The Scripture Reading this week is Mark 6:1-13.
The Sermon title is Right Place? Right Time?
Early Thoughts: How do you know? Is the time and place right or wrong? Is one right and the other not? Does it really make a difference?
This week we continue our journey through the Gospel of Mark. Jesus has made his way home and his reception is a bit mixed. On one hand people are amazed at what he has to say and what he can do. On the other hand they are a bit dubious. After all they have known him forever. They know his family. They may even see him as being a bit uppity, too big for his britches.
It seems that home was not the right place for Jesus to do ministry after all. Sometimes you can't go home again. So Jesus goes out and about again.
Around this time in the story it appears Jesus decides that the work needs to be shared. The work is never all for Jesus to do, others play a role. Accordingly, he sends his closest followers out in pairs (the work is to be done together, not alone) to continue what they have seen him doing. They are to travel light and to rely on the kindness of strangers. The text tells us that they do just that and have a measure of success in preaching and healing and casting out demons.
But the text also tells us that they may not always be welcomed. They may find that they are in the wrong place for their ministry to be welcomed, or possibly the place will be right at a different time. Jesus tells them be ready to accept that reality and head off to the next stop.
I wonder if we sometimes need that same reminder.
Are there times we get so caught up in our own agenda, or maybe our own comfort, that we miss the signs that the time or place calls for a different response? I think this can go two ways. Either we try to push people into a place they are not yet ready to go or we prefer to sit in our comfort, saying "we aren't ready to do that".
We need to read the world around us to know what response is needed and when. That can be difficult in communities. After all not everyone in a community is in the same place (physically but more importantly philosophically or emotionally) at the same time. Which means that some call for different responses at the same time. What are people in leadership to do?
In our Gospel reading this week results seems to be the answer. Because his hometown was not the right place Jesus was unable to do ministry there. Where the disciples were welcomed they could preach and heal and cast out demons. Maybe paying attention to the results will help us know if we are responding to what the time and place require of us. Then we can re-evaluate what we do next.
--Gord
