Let me begin by saying that it is a great honor for me to be here with you all this morning. In the past few months it has been my joy to know Pastor Lauren a little better, and talk about some of the joint things that our youth might be able to do together. I know that, as her church, you must be continually blessed by her—even in the brief time I have known her it is evident she is a woman of God and of deep faith. Having said all that, I will also say that I won’t even attempt to fill her shoes this morning, but I am grateful to have the opportunity to worship together with you this morning.
I would begin by having us reflect for a minute on a fairytale. I think we all know the story of Peter Pan, but it’s not so much the boy who would never grow up that I want to focus on, instead, lets turn our attention to the folklore surrounding his faithful compatriot—Tinkerbell. As you might know, she was a fairy, tiny bug wings, magic dust and all. When I was young there was a particular part of the story that always worried me about her though. The lore says that fairies were born when the first baby, gave it’s first laugh and the laugh broke into a million pieces. And each piece became a fairy. But every time someone said they didn’t believe, then a fairy somewhere would drop out of the sky! When I was young I was so profoundly vexed by this idea because it was something that was making the leap from the story world into my own. I had real power over the fairies in another land! They depended on me! I was very careful never to say that I didn’t.
This was actually the first thing that came into my head when I was reading the passage from Mark. The first part actually, wherein Jesus is preaching in his hometown, which understandably is hard to do, but zero-in on the last few verses of that story verses 5 and 6, in which it is saying that he was unable to do any real miracles there, because of their lack of faith.
Now, I am in no way comparing fable to fiction between Christ and the world of Peter Pan, however, the thread remains that we do have a power, in a fashion, over the miracles of Christ.
I have two things I want us to think about out of these two stories from Mark, and this is the first: Christ depends on us.
Now, not at all in the same way little Tinkerbell does. Go back to the scripture, we already know that they are in a mood of disbelief all throughout his teaching in the synagogue, afterwards Jesus says that they have treated him without honor, and aside from healing the sick, he was unable to do miracles there, and then Jesus is AMAZED at their lack of faith.
What this verse does is lay the responsibility of the work of Jesus Christ firmly on our doorstep.
There is a familiar painting that I’m sure many of you have seen of Christ standing at the door knocking. Standing outside in a garden, and dressed in his usual raiment he leans in, staff in the opposite hand, and is tapping on the door. It’s a very sweet picture and seemingly without a deeper message until you realize one thing about the painting. There is no door knob on the door. The door can only be opened from the inside.
So with certainly we all know that it is we who hold the power of letting Christ into our hearts, there to dwell—BUT this verse from Mark, and through Christ’s own actions brings us into a deeper meaning of what it is to let Christ in. We can let him in to aide him in doing his work, or we can slam the door coldly in his face. Just as the people of his hometown did. And so, he was helpless to aide them. Moreover he was amazed! You’d think as God’s son it would take a lot really amaze Jesus. Well, this does it. He is healing the sick before them, bringing the word of God to their ears (can you imagine what it was like to hear Jesus himself preach?!) and he is met with a total lack of faith.
Taking this knowledge though, that our faith, and our belief and utter trust in Christ is integral to his success in ministry, if we take that as our lens and look to other verses in the Bible, we can see another layer to Christ’s words.
Look at Matthew 23:13, where Jesus says WOE to the Scribes and Pharisees for leading people in the wrong way; in Romans 14:13 Paul preaches against us putting stumbling blocks in the path of our fellow believers; again, in the first letter to John 2:10, he talks of how those believers that love their brothers and sisters in Christ will dwell in the light.
This is a whole new way of thinking really. Live in God’s will and in Faith, not for your own sake, but so that Jesus can do TRUE miracles for other people. Out belief and righteous living is then important to the overall ministry of Christ, and it is that ministry that we are betraying when we act outside the will of God, not just our own little corner. That’s a pretty big responsibility.
But, as is His usual method, Jesus does not leave us ill equipped to handle this. The very next part of the gospel give us instruction.
When Jesus sends out the Twelve apostles there is a section there where it sounds like he is taking the time to give them some fashion tips for reaching the faithless. To really get what he was saying here, I am going to have to briefly lead us through what the average Jewish man wore on a daily basis.
There are actually (5) different pieces that they wore. The first (1) was called the chiton, which was the most basic piece. Think of a long sack with holes cut in it for the head and arms. That was it. The next piece (2) was the himation. This is what the movies pieced up on; it’s a giant piece of cloth that is wrapped around the waist and over the shoulder. The third (3) is a simple girdle, or belt; a long piece of cloth about two spans wide that you could fold in the middle so you could keep you money in it. The fourth (4) was a headdress – not quite the Arab kefiya, but close. A big square piece that was folded diagonally, the folded part goes across your brow. And lastly, (5) a pair of sandals.
So what does Jesus have them take? A staff, sandals, and the tunic. Not even an extra tunic. Not even money.
I tell you, I would think that Jesus had some planning issues. I’m kind of a type “A” personality when it comes to mission trip and when we go out I have two or three giant Tupperware tubs that I take. Jesus sounds like he is sending these guys out grossly under-prepared if you ask me.
But let’s look at the context of this verse. Where in the story of his ministry are we? Well somewhere near the middle maybe. This might be what you call a practice run for the twelve. Already Jesus is preparing them for life without him. And to that end, he is also using this excursion not only as a time to preach repentance, but a time to teach the disciples what being his follower means. It’s hard for us to remember sometimes that he is starting basically form the ground up with these guys.
First off, the disciples were to live in utter humility and simplicity. Take a staff, cause you got a long road to haul ahead of you. Take no wallet, or money he says—now the reason here could be twofold. First, it was a well known rabbinic law of the time that when you entered the temple you would take off your shoes and set aside your money belt or wallet. The idea was that all ordinary things were to be set aside. It could be that here Christ is saying that the homes there were to enter were every bit as sacred as the Temple courts, or that their entire ministry would be out of the ordinary. Second, there were Pharisees who would travel from town to town collecting in their wallets for the synagogues of that area, perhaps Christ also wanted to insure that people knew they were coming only with the word of God, and not also with a hand out for their dutiful offering.
There were to wear sandals, again, this is not a pleasure cruise. You will be hiking it out there. And no extra garments, which could be perceived as extravagant and wasteful living.
So here we have the follower of Christ as he himself would have it. Pared down to utter simplicity, complete trust, and a generosity that is out to give and never demand. Keep in mind though that this was a short term ministry, not Christ’s rules for living the rest of their lives.
But then, when we are about the work of the church, how must we prepare ourselves?
There is a passage in a Roman novel called Qu Vadis? It talks about a young Roman who has fallen for a Christian girl. Though because he is not a Christian she will have nothing to do with him. To find out what Christians are all about he follows her to a meeting one night and listens to Peter preaching from outside the house. As he listens something happens to him and he later thinks that, “ if he wished to follow that teaching he would have to place all his thoughts, his habits, his character, and his whole nature up to that moment on a burning pyre, and fill himself up with and altogether different and entirely new soul.”
That newness is what we seek, but what is the cost? The Roman boy had it right. Everything that we have essentially needs to be tossed out. What Jesus asked the Twelve to do was very much an entirely new thing. Go out without all those other pieces of clothing on? They would have felt naked! Taking no bread! Relying on other for their very sustenance? Take no money?!
What Jesus asks of them is a radical reconfiguring of their ideas on how to reach people with the word of God. And there was much they would have to throw on the burning pyre in order to do it.
But what is the outcome of dressing for ministry in the way Christ asks? What happens when we open the door to Christ wide, into our hearts and also wholly into His work?
What happened to David—who was called the Beloved of God? In our verse from Samuel this morning we read that he is newly anointed king, and then proceeds to take back Zion and rule there for thirty three years. And – go to the end of that last verse we read—he became more and more powerful – BECAUSE the Lord Almighty was with him.
Exist in the power of the Lord and blessings will be yours. For David those blessings were in the form of the power of a ruler. For the people of Jesus’ hometown? What would their blessings have been if they had the faith? As it was Jesus healed the sick!
See, that’s the other way this works. If we are in God’s presence then we will have blessings. But, if our faith is lacking, if we do not have the door wide open then the full blessings will not be ours! The full measure, heaped up and running over! That is the blessing of someone who is able to set self aside for the sake of God’s ministry. That is the blessing of someone who supports the Body of Christ with their faith. Who drives ministry in a spirit of simplistic trust in God and His power over this world.
And if we are unable to do those things fully, then we will receive only a portion, and if we find ourselves reject the teachings of Christ completely, then we have nothing from Him but the dust off his sandals.
But we can be there together, have love for someone else that truly feels unloved, have strength for someone who has none, have encouragement for those who are discouraged, and most of all have faith enough for those brothers and sisters who can’t seem to find it.
