Sunday, July 8, 2018

14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (7^th Sunday after Pentecost/Proper 9)

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:

First Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10, Psalm 48
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Gospel Reading: Mark 6:1-13

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

With the 4^th of July this week, I have been thinking about those very hot days in the summer of 1776 when the continental congress gathered in Philadelphia and those words we hold dear were penned: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”

That Declaration of Independence became the founding document of what would become the American story. While independent from Britain is the beginning of the story, the real story is one of dependence.  Dependence is the state of knowing that one needs the other, of knowing that one has no legitimate separation, of grasping the truth that we are at our best when we are in community with each other.  That continues to be the American story…we are at our best when we are in community with each other.

Notice how Jesus sent them out in pairs.  Dependence.  Two by two.  It was the pattern of the ark.  In pairs.  Jesus sent them.  That pattern points to the dependency issue.  Their assignment was clear—they were sent.

Church, we are the sent ones.  We are the disciples of Jesus.  We gather together to sit at his feet and to learn.  We gather together to be collectively in the presence of the Savior and to be renewed so that that we can be sent back out there where Christ would have us go.

In Mark’s gospel, those sent out had wondrous powers, including the power to cast out “unclean” spirits.  We can easily dismiss that and say that is not how we functionally understand the world today, but let’s not dismiss that too fast.  There are some “unclean” spirits we need to cast out, and Christ gives us the power to do so.  Here are some “unclean” things we need to cast out of our lives and churches:

• Thinking we really can go it alone, that fierce sense of independences—that is an unclean spirit.
• Thinking that our neighbor is not our problem—that is an unclean spirit.
• Thinking that someone else needs to solve the problem of poverty as it is too immense for us to do anything about it—that is an unclean spirit.
• Thinking that it is okay to suppress one group of persons and limit their rights for any reasons—that is an unclean spirit.
• Thinking that it is okay for racism to have any part of our culture and community—that is an unclean spirit.
• Thinking that it just is the way it is when some benefit at the expense of others—that is an unclean spirit.
• Thinking that there will always be children that go to bed hungry—that is an unclean spirit.
• Thinking that the homeless are nameless, faceless, or not our family that need us—that is an unclean spirit.

Jesus gives us the authority over all of those unclean spirits.  We are in this life together.  We are dependent on each other.  We have all we need to do the work Christ calls us to do—AND, all we need is Christ.  He is all we need for the work we are called to do.

We have the equipment in ourselves, and we have the authority to grow love in this world in such a way that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are more than words on the page—they are a declaration of dependence on the love of God.

We have been sent.