Mark 6:1-13

I had some really tough decisions to make when I read the readings for this week because the gospel reading says a lot of different things and there were a lot of different sermons that I could preach from it. There was however one thing that it seemed to me needed to be preached. It’s not easy to preach about and it’s not easy to listen to. I don’t want to preach this sermon and you probably won’t want to hear it but I think it is the sermon that needs to be preached. I’m going to talk to you this morning about the things people say about people in ministry. It will not just be about the things people say about me but it will include that. The reason I’m doing this though is not because I’m wanting to defend myself or have a go at people about things they might be saying about me but because I’m not the only person in ministry in this church. We have a curate, Steve (who has at least 2 years of training left to do with us), we have a lay reader, Joyce. There are a number of other people who take very clear public roles- Gloria, Dorothy, George and Sheila, Bill and Sheila… to name a few! We also have 2 people from this church who are actively exploring a possible call to ordained ministry- who are both looking to serve in ministry at St John’s. All of these people have been and will be affected by the sorts of things people say about them to their face or behind their back. So I’m talking about these things today not just for me but also for them because if we as a church can’t learn how to support and encourage those called to ministry amongst us – we will all be losing out.

Picture the scene. Jesus has just begun to travel around galilee preaching the gospel, healing the sick and doing miracles. It’s his home town of Nazareth. It’s the Sabbath- a holy day. So everyone is gathered in the synagogue for worship. Jesus, with his disciples, has come home. He’s there in the synagogue this morning. He’s probably not planning it as a big event- just passing through but he has a ministry of preaching and healing and people from his home town will have heard what he has been doing elsewhere. So he starts to teach. What do you think happens? Maybe to start with it’s just a little muttering at the back where they don’t think he or his disciples will hear. ‘Who does he think he is?’ ‘Isn’t he getting a bit big for his boots?’ ‘not like he’s a proper rabbi-we know who he really is. He’s just a carpenter.’ By now maybe the mutterings and the significant looks have crept a bit further forward in the synagogue and Jesus’ disciples start noticing. Maybe there’s some of the elders up the front making faces at each other behind him where they think he can’t see. ‘hmm hark at him! It’s Mary’s son (we were never quite sure if Joseph was really his father wasn’t he born before they were married?). Look here’s his brothers- James, Joses, Judas and simon, they think he’s a bit strange’. His sisters were sitting in the women’s gallery, maybe they were some of the ones doing the gossiping. The Nazarene’s might have thought their comments and looks were discreet but they didn’t go unnoticed and there was soon a distinct atmosphere in the room. They thought he was a bit too full of himself, they thought he didn’t really know his place, they thought he’d forgotten where he came from and so they stopped listening. Jesus Said ‘A prophet is honoured for the words they speak, words that are given them by God, the right words for people to hear at the right time. Prophets are not without honour except in their home town, their own house and amongst people who know them’. He said this because when people think they know you they think they already know what you’re capable of. So Jesus did minister in Nazareth but their unbelief, their small mindedness, their assumptions and their gossip restricted his ministry so much that the amazing things he had intended to do became impossible. I want you to consider for a moment the implications of that. Jesus was God. God was limited by human beings and it wasn’t what we would see as big sins, huge issues and problems that restricted Jesus’ ministry in that place. The people didn’t stone him. They weren’t too bogged down in sinfulness to be reached by the good news he had to share. They gossiped, they talked behind his back, they belittled him, but that was enough.

I’m not going to tell you any of the things that I’ve heard said here but there are many examples I could give. I will share some of the things I heard said in my previous posts about the vicars there.

Edited out comments.

I don’t think I’m like those priests and there isn’t anyone involved in ministry here like them so the things being said there will not be the same as the things being said here. But things are being said here and not just about me. Just like in the synagogue at Nazareth, lots of things are being said and taken individually none of them sound that serious, they could all be discredited or put into a different perspective. However together they create an atmosphere within which effective ministry becomes impossible. God was limited by this kind of atmosphere in Nazareth and he will be limited as those he sends in ministry are limited in Heath Hayes. I’m not saying we can’t have genuine grumbles or disputes with people in ministry. Sometimes ministers get things wrong and we need to be told when that happens. Sometimes people in ministry do unpopular things and you need to know that you can express your feelings about it. What I’m talking about is not either of those things. It’s not openly challenging something you feel is wrong.

If I could give you some pointers to help I would probably say: firstly: don’t belittle those you have called to serve you. It will not help them to be better ministers and it may make it impossible for you to be ministered to through them. Our marital status, our children and how we choose to care for them, our parentage, our age, our education- all of these things define who we are, but the significance and authority of our ministry has nothing to do with them. Belittling someone by reference to these things or others like them is really a way of attempting to undermine the ministry they have been called to exercise. Secondly: assumptions. Never assume you know anybody so well that you can predict exactly what they will say and do in any given situation. When we stereotype people, when we pidgeon hole them and write them off and stop listening to them we don’t leave space for God to work through that person in ministering to us. I think both of those pointers are really about respect. It’s respect , yes for the person but ultimately for the calling and ministry that they have- irrelevant of the person and their failings.

So my challenge to you is to not be another Nazareth. Do not limit what can be done here. Don’t reject the possibility of amazing things happening. Don’t force your leaders to dust off their feet as they move on in ministry. Respect those whom God sends you, leave space for him to work through them in your lives. God sends people of all shapes and sizes- sometimes they are close to us and sometimes they are a stranger. If you cannot do this for those who are visible ministers, those who are obviously sent by God – if you cannot show respect to these people then how will you do so to the ones God sends you everyday… to each other?

So your vicar is in the pulpit, it’s the Sabbath, the holy day. I wonder what you’re thinking? Am I limited by your knowledge of me? Are the things that define me barriers for you? I wonder will you gossip? Will God touch just a few through my ministry here or will he do amazing things?