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The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost Mark 6:1-13 |
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Well, … Jesus has been a failure in his hometown; he's just learned that his cousin John is dead. He is about to set his face toward Jerusalem….Not one of Jesus' better weeks. But he responds to all of this in a most unusual way. He doesn't gather his closest friends around him for support. Instead, he calls his twelve disciples together, bestows upon them his own authority, and sends them out two by two to the surrounding villages to preach, and to teach, and to heal. His instructions to the disciples are a little unusual too. He tells them to take nothing with them but their walking sticks and the shoes on their feet. No food, no money, no extra clothes. When they come to a town, they are to stay at the first home that offers them shelter. (They are not to move around from house to house & family to family.) And if they are not welcomed in any town, they are to waste no time there but to move on immediately to the next. “Shake off the dust from your feet, and go.” Why the urgency do you suppose? Well, I think there are several reasons. One, Jesus is becoming increasingly aware that his is time is short; his ministry will be a brief one. He realizes that, unfortunately, not everyone is going to joyfully receive and accept his kingdom preaching--his invitation to discipleship and new life. Two, because his time is short, and because everyone isn't ready and willing to hear the good news--and, perhaps, because Jesus is a little shocked and disappointed about that--he suddenly feels the need to spread out, to try to cover a little more territory at one time by sending out his friends, his disciples, in his name—to do his works. And coupled with that, maybe he feels it necessary to bolster the disciples’ confidence at this point (it's been a bad week for them too) by giving them the responsibility and the power to achieve the task set before them. It's also an opportunity for a test run--a little practice at "faith power" while Jesus is still here to critique them and to help them overcome any fears or doubts, much like a mother bird watches over her children's first flight from the nest. It is the disciples, after all, who will carry on Jesus' work after he is gone. The important work of bringing light to the darkness, of being the salt of the earth, new leaven, new wine--of carrying the gospel to all the corners of the world and making disciples of all nations and building a church that will carry on their work as the body of Christ. Finally, there is an urgency for Jesus because, I think, deep down in his heart, he is a universalist. (In fact, I know he is.) He has to believe and hope and pray that if the gospel can just be preached enough and heard enough (in time enough) by every ear and experienced in every heart that salvation will come to all. That is Jesus’ hope. That is his prayer. But time is of the utmost importance. Time is of the essence. I'm a universalist, too, in my heart. For I believe that, ultimately, the love of God will overcome the power of sin and evil and that the Devil (whoever or whatever that rascal is) will lose. I don't underestimate the power of evil, but I don't underestimate the love of God either. & I don't believe that the power of evil can stand up, ultimately, to the power of God's love. Maybe there are those who will voluntarily choose death over life—who, because of human pride, won't have it any other way—I don't know. But I do know this (and I know because I know the love of God; I am one of those souls rescued by the love of God): God will save as many people as God possibly can—even in spite of themselves—because that it the kind of lover God is. That is the kind of love God has for us. I do a lot of surfing on my cable TV. Ask my wife. I drive her crazy going from channel to channel, eventually sending her off into another room! And I have suddenly, in my surfing becomes become enthralled with “Christian programming”—partly because I can't believe what I'm seeing and hearing from supposedly intelligent, supposedly loving, supposedly Christian people. I mean, that should be redundant, shouldn't it? To say, "a loving Christian." But there are some mean Christians out there! And they're being mean thinking they are in service to the Lord. But they're not! They're not. My Church History professor in seminary used to always remind us, "There is nothing in this world meaner than a ticked off Christian." And church history does prove that out at times. But, I've gotten way off track here. I was talking about Christian broadcasting—Christian television. Now don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good stuff on some of those channels. You probably know that. Good programs. Good people. Good, strong preaching. But there's some weird stuff on there too. There was someone on the other day, who was talking about the Last Day, (and talking about a particular group of people) and he said, "There will be some people who won't go to heaven, because they don't deserve to get in." And he may be half right. There may be some people who don't go to heaven. That's not for me to say--or him. Thank goodness that's God's call, not ours. But if God doesn't let people in heaven who don't deserve it, we've all had it! Who can be saved?! Where in the world do we get such thinking?! Certainly not from the Gospel! No one earns his way into heaven; no one can. And you can't get there by being a little less sinful than the other guy. It's heresy to believe or to teach that you can work your way in—where God is concerned. We can only be saved by God's grace. God's love for us is the only thing that can save us. God's love is the only thing that will save us from what we all deserve. You see, what the fellow on TV meant was that he has an objection to some people going to heaven. That's his problem. That's his serious problem. And he'd better work it out while there's still time. The world needs the GOOD NEWS. But time is of the essence. The time is urgent, for the church—for you and me—to get this message—the real gospel message of love and acceptance and grace—to the rest of the world. If we don't, then who's to be held responsible? Those who didn't hear or those who didn't tell? Those who did proclaim what we've received or those who failed to share the true message of the love of God in our words and in our living, with our mouths and with our hearts. By God's grace and through the urgent love of Christ on the cross, we are given salvation and the keys to the kingdom of heaven. We are—all of us—urgently called of the Lord to share that good news while we still have time. And in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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