Going out and coming back

Reflection on Mark 6:1-13 on July 8, 2018 at Middleton Community UCC

Are there days when you feel discouraged? Like no matter how you try, what you are trying to accomplish is not working out the way you had hoped? That the forces arrayed against your vision of how life should be are just too strong?

I think we all feel that way at times. Certainly Jesus felt that way as he was rejected in his home town. Certainly his followers felt that way as they shook the dust off their feet and left a place that had rejected them. 

So what are some of the things that you are feeling discouraged about today?

Hold those thoughts for a few minutes as we look at what preceded and followed the story of Jesus that we heard today. I think in the wider view of the story, we may get some insights in how to deal with our own discouragements. 

Just before the section in the Gospel according to Mark we heard today, there are some amazing actions by Jesus – driving evil spirits out of a man who had been living in a cave, healing a woman with a bleeding disorder who was bold enough to reach out and touch him in a crowd, bringing back to life the daughter of a synagogue leader. 

Think about this mix of people. The man in the cave was in the country of Gentiles – non-Jews, people looked upon with suspicion. The woman who had been bleeding for 12 years would have been an outcast among her own people. The synagogue leader was most likely an upstanding resident of his community. Jesus had time for them all.

The people in Jesus’ home village of Nazareth had no time for him, though. They described him as a carpenter – not a highly-regarded job in that era. They described him as the son of Mary, perhaps highlighting his questionable parentage by leaving out the name of Mary’s husband. Joseph. 

Jesus’ closest followers – the Twelve, they are called – were also going out into unfriendly territory. Jesus had directions for them – travel lightly, don’t linger where you are not wanted.

And as the story continued beyond what we heard today, we learn that Herod, the Jewish king of the region, had learned about this wandering rabbi and his followers. He had just executed John the Baptist and was spooked at the notion that perhaps John had come back to life. 

Discouragement, disappointment, a touch of fear as the ruling authorities were taking note of this small group of people doing amazing things. So Jesus takes them to what he thought would be a deserted place for a little renewal. But the crowd followed them and the crowd was hungry. So Jesus made sure everyone was fed, then sent his followers across the lake for their renewal as he went alone up a mountain to pray.

Hang on to a few of these ideas as you confront the discouragements in your lives.

·      Reaching out across the normal cast of characters we hang out with.

·      Not getting too attached to the approval of others.

·      Taking time to get away to recharge.

·      In the midst of our own stresses, helping others get the nourishment they need.

·      And then letting prayer undergird our spirits as we move forward.

I’d like to talk a bit about one of the discouragements in my life of late and say a bit about what I have done about it. I think it’s a discouragement at least some folks here share. It’s a discouragement that has a political edge, so I recognize that people will approach these things from different vantage points.

As noted Madison author Parker Palmer wrote in his extraordinary book, Healing the Heart of Democracy, we need to be able to discuss our differences openly, honestly and with civility and, in his words, understand “conflict not as the enemy of a good social order but as the engine of a better social order.”

I’ve been focused a lot of late on what is happening to the families separated on the borders of our nation, the 3,000 children taken away from parents who for the most part were fleeing for their lives from the violence of their home countries. Many of those children remain separated from their parents and despite massive public protests, despite court orders, the process of reuniting children and parents is unconscionably slow.

I know that immigration is a complicated issue in a political and legal sense. It is less complicated for me when I look at it through the lens of Jesus’ life and teachings. 

So when I get discouraged about the hateful rhetoric and evil actions that surround this issue, I go back to the two stories we heard today about Jesus and his followers going out and coming back, not always finding success, but continuing to move forward in offering a new way to live out God’s essential commands of loving God and loving our neighbors as we do ourselves, recognizing that Jesus offered us a very broad definition of who our neighbors are.

Not all followers of Jesus see it the same way I do, as we have seen in the heated national debate over immigration. But as I understand Jesus’ teachings – teachings that ultimately put him at odds with the political and religious leaders of his time – the burden on me as one of his followers is to act in ways the live out those teachings as best I can, even if at times it leads to rejection, even if tackling tough issues can bring discouragement.

I have done some of the standard things that people do about public issues – written to elected officials, donated to groups giving legal representation to parents and children in the midst of this painful time of separation.  

The congregation that I belong to – Orchard Ridge UCC – is one of seven congregations in the Madison area including Community of Hope UCC that are offering sanctuary to immigrants facing deportation and along with another dozen or so congregations that are part of a wider sanctuary support network. Our Wisconsin Conference of the UCC has voted to be what is known as an “immigrant welcoming conference.”

I have had a few chances in the last couple of months be part of larger movements around these issues as well, movements integrally connected to my faith and publicly very visible. It is in that sense of solidarity with others that I find hope in my times of discouragement.

In May, some of the elders of the progressive traditions of Christianity gathered with about 2,000 of us in Washington D.C. for service of prayer at a downtown church and then a silent candlelight procession to the White House under the banner of “Reclaiming Jesus.” 

Two of the central figures in that effort were Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners and the amazing Episcopal bishop Michael Curry, who became known to the world when he preached at the royal wedding of Megan and Harry just days before this event.

At the heart of the Reclaiming Jesus statement were these words: “It is time to be followers of Jesus before anything else—nationality, political party, race, ethnicity, gender, geography—our identity in Christ precedes every other identity. We pray that our nation will see Jesus’ words in us. ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’ “(John 13:35).

Their statement noted that we are all made in the image and likeness of God and so rejected racism and white nationalism. It said that we are all one body in Christ, so they rejected “the misogyny, the mistreatment, violent abuse, sexual harassment, and assault of women” in our culture.

They looked at Jesus’ words about how we treat the hungry, thirsty, imprisoned, sick and the stranger and, relevant to my particular concern at the moment, strongly deplored “the growing attacks on immigrants and refugees, who are being made into cultural and political targets,” and reminded churches “that God makes the treatment of the ‘strangers’ among us a test of faith.”

They called for a respect for truth, for servanthood rather than domination and for a recognition that just as God loved the world, we, too, should “love and serve the world and all its inhabitants, rather than seek first narrow, nationalistic prerogatives.”

So we gathered outside the White House on that evening in May, people from every part of the country, people from many different Christian traditions. We joined together in the prayer Jesus taught his followers and at the end, we sang “This Little Light of Mine.” We were letting our lights shine in a time of darkness for so many families on the border.

I was back in DC again last weekend, this time with my wife, Ellen, and with a bigger crowd – some 35,000 of us there joined about 400,000 in 750 cities across the nation (including Madison) with a call to end family separation. 

The night before, I was at a candlelight vigil in front of the Capitol organized by Jim Wallis and Sojourners where Rev. Sharon Stanley-Rea, director of Refugee and Immigration Ministries for the Disciples of Christ, reminded us in a call-and-response prayer that “All Children are God’s Children.” Once again, we ended with “This Little Light of Mine.”

And then in Lafayette Park across from the White House, the UCC’s Rev. Traci Blackmon (who spoke at the Wisconsin Conference annual meeting last month) reminded the crowd that “the legislation of evil does not make it holy” and ended with these rousing words:

“People of faith must lead with LOVE.
“People of faith must legislate with LOVE.
“People of faith must be governed by LOVE.
“People of faith must fight. Always. For LOVE.

“If it is not LOVE...It is not GOD.”

And yet. And yet. As Ellen and I flew home last Saturday night, some 3,000 children were still separated from their parents because of the actions our government had taken.

A nation with enormous wealth and vast space, a nation formed by people whose ancestors were either native inhabitants of our land, people brought here in slavery or people who came as immigrants or refugees, this nation that has given me so many opportunities is struggling with how to help those families desperately fleeing for their lives.

So I am discouraged. And worried.

I know that when I speak out on issues like this, I may face rejection from friends and family. I experience some of that on Facebook. Jesus knew those risks when he went back to his home town.

I know that sometimes when I talk to people about this, I will simply need to walk away and shake the dust off my shoes rather than dive into deeper antagonism. I try to do that as well. 

And I know that Jesus still sends us out, two by two, to tackle the unclean spirits in our world. I know that I need to travel lightly with hope in my heart and love in my approach to others. 

Finally, I know that I need time in the midst of discouragement to step aside now and then, to go across that lake or go up that mountain to let my spirit be open to God’s spirit, to let God’s spirit refresh and renew my soul.

Whatever discouragements you are facing this day, maybe there are some things you can do that mirror the example and advice of Jesus.

We cannot do it alone. So the words of hymn number 490 can help us along the journey. Let’s return to “I Want Jesus To Go With Me” and sing the first verse one more time.