7th Sunday after Pentecost

Ezekiel 2:1-5; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13

Mark 6:1-13

¹ Jesus came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. ² On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! ³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. ⁴ Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” ⁵ And Jesus could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. ⁶ And he was amazed at their unbelief.

  Then Jesus went about among the villages teaching. ⁷ He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. ⁸ He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; ⁹ but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. ¹⁰ Jesus said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. ¹¹ 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 as a testimony against them.” ¹² So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. ¹³ They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

. . .

The Sufficient Christ

Grace to you, beloved of God, and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

By the way, I know you know this story: In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark to find the legendary Northwest Passage Waterway and reach the Pacific Ocean.

Jefferson deemed the expedition of ultimate significance to national strategy, especially after the Louisiana Purchase in the same year. So much so that he picked Captain Lewis, his most trusted personal assistant, to lead the enterprise. On his end, Lewis chose his former superior in the army, Lieutenant Clark, whom he had the utmost trust to be his right-hand man on the journey. The mission was to succeed.

It took a lot of preparation. Lewis was sent to Philadelphia to learn everything from celestial navigation to cataloging plants through field medicine. Lewis conceived a special boat that could be assembled and disassembled as needed. Everything was good to go on the next year, and the expedition left St. Charles, Missouri, going upstream in the Mississippi River on May 14, 1804.

Neither this intense and meticulous preparation nor 300 years of tradition about the geography of the continental divide would prepare Lewis and Clark for what was in front of them. Upon arrival at the Three Forks of the Missouri River – the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers confluence – the expedition was prepared to cross challenging but somewhat gentle slopes. I don’t need to tell you that what they found instead was a chain of peaks thousands of feet high; we call them the Rocky Mountains these days. They now needed to canoe over that!

A couple of years before the pandemic, a book named “Canoeing Through the Mountains” was published. It is a wonderful book. I recommend it. It is a Church mission and leadership book that uses the experience of Lewis and Clark as an image for the times when faith communities face the reality of coming up with another plan to continue to do what they do, which is to do ministry together for Christ, proclaiming the gospel and making new disciples.

It was almost divine for me that such a book was released when it was. When COVID-19 hit, we faced the first chain of very high mountains. We somewhat canoed through that and have the scars to prove it. Then, when we thought we were home free, we were back on track towards the beach and realized there were more mountains to cross. No one relates to the church like we did six years ago. Everything is different.

The book’s biggest lesson for me was that the world will continue to turn the way it does. What will show up in front of us will. No matter how much preparation and knowledge we have accumulated, we will need to face the challenge in front of us, and we may not have the plans and the tools for that. We will have to come up with something else and not be able to do it alone. We will need everyone.

The mission of the church as disciples of Jesus and the challenges we face haven’t changed much in nature since the disciples were sent two by two to spread the good news. You never know what you’re going to face. Even Jesus was surprised from time to time. Case in point: the warm reception he had in a mostly foreign land and the lives he restored there versus the rejection and distrust he faced at the place he grew up. One would expect the opposite, right?

It makes sense to me that Jesus sends them away with no preparation, no supplies, only the clothing they wore, but nothing fancy. Hit the road, proclaim the good news, and restore the broken. In some places, you will be received well. In other places, not so much. Don’t fret. You have each other. You are not alone. Remember my teachings and remember my love. My grace will be sufficient for you; even when you are weak, you will be strong. I am with you, said our Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen.