life. The man replied:

"During the past few weeks we've been talking about what to do with the struggles in my life. You've tried to tell me that God loves me, is for me, and has the power to help me in my struggles. That's been difficult to hear because of what I've known about God from my friends, my family background, and our culture... Then it hit me the other day, it hit me that the reason for my struggles is that I have had a wrong idea about God. I've thought of Him as a Judge or a heavenly Policeman. He has been "up there" or "out there" somewhere. I couldn't believe that He either knew or cared about me and my struggles... Most people believe in God, but He's like an absentee Landlord--aloof, distant, and non-existent as far as daily problems are concerned. My God has been a conglomerate of that conditioning and not the God of Love and action you've talked about. My greatest need is to find this new God--not new in the sense that He never existed, but new to me."

Friends, come and meet this new God, and the new neighborhood he is building.

Our Scripture lesson ends with Jesus sending the disciples out - two by two - to practice what it's like to live in the Kingdom of God. They confronted powers of evil and cast out the demons terrorizing peoples' lives. They comforted the sick, and found the power to heal in ways they'd never before imagined. They took nothing with them, but trusted God to meet their needs every day. And God did. They opened their arms and welcomed the world to the love of Jesus.

And Jesus is still calling people to the neighborhood of Good News. It may sound like bad preaching to those whose lives are rooted in the old familiar hometown neighborhood, but it is truly Good News to those who dare to join it. It's called The Kingdom of God. And it's the sort of neighborhood where you'll want to live for the rest of your life - and beyond!