St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen, Jersey City NJ
July 5, 2015
Year B, Proper 9: The
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
Psalm 48
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13
Go in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord
What’s
your favorite part of the service?
That’s
a question I often ask when I teach youth confirmation class to get the kids
thinking about what we do here on Sunday.
What’s
your favorite part of the service?
Here
at St. Paul’s a lot (but not all!) of us love exchanging the peace. Obviously. We
love the music especially since Gail has been with us. We love receiving
Communion. And many of us love coffee hour when we can enjoy a nice lunch with
our friends and church family.
And,
maybe for some of us – especially those few of us who might rather be someplace
else on a Sunday morning - our favorite part is the dismissal:
“Go
in peace to love and serve the Lord.”
But,
actually, I think for all of us the dismissal should be, if not our favorite,
then at least one of the most important parts of the service.
“Go
in peace to love and serve the Lord.”
As some of you know, Friday marked the
end of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.
Every
three years, thousands of Episcopalians gather for nearly two weeks to take care
of the business of the church, setting priorities and making budgets for the
following three years.
This
time around there were two big decisions that caught the attention of many
Episcopalians and also the news media.
The
first was the election of The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry to serve as Presiding
Bishop for the next nine years. This caught people’s eye because, as I
mentioned last week, he is the first African-American to be elected Presiding
Bishop.
That’s
important and worthy of thanksgiving but I’m equally thankful that he has an
obvious love of Jesus and eagerness to share the Good News with a world that is
so hungry for the Gospel.
Bishop
Curry has already begun to send us out there to love and serve the Lord.
Second,
you may have heard that General Convention voted overwhelmingly to change the rules
of the church to allow for same-sex marriages.
In
parts of the church, very much including the Diocese of Newark, same-sex
blessings and more recently weddings have been going on for years, but just
like the country, that hasn’t been true everywhere.
Now,
according to the canons of the church there is just marriage – not same-sex
marriage.
Needless
to say, many people have been overjoyed about this development, while others…
not so much.
I’m
well aware that there are different views about this right here at St. Paul’s,
which, of course is fine so long as we continue to treat each other with love,
as we nearly always do.
For
better or for worse, this decision marks the end of about 40 years of reflection,
discussion, and, yes, quite a bit of fighting about the place of LGBT people in
the Episcopal Church.
My
prayer is that we will now use that same kind of energy that we’ve devoted to
this issue now to go in peace to love and serve the Lord – to go out there
– to go out there and share the Good News with a city that is so hungry for the
Gospel.
In
today’s gospel lesson we hear the story of Jesus visiting his hometown of
Nazareth.
At
first, things seem to go well.
As
he’s done in other places, Jesus teaches in the synagogue and astounds everyone
with his wisdom.
But,
rather than celebrating the Nazareth boy made good, the locals begin to
question where this Jesus the craftsman – the son of Mary – we know his
brothers and sisters – we remember him as a little kid – they question where
did he get all of this?
Mark
tells us that Jesus’ own townspeople and probably members of his own family –
people he’s known and loved his whole life – they take offense at him.
In
fact, the negativity in Nazareth – the lack of faith – is so powerful that
Jesus could perform few acts of power there.
And
then, notice what happens next.
Jesus
doesn’t despair, doesn’t waste time moping around the house, doesn’t waste time
trying to convince his stubborn and close-minded neighbors, family, and friends
that he has Good News for them.
No,
Jesus goes out there to love and serve – Jesus goes out to the other villages
and teaches there.
And
then, he sends out the twelve apostles – sends out the often weak and confused
and quarrelsome apostles - sends them out to do his work – to continue his work
- of teaching and healing and calling people to repentance.
Jesus
sends them out there with almost nothing.
“He
ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no
bag, no money in their belts…”
Jesus
sends them out there with almost nothing – but with everything they need.
As
the Lord said to St. Paul, an apostle who was burdened by some kind of ailment,
we don’t know what: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect
in weakness.”
Today,
Jesus sends us out there with almost nothing – but with everything we
need.
Go
in peace to love and serve the Lord.
We
are sent - not alone but two by two, together - we are sent into a city hungry for the Gospel.
We
are sent into a city where the haves have so much but are often so spiritually
poor.
We
are sent into a city where there are so many have-nots, including some of us
right here - people not sure they can make rent, fearful that they won’t be
able to feed themselves or their families, despairing that life will never get
better and only get worse.
We
are sent into a city where every morning people are lined up outside liquor
stores and bars waiting for them to open – a city where people are stumbling
around drunk or high at all hours of the day and night – a city where in some
neighborhoods there are people on nearly every corner looking to sell poison to
us, to our neighbors, our children, and those who drive in from out of town
looking to get high.
We
are sent into a city that can be a cold, hard place on even a hot, sunny summer
day – a place where no one seems to care – where everyone seems to just look
out for number one.
Jesus
has given us a tough mission. There’s no time to despair, no time to mope
around the house.
Yes,
we’ll be rejected just like Jesus was rejected and just as the first apostles
were rejected.
Yes,
we don’t seem to have enough – after all it’s just us with all of our
weaknesses, insecurities and failures.
But,
the truth is we’ve been given all that we need to go out there and share the
Good News – to love the hard to love and to heal what’s so terribly broken.
The
Lord says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in
weakness.”
Go
in peace to love and serve the Lord.
Amen.
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