Today\u2019s Gospel picks up where last week\u2019s left off. If you remember, last week Jesus was not having one of his best days. Those people who knew him best, his neighbors and kinfolk, heard him preach in the synagogue and, instead of being proud of him, they said, \u201cIsn\u2019t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and aren\u2019t his sisters here with us?\u201d And, Mark says, they took offense at him. Jesus was amazed at the lack of belief they had in him. He was so amazed, and perhaps even disheartened, that he wasn\u2019t able to do much good for them. In fact, he left them with a kind of proverb, \u201cProphets are not without honor, except in their own hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.\u201d We\u2019ve heard proverbs like this in our own time. You often hear people say, \u201cYou can never go home again,\u201d or \u201cIn my parents eyes, I\u2019m still 10 years old.\u201d Now, if we really listened to that, we might be tempted to sit back and let a lot of opportunities pass us by. We could become frustrated with trying to do anything new or make a needed change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The section of Mark\u2019s Gospel that we read today shows us that Jesus didn\u2019t let that happen. He did what he could and kept going. He kept going through the villages teaching, and in today\u2019s Gospel we hear that he\u2019s beginning to send out the Twelve Apostles to proclaim the same message about the kingdom of God. That should tell us something about having confidence in the message that we proclaim as Christians. One of the things the church has learned from this Gospel story is that, like the Apostles, we\u2019re given the charge \u2014 by our Baptismal Covenant \u2014 to share what we believe about God, and to live a certain way because we are Christians, and to share that way with others. It\u2019s not always easy for us, either. We meet people who don\u2019t believe the things we do, and maybe they make us feel foolish. We could get discouraged, or we could even be afraid that we don\u2019t really know enough to talk about the message we\u2019re challenged to share. Sure, we should always keep learning, but if we remember what we do each Sunday here together and that we\u2019re made in God\u2019s image and are loved and forgiven by God, we have a good start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It might help us to look at the rest of today\u2019s Gospel and think about the way Jesus sent out the Twelve. One of the most important things to realize is that he sent them out together. They went out by twos \u2014 like them, we share the life of a \u201ccommunity.\u201d We aren\u2019t expected to do it alone. Jesus also told them not to take anything extra with them \u2014 not to take an extra tunic or bread or a bag or even money. Now, we often hear that this should teach us to rely on God for all we need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, in many ways that\u2019s true, but like most Scripture readings, this Gospel has several messages. It does teach us to rely on God, but it also teaches us that we don\u2019t have to have a whole lot of \u201cstuff\u201d or have our whole act together before we can begin to share the message of the Gospel. Maybe these Apostles didn\u2019t have two tunics to begin with\u2013maybe they didn\u2019t already have extra money they could put in a bag. Remember, these men were fishermen for the most part. They were laborers and family men, not the high priests or scribes of that day. They certainly hadn\u2019t spent years in school. They probably struggled with everyday living the way many of us do today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, here Jesus is sending them out with what they have and no more, and the interesting thing is that the Gospel says that, \u201che gave them authority over the unclean spirits.\u201d So off they went and found out that they could call people to repent. They could even cast out demons. They anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. We might not see ourselves doing that sort of thing today; as many kids say today, \u201cThat was then, this is now.\u201d What was relevant then is often very different from what is relevant now. We are given authority to do things that are relevant to our own lives. For instance, remember what we\u2019re told to do in our Baptismal Covenant. Those five promises are what we are called to do\u2013whether we are bishops, priests, deacons, or lay people, and whether we\u2019re rich or poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So take a few minutes sometime this week to look at pages 304 and 305 in our Book of Common Prayer. If Jesus were commissioning us today as he commissioned the Twelve Apostles, he just might use these five promises. The first one asks if we will continue in the Apostles\u2019 teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers. In this way, we\u2019re in community with those Jesus sent out in today\u2019s Gospel. It\u2019s an exciting and challenging life!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ll continue our liturgy now, gathered as God\u2019s people, renewed and strengthened just knowing that we\u2019re part of community that includes those who\u2019ve gone before us and those who will follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today\u2019s Gospel picks up where last week\u2019s left off. If you remember, last week Jesus was not having one of his best days. Those people who knew him best, his neighbors and kinfolk, heard him preach in the synagogue and, instead of being proud of him, they said, \u201cIsn\u2019t this the carpenter, the son of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,52,33,3],"tags":[329],"class_list":["post-511543","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-10b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":329,"label":"Proper 10B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951243,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511543\/revisions\/951243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}