Proper 9B 2006 Mark 6:1-6

“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’”

Jesus spoke from the long line of experience of those who were prophets before his time on earth, and who, like him, were rejected.

Take Moses’ experience with the children of Israel in their travels through the wilderness: “The whole congregation of the Israelites set out from Elim; and Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 2The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger….Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?’” (Exodus 16:1-3; 17:3)

And Joshua, the conqueror of Canaan: “The tribe of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, ‘Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, since we are a numerous people, whom all along the Lord has blessed?’ ….The hill country is not enough for us…” (Joshua 17:14,16)

Jeremiah: When Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people: 15Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am now bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks, refusing to hear my words. Now the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2Then Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. (Jeremiah 19:14-20:2)

The Lord spoke to Ezekiel and said: “As for you, mortal, your people who talk together about you by the walls, and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to a neighbour, ‘Come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ 31They come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they will not obey them. … they hear what you say, but they will not do it. 33When this comes—and come it will!—then they shall know that a prophet has been among them. “ (Ezekiel 33:30-33)

Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’”

"You can't go home again." That was the title of a book Thomas Wolfe wrote. It was published in 1949, two years after his death in 1938. Thomas Wolfe grew up in a large, sprawling house at 48 Spruce Street in Asheville, NC. He wrote about his growing up years there in a novel which he called Look Homeward, Angel. So frank and realistic were his reminiscences that Look Homeward, Angel was banned from Asheville's public library for over seven years. And he himself could not go home again for many years. Today he is a favorite son, but for many years he was an embarrassment to many of the residents of that lovely, Southern city. (1)

Those who had known Him as a boy could not believe that He could be the Messiah. The story about Jesus’ rejection at the hands of His own townspeople gives us a disturbing reminder that it is perfectly possible to have something standing right there before you, and not recognize it or its importance.

Remember the often told story of the first casting session of Fred Astaire, and the comment written by the director at the time: “Can’t act; can’t sing; dances a little.” In 1902, the Atlantic Monthly’s poetry editor returned a batch of poems to a 28-year old poet with a bitter note: “Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse.” The poet was Robert Frost. In 1905, the University of Bern flunked a Ph.D. dissertation because it was fanciful and irrelevant. The young Ph.D. student who received the bad news was Albert Einstein. In 1894, the rhetoric teacher at Harrow in England wrote on a 16-year old’s grade card: “A conspicuous lack of success.” The name on the top of the card: Winston Churchill. (2)

Rejection under any circumstances is a difficult human experience. Most of us have experienced rejection to one degree or another. Rejection evokes sharp emotions: anger, bitterness, disappointment. The consistent witness of the New Testament is that Jesus was rejected by his own people: first of all, his family; then his friends, then his own country.

Jesus’ own people included his own friends and relatives...people in his hometown - even his own family. At one point his own family tried to put him away as a deranged person. Some of us have experienced rejection by family members, perhaps even our whole family. This is the sort of rejection that hurts the most and wounds most deeply, this rejection by people we love.

Now his whole hometown rejects him for being only a carpenter. The English sentence, they took offense at him, is too weak. The Greek is “eskandalizonto”, they were scandalized by him. Scandalized because this lowly carpenter dared to teach them anything: “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him?” (3)

And he was amazed at their unbelief. But then he continued on to other villages with his teaching.

We can reject Jesus in many ways, usually without even knowing it. But he continues to walk beside us, teaching us, loving us despite it.

AMEN

1. adapted from King Duncan, “Rejected at Home”, eSermons for 9 July 2006
2. Parables, Aug. 1986 as related in Donald B. Strobe, “Only a Carpenter, eSermons for 16 July 2006
3. adapted from Donald B. Strobe, “Only a Carpenter, eSermons for 16 July 2006

Wicomico Parish Church
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Wicomico Church, Virginia 22579