“Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honour except in his home town, among his relatives and in his own home.'” (Mark 6:4)

It turns out that procrastination until ‘tomorrow’ and nostalgia for ‘yesterday’ are both ways of avoiding the present moment, and the opportunities and the challenges it brings. In living our lives before God, we would be wise to seek the Lord while he may be found, and to call on him while he is near.

It’s a common saying that ‘there’s no time like the present’. It is also true that circumstances can conspire to obscure that truth. The alarm reminding us that it’s time to wake up sounds at exactly the time we set it last night. We reach out to stop the alarm, or to hit the snooze button, and we begin to calculate just how much longer we can afford to lie there motionless before we absolutely have to get up. Unless the alarm goes again, we may lose track of time, or even doze off again, before we finally accept that there’s no time like the present to be up and about.

The Bible reading we have just heard tells us that there is no time like the present, even though circumstances may conspire to obscure that truth. It tells us this in two stories, which we will consider one after another.

First, we read at the very beginning of the chapter that Jesus ‘went to his hometown’ and ‘began to teach in the synagogue’, where ‘many who heard him were amazed’. The reported speech of the people who heard him is given in verses 2 and 3, and it’s a great example of the way people think aloud and sometimes change their minds halfway through what they’re saying. At the beginning, they’re amazed by him, but by the end, they take offence at him. This is how their words come out in ‘The Message’ transliteration of the Bible: ‘We had no idea he was this good! How did he get so wise all of a sudden, and get such ability? He’s just a carpenter – Mary’s boy. We’ve known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers, James, Justus, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. Who does he think he is?’ And the way ‘The Message’ gets across the idea that they took offence at him is by saying ‘they tripped over what little they knew about him, and fell sprawling, and they never got any further’.

It is an astonishing turnaround. You could call it a de-conversion. And in response to it, Jesus utters the famous words that ‘only in his hometown is a prophet without honour’. He was owed honour as a prophet, yes, and as more than a prophet, more than his home town knew, he was owed honour as the Messiah and Son of God. And, he being right there in front of them, there was no time like the present to give him that honour. Yet the circumstances were not favourable. The crowd had clutched cynical unbelief from the jaws of faith. They had closed their minds and hearts against him, on the strength of what they thought they knew. And so it is written that ‘he was amazed at their lack of faith’ and ‘could not do any miracles there’, or hardly any.

Sometimes people say, ‘Oh, if only I had lived in Galilee in the first century, and heard Jesus teach, and seen him perform miracles, well then I would certainly have believed – but as matters stand, I don’t live in the first century, and so I can’t believe’. In response to this, and in view of our Bible reading, we may say that actually things are much. much worse than this. Hearing Jesus teach and seeing him perform miracles was no guarantee of believing. There were many living in the first century who heard and saw and yet did not believe. Back then, as it is now, faith is not a virtue which we must nurture, but a gift, the replenishment of which we must pray for daily.

That saying that Jesus ‘could not do any miracles there’ is quite remarkable. In the Gospel of Matthew where the same story is told, we read that Jesus did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith’ (Matthew 13:58), but Mark dials it up a notch by saying that ‘he could not do any miracles there’ as a result. The best way of understanding this is probably not to stress Jesus’ inability to perform miracles per se, but rather the fact that the exercise of this power in adverse circumstances, where faith was absent, would not be beneficial, and might even be counter-productive.(1) Already in Mark chapter 3, the teachers of the law had accused Jesus of working miracles by the power of the devil. At least if there were no miracles at Nazareth, a similar suspicion would not arise.

This was not the only time the scope and nature of Jesus’ mission placed constraints on his miracle-working activity. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when one of his disciples pulled a sword on the gang who had come to arrest him, after saying that ‘all who draw the sword will die by the sword’, Jesus added ‘Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?’ (Matthew 13:52-54). So there was no miracle escape that night. Likewise, once Jesus was condemned to death and crucified, those who passed by taunted him by saying ‘Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe’ (Mark 15:32). Once again, there was no miracle escape. Once again, the nature of Jesus’ mission placed constraints on his miracle-working.

These minor miracles, if they had taken place, would have done nothing to promote faith of those whose hearts had been hardened against him. These minor miracles had to give way to the greatest miracle of all: Jesus ‘now crowned with glory and honour, because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone’ (Hebrews 2:9) – including the hard-hearted people of Nazareth, and indeed hard-hearted people everywhere. ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts’ (Hebrews 3:7,15). There is no time like the present for us to give him due glory and honour, because he suffered death for our sake, and in so doing became the greatest miracle-worker of all, which is to say, he became our Saviour from sin and death.

And now in the second story from our Bible reading, we see again that there is no time like the present, even though circumstances may conspire to obscure that truth. The rejection of Jesus at Nazareth ‘is intimately related to the subsequent mission of the twelve’ by the placing of these two stories side by side, according to William Lane, the author of a book on the Gospel of Mark. Both stories feature ‘the tension between faith and unbelief’, and ‘there is a distinct indication’ in the second story ‘that the disciples [may] also experience rejection’.(2)

Jesus gives his disciples some eye-catching directions concerning how to prepare for, and go about, their journey: ‘Take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.’ These are to be understood as instructions to suit the particular set of circumstances in which the disciples might reasonably expect a glad welcome for their message, and should accept hospitality from their willing hosts. If they expected to have to fend for themselves, they would have had to take bread, bags, money, and an extra tunic for warmth during nights spent out in the open. As it was, they did not. Jumping around from one host to another would communicate disdain for the generosity of the first person that opened their home to the guests. That is why they were advised against it.

These instructions should not be understood as holding good for all time and in all places. We read elsewhere in the Gospels that Jesus later called his disciples to him and said ‘When I sent you without purse, bag, or sandals, did you lack anything? But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one’ (Luke 22:35-36). He gave these instructions in view of the coming crisis, when what was written about him would reach its fulfilment (cf. Luke 22:37). It’s not as if he wanted his disciples to use swords to defend him or attack others – as we have already been reminded, that is not the way he rolled. But the circumstances were no longer favourable, and a welcome was no longer likely.

Jesus willingly walked into the eye of that storm for us. If we want to talk about inauspicious circumstances, let’s talk about the Son of God pinned to a cross, defenceless and dying, his life-blood draining away. Yet out of that humiliating defeat came his most glorious victory and vindication. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross and by your life-blood poured out for us, you have redeemed the world.

Even back in Mark chapter 6, a welcome was not guaranteed, and Jesus gives his disciples a steer concerning what to do when they encounter push-back: ‘If any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave as a testimony against them’. It was customary for observant Jews to shake the dust off their feet whenever they returned from travelling in Gentile countries, to ensure that no foreign soil made it into Israel. So to shake the dust off your feet when leaving an Israelite town or village, as a testimony against them, is a confronting thing to do. It is performance art with the sharpest of points.

Such a town or village might benefit from a stark reminder of exactly what it was they were rejecting. We have that reminder near the end of our reading: The disciples ‘went out and preached that people should repent’ – not on the previous day, presumably, nor on the following day, but on the very day they heard the message, they should repent, turn around and go the other way, believe the good news of the coming kingdom, there being no time like the present.

This is a message that will always meet with a degree of resistance, perhaps a high degree of resistance. ‘I will not repent today. I’ve got my pride to think about. I may consider repenting tomorrow, so ask me then. Today you’ve caught me at a bad time.’ Or else, ‘I repented yesterday, and today I have nothing of which I need to repent. Who do you think you are, saying I should turn around and go the other way?’

We are not always in the right mood to repent, and if we wait until we are in the right mood, we may be waiting some time, or who knows, the opportunity may pass completely, never to return. Wherever the gospel is faithfully preached, the call to repentance will be issued in season and out of season. We will not always be here in church to hear and respond to it, and the Spirit of God will not always strive with humankind. Yet here we are in church today, not far from the kingdom of God, and repentance is the open door through which today we are invited to walk. Never mind yesterday or tomorrow, there is no time like the present to lament our many sins and failings, and honour the Son of God who died and rose again to grant us forgiveness and new life.

Have you noticed how much easier it is to get up out of bed when the alarm sounds in the summer, when it is light and warm, than it is in the winter, when it is dark and cold? It’s always true that there’s no time like the present, but sometimes circumstances make it easier, and sometimes circumstances make it harder, to be accepting of this. While we are in season, while it is an opportune time, today if we hear his voice, let us not harden our hearts, but open them to the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

(1) Cf. William L. Lane, Thegospel According to Mark, p. 204.
(2) Ibid.

“Jesus told the synagogue ruler, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”” (Mark 5:36)

Both fear and faith can be strong motivators, but they create very different emotions. Fear creates an atmosphere of gloom and despair. Faith produces hope and excitement.

Jesus did tell us to fear hell and the temptations of the devil, but there was a stronger emphasis on faith. He inspired people to trust him, offering a vision of the Kingdom of God, marked by compassion, healing and even victory over death. Surely, his is a message and a performance that can truly inspire?

Have you ever seen images or film clips of the stock exchange- I think it would be an awfully chaotic environment – there seems to be noise and everyone out for themselves. There’s a similar environment sometimes in political debates in parliament – the speaker of the house on occasions having to cry order, order. 

In our gospel reading Jesus brings order out of chaos. He calms the raging waters. He is not worried by the chaos, he’s asleep . It’s the disciples who seem terrified; first, at Jesus’ is inactivity and then by the fact that he could still the storm. Jesus’ question to them was why are you afraid? Have you still no faith? The disciples response? Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?

It’s not uncommon for storms to whip up on the Sea of Galilee- today in the car parks on the waters edge on the north Coast there are warning signs against what can happen when sudden winds whip up, the waters can come in and damage the vehicles, maybe even put life at risk. Storms are a normal thing.

And as much as we might not want it to be true, metaphorical storms are also true of life. Things come along that can grip us with fear, change our world, knock us off our feet, turn us around. They might affect our confidence, feeling of safety and security and even our relationship with God. Have we ever questioned God why something was allowed to happen, have we questioned if God is there? Have we questioned his apparent inactivity? Being in a relationship with God through Jesus doesn’t exclude us from storms.

Jesus calming the storm is a miracle – demonstrating Jesus’ power over nature but I think it is in many ways also a parable. This miracle follows on from parables about Gods kingdom and is a physical representation of Jesus ushering in this new kingdom. Life, as we’ve discussed, can have a lot of chaos. Jesus, through this miracle, is aligning himself with the Creator God who brings order out of chaos. There is a lot of Old Testament imagery and ideas being used in Mark’s storytelling to demonstrate this.

The first creation account in Genesis 1 shows God in his creativity bringing about order, the rhythmic flow of the first account of the creation story conveys that sense of structure and order – everything has its place.

There are also echoes in this miracle of Jonah – the storm came up as Jonah was escaping his calling – there was a wrestle between the fears and powers at war within Jonah that prevented Gods word from being preached – when Jonah surrendered his life the storm calmed.

In the book of Daniel the sea is where monsters come from. For Jews, the sea came to symbolise for them the dark power of evil threatening to destroy God‘s good creation, God‘s people, God’s purposes. What threatens that in our life – fear? Apathy? thinking we aren’t good enough to share truths about Jesus?

 The Psalms speak of the creator God who rules the raging sea, telling its rough and threatening waves to quiet down.

Psalm 65:7 – you silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the people

Psalm 89:9 – you rule the raging of the sea; when it’s waves rise,  you still them 

Psalm 93:3-4 – the floods have lifted up, O lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. More majestic than the thunders of mighty Waters, more majestic than the waves of the Sea, Majestic and high is the Lord!

So this miracle account would resonate with the listeners – here is Jesus aligning himself with creator God who calms the seas. ‘Just as in Daniel 7 the monsters have come up from the sea finally put to flight by ‘one like a son of man’ so here Jesus assumes the role of God’s agent in defeating the forces of chaos.’

Jesus’ confidence and trust in God lead to his ability to be asleep in the midst of a storm. ‘The forces of evil, are roused, angry and threatening, but Jesus is so confident of God‘s presence and power that he can fall asleep on a pillow.’

I think we can struggle with Jesus’ words : have you still no faith? They can feel a bit like an admonishment and I think sometimes as Christian’s we can use sentiments like that in a harmful way – if you have more faith then you wouldn’t be experiencing x y or z. I think Jesus’ statement here is much more filled with compassion – longing for their confidence  to be in him that they will weather the storm because he is there with them in it.

Psalm 107:23-30 speaks into this – ‘someone went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the mighty Waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. He commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven.; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their calamity; they reeled and staggered like drunkards and were at their wits end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he brought them out from their distress; he made the storm be still and the waves of the sea hushed. Then they were glad because they had quiet and he brought them to their desired Haven.’

The Christian life is not one without hardship. Afflictions come but it is truth of who Jesus is – that he reveals time and time again throughout the gospel – a God of power who brings order out of chaos – that leads to eternal calm and rest.

JC Ryle writes: by affliction he teaches us many precious lessons which without it we should never learn. By affliction he shows us our emptiness and weakness, draws us to the throne of grace, purifies our affections, weans us from the world, makes us long for heaven.

I love v30 of psalm 107: Then they were glad because they had quiet and he brought them to their desired Haven.

Who then is Jesus? He is the one we trust in the storms of life, the one we can question and cry out to in our distress , the one who has power and brings order amongst the chaos – until he brings us to our eternal rest. Let’s hold on to him as we weather the storm knowing he is in the boat.

What are the storms you are experiencing whether in your own life- or because of situations you see in the world around you. What are your questions , doubts and fears ? We can bring them to him. And that’s what we’re going to do right now.

Sermon presented at St. George’s 23rd June 2024 by Claire

Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear!” (Mark 4:9)

Have you got “ears to hear”? At one level this saying from Jesus which appears twice in Mark 4 seems to imply that deaf people are excluded and those who are not deaf should listen. But Mark 4 is a chapter full of parables, short stories or images that mean one thing on the surface but are meant to point to a deeper meaning.

Doctor Who – Episode 5 – Dot and Bubble

This week Fiona and I watched episode 5 of the latest Doctor Who series.

The Doctor Who episode, told a story about young people living on an alien planet in the distant future. The weird thing was that they quite literally lived in a bubble. From when they woke up until when they went to sleep they had a futuristic dot that projected a bubble around their head, so that they could communicate with their friends by video link in a manic non-stop social media kind of way. The problem was they were so engrossed in their bubble that they could not see what was going on around them in the real world. This was a problem, because there were big slug like creatures eating them one by one!

The story focuses on one of these young people, whom the Doctor and his companion try to communicate with to warn them about the danger. At first they refuse to listen to these two strangers talking what seems like rubbish, but eventually they are convinced to look more carefully at what is going on in the world around them and they see the monsters.

In a way, the episode is a not a very subtle parable. A parable at its simplest is a comparison between one idea, image or story with another idea, image or story.

In this case, the story and setting in the future is meant to be compared with our world where the bubble is like the mobile phones that distract them non-stop.

We can only guess what the futuristic monsters are meant to represent in today’s world? Perhaps the mental health crisis caused by addiction to social media?

The voice of the doctor would then represent the warnings from people about the dangers of addiction to social media. Will today’s young people listen to such warnings? Or will they reject the warnings in favour of the non-stop distraction of social media on their phones?

Of course many people will have just enjoyed the fun of watching a good story and completely missed the blatant connections. It is after all just meant to be entertainment isn’t it? Some, though, may be made to think more carefully about what addiction to social media on phones is doing to them.

Parables: Hidden Truth – vs. 33-34 and 10-12

At the end of today’s reading from Mark we are told  that Jesus spoke almost exclusively in parables.

Unlike the Doctor Who episode his parables were not so much science fiction as Gardener’s World, in Mark 4 especially, they are based on something much more mundane and quite literally down to earth – planting and growing seeds!

Also, unlike the Doctor Who episode his parables were much more subtle and obscure. Take the famous Parable of the Sower he tells at the start of chapter 4. Imagine you were hearing it for the first time, sitting on the beach in first century Galilee as Jesus speaks from a boat. Jesus tells you about a man sowing seed, the seed sown on a path gets eaten by birds, the seed sown in shallow ground grows to start with then withers and the seed sown among weeds is choked, but the seed sown in good soil produces a good crop. This feels more like a school biology lesson than deep spiritual truth. Would it really be obvious what Jesus was getting at? I don’t think so. What’s more those closest to him didn’t think so, either. In verse 10, we are told they had to ask Jesus what the parable was all about. Jesus then seems to imply that teaching in parables was designed to conceal the truth. In verse 12, he quotes Isaiah, which says, “in order that they may be ever hearing but never understanding, otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.”

But, the parables do not remain obscure to everyone. Those who are intrigued by them and come to Jesus to find out more are told what they mean. That happens in verse 10 and verse 34 tells us this was a common pattern. For these people a parable explained or understood is a much more powerful and memorable teaching method than just being told something. For those on the inside, who seek the truth, who come to Jesus and do not dismiss him, the hidden truths in the parables are disclosed and they end up with a much deeper understanding.

The issue then is one of how willing people are to hear what Jesus is saying. In this sense, Jesus’ parables are just like the Doctor Who episode. It is only when the person listens properly to Jesus rather than dismissing him that she is saved from the monsters. The Parables are a barrier to those not willing to listen, but treasure to those who are. As Jesus says, twice in the chapter, if anyone has ears to hear let them hear.

Indeed, that is the whole point of the first parable in chapter 4, the Parable of the Sower. It is not simply about what the best soil is for the seed to fall on. Jesus repeatedly says in his explanation that the seed refers to the ‘word.’ That is his ‘word’ about what God is doing and God wants, the good news about the Kingdom of God. In the end Jesus is saying it is only those who value his word as  the most essential thing who hear it in a way that allows it to take root and flourish in their hearts. If it is not truly valued, then peer pressure, ridicule or bullying will lead to ultimate rejection or the distractions and worries of life, will choke it off.

• So do you, truly value the words of Christ. Do you see them as words of salvation, words that bring forgiveness, words that help us live the good lives God made us to live, words of eternal life? Are you someone who has ears to hear?

The parables as a whole are Jesus’ way of reaching those who will truly hear, whilst leaving his identity and mission obscure to those who reject him. But each parable also adds its own perspective. In particular, Jesus says that the two in our reading show us what the Kingdom of God is like.

Mysterious Growth – vs. 26-29

The first of the two is unique to Mark’s gospel and compares the Kingdom of God to the mysterious growth of crops.

But wait a minute. If you start with the phrase, “The Kingdom of God is like…” you might be expecting something grand, magnificent or powerful. After all how do kingdoms become large and powerful?  By brute force and bullying. Surely, if Jesus was bringing in a Kingdom, you would expect him to be raising an army, leading a military revolution. You would expect him to say the Kingdom of God is like a lion, able to overpower its enemies.

But Jesus uses neither a magnificent or a powerful image but one of the most mundane images you could imagine. The Kingdom of God is like a man scattering seed… Then the mad doesn’t even do anything. He gets on with his day to day life and leaves the seed to it, not really understanding what is happening until finally the seed is ready and the harvest comes. How on earth is that like any kind of kingdom you have ever thought of? What is Jesus going on about?

Well the biggest clue is that in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus repeatedly refers to the seed being sown as the ‘word’, his message about the coming Kingdom of God. It makes sense then to see the seed in this parable as also referring to the word. All the man does in the story is sow the seed. Jesus seems to be saying the way you build the kingdom is by declaring the word of God, and letting that word do its work.

• This is a warning for us: The Kingdom of God does not grow through military crusades, spectacular buildings or multimedia advertising campaigns, but by the proclamation of his word. We should be careful then not to try and make the Kingdom of God come about by brute human force. Rather we should focus on sowing the seed of God’s word and allow it to work in God’s mysterious way.
• It is also an encouragement. When we do not have much power or influence or strength in human terms, we can rejoice that we can still sow the seed of the word and God will still work despite our lack of power and strength. This point is also underlined by the second parable, which is about unimagined growth.

Unimagined Growth – vs. 30-34

It is easy for us to look at the weakness, struggles and decline of the church in our society and the fact that so few seem to have ears to hear the good news and despair that the church will ever grow. But the same was true for Jesus when he spoke these parables.

We have seen over the last couple of weeks that the response to Jesus setting himself up as a rebel king was that the powers that be plotted to murder him and people accused him of being the Prince of Demons. Even his own family thought he was mad. The Kingdom of God was not taking the world by storm! Rather it appeared tiny and insignificant. Just Jesus and the small number of people who chose to follow him and listen to him. Compared to the religious powers in Judea they were a tiny faction. Compared to the might or Rome they were like a gnat taking on a lion.

Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. The mustard seed was believed to be the tiniest seed around and it was pretty small. Jesus says, yes, as you look at the Kingdom of God now, it is tiny and insignificant. It seems to be making very little impact. But Jesus says, it is like the mustard seed. It starts small, but it grows into the largest of the garden shrubs. In the same way from these tiny insignificant beginnings the Kingdom of God will grow into something amazing.

When you think about Jesus speaking to his disciples in the first years of his ministry, facing rejection from the religious leaders and even his own family this was a bold and radical claim. Now, we look around the world and we see billions of people who would call themselves followers of Jesus and whole civilizations built on values that are rooted on Christ. His words and kingdom  have spread beyond Galilee and Judea to be embraced by people in places as different and far flung as Korea, Nigeria, India and even the United Kingdom. Whether people follow Jesus or not, most would accept that he has had a bigger impact on the world than anyone who has ever lived. From the perspective of Jesus and a handful of followers that is an utterly massive growth!

• And this should encourage us. Even though in our own context in England, where the kingdom of God has been shrinking for decades or even centuries, we should be encouraged by this. Even as the church shrinks to a tiny size, the potential for incredible transformational growth remains. That won’t happen overnight, growth is a slow gradual process with growth spurts and periods of stagnation or even falling back. But the growth potential remains in the seed of the word of Christ – no matter how small the church becomes. Why? Because despite appearances the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. All it needs is for people to begin to have ears to hear.