Amazing Unbelief
Mark 6:1-13
One of the rites of passage at my high school was the visit to the counselor’s office your senior year. It came early in the school year, to make sure you were on track to graduate, and to emphasize the importance of finishing out high school strongly. It was the kind of school where the question was never, “Are you thinking about going to college?” The question was “Which colleges are you thinking about going to?” So most visits also included the interpretation by the counselor of your PSAT-NMSQT scores.The PSAT-NMSQT is the test taken by juniors that determines who gets a National Merit Scholarship, which goes to only the highest scoring students. It was also a pretty good indicator to let a student know if they then needed to take the SAT or ACT for their university applications, or if they should think instead about going to community college.
My guidance counselor was Mr. Jones. I had known him for a long time, since he was a member of my church. His son and daughter sang in the same choir with me at the church. I had been to his home. And I was fairly well known by the faculty as the editor of the school paper, drum major for the marching band, and top math and science student as selected by the faculty. I was pretty sure he knew who I was.
The time came for my appointment, and I was called into his office. Mr. Jones took the next folder off of the stack on his desk, looked at me, and then looked at the test scores. After a few moments, the glowing words started to pour out. “These are excellent scores. I would not be surprised if you were to win the National Merit Scholarship. You can go to any college or university that you choose.” This went on for a while, as he went over each section of the test, and I was feeling pretty good about my prospects. Finally, he extended his hand towards me and said, “Congratulations, Jim!”
Instead of taking his hand to shake it, I meekly said to him, “My name’s not Jim. Jim is my locker partner.” Jim was also waiting in the outer office as the next appointment. Jim is also a good Methodist, and took some of the same classes as I did, but he was involved with other activities than I was. He was also about 5 inches taller than I am, so this may have been the only time I was ever confused for him.
Mr. Jones pulled back his hand and, in the same motion, grabbed the next folder on the stack. This one was mine. “Well, these are still really good scores. They’re just not as good as Jim’s, and there are still lots of universities you can get in to – but you are not going to win a National Merit Scholarship.”
Maybe I could have avoided this if I had said my name when I entered his office. Maybe his secretary had ordered the folders, and they had been right so many times before it didn’t occur to Mr. Jones that it was wrong this time. Maybe I wasn’t as memorable or as noticeable as I thought I was, since Mr. Jones only had 439 other students he was meeting with, and I had not been sent to his office before. I just remember that the experience would have been better if he had been dealing with me from the start, and not Jim.
It could have been worse, of course. I was still able to go to a university. But sometimes, these kinds of mistakes can have consequences.
When our son Wesley was a senior in high school, he was already a very good trumpet player. He had gotten a “1” on his solo at state as a junior, and he had also earned a spot as a member of the All State Orchestra. He played in two symphonies in the community, and was well known among the other band directors. At the district auditions, they scheduled Wesley last so that these other directors could come and hear him play. So when Wesley played his solo at the state competition his senior year, it was a well attended event. In addition to his band director, and his trumpet teacher, and a few other band directors, there was a large representation from the band. They all wanted to hear Wesley play.
The young man who played before Wesley was visibly nervous. He introduced himself to the judge, named his high school, and then told us the name of the piece he would be playing. When he played, his lips were dry, which made his tone very breathy. When he got to a high part in his solo, he apparently couldn’t play them, since he hummed them through his horn!
Wesley was up next. He introduced himself to the judge, named his high school, and told us the piece he would be playing. Because it was a long piece, he asked the judge which movements he should play for him. The judge told him which sections to play, and Wes played them wonderfully. You don’t often get cheering after a performance, but the room was filled with applause and cheering when Wes finished his piece.
The score sheets were posted some time later, and we went with Wes to read his. The judge had given him a “2,” noting that his tone was breathy and that he had hummed the high parts; but over all, his technique and interpretation were fine. The confusion over this score cleared up when the young man who had played before Wes started reading his score sheet. He was excited, because he had gotten a “1” and the judge had been especially impressed with the quality of his tone, his command of the high notes, and the difficulty of the piece and how musically it was interpreted.
Wes just shrugged it off – he was satisfied with his performance, and he knew someone else’s mistake or opinion didn’t change what he had done.His band director, his trumpet teacher, and another band director, however, were not as understanding; and they went immediately to confront the judge about his error. This mistake could possibly cost Wes a scholarship, if the scores seemed to indicate that he was declining in skill or less than committed to improving his playing. The judge, however, insisted that he didn’t make a mistake, even as he confused their names in describing their performances again. Like Mr. Jones before, this judge thought he knew who he was dealing with. But unlike my guidance counselor, he wasn’t interested in changing his mind even when it became clear that he was wrong about what he thought he knew.
In our reading, Jesus returned to his hometown, a place where people should know who Jesus is. But they didn’t really know Jesus. They knew his mother, Mary, but they don’t seem to remember Joseph. They know Mary’s four other sons, and her daughters, who are all likely married and part of the other families in this small town. So when they see Jesus, it is more of an “Oh, yeah. I remember you. You’re the carpenter who left town. You’re the son who abdicated his responsibility to take care of his mother, and to be the head of the household. You’re the guy who thought Nazareth wasn’t a good enough place for you to stay and raise a family. So, how’s that working out for you?”
So Jesus tried to tell them at synagogue. Instead of building cabinets and chests, he told them, he was working on building the kingdom of God. Instead of thinking of one place as home, Jesus was trying to make every place a home where God was known and welcome. Instead of loving one widow, he was helping the world learn to love all widows, and the fatherless, and the outcast, and the sick, and the imprisoned. Instead of marrying and raising his own children, he was giving his life to making everyone a child of God.
To which his family and friends said, “Yeah, sure. Good luck with that.” And they went back to living as if Jesus had never come to their home. They didn’t see Jesus for who he was. They had pulled out the folder for the messiah, read the scores, and then learned that the Jesus before them didn’t measure up – they were for someone else, not him. They had heard his song, and were moved by it, but they then decided that Jesus wasn’t the guy who could play the song of heaven, so it had to be someone else who played the song. They couldn’t believe that someone they knew, someone they had seen grow up, someone they had disagreed with could be anything other than the carpenter who abandoned his mother and family to go chase a dream that was not his to have.
Because of their amazing unbelief, Jesus couldn’t do much among the people. And that is an important thing for us to notice. Today, there are a lot of people who say that Jesus just doesn’t do anything for them. They may have gone to Sunday school when they were little, they may have gone to worship when they visited their grandparents, or they may only know about Jesus from the people they see on television. In any case, the Jesus they see in those places is not someone they want to know. We can understand that. If all we had to know about Jesus was the guy with the multicolored wig at football games, and Fred Phelps and his family protesting at the funerals of veterans, and self-righteous judgmental people who coldly condemn people who are lost in this world, then if that is what it means to believe in Jesus, then we might not want any part of it, either.
Jesus told us over and over again that the kingdom of God is about relationships – loving God and loving neighbors. The messiah is the one who helps us have those holy relationships, by paying the price for our sin and by showing us how forgiveness of sins opens us up for relationships. Jesus is not a magician who amazes us, or the master manipulator who changes the world for us. Jesus is the one who helps us love God and love our neighbors – and that changes the world.
Jesus reinforces this point in the second half of our reading. He sends his disciples out in pairs to the surrounding villages. Jesus tells them that they have authority over unclean spirits. That means they can go into any village, any home, any situation, and they can cast out the unclean spirit. The disciples can cast out the unclean spirits, of course, once they have identified the spirits that are unclean, the spirits that prevent holy relationships.
That is why Jesus tells them to go out with only a staff, their sandals, and the clothes on their back. They are not going out as messengers of self-sufficiency, but as people who need to depend on others showing them hospitality. They are not going out as models of piety, but as mentors of loving relationships. They are not going out as prophets who simply point out what is wrong in our world, but as those who can witness that what is wrong with our world is our unholy relationships.
This is a point that Jesus makes in another reading that is not part of our lectionary cycle. In Luke’s gospel, it comes after the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, and then he answers a prayer by casting out an unclean spirit. In Matthew’s gospel, it comes after the scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign that Jesus is the messiah. There were some who didn’t like how Jesus disrupted their lives so they suggested that Jesus actually practiced dark magic, powered by his relationship with Satan. From both of these passages, we remember the line about a kingdom divided against itself, but then forget what Jesus says next.
At Luke 11:24, and at Matthew 12:43, we begin to read these words of Jesus: “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
In other words, Jesus tells us it isn’t enough to cast out the unclean spirit, whether it is manifested as a drug addiction, racism, sexism, pride, envy, greed, demonic possession, or whatever other name we give the unclean spirit. It isn’t enough to stop the bad relationship. We have to have a new relationship to take its place. And specifically, we need to have a new relationship of loving God and loving our neighbor, the relationships we can have through the grace of Jesus Christ, as we are enabled by the Holy Spirit.
Because of this relationship we can have with Jesus, we will never be reduced to a folder on someone’s desk in heaven, with test scores that will tell us if we will get into heaven or not. Because of this relationship with Jesus, we will never be replaced by a score sheet that is subject to misidentification that will tell us if we are good enough or have done enough for God to love or appreciate us. Because of this relationship with Jesus, we will be known by God as one who has been redeemed, and who can now receive every blessing of God that will help us become the people God has always intended us to be. When we have this relationship, the unclean spirits are cast out and our hearts are tuned to sing the praise of God through our every word, work, and action with our neighbors.
If you have never had this relationship with Jesus before, if you have only known about Jesus but not known Jesus, or if you once knew Jesus but are not now sure how well you know him, I invite you to come to the altar this morning. Come and open your heart so that Jesus can cast out the evil spirit and then fill that spot in your heart with his life and love. Come as we sing, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”