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Text(s): Mark 6:1-29
- Pastor Ken Nelson
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Have you ever been rejected? Have you ever failed at something? Sure, you can include the your first drivers test that you biffed...(hey, I biffed mine), or the time you asked someone out in the 9th grade...and s(he) looked at you or past you like you were a ghost, or rolled their eyes with that "you can't possibly be serious" look on their face. That hurts. But the sort I am referring to is rejection in an endeavor or relationship that you'd really invested in and meant a lot to you. In the current world financial crisis we've heard a lot about banks, companies, even countries that are considered "too big to fail". Truth is nothing . . . no one . . . no business . . . no nation . . . no ideology of men . . . nothing is "too big to fail." From our text in Mark and the manner in which it discloses the movement of God's narrative come this lesson...the downside of being human is being "vulnerable". To put it in slightly more grandiose religious jargon...Incarnation is always and everywhere subject to Limitation. As one both fully human and fully divine, Jesus tasted the raw flavor of rejection and failure from the very "get-go" of his public ministry. Returning to his hometown of Nazareth Jesus got hit upside the face with the slap of failure. He was both too convicted in his faith and principles ...and too familiar to his audience. That'll get you slapped even today. How could Jesus have anything inspired to offer the people of Nazareth when they had seen him running down the streets like any other Jewish kid - skinned knees, running nose, dirty clothes? How could a child of questionable parentage and no social standing be a messiah? Jesus returned to Nazareth and faced the ultimate test -a home crowd. Ask any athlete what's harder on them, being jeered in another team's stadium or booed in your home stadium, and they'll tell you. Jesus went home - and was rejected...he lost his home opener. Jesus would go to Jerusalem - be rejected there too. He lost in "prime time." No one is beyond failure. No one is too big or too small to fail. The key is to know that "failing" does not make you a "Failure", losing at something in life is no sign that you are a Loser, and being rejected does mean you are a Reject. In fact, in means you're more like Christ than you may know, for in that moment you are just like he was, you, as the Apostle Paul would say, "bear in your body (emotions) the marks of Christ". Remember dear Christian, in the end, it doesn't matter that you lose at something or who you lose to; it only matters who and what you lose for. You don't fudge on the quality control factors it is your job to measure and get passed over for promotion. You lose. You don't turn in the struggling single parent you notice slipping a few candy bars from the check-out lane into her grocery bag. A co-worker did and your pay gets docked. You lose. You see "your" crowd of "good" kids targeting a social reject and mocking them for being different - and you don't go along. Suddenly you're out of the text-mail loop for the weekend. You lose. You vote your conscience and your faith...but your candidate or cause loses. You lose. One of the most magnificent divine disclosures that Jesus could have ever given to humanity is today's gospel text in Mark. Jesus is rejected because of what he knows and claims to be - clearly and unequivocally standing on his identity as God's Son. Then he sends his 12 disciples out to get a taste of rejection for the right reasons...to partake if you will the "sacrament of failure." We conclude our weekly sacrament of communion with the words "go in peace and serve the Lord." Perhaps we should add "and don't forget to shake the dust off your feet." Then again, maybe our collective "thanks be to God" might be a little more muted. Or maybe it just might make us think a bit more. So what about you? What can you take from this lesson today? How does it reassure you that in Christ you can be "brought back" from a rejection or a loss? What's involved for you in partaking as a disciple of Jesus Christ in this "sacrament of failure?" First, Jesus sends you out there...and needs you out there. For Jesus' sake wade right in and take risks for the gospel. Second, read the signs. If the people you encounter are welcoming of your faith and values remain with them. But if they reject what you know is right and good, Jesus gives you a different directive, permission to move on from them if they don't move on from you first. W.C. Fields who once said, "If at first you don't succeed...quit. There's no use in being a fool about it." Well, the truth is probably someone in the middle of that sentiment, but you get the point...you can move on and you have Jesus word on it too. Third, remember that if you fall, you will fall forward into the grace of Jesus. He's knows about this stuff. But most importantly remember that rejection or failure is not an invitation to passivity or complacency. In other words, keep your dreams alive, your faith and values in the center of your being. In other words, keep your slates and your souls clean. Jesus' failure at Nazareth and the rejection of this disciples who mimicked him shows us how live a life worth living. Jesus was just a little kid from the hood...they were a bunch of scruffy guys from the next town over, but what he taught them and they us is that while nobody is too big to fail, nobody who walks with God is too small to prevail. Even you. AMEN
