Proper 9 :: Ezekiel 2: 1–5 / Psalm 48 / II Corinthians 12: 2–10 / Mark 6: 1–13
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Gene Tucker
on Sunday, July 4, 2021.
“DISMANTLING THE MANTLES”
(Homily
text: Mark 6: 1–13)
“A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.”
The
setting for Jesus’ use of what was, most likely, a common proverb that
circulated in the society of His day,[1] is
the synagogue in Nazareth, where He had been brought up.
Before
we look into the matter of prophets and of prophetic speech and action, let’s
note some of the interesting aspects to the interchange between Jesus and those
who heard Him in the synagogue that day:
Jesus’
great things He has been doing are acknowledged: Notice that Jesus’ listeners ask, “How are
such mighty acts done by his hands?” It’s likely that they had heard about the
healings and other things that Jesus had been doing elsewhere, deeds that Mark
relates to us in the preceding chapters of his Gospel account.
Jesus’
wisdom:
These listeners also seem to acknowledge the wisdom of Jesus’ teaching,
saying, “What is the wisdom given to him?”
This comment seems to contain two threads: Acknowledgement of the wisdom of what Jesus
is saying, but questioning the source of it.
Disbelief
at the changed circumstances of Jesus’ life: “Where did this man get these
things?”, they ask. Implicit, I think, in this comment is the knowledge that
Jesus hasn’t devoted himself to the rigorous study of the Torah by
attaching Himself to one of the famous rabbis of the day. He hasn’t undergone a
systematic course of study which would offer the expected credentials for Him
to be a person whose word would carry a certain amount of authority. Such an
internship was expected. His former neighbors in Nazareth know Him to be a
carpenter, a person who works with wood (or perhaps some other hard material).[2]
If
we look back into the Old Testament, we can see that the usual pattern of
people whom God had called to be prophets fits quite well with the pattern of
Jesus’ life and work. For in the Old Testament, the great majority of the
prophets were ordinary people. They weren’t members of the royalty of the day,
and they weren’t priests. Normally
that’s the pattern we see. But the prophets in times gone by were people whom
God called to speak God’s truth, for that is, essentially, the business of
prophets and of prophecy.[3]
The
calling and the work of a prophet is never easy. Consider some of the accounts
of the Old Testament prophets: Nathan
had to tell King David that he was wrong to commit adultery with Bathsheba.
Amos was called to go from the Southern Kingdom of Judah northward to the
Northern Kingdom of Israel to tell them to abandon their wicked ways. Jeremiah told
the leaders of Judah that calamity was coming in the form of the Babylonian
conquest that took place in 586 BC. We could cite many other examples.
Jesus’
task in coming among us as one of us wasn’t an easy calling to fulfill, either.
Here, in the synagogue in Nazareth, He encounters rejection at the hands of
those who had known Him all their lives.
We
might ask ourselves, “Is there a place for prophecy today?” If so, then what
should the goals of prophetic speech be?
It
is the matter of prophecy and prophetic speech that we now turn.
The
need to hear God’s truth never goes away. It will never go away until such time
as the Lord determines to come again, to usher in that new kingdom that was
promised so long ago. Then, when that kingdom comes, God’s truth will be
perfectly and completely known, and there will be no further need for reminders
of that divine truth and will.
Prophetic
speech and truth-telling must be an ingredient in every preacher’s tool kit.
The preacher’s task is (as the saying goes), to “afflict the comfortable and to
comfort the afflicted.”
“To
afflict the comfortable” is to dismantle the mantles and the cloaks we can so
easily wrap ourselves up in. Mantles and cloaks of the sort of these: An attachment to a particular way of looking
at things, like being an extreme liberal or an extreme conservative,; to being
comfortable in our faith life, without a desire to learn or grow or to follow
God’s call into a new and different ministry; to being a part of the church
because we love the liturgy, or the music, or the architecture, or we like a
charismatic preacher; or we attend service just because it’s a habit we’ve had
all our lives. We could, perhaps, add other items to this list.
Sometimes,
the preacher’s prophetic task can take on a radical form. Consider the story I
heard not too many years ago of a pastor who was called to pastor a dying
church. On one of his first Sundays there, he said, “If you’re here this
morning just to warm a pew, you can leave now. God doesn’t need you here, if
that’s why you’re here.” Wow! What a
gutsy move! Turns out that many people did actually leave that church, but then
the church began to grow. (I’m not sure I’d have the nerve to do such a thing,
even as I harbor deep concerns about some in our congregation who seem to be
content to simply be “pew warmers”.) Making such a move runs the risk of
“biting the hand that feeds” one, for the preacher or pastor is usually paid by
those he or she is preaching and ministering to.
The
goal of prophecy and of prophetic speech is to break through our hardened
shells in order for God’s truth to reach deep into our minds and hearts.
Prophecy realizes that, no matter how much we might think we know God’s will,
and no matter how deeply we might attach ourselves to a particular notion,
belief or idea, the truth is that we must reserve about ten percent of our
judgment and knowing, seeking God’s truth and understanding afresh and anew.
This side of eternity, we do not fully know God’s will and God’s heart.
Therefore, the posture we must assume is that we must listen for God’s voice,
in order that we might hear it with as much clarity as we can.
In
other words, we are called to die, called to die to our self-centeredness,
called to die to our desire to follow our own notions, called to die to our
attachment to things we like but which have the ability to shut God’s truth
out, called to die to a casual and comfortable relationship with God which
excludes God’s continuing call to spiritual growth and maturity.
AMEN.
[1] This saying is still in use today.
[2] The Greek word which is usually translated as “carpenter” could also mean a stone mason or someone who worked with other construction materials.
[3] In our own day, prophecy has often come to mean the ability to foretell future events. Indeed, prophecy can involve such an aspect, but an often-overlooked understanding is, generally, the ability to speak God’s truth.
