7th Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 6:1-13

At Christ School, the all-boys Episcopal boarding school where Jamie teaches and where I worked for five years, one of the now-retired teachers is remembered well for advising students at the beginning of each school year, “Show up on time and ready to work.” Similarly, a pastoral counselor and chaplain distilled his advice to students in clinical pastoral education –where seminary students serve as chaplains to patients in a hospital setting – to four guiding principles: “1. Show up. 2. Listen. 3. Speak the truth. 4. [Don’t] take responsibility for the outcome.”[i]

In today’s gospel, Jesus, likewise, instructs his disciples, equipping them to go out into the world where he is sending them.

Today’s reading begins with an account of Jesus being rejected and ridiculed by people at the synagogue. First, his critics question his authority to teach; then they mock his legitimacy; and finally, they shame him, because he is not fulfilling the traditional role of the eldest son and supporting his mother and sisters.

Mark tells us “[Jesus] was amazed at their unbelief” (6:6a) but immediately, then he “went [out into] the villages teaching.” (6:6b) Their personal insults and their lack of faith did not deter him. Like the disciples after him, he shook the dust off his feet and carried on.

The very first thing that discipleship requires is that we show up. Jesus doesn’t ask the disciples to do anything he hasn’t already done. Whether it is at the river Jordan or the shoreline of the sea of Galilee, in the temple courtyard or at the synagogue, Jesus showed up and was present with those who had questions, or were hungry, and with those who knew God’s law but had not yet experienced God’s love.

The second thing that discipleship requires is that we listen. Jesus instructs his disciples to take nothing with them. Unencumbered, they are freed to respond to the people around them. Jesus’ instructions make me wonder, what are those things that we need to leave behind so that we can better accompany people we meet? Perhaps, today, that looks like turning off notifications and chimes on your phone, closing the lid on your laptop, and muting the television. But it can also mean surrendering our assumptions about who can teach us, and what we know and don’t know.
 
The third thing that discipleship requires is that we speak the truth. It is that simple, and that difficult. Disciples of Jesus — that’s all of us — tell the story of what God is doing in our lives and why God means so much to us. Sometimes we tell the story of God’s activity through our actions; the disciples demonstrated their dependence on others and their belief in their mission by relying on the generosity of strangers. When we provide toothbrushes to hospice patients or stock the little free pantry cupboard, we are sharing what God has first given us. Sometimes, like the woman who met Jesus at the well, we tell the story of God’s grace when we share the story of an encounter with the holy or a time when God’s handiwork was obvious and visible in our lives. As reluctant as many of us are to be evangelists, “telling [God’s] story with words is part of the claim that Christ lays upon his disciples.”[ii]

The last instruction Jesus gives the disciples is that “If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet….” (6:11) Discipleship means we don’t take responsibility for the outcome. “We are responsible [only] for our own obedience.”[iii] While “shaking off the dust” can be interpreted as a means of cursing those who will not listen, it can also be understood as “dust yourself off.” Jesus has just endured episodes of ridicule and rejection — what some may see as failure — and yet he persists in teaching about the kingdom of God and God’s love for the whole world. Discipleship includes learning how to fall and get back up. The disciples are instructed to follow Him and do the same, and they cannot carry resentment, cynicism or fear with them when they go.

The heart of our faith is the cross where Jesus went when he was rejected by religious authorities and scorned by his peers. God’s love compelled him to testify to the world on God’s behalf. In Mark’s Gospel, discipleship is about believing and following.

As we prepare to follow Jesus into the world this week may we hear the Good News in Mark’s gospel for us. May we show up alert to what God is doing in our lives and those around us; confident in God’s love for us and for the whole world, may we listen to those we meet; may we tell the story of how much God loves us and may we surrender our desire for control and approval and acceptance, trusting that God is present and alive with us.

Let us pray…[iv]
Almighty God, source of power and strength,
thank you for the witness of your Son Jesus,
who testifies to Your life-changing love.
Encourage us as we follow Jesus to show up unafraid, to listen well and to speak truth in love that the world would see the gospel lived out in our words and actions.
May the Holy Spirit be our guide forever.
Amen.

[i] Feasting on the Gospels--Mark: A Feasting on the Word Commentary (Kindle Locations 6129-6130). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.
[ii] Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Feasting on the Word: Year B volume) (Kindle Locations 7650-7651). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.
[iii] Lamar Williamson, Jr. The Gospel of Mark. 121.
[iv] Adapted from Laughing Bird Liturgy, http://laughingbird.net/ComingWeeks.html