Pentecost 6 L14 B

Jesus and his band of disciples are on tour. Jesus leads and the disciples follow him from place to place, town to town, as he teaches and heals and performs miracles along the way. And at the beginning of this Gospel that we’ve read today, Jesus is making a stop along his tour in his own hometown.

As Jesus takes the stage in his own synagogue, you might think this would be one of the greatest shows on his tour. You might think that his hometown would be the center of his fan club, the proud locals who would brag about knowing Jesus before he was famous.

But, that’s not what happens. Whereas in other locations, Jesus was ‘that stranger who could do these amazing things’…in his hometown he was ‘the kid who must think he’s better than us.’

I remember when I worked in show business…

Maybe you’ve had the experience of no longer being welcome in an old group of friends…

There is some of that same feeling going on here as Jesus returns to his hometown. “Well, what makes you so special?” “Where do you get off acting so important —- we know you, we know your family, we know your history, we know your social class, and you are not important.”

Needless to say, Jesus could not put on a great show in his hometown. In fact, Jesus heckles the crowd right back saying, “prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown…” Or, in other words, “you wouldn’t know a prophet if one was standing right in front of you.” Which he was.

But what happens next is so striking that even Jesus himself was amazed: because of their lack of faith, Jesus could not even perform. The power of the Gospel which had freed the captives, opened the eyes of the blind, and even raised a girl from her deathbed, was absent when this crowd refused to put their faith in their hometown prophet.

Let’s talk about faith:

faith required for Jesus’ deeds is not mental understanding faith is not a private matter faith is public

faith is a social, externally manifested, emotion-filled behavior of loyalty, commitment, and solidarity. Loyalty and commitment to the God of Israel, solidarity with others bent on obedience to the God of Israel.

In other words, the kind of faith that is talked about here is not the sum total of your innermost thoughts, but the kind of trust in God that permits you to stand next to Jesus and stand with the people that Jesus loves, even when the going gets rough. Faith is our confidence to follow — not based on our skills or reputation, but based on God’s faithfulness to us. It’s the faith of that beautiful prayer:

Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Faith is lived out loud.

And the people of Jesus’ hometown have clearly failed. Spectacularly. Jesus is actually amazed at their lack of faith.

And, let’s be clear —- these aren’t people who are just ‘not sure’ about Jesus. This is not a condemnation of people who have doubts. In fact, walking downs paths of which you cannot see the ending, facing perils unknown, not knowing where you’re going…these are not failures of faith, these are prerequisites of faith.

At almost every turn of the Gospel, the disciples make clear that they have absolutely no clue as to what they’re doing —- except that they continue to follow Jesus.

But the people who have failed at faith are the ones here that are sure. They are sure that hierarchy, and social class, and profession are what’s most important —- not God’s ability to do something new.

And so you might think that Jesus would have no choice other than to rain down fire on these unbelievers…you know, give them a real show that they’d never forget. Scare that disbelief right out of them. Show a sign of power too big to ignore.

But he doesn’t.

Instead, he does about the weakest thing you could think of. He splits the disciples up. Jesus sends them out two by two. And he instructs them to go out with no food, no bags, no money.

This is Jesus’ response to apathy and scorn: face to face relationships. Not show-stopping sell-out performances, but…smaller miracles. Two by two the disciples are sent to engage in holy conversations and healing.

Really, Jesus’ model for disciples is always sending. It’s no coincidence that when Jesus sends his disciples out two-by-two that he talks about them ‘entering a house.’

Jesus sent his disciples into homes. Think about that for just a moment. The mission that Jesus gave his disciples was not to build a newer, more-improved temple so they could put on the greatest show on earth…the mission was to go out into homes.

And even more amazing, how they were sent…without material supplies, without much training.

Talk about living faith out loud. Their marching orders (take no bread, no bag, no money) required them to go with faith: trusting in the faithfulness of God.

And God provided. The power of the Gospel was made perfect in weakness.

This is still the model for discipleship…but we are so well-trained —- I am so well-trained to think of the power of the Gospel as something like a show that we have to put on inside the church, something to surround with the finest special effects and then invite people to come see it.

But instead of just gathering in public places to celebrate our private faith, Jesus sends us, his disciples, into private settings to celebrate public faith. To live our faith out loud at home, at work, at play. To trust God enough that we can invite the Gospel into holy conversations we have among friends, decisions we make in our households, disagreements we have with our co-workers, or neighbors…

We live in a big country. Maybe you celebrated this weekend with big slabs of meat, or big fireworks, or big orchestras playing big patriotic music. Or, if you were really lucky: all three.

These past few weeks have felt to me like a time of big moments in our big country. There’s been a nationwide conversation on race and violence. There have been big Supreme Court decisions affecting millions with regard to health care and marriage rights. Many celebrated these things as finally catching up to where we should be progressing as a nation. Many others, though, felt like their country was leaving them behind. Whether or not we agree with the big things, our hope is in the little things. Our strength is made perfect in weakness.

In moments that we lay down our strength, lay down our certainty in being right, and listen to someone else. When we leave room for the Gospel to surprise us in new ways, in new places, from new people.

Trusting that as we go out, the Gospel does too, but not as a performance that only we can put on for others, but instead, Jesus, the living Word goes out with us as a promise that where we encounter others, Jesus will be there. The Gospel will be there among us, in our meeting.

No equipment required, no excuse too big, no strength too small.

We are given faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that God’s hand is leading us and God’s love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.