Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 7 July 2024.
• Video: Mark 6: 1-29 from the Lumo Project
• First Reading: 2 Samuel 5: 1-5, 9-10 (Elders of Israel came, anointed David as king over Israel)
• Epistle: 2 Corinthians 12: 2-10 (‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness’)
• Gospel: Mark 6: 1-13 (They went out and preached, drove out many demons, healed many sick people)
I wonder how they make astronauts. Maybe there is a great factory where at one end they feed in calcium and nutrients and all sorts of tissue for the human body, and with much whirring and banging and clanking, produce a ready-made astronaut, fully trained and equipped with a massive database on every possible kind of technical and engineering knowledge and – Voila!
Maybe not. Perhaps it is more like that recruiting advertisement for the Royal Navy: if you can repair a bicycle, then what about a motor-bike – or a car – or radar set or a ship’s gun?
Perhaps the call to a particular role in life or the church is more about growing into it, starting at the beginning and then learning, often the hard way via our mistakes and misunderstandings.
For David, King of Judah, it was only after seven years in this role in Hebron that he was approached by the elders of all of Israel.
They asked him to be their king as well.
And even then there was going to be a steep learning curve, as he drew together into one kingdom the tribes of all of Israel. It was not going to be an easy road and he would have to grapple with many social and military issues. Never mind the issues of faith.
And so the shepherd boy from Bethlehem came to extend the borders of his lands, and gain the respect of his neighbours. But not without his personal challenges and the disputes within his own household.
Even the great king from whom Jesus was descended still had his issues to deal with.
But then in the gospel we have the connected accounts of Jesus’ rejection in Nazareth, and His commissioning of His disciples to take the message to the towns and villages round about so as to prepare for His coming. But what happened to Him would come to them as well.
They were sent out in pairs, to support and encourage one another. Yet they were being sent out to their own countrymen, their own kinsfolk. These were people who had probably already heard about Jesus and so should have been ready – even eager to receive Him when He came.
So His disciples – and messengers – should have received a favourable reception.
And so they were to travel light among their kinsfolk.
These were people who should have been ready to receive any traveller, let alone one of the tribes of Israel – and especially one of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus was still to wonder at just how slow His disciples were to understand the things He was saying and doing, to the point of exasperation. But He still trusted them and was ready not only to give them His message but to empower them in the work of healing and over demonic influences.
Whatever the limits to their understanding of who and what Jesus was, He would still send them out. And they were willing to go, encouraged by the trust He was placing in them.
Personal issues still there? Probably.
Limited understanding of Jesus and indeed the law of Israel? Definitely.
Open to accusation and intimidation by the learned doctors of law and religion, to having their limited theological education exposed and ridiculed? Almost certainly.
And yet they went willingly and returned joyfully. This was also a learning experience for them as they tested their own faith and understanding, as it were, in the field.
Paul says something more about calling into the service of the Lord.
He might have travelled many miles and founded many churches. He may have a deep learning of the law, now moderated by his faith in Jesus Christ.
But there was something deep within him which held him back. A secret sorrow. A painful relationship, something that would not go away and which would revisit him in the silent watches of the night. Maybe a medical condition, enfeebling him at a critical moment.
Something there to rebuke him, even accuse him. A definite reproach to his sense of being and ministry:
‘Lord if You relieve me of this thing, how much better might I be in Your service? How much more could I do?’
We know that the Lord always answers prayer. Sometimes it is ‘Yes’. Sometimes, ‘No.’ Or ‘Wait’.
For Paul it was ‘No. My grace is sufficient for you. You cannot do My work in your own strength. You must draw on Me. Wait on Me. Make your stand on Me. Find yourself in Me.’
Yes, Paul was given great personal consolations, visions of the Third Heaven. But they did not relieve him of that Thorn in the side. Maybe they helped him to accept it, and live with it.
The truth is that the Lord’s ministry is followed through in the Lord’s way and with His strength, His spiritual gifts and His cultivation of the character and qualities of our lives.
Our ministries and areas of Christian service are never our possessions. They are always those areas of serving that are entrusted to us by the Lord.
For at the end of it all, the service is His, and so are the fruits, and the fulness of His harvest.
