Mark 6:7-13

He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Let us Pray

Almighty and eternal God,

it is your will to bring the whole creation

into unity in Christ;

grant that your church may faithfully proclaim

the good news until all people are saved

and the earth is full of your glory

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

(New Zealand

When I read the readings I was struck by the juxtaposition of the reading from Amos and the reading from Mark with the epistle in between.  At first glance they seemed to have little to do with each other.  In the Old Testament you have God calling Amos to be a prophet.  God tells Amos that he is fed up with the transgressions of Israel .  God has had it with those people.  They have strayed far from the right path and need to be distoryed.  Then we read the Epistle about the love of God and being adopted a children. We have been redeemed from sin by Jesus, not by our own doing but by God.  My first reaction when reading these two readings was that it illustrated the differences between the Old Testament God of Judgment and the New Testament God of love.  But then I read the Gospel Reading.  In the Gospel we hear  Jesus sending the disciples out to preach the word of God.  He is sending them on Mission.  So what do I make of all of this?

One thread I found, especially between the Old Testament reading and the Gospel was the “sending out” by God to spread his word among the people.  With the Gospel reading from Mark we do not hear about the reaction of the Disciples when they are sent out.  But I can imagine.  I mean, some of the people are not happy with Jesus message and now he wants them to go out, on their own, to preach and heal the people.  Yikes!  This rag tag band of followers would, I think, be much happier to stay seated at the feet of Jesus and let him do all of the work.  They were, after all attracted to this charismatic leader and I wonder how many of them joined the group thinking that they would have to go out and proclaim the good news while Jesus was alive.  We hear in the readings after Easter that without Jesus the first reaction of his followers was to hide or go back to their previous careers.  So to be sent out to the people? 

I expect that the disciples may have had reactions like those that of Amos.  Amos was foretelling the destruction of Israel, and for some of the religious authorities and believers of Israel, Jesus was not doing much better.  He was upsetting the nice ritual cookbook of their beliefs.  I’m sure if confronted by someone and told not to teach and heal they too might have had a reaction similar to Amos, when he was told to stop preaching   Amos said to the priest "I never set up to be a preacher, never had plans to be a preacher. I raised cattle and I pruned trees. Then God took me off the farm and said, 'Go preach to my people Israel.' (The Message)  Amos did not plan to preach and I bet the disciples felt the same way.  They had to go out and tell people about some radical new ways to look at their religion and their world.

I believe we are still being called to go out and preach the radical news of Jesus.  There are those in our midst that are called to preach, teach and heal, to work for Social Justice and to upset our own cultic cookbook.  The election of a women as the presiding bishop is an exciting gift of the Holy Spirit for some of us.  But for many around the world, where the ordination of women is still not allowed, this is an upsetting development.  It is not in their religions cookbook so Katherine Schori’s election can’t be a gift from God.  The inclusion by some of our Episcopal churches and recognition of the gifts that our Gay, lesbian and transgendered brothers and sisters bring to the table upset those who look for answers in their religious cook books.  Its not there so it must me wrong.

This past year when I was studying the Old Testament in my EFM class I was struck early on how the people in the stories dealt with God.  They could not fathom or handle a god that was everywhere.  It was very disturbing.  They wanted a God who was in one place.  A god who they could choose to visit when they wanted to.  So they built a box and put it in a tent.  This box was God’s throne and the tent was his home.  They people felt the protection of God when the box was in their midst and felt alone and abandoned when it was not with them. 

We try to do to the same thing, even when we are supposed to know better.  Our God is not just in this box we call a church.  Our God will not be kept safe from the world and left in a box.  Our God will also not let us sit safely in our boxes.  Just when we think we have everything figured out and have the cookbook perfected God throws us a curve.  He calls us to proclaim his true word of Love of creation.

When we are called by God we are given the tools we need.  Now we might not think we have all the right tools but we do.  For Amos he was given the gift of prophesy and God was with him.  He did not like it and would probably have been happy to stay a farmer but that was not to be.  He felt the presence of God and new what he said was right.  It did not win him any popularity contests, that is certain.  But, he did what was right a spread the word f God.

The disciples were sent out in pairs.  They were not to take much.  When I read this passage I think about how much stuff I take with me when I travel and I think I usually travel fairly light!  But God provided.  We don’t hear much about their travels and travails.  We do hear that they had at least some measure of success “So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.”

Much of the current commotion in the church makes us want to scream.  Our screams are different.  Some of the screams are for us to return to the “true orthodox faith.”  Some of the screams are for the “orthodox” to just get over it and trust in a new order. To trust in a God that cannot be boxed in.  I think we have much to learn from both camps.  I am one who thinks that God is not to be contained in one church or in one “orthodoxy.”  I believe that the word of God should upset the comfortable from time to time.  But I also believe that I don’t know the whole word of God.  I believe that I need to listen to the other screams.  We need to understand that the great commandment means that we love our God and our neighbors and the “orthodox” among us our still our neighbors.

Our God is still calling us to be prophets and healers.  He is still calling for radical change as he has in every generation.  I think the proof that we are doing Gods work in the fruit we bear. As our presiding Bishop Frank Griswald said in his reflections on general convention “…I would hope that Jesus' observation that a tree is known by the fruit it bears would be taken seriously as a biblical criterion alongside other texts.” when we are trying to discern the will of God.  “The church is "a wonderful and sacred mystery" and its continuous unfolding constantly challenges and stretches us. What we will be, as St. John tells us, has yet to be revealed. As I look to the future I have every confidence that, prompted and at times prodded by Spirit, the Episcopal Church will continue to be an instrument of God's profligate and reckless reconciling love.”

As we at St. Paul’s look to the future we will not always agree.  We will not always see or understand what God is calling us to be and do in this place.  To be able to try and understand God’s will we all need to listen to all the voices.  Shared ministry is a scary proposition.  Loving our neighbors is not easy.  Being a voice for social justice and inclusion is hard.  But in the end if we sow Gods reckless reconciling love I believe our church will bear much fruit.

Amen.