Mark 6.4-29

You can only be two things in this life we share. It is simple to say, and Hamlet says it best in act 3 scene 1, “to be or not to be, that is the question.” You either you “are”, or you “are not.”

Push on that a little more and there is the reality for each of us, we “are”, we “be”, we “now”, we “the present”. Then we will not “are”, not “be”, not “now”, become “the past”. It is the core of our existence, to be. And it is the whisper in our ears, “momento mori” remember dying. On these two poles spin our living.

In his book, God and Empire, John Domminic Crossan relates the logic of Jesus’ work in the world very succinctly, “heal the sick, eat with those you heal, announce the Kingdom of God’s presence in that mutuality.” That is what we heard about last week. Jesus sends his disciples out two by two. He asks them to heal and exorcise demons. He then asks them to stay and be fed, staying and being with those healed people who welcomed the pair of disciples.

The story of the sending of the disciples becomes famous enough that the upper echelons of the society hear of it, most notably the king. King Herod hears the rumors about Jesus. He hears that Jesus is John the Baptist resurrected from the dead. That Jesus is Elijah, ringing in the end of the world. That Jesus is a prophet like the ones old. All of these rumors swirl in the ear Herod, who decides for himself that Jesus is indeed John the Baptizer, the person he had murdered.

Herod is wrong by the way, and we know that. We have been following the story and know that Jesus is not the resurrected John the Baptist. However, the ministries of the two men are at one time similar, they both are showing the powers of the day where they are wrong, and John and Jesus are both bringing good news to the poor. They both have a significant following, and John and Jesus each make very powerful people very nervous. And we know that both will be killed for that. Then we see that they are distinctly different in their ministries. Mr. Crossan points out the “John [the Baptist] had a monopoly, but Jesus had a franchise”

A person had to go to John, only John, to be baptized. John set up his baptizing shop by the river, and it was there that the crowds went. I would make sense that if you wanted to stop that activity, if you feared John’s disciples and the crowds that followed him. If you thought that his ministry might indeed want to change the society by force, then you would need to kill John. Kill the leader, cut off the head of the organization and the organization dies with the head.

But Jesus does it differently. He empowers his disciples with the ability to heal and to feed. If you want to know Jesus, look at his followers. If you killed Jesus, then his work would continue on without him. By design, Christianity is not the work of the leadership, Christianity’s brilliance is in those disciple who went out two by two. Crucify their leader, publicly humiliate their saints, martyr their beloved, but you will never kill the fundamental message they proclaim, God is about healing and feeding.

Over the next few weeks you will hear this message over and over again. You will see that when multitudes are brought to Jesus and his disciples for healing, when five thousand people are fed, after these amazing events, Jesus will tell his disciples, “you do it.” You heal them, you feed them, I will go away, but the Kingdom of God will continue. I will go away and come back for you, but in the meantime you have work to do. We have been doing that work ever since.

The church is its best when it goes back to its basic call, heal and feed. Make whole and make full. Touch and give. However those words enter your mind, your call, my call, our call to work is found in the most difficult and yet most honorable call to heal and to feed. How we do that is up to us, but we have a model for success. We are told to go in pairs out into the world. We go out with a partner to do only two things, heal and feed.

Too often in modern day church life I hear people talking about church growth. I will hear people say, almost in a panic, “We have to grow the church, we are loosing members. No one comes to church here anymore.” And the truth is we have been in a decline as a denomination of Christianity for almost forty years. It has been a steady decline for us, not dramatic, just steady. This Episcopal Church we share and love has seen more people leave it than join it in the last four decades. Where they go is a matter of debate.

Many in our society just do not go to a church. Who could blame them? In the busy world we have constructed for ourselves, with our eighty hour work weeks and our multi-tasking blackberry’s and I-phones and you add traveling sports teams and our children’s activities, who would want to come and sit on a wooden pew for an hour or so? Who would want to come and sing songs from a blue hymnal and pray prayers from a red book? Who would want come and then walk up to the front of the room to receive flat bread and port wine from a person in a long white robe? Who would want to do this? Who would do this especially when the language is a bit archaic and the outfits a bit too regal? We do not look like anything people do normally. We look a bit silly really when you think about it. I look strangely out of place in my white robe and green stole at the Jack-in-the-Box ordering two tacos for 0.99! “Who are you?” they ask,”Mr. Ireland?”

I love my church, I love my vocation as a priest, I love going to church. I happen to like the blue hymnal and that red book. but look at us? Where are we? We desire to help, help raise children, help people handle loss. We desire to proclaim Jesus’ message of healing and feeding to the whole world, and yet on balance only a handful come to worship with the good Episcopalians each week.

Then we get nervous when we see mega churches like Mr. Osteen’s or Mr. Young’s. Flashy websites, big parking lots, arena seating, millions spent on the choir, staff members on the ready, schools, people flocking to these parishes. Our General Convention is going on right now, a once every three-year meeting of the national church. But we are not big news unless we are fighting, and we are not fighting. Thirty one Million people tuned into watch Michael Jackson’s funeral. Pages of blogs and news articles have been written about him, twitter crashed the day he died, but our little side of the Christian pond has received little or no notice. Is it that I think too much of myself? I think that we are important. We are important, our voice and our views are relevant. We have been a voice to help change the society for the better. And our voice is needed. Isn’t they? Isn’t what we say and do relevant to the society that we find ourselves in? Are we doing good work in the world?

No. The truth is we are not relevant, and we are not news worthy and much of the work that we do is ignored.

Good.

The disciple went out in pairs to heal and feed, not because they would get their name in the paper, or because million of people would come to their funeral. They did not move out two by two to heal the sick and feed the hungry with the express written intent to get the attention of King Herod. John did not go out into the wilderness preaching repentance to make a lot of money and live in a big house. Jesus did not plant his church in a place where the parking lots were nice, and the seating comfortable. Jesus did not ask his church to wear vestments and have flashy websites with catchy vision statements and nicely marketed core values. Jesus did not get the attention of the world though an ad campaign, or rumor, or because he and the disciples were fighting and it made the front page of the Jerusalem Journal. Our glory is not about numbers, and our success is not measured in bank accounts and bottom lines. These may be important earthly pieces of our work, but they are not what makes us great, or stand out, or get attention, or any of the things we think might be important. We are not in the business of making headlines, or getting attention. We are not in the market to be marketed, or sell shares or do any of that which society deems so important.

What we are to do, and what we end up coming back to in each generation is healing and feeding. I would add risk to that. Healing. Feeding. Risking. These are the things we do. And we do them, not for coverage, we do them for Jesus because he told us to do them. I am a Christian because I believe in Jesus’ message of salvation. That salvation is not my own. The salvation of Jesus is done for others. Our work is for others, not for ourselves.

As long as we are leaving this church and looking for the ill and infirmed, the old and sick, the lost and the forgotten we do what we are suppose to do.

As long as we are leaving this place and looking to feed the hungry, feed their stomachs and their spirits, feed their hopes and starve their fears, then we are doing what we are suppose to do.

As long as we are risking our lives for the Gospel, risking our place in the society in order to do justice and love mercy then we are doing what we are suppose to do.

As long as we are doing this work and risking our lives in the face of a wicked world, then we answer the call to Christ. As long as we are doing that, who cares about the rest? Jesus called you by your baptism into this ministry. Jesus asked you to go, even if the world kills you, you are to go. Amid the darkness, we are to go in tandem. They may ask for our head on a platter, or our body on a cross, but the message of the kingdom of God will out live the rulers. You either “are” or you “are not.” In the middle time you are called to heal and to feed. “So shines a light in a weary world.” We are that light, we are that healers, we are that feeder. No we go. Amen.