From the First Baptist Church in America pulpit
September 3, 2006
“When Jesus Got Kicked Out of Church”
Mark 6:1-6
Dr. Dan Ivins, preaching

The 6^th Chapter of the Mark’s Gospel is a hopeful text to anybody whose made a mistake. I assume that’s most of us. Because it shows even Jesus couldn’t please everybody. Being the Son of God didn’t prevent the Son of Man from being rendered powerless by giving us humans too much freedom. But he just turns it into a “sacrament of failure.”

In most other situations, except for the date of the end of the world, Jesus was more than up to the occasion: healing the sick, feeding the crowds, liberating outcasts, raising the dead. Jesus’ in-your-face-preaching upset some uptights. But when he performed unauthorized miracles on unacceptable people, it infuriated them – because he did it outside the normal channels of power. Which guarantees trouble. Because the channels are there for a reason -- to provide safe predictability. The accepted ways of doing things gives people in power a way to understand it; wield it and control it. All other kinds of power, are suspect.

Jesus showed up with a 30 year history in his hometown. And brought some fresh creativity -- by coloring outside the lines. But it was his teaching that fit nobody’s script. His ideas were completely off the page. And it wasn’t a problem anywhere else, except Nazareth -- the one place Jesus didn’t have what it takes. In Nazareth he faced “the pressure of lesser gods,” as folks tried to keep him inside the box. Which shows those who know us best sometimes know us least. And it tied Jesus’ hands! Because a wall was set up by their negativism that sapped the strength of God right out of him. Not because he wasn’t up to it. But because they wouldn’t stand for it. And because faith is a 2-way street.

Jesus was well-received all over Galilee. Fresh out of the starting-blocks, he was eager to share the gospel with anybody who’d listen. So of course he went back home hoping to give the best he had to offer. And they rolled out the red carpet for a local boy, who’d done good, inviting him to preach in the synagogue. So they filed in to see what he’d learned while he was away. They were proud. And at first -- impressed. Until ... they heard what he had to say. Unlike Luke, Mark doesn’t tell us what it was. But whatever it was, it rankled their prejudices! That’s when they started asking questions: “Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary...?” See how they spin it? They knew whose son Jesus was. But by calling him “Mary’s,” they were questioning his parentage. The only reason to identify somebody by his mamma was because nobody was sure of his daddy. That was before the days of DNA.  Which turns their question into a slur.

A carpenter they could handle. But not a carpenter who was a Messiah! Familiarity has a leveling effect like that. So “Jesus couldn’t cut the mustard in Nazareth.” Having had a powerful impact on strangers, he couldn’t penetrate the skepticism of his neighbors. They knew him as the oldest son of Joseph’s family, a child like unto their own children; none of whom was walking around cleansing lepers, casting out demons and preaching inclusive love.

So they blew up at Jesus and that was that. It wasn't Jesus as much as it was them. He was responsible for the preaching, but not for the reseponse.  Their reaction was way out of proportion. This was Jesus’ first big failure--the only time in all 4 gospels where He was unable to do something. And the last time in Mark’s gospel that he appeared in a synagogue on a Sabbath. He just quit going to church after he got violently turned away by religious people. And he left mouthing this proverb: “Even Prophets have their times of ineffectiveness.”

Mark says Jesus “was amazed at their unbelief.” Then he left them behind, never to return, to go shine his light in a more receptive place. “He could do no mighty deeds there, except -- lay his hands on a few sick folks and cure them.” He did a little good. But then he realized it was time for him to move on, “in and about the villages as he continued to teach.”

I remember a few years ago Michael Jordan was going to try his hand at baseball. In an interview about it, a sports writer said to the basketball star, “But what if you fail?” Jordan said, “I’m not afraid to fail.” Jesus was like that. Content to leave the outcome in God’s hands. So he kept on planting the seeds of the kingdom. And left the rest to God.

I can’t think of anybody this story shouldn’t speak to. Even preachers.  In it, we see Jesus’ motivation for ministry. He didn’t preach the gospel to be successful or admired. He didn’t heal the sick to please the power-folks. That’s what got him in trouble.

What’s our motivation? This story should make us think about that. It’s about people who never woke up to Jesus’ power, and wouldn’t accept him for who he was. Because his love was too deep, and the breadth of his mission was too wide, they darn near killed him for it!  I’m struck that the Bible includes this story written by religious people about how their religion tripped them up. It won’t be the last time Jesus is rejected, for what he said, what he did, or who he was. “He came unto his own and his own received him not.”

The Pharisees castigate him for healing on the Sabbath. The disciples chastise him for sleeping through a storm. His mother and brothers try to take him home because they’re embarrassed at him. And his Nazareth neighbors, who changed his diapers, taught him to read, and watched him grow to manhood, reacted with contempt. The family of faith rejected one of their own, because he made them look bad, by accepting people they couldn’t, and changing their understanding of community. Mother nature doesn’t like it when you make religious people in power look bad! Or expose them when they let their religion get in God’s way. Because it’s easier to worship Jesus than it is to follow him.

This story also shows us Jesus’ toughest audience was Religious people. Especially when he offends with God’s grace. But that’s the only way to get us to believe in God more than our beliefs. When Jesus showed up at his home church, instead of celebration he found suspicion. Instead of affirmation, he found aggression. Instead of respite, he found resistance. Instead of cooperation, he found competition.

One of the best models of a healthy church I’ve seen you won’t find in any of the church growth seminars, but in a movie called "Chocolat." About life in a provincial French village, centered around the local Catholic Church; always the same: judgmental, unforgiving, intolerant. Into this stodgy old town, where religious people kept getting in the church’s way, comes a stranger -- a kind lady who opens a chocolate shop. But it was more of a church than the Church. It just wasn’t called a church.

No matter what they called it, the people wanted to go there because they found community. Isn't that what we hope for all our churches?  They told their stories, were accepted, forgiven, listened to and loved. It brought a revival of life back into the village. But a boycott was set-up by the church on the hill, led by the mayor, against the church at the Chocolate shop. On Easter, a young priest tossed away the sermon notes written for him by the control freaks and started to extemporize. “You’d expect the homily today to be something on the Lord’s divinity. Being as how its Easter Sunday. But I want to talk about his humanity...his kindness and tolerance. We’ve got to stop measuring our goodness by what we don’t do. Or what we deny ourselves. Who we exclude. Let us measure our goodness by what we embrace and who we include.”

And if we don’t, we run the danger of Jesus leaving us and going someplace else to shine his light. Because God can’t make us love each other. All he can do is proclaim the truth, even though it hurts. After that its in our hands what happens next. God will leave us behind if we aren’t responsive! We don’t even have to resort to violence like the Nazarenes. Only by not being responsive, we can sap the energy of Christ so that he can “do no mighty work here.”

Mark’s point is loud and clear. When Jesus left the church that kicked him out, he never went back. That’s pretty sobering. It’s the worst thing that can happen to a church. It puts low attendance, unmet budgets, petty internal problems, and unhappy campers in perspective. The worst that can happen to a church is to push Jesus out. Because then, its no longer a church. But something else. Something less.

My hope for this church is for the members to live together like people who believe in a church that measures its goodness by the openness of our hearts and the wideness of our love and the willingness to extend a hand, not a stone. A place where, despite our inevitable failings, the Spirit of Christ never ceases to find a home -- however, whenever, or in whomever it comes to us. Sorta like a chocolat shop. But also a place where those who come looking for community will leave wanting to come back. Because they’ll say, “Now that’s what I call a church!”

Prayer: You know Father, we can't hide the fire inside.  Our prayer this day is for you to touch with your fire,  the worship we have just rendered you. Set aflame our noblest aspirations, and help us to become what we ought long since to have been...Amen.