On A Mission From God

The 1980 movie “The Blues Brothers” starring Dan Akroyd and John Belushi, told the tale of Jake Blues, just released from prison, who learned that the Catholic orphanage where he and his brother Elwood were raised, would be closed and sold unless an overdue tax bill was paid in 11 days. Jake and Elwood put together their old band to raise money for the bill, explaining in a deadpan voice to anyone who asked, “We’re on a mission from God.” Braving pursuit by police and a flamethrower-wielding Carrie Fisher, among other obstacles, they manage to get the orphanage’s tax bill paid, just before being sent back to prison.

All three of today’s readings (Ezekiel 2:1-5; 2 Corinthians 12:1-10; Mark 6:1-13) tell of people – Ezekiel, Paul, and Jesus and the disciples on various missions from God. Despite – or maybe because of – the divine nature of their missions, all encountered obstacles and opposition – no flamethrowing Carrie Fisher, thankfully, but obstacles just the same.

Over the past few Sundays, we’ve seen Jesus during the early months of his earthly mission. He had taught the crowds, using the parable of the sower and the parable of the mustard seed, among others. Jesus then crossed to the Gentile side of the Sea of Galilee, healed the demoniac man, and was strongly encouraged by a number of pig farmers, agraid and angry that their swine herds had just run off a cliff, to take his healing powers elsewhere. In last week’s Gospel, we saw Him recross the sea of Galilee, heal the woman with the hemorrhage and raise Jairus’ daughter.

After all these successes, Jesus returned to his hometown. Riding the momentum of all these successes, he comes to teach in his hometown synagogue. He soon learned that the people who knew him best would prove to be the toughest crowd of all. “Where did he get all this stuff. Just who does he think he is? Hey we knew him when… He’s the carpenter, Mary’s son – Joseph is not mentioned, just a slight hint of scandal there about who exactly was the father – and his brothers and sisters still live here. He’s gotten too big for his britches” Mark’s Gospel doesn’t give us the content of Jesus’ teaching, but Luke’s Gospel has him saying that God’s grace extended beyond Israel, using Elijah’s miracle at the widow of Zeraphath in Sidon and Elisha’s healing Naaman the Syrian. Mark’s gospel says, “They took offense at him.” Apparently for all of his having grown up among them, they knew him just well enough to discount him. Jesus, for his part, was amazed at their unbelief, and could do no great miracles there, except curing a few sick people.

This lack of belief limits the church to this day. We who commit their lives to Christ may have our most frustrating conversations with those who know us best, who knew us when we were growing up, when we weren’t fully mature and were still learning how to navigate in the world, or who knew us before our call to follow Jesus. It’s a dynamic that we’ll struggle with as we continue to walk with Christ…..God will keep leading us into new territory, new ways to live by faith, and those who know us best will keep trying to drag us back into the roles with which they’re familiar and comfortable. For example, those struggling against alcoholism or addiction are cautioned to avoid people, places and things that will be triggers to remind them of drinking or drugging…because those people will say things like, “what do you mean, you can’t have a drink? You may have a little too much now and then, but you don’t really have a problem. What do you mean you can’t have just one….” So when God is calling us forward, we need to be careful not to be seduced into slipping back into old ways.

Coming off of a less than triumphant homecoming, Jesus sent his disciples out on their first mission. Normally when we travel, we follow the Boy Scout motto – be prepared. Some people prepare so much that they’re like the characters on Gilligan’s Island, taking their entire wardrobe along for a three hour tour. But Jesus instructed the disciples to travel light – a staff, sandals, and the clothes on their back, no more. In the memorable words of Blanche DuBois, they were to depend on the kindness of strangers, or more accurately, to live by faith. If a place failed to welcome them, they were not to call down fire and brimstone on the place, but only to shake the dust off their shoes as a testimony. And their mission met with some success; we’re told that they cast out many demons and anointed and healed many who were sick.

As Mark tells it, Jesus spends more time telling his followers what not to take than he did telling them what to do. Why such a heavy emphasis on traveling light? Perhaps on this mission from God, Jesus wanted to be sure that his followers’ possessions didn’t get in the way. The focus was to be on the mission – casting out demons, healing, proclaiming good news – and not on self-preservation. As Paul said in another context in today’s Epistle reading, for the disciples, God’s grace would be sufficient, and God’s power was made all the more evident in the weakness and modest circumstances of the disciples.

May we, like Jesus and the disciples, have faith to step beyond our comfort zones, out of the familiar boxes into which our family and friends and neighbors would like to confine us, into the “mission from God” that we are called to. We aren’t called to have everything figured out – indeed, we’ll often be given just enough light for the next step or two ahead, and no more. We are called to walk by faith, not by sight. Like Paul dealing with his thorn in the flesh, God’s power among us will be all the more evident for our own weakness. Like Ezekiel, we may or may not experience a positive response to our efforts, but at least people will know we are here and that God is with us in this place. On our journey we will meet with obstacles, and we’ll be tempted to return to that which is comfortable. But if we push past the pushback, we will push through to the blessings God has in store, for us, and for those to whom we minister.