Call to Worship
God, your constant love reaches the heavens, your faithfulness extends to the skies.
Your righteousness is towering like the mountains, your justice is like the depths of the sea.
We find protection under the shadow of your wings, we feast on the abundant food you provide.
You are the source of all life and because of your light, we see the light.
Let us worship God together!
Opening responses
In entering into the sacred present moment,
let us listen together for the voice that speaks a beautiful truth of love and acceptance.
Let us listen together for the voice that speaks a courageous truth and calls for our courageous response.
Let us learn together to hear and to respond.
This is a community of compassion and welcoming.
We bring all that we are and all that we yet can be,
to this safe and holy place.
Pause with a poem
Two or Three
“Where two or three are gathered in my name,
I am there among them.”
—Matthew 18.20
Where there is relationship,
where there is love, there is Christ.
Where there’s conductor and ground—
electrical flow.
Loving community is Christ,
each of us the fourth member
of the Holy Trinity.
Not “beside,” Jesus says, but among:
in the in-between-ness,
in the exchange of energy
between us,
the power of forgiveness,
the light of gratitude, honor, affection,
the death and resurrection
of giving and receiving.
Gather in that name, that mercy,
and feel the Beloved
humming between you.
This poem is by Steve Garnaas-Holmes. You can find his other poems at unfolding light
Gospel reading
Mark 6:1-13
He left that place and 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 honour, 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.
Reflection
There are two physics experiments that have kept on returning to me as I have reflected on the gospel story this week. I know that’s a bit odd, and it’s even more odd than you may think because I never really got the point of physics and dropped it at school when I chose my O level subjects.
But still, these two experiments illustrate a couple of basic laws of energy and connection – I think that that they may offer us some useful perspectives to explore the dynamics in the story and lead us toward insight and understanding. They are also kind of fun! I think they both have something to show us about the way things change and the way things stay the same. Let’s watch – the first one is Newton’s cradle.
So, I know that Newton’s cradle is actually a demonstration about the conservation of momentum, but I think that it shows quite beautifully the principle that for every action there is an equal and opposite re-action. I think we can see this principle at work in the gospel story when Jesus returns to his hometown and finds that his action – teaching in the synagogue – is met with a reaction. The people are astounded at his teaching, his wisdom, understanding and insight. I think there is a moment here when their reaction could have gone differently. They could have been astounded – knocked over, if you like – and then opened their arms to their very own homegrown prophet, welcoming him back, willing to learn from him, curious as to what his journey has been since he left.
But instead they knock right back, pushing Jesus into the limitations of what they already know about him (the carpenter’s son) and what he is capable of. He can make things with wood, not make the blind see or the lame walk never mind raise the dead.
Mark the gospel writer starkly observes how the resistance of the home crowd prevents the free movement of the Holy Spirit among them. When Matthew tells this story, he moderates this statement and says Jesus couldn’t do many instead of couldn’t do any deeds of power, and this can seem a slightly problematic statement for us if we think that it says something about the validity of Jesus’ power as the Son of God, or even about the power of God and the role of our faith or belief in healing. But Jesus isn’t a showman out to impress people with dynamic demonstrations of power, signs and wonders. We saw in the story a few weeks ago about the woman who reached out to touch his cloak – Jesus is out attending to the flow of divine love, the flow of creation, healing and restoration.
Love is a flow. It is in motion, it’s a partnership of giving and receiving and letting go. This is what God is about in the world, this is God’s mission. This is the flow and mission we are called to attend to and participate in. This is the path and the way of Jesus.
But, Newton’s cradle shows us that this isn’t the only way energy can move. It shows us how the flow of energy can stay stuck in a system. The initiator, the first ball to move, transmits the new thing into and through each participant and eventually they send it right back, unchanged. And so it goes. I wonder if the cradle might help you to see how we might end up keeping things the same by the way that we push back against things that are different, that are new and that are unfamiliar.
We can do that without thinking, it happens so fast it seems automatic.
I noticed that an unfamiliar hymn tune a couple of weeks ago threw some of you off your groove.
An unfamiliar layout of the furniture in the auditorium can have the same effect. An unfamiliar format for Sunday service – one where we engage with each other, or where we move about, or create mess, respond to images or offer thoughts and stories can be more than unwelcome for some – it can be unbearable. It can be repellent. And so we push back. I know only too well how fully that reaction can seem to be automatic. There are still things that push my buttons and get a lightning fast reaction – just ask my family and they’ll tell you.
But I have learned – and am still learning – that in the moment between stimulus and reaction there is a space. Sometimes it is a VERY small space, but it is there.
If you pause for a moment in that space…if you pause and breathe. If you breathe and catch the words that are about to fly out of your mouth. If you breathe and let that reactive energy flow through you and let it go….Then you will find there is space to choose different words, take a different tone, ask a different question, or just wait and see if this unwelcome thing might turn out to be ok. Might be better than ok. Might even be good.
When Jesus sends out the twelve on their mission trip and tells them to stay where they are welcomed and to move on without holding on to anything where they are unwelcome, I think he is teaching them about energy and flow. I think he’s teaching them not to get stuck in a reactive pattern, trying to push into a community or a system that keeps on pushing you back out. This is hard when you think you have something good to share. But this is the way love works: it’s an invitation. We accept the invitation and then we pass it on. So Jesus sends out the twelve to offer love: be part of the flow of divine Love and then trust that flow to guide you. Stay when you are received. Let it go when you are rejected. This is a hard teaching. Rejection is painful and can make us reactive in response – we push back and keep the energy stuck in the system. But I think Jesus is training his disciples – and us –that there are times to pause, breathe, let it go and see what other choices open to us.
The other science experiment I’ve been thinking of this week is about human conductivity.
So, the thing here is that amazingly, human beings transmit electricity. Or something. We have a capacity to pass things between us – a current, an invisible force, a power. I am sure you have experienced this without the use of an energy stick. You would probably be able to point to moments when there has been a national crisis and it feels like everyone is grieving and shocked or caught in a desperate hope waiting for news or everyone is elated as we share in a victory. This is true even when those concerned in the crisis are unknown to you, or when the winning team is in a sport you don’t follow particularly. The community transmits the energy and we become wrapped up in it.
But you might not be so aware that on a much smaller scale we each influence the mood and outlook of those around us and the communities we are part of. You may not know this, but anxiety is more contagious than covid. Fear and worry are incredibly catching. You don’t have to say anything to pass them along either…it’s a flow of energy and it is one we are all tuned into at a very deep level.
Happily, calm and peace are also contagious.
So how does this conductive experiment relate to our reading? Well, Jesus’ instruction about shaking off the dust from their sandals can be understood as criticism. I have interpreted it that way in the past, but I am coming to understand that Love is interested in keeping the door open for a conversation later. Ultimately, Love is interested in being welcomed, so that the flow of healing and grace can be what we transmit one to another. So now I understand shaking off the dust to be a practice of calm and peace.
Shaking off the dust says: I won’t take that fearful, reactive rejection with me, I’ll let it go, leave it behind and move on with peace, with love and hope.
These discipleship practices aren’t particularly heroic or dynamic. They don’t look like they would contribute to the healing of the world and restoring of creation but I believe that they do in the most real way.
I believe that when we attend to the flow of peace, calm and love that is the Divine life living in us and through us, when we move with the flow instead of blocking,
resisting, attempting to control or hoard – when we allow God to be God in us – then we are a healing presence. Then we are a light in the darkness, a breath of fresh air and a cool glass of water on a hot day.
If we practice being open to the flow of love, we can become a refreshing and restoring presence among those who are fearful and lonely.
We know Jesus sent out the twelve to practice mission.
And this is what practice means: an action repeated over and over. It’s never too late to start…
So this week practice pausing and breathing and finding space for an alternative response. You’ll be terrible at it. Don’t let that deter you. Keep practicing. And when you notice that you have picked up someone else’s anxiety, when you notice that you are walking around with extra baggage and you have lost a sense of peace – actually do something to shake it off – splash some water on your face; stamp your feet; put on Taylor Swift and really get in to it.
You will change your world, and we will change our world one peaceful, pausing practice at a time.
And that will be nothing short of miraculous.
Blessing
As we go forth into the sacred mystery of everyday life, may we move with the flow of grace and be carried along your way by the energy of mercy and compassion.
May we recognise, hidden in our routines and our relationships, your many invitations to follow you on the way, and to learn from you how to walk this pilgrim’s path.
May we daily glimpse the underlying reality of Love that is stronger than death and live in the way, the truth and the light of this hope. Amen
