You Are Amazing
Mark 6:1-13
Rev. Patricia Barth
July 9, 2006
When I was in Ohio recently I noticed that their license plates say, "Birthplace of Aviation." But wait, doesn’t North Carolina claim "First in Flight"?? I remember the monument to the first flight of the Wright brothers in Kitty Hawk, NC. So how can both states claim the beginnings of aviation?
When I did some internet research, I learned that Wilbur and Orville were indeed born in the Midwest, and Ohio is where they set up their first workshop — but their minister father, Bishop Milton Wright said, "If God had intended people to fly, God would have given them wings!" Somehow the Wright brothers just couldn’t achieve liftoff in Ohio — so they moved their shop to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, just far enough from home to really try their wings. [literally!]
I don't know all the details of why they couldn't achieve flight in Ohio — but I imagine it had something to do with the fact that all the folks at home saw them as "the Bishop's boys." Sometimes it's hard to be accepted as an adult in your home community. When your friends, neighbors and loved ones eternally see you as "those cute boys who loved to make mud pies when they were little"; or "that tomboy girl who was always climbing trees," then it’s tough to have enough self-confidence to do what you feel called to do.
And that goes double for our family of origin, that sometimes wonderful, sometimes difficult bird's nest from which most of us have tried to fly. Any of you ever notice how, no matter what your age or occupation, when you go home or have Thanksgiving dinner with family, they slot you right back into the role you always used to play? I know that's been my experience.
It happens to most of us — and I'm very aware of it, yet I find myself doing it to my children and my siblings, too. We expect others to act the way they always have, so we can act the way we always have, so that the family equilibrium will stay the same.
The family nest can be very snug; but that coziness can be confining, too.
I love today's gospel reading, because we learn that Jesus was also the victim of "family nest syndrome" when he began to teach in the synagogue of his hometown. The listeners 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?" [note that the sisters were unnamed; it was common for biblical writers not to name most women because they were considered unimportant.]
Wouldn't you like to have been a fly on that wall? What do you suppose his sisters and brothers were thinking? That he was a showoff?
The response of Jesus' family and neighbors was underwhelming: "And they took offense at him!"
Jesus didn't let it get him down. He evidently took it in stride—saying, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their own hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house."
"And he could do no deed of power there" [except he cured a few sick people - but for Jesus, only being able to cure a couple of people was an off day.]
"And he could do no deed of power there." Wow! How could *Jesus* be affected by what other people thought of him? But he was! And so are we. Our thoughts and prayers and feelings really do impact the people around us. I know a woman who vividly demonstrated that once. She had one woman leave the room, so that she was unable to hear our conversation, and instructed the rest of us to envision the volunteer as weak and sickly. When she rejoined us, and tried to lift a heavy object, she was unable to. She again left the room, and we were told to picture her as powerful, competent. And she was able to lift the object!
If we see people as powerful and competent, they will be powerful and competent. For good and for bad. How we see each other has great implications for how we are able to act, and for how we act with each other.
If we see everyone we deal with as people of worth, beloved of God, then that can affect their behavior. They will be much more likely to act the way we see them. This is true in families, and it’s true in community as well. It's true at Takoma Park Presbyterian, and in the National Capitol Presbytery, and throughout the Presbyterian Church. You know at the recent General Assembly there were issues of great conflict handled, especially the issues of investment in Israel and Palestine and gay/lesbian ordination. And I went to a meeting to discuss those issues yesterday. And a man from a church known to be more conservative than TPPC was in one of my small groups, speaking forcefully against any divestment from corporations that benefit Israel's occupation of parts of Palestine.
I saw him as a hard line conservative, a sell-out to the big oil companies — and I think others in the room did too; and the more we saw him that way, the harder he pushed. And the more my mind narrowed. Just from that one encounter, I felt I knew his entire system of beliefs, at least on the hot button issues of the Presbyterian Church (USA) today. I confess I got really annoyed. I had him pegged! Neatly labeled and filed in a box!
But then a pastor I respect immensely reminded us that we need to see each other as equal persons on a spiritual journey, not as a liberal or a conservative. He told us of his own efforts to get people of different political persuasions together, to help them to get to know one another as individual people first, not someone bearing a label we have applied. I began to try to picture this person who annoyed me as an individual, a person of faith, someone trying to find his way just like me, and by the end of the day, we had a wonderful discussion. We may not agree with everything each other does, but we were from then on people to each other, not labels.
How we treat each other of course has consequences; but even how we think about each other has great consequences. It really does. I hope that knowledge informs all our discussions and controversies, both here and in the larger church. Because we are all God’s beloved children, trying to live into the Kingdom of God. God has given us gifts; all that we require to carry out our callings. Each in our own way, we are all amazing and powerful. As the song I taught the children goes,
You are amazing!
You are filled with power!
And God loves you—like crazy.
You are amazing. Amen.
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