Year B
Ezekiel 2:1-5
Psalm 123
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joel and I spent our vacation in Plymouth, Massachusetts\u2026 at a family reunion\u2026 with his seven brothers and sisters\u2026 and their spouses\u2026 and two nephews\u2026 and of course\u2026 mom\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of Joel’s brothers-in-law\u2026 is a genealogist\u2026 and Bill suggested\u2026 months ago\u2026 that the reunion take place there\u2026 because unbeknownst to us\u2026 he planned a special event\u2026 a special reveal of sorts\u2026 something that would surprise the whole family\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bill had been able to confirm… that the Flint family\u2026 through Joel’s dad Jay\u2026 are descendants of those Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower\u2026 there’s a replica of that ship\u2026 moored in Plymouth harbor\u2026 in close proximity to Plymouth Rock\u2026 on which is chiseled 1620\u2026 the year the ship landed there\u2026 though maybe not in that exact spot\u2026 and whether it’s the actual rock on which they first set foot\u2026 is subject to some doubt as well\u2026 but there’s no doubt about the family’s ancestry\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Genealogists estimate that there are approximately 3.1 million descendants of those original Pilgrims\u2026 that’s a lot of fourth cousins seven times removed\u2026 but those descendants do include Ulysses S. Grant\u2026 Henry David Thoreau\u2026 Laura Ingalls Wilder\u2026 Franklin Roosevelt\u2026 Elvis Presley\u2026 and my favorite\u2026 Taylor Swift\u2026 yes\u2026 Joel is related to Taylor Swift\u2026 though I don’t think free tickets for her ERAS tour are anywhere in our future\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now sometimes\u2026 people say that a person “came over on the Mayflower” to indicate that he or she is a member of a very old American family\u2026 an established American family\u2026 perhaps in a slightly boastful way\u2026 but indigenous peoples\u2026 which included the Wampanoag\u2026 lived in that region for about 12,000 years before the Mayflower’s arrival\u2026 they fished the waters\u2026 hunted the shores\u2026 and planted crops in the sheltered inland fields\u2026 ] and the Wampanoag name means\u2026 People of the First Light\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the passengers on the Mayflower weren’t the first Europeans in this part of the country\u2026 earlier explorers brought various kinds of trade\u2026 but they also brought various kinds of disease\u2026 and by the time the Mayflower landed\u2026 there were no Wampanoag left in the village known as Patuxet\u2026 the empty village was a sign of tragedy and loss\u2026 but for the Pilgrims\u2026 finding already-tilled fields was taken as a sign of God’s favor\u2026 and they gave little thought to those whose land they were taking over\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now our reading from Ezekiel talks about ancestors and descendants\u2026 about a nation of impudent and stubborn rebels who transgressed against God\u2026 and about whether they would heed the words of a prophet who spoke God’s words\u2026 in this morning’s Epistle\u2026 Paul refers to someone who has heard things that no mortal is permitted to repeat\u2026 something about which someone might tend to boast\u2026 but Paul says that if he boasts about it\u2026 it won’t be to lift himself up\u2026 but to lift up the truth of what was heard\u2026 ] so Paul was able to get out of his own way\u2026 to become vulnerable\u2026 so that this truth may be proclaimed through him\u2026 and therein lies his strength\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Jesus came to his hometown\u2026 those who heard him teach\u2026 took offense\u2026 they couldn’t believe that this man who they knew as Mary’s son\u2026 and a brother to his siblings\u2026 could speak with such authority\u2026 this hometown crowd couldn’t see that the Lord of Hosts was with him\u2026 and all he could do\u2026 was cure a few sick people\u2026 and Jesus is stunned\u2026 because if God can work through him\u2026 then God can work through them\u2026 so how could they turn away from what he’s offering\u2026 but maybe they took offense because they were confronted with their own doubts\u2026 they thought they knew who Jesus was\u2026 but familiarity turned into contempt\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fr. John Shea writes that we believe other people to be exactly as we perceive them to be\u2026 but that we believe ourselves to always be more than they think we are\u2026 that the boxes we put others in are just the right size\u2026 but the boxes that other people put us in are always too small\u2026 but our faith tells us we are inexorably related to Ultimate Mystery\u2026 we are descended from it\u2026 the mistake we make\u2026 is thinking that God won’t be found\u2026 in those we dislike\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it may be exactly because of that realization\u2026 that Jesus tells the disciples\u2026 if any place will not welcome you\u2026 if they refuse to hear you\u2026 leave\u2026 and as you leave\u2026 shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them\u2026 similarly\u2026 many of us hear these words as words of contempt\u2026 and there seems to be a certain aspect of righteous indignation in them\u2026 I mean\u2026 you were sent to evangelize\u2026 you\u2019ve got God’s wonderful truth to share\u2026 how can the people NOT listen\u2026 how can they NOT see in it\u2026 what you\u2019ve seen in it\u2026 well\u2026 maybe they can\u2019t\u2026 or won\u2019t\u2026 or don\u2019t want to\u2026 because then they’d need to change\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But perhaps what Jesus is saying\u2026 is don\u2019t be mad\u2026 don\u2019t be angry\u2026 not everyone will be open to what you have to say\u2026 so don\u2019t waste time\u2026 cut your losses\u2026 there will be others who are open to this truth\u2026 move on to greener pastures\u2026 they’re just exercising the free will they have\u2026 to say no\u2026 Ezekiel and Jesus both knew\u2026 that whether people hear\u2026 or refuse to hear the words that God has given them to speak\u2026 that it’s not about them\u2026 but about those who hear them\u2026 it’s about those who are unwilling to believe\u2026 or unable to accept\u2026 the great things that God can do\u2026 which is why Jesus could do so few deeds of power in his hometown\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On June 9th\u2026 we heard in Mark’s Gospel (3:20-35)\u2026 that a house divided against itself cannot stand\u2026 in the speech Abraham Lincoln gave on June 16, 1858\u2026 he cited this same passage\u2026 and went on to say\u2026 I believe this government cannot permanently endure\u2026 half slave and half free\u2026 I do not expect the Union to be dissolved\u2026 and I do not expect the house to fall\u2026 but I do expect it will cease to be divided\u2026 that it will become all one thing or all the other<\/em>\u2026 in his speech\u2026 Lincoln was addressing the deepening divide between the states\u2026 and the unsustainable nature\u2026 of a nation split by such a fundamental issue\u2026 we just celebrated July 4… Independence Day\u2026 and like the Israelites who were freed after 400 or so years of slavery in Egypt\u2026 we may ask who has been freed in the 400 or so years since the Mayflower landed\u2026 and who has not been\u2026 and from what we have been freed\u2026 and what still binds us\u2026 in a world\u2026 and a nation\u2026 that is divided\u2026 perhaps more so than ever before\u2026 by several fundamental issues\u2026 how can we experience how interconnected\u2026 and interdependent\u2026 we really are\u2026 because whether we understand Adam and Eve as our literal\u2026 or metaphorical ancestors\u2026 if we embrace Paul’s analogy about how we are all essential members of the Body of Christ\u2026 and whether we learn of our connections through ancestral records or the science of DNA \u2026 the divisions we face\u2026 are in opposition to God’s will for us\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n So can we consider that we’re the ones to whom Ezekiel has been sent\u2026\u00a0 and that we’re also the Ezekiels into whose ears God is speaking\u2026\u00a0 how can we learn to rely on God’s Word instead of on our own words\u2026\u00a0 how can we find strength in weakness\u2026\u00a0 so that whether we choose to hear\u2026\u00a0 or refuse to hear the prophet’s voice\u2026\u00a0 we can at least know that there have been prophetic voices among us\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray\u2026 Lord God Almighty… \u00a0in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us\u2026\u00a0 and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn\u2026\u00a0 Grant that we\u2026\u00a0 and all the people of this land\u2026\u00a0 those who were here before us\u2026\u00a0 like the Wampanoag\u2026 \u00a0and those yet to come\u2026\u00a0 may have grace to maintain and share our liberties in righteousness and peace\u2026\u00a0 through Jesus Christ our Lord\u2026\u00a0 who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit\u2026 \u00a0one God\u2026 \u00a0for ever and ever\u2026\u00a0 and the People of Light said\u2026 \u00a0Amen\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year B Ezekiel 2:1-5 Psalm 123 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 Mark 6:1-13 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Joel and I spent our vacation in Plymouth, Massachusetts\u2026 at a family reunion\u2026 with his seven brothers and sisters\u2026 and their spouses\u2026 and two nephews\u2026 and of course\u2026 mom\u2026 One of Joel’s brothers-in-law\u2026 is a genealogist\u2026 and Bill suggested\u2026 months ago\u2026 that the reunion take place there\u2026 because unbeknownst to us\u2026 he planned a special event\u2026 a special reveal of sorts\u2026 something that would surprise the whole family\u2026 Bill had been able to confirm… that the Flint family\u2026 through Joel’s dad Jay\u2026 are descendants of those Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower\u2026 there’s a replica of that ship\u2026 moored in Plymouth harbor\u2026 in close proximity to Plymouth Rock\u2026 on which is chiseled 1620\u2026 the year the ship landed there\u2026 though maybe not in that exact spot\u2026 and whether it’s the actual rock on which they first set foot\u2026 is subject to some doubt as well\u2026 but there’s no doubt about the family’s ancestry\u2026 Genealogists estimate that there are approximately 3.1 million descendants of those original Pilgrims\u2026 that’s a lot of fourth cousins seven times removed\u2026 but those descendants do include Ulysses S. Grant\u2026 Henry David Thoreau\u2026 Laura Ingalls Wilder\u2026 Franklin Roosevelt\u2026 Elvis Presley\u2026 and my favorite\u2026 Taylor Swift\u2026 yes\u2026 Joel is related to Taylor Swift\u2026 though I don’t think free tickets for her ERAS tour are anywhere in our future\u2026 Now sometimes\u2026 people say that a person “came over on the Mayflower” to indicate that he or she is a member of a very old American family\u2026 an established American family\u2026 perhaps in a slightly boastful way\u2026 but indigenous peoples\u2026 which included the Wampanoag\u2026 lived in that region for about 12,000 years before the Mayflower’s arrival\u2026 they fished the waters\u2026 hunted the shores\u2026 and planted crops in the sheltered inland fields\u2026 ] and the Wampanoag name means\u2026 People of the First Light\u2026 But the passengers on the Mayflower weren’t the first Europeans in this part of the country\u2026 earlier explorers brought various kinds of trade\u2026 but they also brought various kinds of disease\u2026 and by the time the Mayflower landed\u2026 there were no Wampanoag left in the village known as Patuxet\u2026 the empty village was a sign of tragedy and loss\u2026 but for the Pilgrims\u2026 finding already-tilled fields was taken as a sign of God’s favor\u2026 and they gave little thought to those whose land they were taking over\u2026 Now our reading from Ezekiel talks about ancestors and descendants\u2026 about a nation of impudent and stubborn rebels who transgressed against God\u2026 and about whether they would heed the words of a prophet who spoke God’s words\u2026 in this morning’s Epistle\u2026 Paul refers to someone who has heard things that no mortal is permitted to repeat\u2026 something about which someone might tend to boast\u2026 but Paul says that if he boasts about it\u2026 it won’t be to lift himself up\u2026 but to lift up the truth of what was heard\u2026 ] so Paul was able to get out of his own way\u2026 to become vulnerable\u2026 so that this truth may be proclaimed through him\u2026 and therein lies his strength\u2026 When Jesus came to his hometown\u2026 those who heard him teach\u2026 took offense\u2026 they couldn’t believe that this man who they knew as Mary’s son\u2026 and a brother to his siblings\u2026 could speak with such authority\u2026 this hometown crowd couldn’t see that the Lord of Hosts was with him\u2026 and all he could do\u2026 was cure a few sick people\u2026 and Jesus is stunned\u2026 because if God can work through him\u2026 then God can work through them\u2026 so how could they turn away from what he’s offering\u2026 but maybe they took offense because they were confronted with their own doubts\u2026 they thought they knew who Jesus was\u2026 but familiarity turned into contempt\u2026 Fr. John Shea writes that we believe other people to be exactly as we perceive them to be\u2026 but that we believe ourselves to always be more than they think we are\u2026 that the boxes we put others in are just the right size\u2026 but the boxes that other people put us in are always too small\u2026 but our faith tells us we are inexorably related to Ultimate Mystery\u2026 we are descended from it\u2026 the mistake we make\u2026 is thinking that God won’t be found\u2026 in those we dislike\u2026 And it may be exactly because of that realization\u2026 that Jesus tells the disciples\u2026 if any place will not welcome you\u2026 if they refuse to hear you\u2026 leave\u2026 and as you leave\u2026 shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them\u2026 similarly\u2026 many of us hear these words as words of contempt\u2026 and there seems to be a certain aspect of righteous indignation in them\u2026 I mean\u2026 you were sent to evangelize\u2026 you\u2019ve got God’s wonderful truth to share\u2026 how can the people NOT listen\u2026 how can they NOT see in it\u2026 what you\u2019ve seen in it\u2026 well\u2026 maybe they can\u2019t\u2026 or won\u2019t\u2026 or don\u2019t want to\u2026 because then they’d need to change\u2026 But perhaps what Jesus is saying\u2026 is don\u2019t be mad\u2026 don\u2019t be angry\u2026 not everyone will be open to what you have to say\u2026 so don\u2019t waste time\u2026 cut your losses\u2026 there will be others who are open to this truth\u2026 move on to greener pastures\u2026 they’re just exercising the free will they have\u2026 to say no\u2026 Ezekiel and Jesus both knew\u2026 that whether people hear\u2026 or refuse to hear the words that God has given them to speak\u2026 that it’s not about them\u2026 but about those who hear them\u2026 it’s about those who are unwilling to believe\u2026 or unable to accept\u2026 the great things that God can do\u2026 which is why Jesus could do so few deeds of power in his hometown\u2026 On June 9th\u2026 we heard in Mark’s Gospel (3:20-35)\u2026 that a house divided against itself cannot stand\u2026 in the speech Abraham Lincoln gave on June 16, 1858\u2026 he cited this same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[266,338,255],"class_list":["post-2582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","tag-gods-word","tag-jesus-ministry","tag-time-after-pentecost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/mark-6-smaller.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2584,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions\/2584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}