Lord Jesus, may we hear your Word to us, your message of love and invitation to join you in sharing this with all the world. Amen.
When people become famous, there is suddenly a great deal of speculation about the whole of their lives – where they were born, where they went to school, who they are married to or in a relationship with, who are their children, where do they live?
And of course, – this natural curiosity and wish to know who these people are – the subtext being – are they worthy of their fame, their role and perhaps the power that goes with it – can very easily turn into a rather tabloid sort of unnatural interest in bits of their lives that is not really to do with us.
This is already how things are with our new Prime Minister – Keir Starmer – who has always tried to keep his family life out of the public eye – and of course it will be so too for all of the new Government ministers.
Up to a point, it is all part of how we weigh each other up, and work out who we can trust. Beyond that point, there is often a rather sinister search for something with which we can discredit someone, prove they are no better than they should be, pull them off their pedestal.
Public scrutiny can help make sure that our leaders, or influencers (don’t you just hate that word?!) are suitable to wield power, or for us to follow – and sometimes does uncover some wrongdoing or hypocrisy. There’s been too much of all that in our political life recently and it damages the whole institution and takes away trust.
But, as we see in so much of the scrutiny – sceptical and hostile – of Jesus, by the religious leaders of his time – when it tips into maliciousness and attempts to discredit someone because what they say is too challenging to your self-interest – well that’s a whole different ball game…
In the passage from Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians and in Mark’s Gospel – we are seeing a similar story of reputational challenge for Paul and Jesus, as well as the challenge of the message that they are both delivering.
The Corinthians like a bit of spectacle – a society not unlike our own in many ways – and their heads have been turned by some headline grabbing speakers who are leading them away from the path of following Christ. Paul is trying to show them the error of their ways in this, his second letter to them.
Paul speaks about what is obviously his own intense spiritual experience – being caught up into the third heaven- he doesn’t explain clearly what this experience was but it was evidently a meeting with God in some kind of mystical way that had a profound impact on him.
We also hear about the ‘thorn in the flesh’ that brings him sharply back down to earth – we’d all like to know what that was in more detail too – but that’s not important – rather that whatever it is, it stops him getting too big for his boots!
Paul tries to explain both these things to the Corinthians – on the one hand to demonstrate that if he’s telling them not to pay attention to those who make big claims about their spiritual status – its not because he has any kind of envy of these influencers – because he has had his own glimpse of paradise – and on the other to demonstrate that what is important here is not his own status as an apostle or spiritual leader – but that we are drawing people’s attention to Jesus – not ourselves.
Wise advice not least because people are notoriously fickle about who is in favour and who isn’t.
Its very true in football managers and teams – even after winning a place in the semi-finals through a penalty shoot-out – talk about miracles!
Its certainly true in politics, which is no doubt one reason why Keir Starmer is very clearly lowering expectations of the incoming government and certainly hasn’t gone for the ‘I’m the star attraction’ approach for himself. Whether you’re pleased to see him in Downing Street or not – there might be a recognition that moving away from a presidential style of personality politics is a good thing.
We don’t know what Jesus expected when he returned home to Nazareth, having become something of a superstar.
Recognised for the power and authority of his preaching and miraculous healings, as we heard last week, all over Galilee – when he comes back to his home town – they don’t want to know!
“Who do you think you are?!” they say, outraged!
They seem to resent his fame and authority – to want to pull him back down to their level – perhaps its jealousy – but their refusal to fully recognize what he has become means they can ignore his words – and resist both the opportunity and the challenge that he offers.
In last week’s Gospel we saw that healing needs both the power of Jesus AND the faith others – of the woman with the bleeding and of the father of the little girl at the point of death – people representing, as Becka explained, two social and religious extremes, but it is their own faith in both cases that makes the healing possible.
Conversely, here in Nazareth – where the people have no faith in him, Jesus can do no deed of power.
In one way we might find this puzzling – surely God, and therefore God’s own Son, should have such power that they can heal without any involvement from us?
But how wonderful, that God has chosen not to use his power in this way!
God will not force us, even for our own good – but has made it so that our willing participation in our own wellbeing is needed.
God is inviting us to work with him, to be lifted up, as the older woman and the little girl were in last week’s Gospel, to share with Jesus both his full humanity and full divinity.
What an invitation! What an opportunity!
The people of Nazareth turn down the invitation and turn away from one of their own, Jesus.
And what does Jesus do?
Well, he responds by sending out the disciples to other towns and villages – to spread further and further abroad this astounding invitation – which is the will of his Father that all people should be invited into his Kingdom.
Both Jesus, and then Paul after him, and all the apostles too, do not take offence when they are rejected – they are not looking for adulation or fame for themselves – but always to draw people into relationship with God – to step into the embrace of God’s love.
So the message for any prime minster or politician, here or in the as yet unknown outcome of the French elections today, or for any potential president come to that in the US – is that it is not about you, but about the people you serve and the ultimate cause of the flourishing of all your people.
And for us as Christians – in such a divided world – to hold fast to the one who we follow, and to hold out to all people the invitation of his freedom and love. Amen.
Service: Reverend Michelle Dalliston 7th July 2024. (St John The Baptist Church Peterborough UK)
Readings: Ezekiel 2.1-5; Psalm 12; 2 Corinthians 12.2-10; Mark 6.1-13