Sunday, July 5, 2015 Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Lectionary 14
Ralph W. Klein
Doing God’s work can be a lonely and frustrating task. In the first reading the prophet Ezekiel, empowered by the Spirit,was sent to a nation of rebels. He was to bear witness to God, without worrying about success or statistics. At least his hearers would know that a prophet had been among them.
On his deathbed Luther confessed, “We are beggars.” The Psalmists in Psalm 123 compare themselves to dependent maids or servants looking to their masters until they get an answer. In the same way they look longingly to Yahweh until he has mercy on them. They complain: We have had more than enough of contempt, more than enough of scorn.
Jesus, too, in the Gospel faced rejection in his hometown, among his kin, and in his own house. The hometown folks heard his words in the synagogue and heard reports of his miracles, but they took offense at him and dismissed him as the carpenter’s kid. While he cured a few people in Nazareth, he was amazed at the unbelief in his hometown. In sending out the twelve, he urged them to travel light, without money and with minimal clothing. He encouraged his disciples to shake the dust off their feet if they were not welcomed or listened to, alerting them to this realistic possibility. The disciples faced mostly rejection, but a little success.
In the second reading Paul could have boasted about an ecstatic experience he had had fourteen years earlier. Instead, he mentioned his mysterious thorn in the flesh that kept him from being too elated. His prayers for relief from this “thorn” went unanswered at first, but the Lord finally assured him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul made the best of a bad situation by boasting about his weaknesses so that the power of Christ might dwell in him. Let weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities come for the sake of Christ. He boldly confessed, “Whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”
The semi-continuous first reading from 2 Samuel 5 presents a much more optimistic picture. The elders of Israel traveled to Hebron and anointed David king because they remembered his good service in the past. David captured Jerusalem and renamed it the city of David after himself. He became greater and greater.
Despite this happy note, most of us experience ministry and discipleship as not a road to glory. By God’s grace, we can rise to the depths of Paul and know that when we are weak we are strong.