Whitegate (Evening), Trinity 5, Proper 8, 30/6/2013
[Jesus] came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. 2On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him. 4Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ 5And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching. Mark 6.1-6
A prophet is without honour ... at home.
Nelson Mandela seems destined for sainthood in South Africa now, but we all know his story and how it illustrates the point that Jesus made all that time ago in Nazareth. The young Mandela’s prophecies of a united nation, an end to apartheid, have come to pass. But when he first appeared among his people proclaiming this message, they rejected him. When he put his body behind his convictions, and became an activist, they imprisoned him.
A prophet is without honour ... at home.
Prophets tend to emerge at times of political and social crisis. And those of us who are home birds, home bodies, whose homes are our castles, tend to close our ears to them, switch our screens away from them and keep focussed instead on the entertainment channels. Why do we do this?
Well, we do this because prophets speak Home Truths. They unveil those troubling things which we try to keep beneath the surface of everyday life so that we can get on with it without having to change our ways - like today’s prophets detailing our addiction to economic debt, and predicting the awful outcomes of continuing in this way.
We sidestep our prophets because they threaten Home Security. They open doors we’d rather keep closed - to other people with other ways and other points of view, who make us feel uncomfortable, vulnerable - like today’s prophets asking us to start to build a world where Christianity and Islam can co-exist as good neighbours.
We give our prophets short shrift because to do otherwise means we have to get started on some Home Maintenance. We’d rather put off fixing that leaky tap to another day. We’ll deal with global warming, tomorrow, next year, some other time...
We do not welcome prophets here because they undermine our Home Insurance. If we can keep things as they are here then we’ll keep the world at bay. But prophets will not keep quiet about the world and its ways, and insist on bringing it into our living rooms.
Facing with open eyes a world set on a path of environmental destruction, today’s prophets cannot understand why most of us are just not bothered about the demise of the rainforests, about the world shortage of pure water; they’re amazed at our unbelief.
Jesus [told his followers], ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’
That’s why he had to take his message elsewhere - a message so at odds with those in authority, a message which spoke home truths about their abuse of power, a message which threatened the security of their position in the community, a message which called on the people to get started on home maintenance to fix a broken kingdom by means of bringing in the Kingdom of God. We all know his story and where it led. To an execution site outside Jerusalem. Elsewhere he once said,
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.’ (Luke 13.34)
Jesus’ prophetic message - facing head-on the red-hot political issues of his place and time - required the tearing down of old structures which had served their purpose and now only served the agendas of the elite, oppressing the rest of the people. But ultimately it announced the building of a new society, the Kingdom of God, a kingdom of peace, equality, co-existence, a place of joy. Christians believe that Jesus inaugurated this Kingdom whilst he was on earth, and the resurrection set it in motion for all time. It’s a Kingdom which is active and growing and making a difference in the world today.
We are citizens of this Kingdom through our baptism. And if we want to be active citizens then we will pay attention to the prophetic voices of our day and time. Not avoiding them, you and I have to weigh carefully the validity of these prophetic voices we hear. Are each of them the voice of a Home Wrecker or a Home Builder? Shall we let them do their deeds of power among us? We can call on the prophet of Nazareth, who will help us decide.
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