Community Church Sermons
Year B
July 8, 2012
Sixth Sunday
after Pentecost
The Amazing YOU!
Mark 6:1-13
Rev. Martin C. Singley, III
Senior
Pastor
Several different news stories caught my attention this past week.
The first was the death of Andy Griffith, the beloved Sheriff Andy, who kept the peace and taught a lot of wisdom in the little town of Mayberry. Along with Barney Fife, Floyd the Barber, Goober and Gomer Pyle, Aunt Bea and little Opey, Andy came into millions of American homes each week with a positive message about personal values and social ethics. We’ll miss Andy Griffith as much as we miss the life of those good old days represented by the little town of Mayberry.
The second news story that sparked my interest was about Sonya Thomas who broke the women’s world record for hot dog eating. At Nathan’s on Coney Island this past 4th of July, Sonya gulped down 45 hot dogs in just 10 minutes! At a tiny 5’3” tall, Sonya also holds world records – for both men AND women – for eating Vienna Sausages, baked beans, buffalo chicken tenders, chili cheese fries, and turducken (which is chicken stuffed into a duck which is then stuffed into a turkey). I would love to take that woman out to dinner!
The third story that impressed me was the announcement by scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research of the discovery of a new elementary particle – called “the God particle.” Now we all know that atoms consist of subatomic particles – protons, electrons and neutrons. But the burning question for physicists has long been, “How do these particles get mass?” Think of it this way: go back to the dawn of creation and imagine the entire universe and everything in it contained in a volume many times smaller than an atom! That’s how it was at the beginning. Then something happened! Some call it “the Big Bang”, others describe it as God saying, “Let there be light.” But SOMETHING happened and all of these particles of the universe started expanding and taking on form and gaining mass and becoming the universe we know! How did that and how does that happen?
Well, back in the 1960’s a theoretical physicist by the name of Peter Higgs proposed the idea of there being an electromagnetic field that pervades all creation, and that as subatomic particles pass through this field, other elementary particles attach themselves to them, making them bigger and fatter and slower – in other words, giving them mass. This unknown particle that attaches itself to other particles was called the Higgs-Bosun and later was nicknamed “the God particle.” It doesn’t really have anything to do with religion, but it gets us back to the beginnings of the universe. And I, the kid who – for lack of interest - flunked physics as a junior in High School – am now as an old man fascinated by the subject!
Then, a fourth news story I read about this week:
An itinerant preacher by the name of Jesus went to visit his family in his hometown of Nazareth, Israel. That Saturday – the Jewish Sabbath - he went to synagogue, and began to teach. We don’t know what it was he said, but generally speaking his message was that you can boil all religion down to one 2-part commandment: love God and love your neighbor as yourself. But the people of his hometown – the news report said - took offense at him.
“Who is he to tell us what to believe and how to live? How is it that he – the kid who grew up here and played Little League baseball with our kids, and went to the school dances with our daughters, and set off illegal firecrackers on the 4th July, and worked around here as a carpenter – how is that he has become such a too-big-for-his-own-pants healer and miracleworker and preacher? Jesus, we know who you really are! You’re just Mary’s kid – the one they say was illegitimate! And you’re just the brother of those ne’er do well boys - James, Joseph, Judas and Simon! And aren’t those your sisters with you?”
“Jesus, we know you for who you really are, and you ain’t no Savior!”
The news report said Jesus was unable to do many miracles there in Nazareth, because of their lack of faith.
The reason this story catches my attention is because it’s a story that happens over and over again every day in our world and in our lives. People look at us and judge us for what they think they know about us. They see our past, they view our flaws, they know our family heritage, they add up our mistakes, they look at the cover of the book and think they know what’s inside.
He’s a hopeless alcoholic. She’s a vicious gossip. They’re just plain lazy.
Religion can and often does feed this poisonous way of looking at others. One of the most common observations that non-Christians offer about Christians is that we seem to specialize in pointing out all that’s wrong with people. As one young troubled girl said to her parents who were urging her to go to church, “Why would I want to go somewhere that makes me feel worse about myself than I already do?”
Most of us are pretty good at pointing out the sin of others. And others are pretty good at pointing out all that’s wrong and broken about US. All your life the people of Nazareth have been telling you what you can’t do. And many of us have come to believe them, and accepted mediocrity as our lot in life.
But what if you could see yourself and others differently?
What if you could see yourself and others as AMAZING people with POTENTIAL BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS?
There was once a boy born into a very poor family – so poor, in fact, that he had to live with relatives because his parents couldn’t afford a home. When his father finally got a job as a carpenter, he got a house to raise his family in, but it was very small and decrepit. The little boy did not have a crib or a bed, but slept in a dresser drawer. Growing up, he was labeled as a kid from the wrong side of the tracks. He was shy and didn’t have many friends. But somewhere along the way, he learned that he could make the other kids laugh, although he never knew whether they were laughing at him, or with him.
Like the people of Nazareth with Jesus, the people of Mt. Airy, North Carolina had no idea Andy Griffith would become the amazing man he became.
Lee Sun-Kyung was born in 1967 in South Korea. Her mother was a maid, her dad a carpenter, but neither was able to find steady, regular work. The family was so poor they could not even afford to buy rice, so they bought barley which was much cheaper. Sometimes, Lee says, all they had to eat was noodles which she grew so sick of she never wanted to see a noodle again. She grew up hungry, always aching for something to eat. Living in such difficult circumstances, Lee’s future looked bleak. Because job prospects were so poor in Korea, Lee emigrated to the United States, changed her name, and took a job as manager of a Burger King restaurant in Virginia. She still works there. And that’s where she got an idea about how to make the most of her insatiable appetite!
Like the people of Nazareth with Jesus – the people of Gunsan, South Korea certainly had no idea that this little undernourished girl named Lee Sun-Kyung would one day become Sonya Thomas the amazing women’s world hot dog eating champion!
AMAZING!
And little Peter Higgs, who came up with the idea of the Higgs-Bosun particle? Peter was born in England and suffered with such severe asthma as a boy that for many years he couldn’t even go to school. And yet just this past week, 3,000 of the world’s top physicists gathered to announce that Peter had indeed unlocked one of the great secrets of the universe – a secret that has the potential of benefiting humankind in truly amazing ways!
People are AMAZING! YOU are AMAZING! God has created us with AMAZING POTENTIAL for goodness, joy and life!
What is important about us, you see, is not what other people tell us we are NOT, but who God tells us we ARE, and what we can BE and DO!
You know, another news story caught my eye this week.
After Jesus was thrown out of Nazareth because the people there saw him as the boy they thought they used to know, he went out into the villages and called his followers together. He put them in teams of two and sent them out to preach the good news about the God who loves us. He told them to go out and transform evil into good, and to heal the broken lives of the people they met. He told them to preach good news in a bad news world.
They weren’t really sure they could do any of that, of course, because they had Nazarenes in their lives too. But Jesus was telling them something new about themselves. They had AMAZING POTENTIAL for doing God’s work!
And the man who wrote the news story – a fellow by the name of Mark - reported this: “They drove out many evil spirits, and anointed many sick people with oil, and healed them.”
AMAZING!
Isn’t it ironic that the people of Nazareth looked at Jesus as a typical hometown boy with limited abilities and potential, and because they could not see him for the person God knew him to be, he could not perform many miracles among them.
But Jesus saw people differently. He saw them for the AMAZING people God made them to be, with almost limitless potential for doing good. So he didn’t tell his followers what they COULDN’T DO. He told them to go and do what they COULD DO - working miracles of goodness in the lives of others.
And they did!
AMAZING!
How do you see yourself?
Through the eyes of the people of Nazareth, or through the eyes of Jesus Christ?
How do you see others?
Through the eyes of the people of Nazareth, or through the eyes of Jesus Christ?
And how do you see US – the Community Church at Tellico Village?
Through the eyes of all the Nazarenes out there, or through the eyes of Jesus Christ?
Like his followers in the story, we are sent out to love neighbors, to set people free from the powers of evil, to heal the broken, and to proclaim the good news about the unconditional love of God for all God’s children.
YOU are an amazing person.
WE are an amazing church!
We are loved by an amazing God who calls us to do amazing things that will bring God’s amazing grace into the lives of others all around us.
So let’s go! This week, you CAN take a step forward through the problem that has ground you to a halt. You CAN make progress in healing that broken relationship. You CAN find meaning and purpose in the experience of your illness. You CAN take the first step toward becoming free from that addiction. You CAN discover a glimpse of joy within the darkness of your sadness. You CAN make a difference in someone’s life!
You CAN do AMAZING things through Christ who strengthens you!