Had a friend who pastored a Missouri Synod church in the Twin Cities. They wanted to help feed the homeless, so every Sunday after worship, they would make a big meal in the church kitchen and bring downtown and share what they had made. After doing this for quite a while, they were burning out from doing this every Sunday. So they decided they would have the meal catered, they didn't go cheap but had one of the premier hotels cater it with all the fixings and served. After a while longer, they decided it was too expensive to keep doing this and stopped it all together.
So while they tried to do something, and they did make a difference in helping feed people who were in need, they kept themselves in the realm of charity. They cooked good meals, they paid for good meals to given, but neither model was sustainable in that I suspect that only a few of the many church members really helped prepare and serve. It was too much for just a few to undertake. The second model, while giving the homeless a very good, very expensive meal would not keep them throughout the week from hunger and not that the homeless didn't deserve such a fine meal, serving any one that way would eventually run out of finances.
Finally, I do imagine that this church did not ask why there are homeless people, how could homelessness be solved, and how they might be a part of the solution. They didn't focus on the justice issues, the inequality, and how the world could be better for all.
In today's Gospel reading in Mark, Jesus returns home and his neighbors and friends and townspeople are wondering who is this guy and who does he think he is? In those times, people became adults are 12 or 13, married by 14 and would be grandparents by the time they were 30, if they were still alive. So, for 18 years, Jesus has been a single guy living with his mother, he goes away for maybe a couple of months and comes home with a large following and rumors of him doing some truly miraculous things. But here is the rub, apparently, in those 18 years, there has been very little evidence or hints that Jesus is capable of such things. Apparently, when there was an illness or death in Nazareth and the surrounding communities, the people didn't run to Jesus and have him make everything alright before he started his ministry and now were skeptical that he could do it now. So much so that he was unable perform any real miracles beside some small healings. The man they see before them wasn't the one whom they knew before Jesus was baptized, driven into the wilderness, and began his ministry.
It was after this homecoming, that Jesus began in earnest his ministry by selecting the 12 disciples after going away to a mountain and praying all night. Do you know the parable of the chicken and the pig? Not a Jesus parable, but a woman asks a man if he is a chicken or a pig in their relationship? He asks, what do you mean am I a chicken or a pig? She replies, "In giving of themselves for breakfast, a chicken gives her eggs so the farmer can eat, but the pig, in order to give bacon, must go all in." It appears that those who Jesus choose to be his disciples were able and willing to go whole hog, leaving everything behind to follow him, while those in his hometown, weren't even able to give their eggs, or faith, to help him heal more serious cases in their community.
Jesus didn't want to set up shop in Nazareth, but he did try to go home and help out those whom he could. But they were too stuck in their ways and in their estimation of him that they could not believe that he had anything more to offer than being a carpenter.
So what kind of Christian are we and what kind of church? Are we the kind that is ready to go whole hog when asked, give our eggs when we have some to spare, or to busy focused on business as usual that we cannot Christ or the Holy Spirit when it calls?
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