If we change just a few small things in our life on a regular basis we can make
a difference to our own lives, other peoples and the planet. For example if we
take one bus a month instead of using the car we would save one billion car
journeys and two million tons of co2 every year.
Or walking even five minutes a day increases your heart rate from 70 to 100
beats this is good for our heart. Also walking lubricates our joints and reduces
stiffness, and it reduces our blood pressure. The more we walk the healthier
we will be.
Life is complex so we have to work out what is of vital importance. One man
decided it was flossing his teeth. If he did that every day he was happy!
This passage is about what was vital for Jesus task on earth.
There is growing trouble after the raising of Jairus’s daughter.
Jesus leaves Capernaum to preach in the villages of Galilee and begins
twenty-five miles away in his hometown of Nazareth. At first his teaching in
the synagogue astounds them (a Mark word!) but they cannot forget that
though he is a good teacher now, and popular, he grew up with them and was
a carpenter like his father. There is a shift of mood as Jesus' ministry begins
to deepen.
So Jesus left his hometown Nazareth, with a group of disciples. When the
Sabbath came he began to teach. In the early part of Jesus' ministry he went
to the local synagogue and was invited to speak. Most people were amazed.
This amazement quickly becomes rejection and unbelief. They become
scandalised by his teaching. "Where did this man get these things? Does his
wisdom and miracles come from God or Satan?" There are references to
Jesus brothers and sisters and his mother Mary, and then to his father Joseph
and his own trade, a carpenter-builder. They are local. They are suspicious of
him. Jesus is insulted by the crowd, his neighbours. He is only Mary’s son,
perhaps indication Joseph was dead or that he was illegitimate; A carpenter,
whose mother, brothers and sisters we know. The brothers are named. The
sisters are not.
So they refused to believe in him and his teaching. "A prophet is not without
honour except in his own country." Would you accept someone you knew
from childhood telling you how to live your life!
Even Jesus had limitations and could not do anything there except heal a few
people by laying hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. So he
changed his strategy! And we need to hear this! Because the churches need
to change their strategy. He left the synagogues and moved to the villages.
Tis was the last time he went to his hometown Nazareth or to the synagogue.
He called twelve of his inner circle of disciples and sent them out in pairs to
give the good news, taking a walking stick, no bread, no bag, and no money
in their pockets. "Wear sandals, but only take only the clothes you are
wearing", he told them. "When you enter a house, stay there until you leave
that town.
If the people in a certain place refuse to welcome you or listen to you, leave
that place. Shake its dust off your feet as a warning to them."
So he regroups his and apprentice disciples are sent out to exorcise demons
and heal the sick. What an apprenticeship!
So the disciples went out. They encountered many people disturbed with
demons and put oil on many sick people and healed them.
Despite failure Jesus and the disciples had regrouped to continue their
mission. What a message to the churches today. Despite apparent failure we
must regroup and continue the mission of Jesus.
The disciples were completely dependent on being housed and fed by people
in the villages they were visiting. A model of hospitality. No salary, no houses,
just hospitality. It is expected they will be rejected by some people. Its
inherent in their mission that there will be rejection.
They are to take just a walking stick and their sandals. Sandals are a logo of
discipleship in Mark. So it is houses and villages that are the basis for
mission, not the synagogue or the church.
So maybe we need to look at our model.
1. Maybe we need to focus on healing more
2. Maybe we need to focus on homes more
3. Maybe we need to focus on hospitality more
Like other daily habits these habits of healing, homes and hospitality could
change the church.
Discipleship consists of calling/naming/sending.
Discipleship depends on hospitality for sustenance-we could be entertaining
angels unawares
