Weekly Whispering for the week preceeding Sunday, July 8, 2018

The Scripture 

Jesus came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Mark 6: 1-13 

The Whispering

"...no bread, no bag, no money in their belts,...not to put on two tunics..."

No flashing of signs or emblems of belonging to anyone other than God; completely free to be who we truly are: the children of God.

No hometown or family confining definitions of who we are; no town or country borders to defend (no need whatsoever to separate children from their parents); no duplicity or two-facedness in anything; no injunction to curry favor with those who refuse to host messages and messengers of the universal, undivided acceptance and love of God for all of God's children, no matter how it is worded.

No hometown slogans, petty jealousies and rivalries; no small-minded prejudices; no hallowed "comfort zones," financial and social barriers and private insulations; no status symbols, in-crowd allegiances, ancient feuds, tyrannies of rank and file; no exclusive neighborhoods; no hierarchies of any kind; no social hierarchy among churches or denominations; no tenure anywhere; no call to try to control others (Always carry only the walking staff of God's comfort - never a little bully stick);

No reason whatsoever not to critique the many idolatrous and oppressive tyrannies of family, community and national ideologies and their sneaky propaganda and enforcements;

No requirements to cozy-up to any people or systems of intolerance, oppression, brutality of any kind, no matter how far, far away - or how small and nearby.

No flaunting of signs of conspicuous consumption, elitism, seniority, club membership, ego-inflation, exclusive offers, special considerations; no "family" or "hometown" discounts for your ministrations of love.

No need to keep score. No law requiring homegrown "tit for tat" or "eye for an eye."

No worries about "reflecting poorly on the family/town/country name" or fretting about getting kicked-out of the family nest-egg or trust fund, or off of some kind of an historical land grant (a.k.a., land grab).

No law to say we must stay stuck in the mud. Not ever. No where. No way.

Perfect freedom to serve.

What if we all lived this way?

It seems to me that Jesus of Nazareth knew everything there is to know about tyrannies of every kind, even the down-home, cozy, close-at-hand kind. Maybe his own hometown folks dismissed him more from what he said about the "home town mentality" than from the fact that he was a known quantity who was, they had erroneously assumed, a full-fledged member of the Good Old Boys Hometown Club. He wasn't following any of the old home town prescriptions, joining any of the clubs, paying homage to any of the right people, - and yet there he was, quite at home with speaking-up in the synagogue/church anyway - and daring to show all of us, very clearly, the error of all of our selfish, colluded, deeply duplicitous, ancient-oppressive-systemic ways, as prophets always do. "Such nerve!: the people said. "If he wants out of our preciousness so badly, then we should just go ahead and kick him out! Crucify him! Crucify him!"

Was it because they were blinded by "hometown mentality," that only a few of Jesus' home town folks could actually accept the joyful liberation his loving heart and incisive social critique were so clearly offering? As for the vast majority, I guess, Jesus' double-edged liberating message just cut a little too close to home."

In my experience, it IS impossible for any of us to bring about a work of healing or reconciliation with people who truly "aren't trying to hear that," that's for sure. Nevertheless, I am reminded for the need to persist in our job of helping to liberate others from any of the oppressive ties that bind us to anything less than God's redeeming love. And let us learn over and over again how to gently "shake off the dust" of our own set-backs and failures so that we can continue to try to walk in Jesus' healing and liberating way.

This week's Whispering was written by Catherine Whittier Huber