Rev. Dr. Nate Hosler

Lamentations 3:22-33, 2 Corinthians 12:2-10, Mark 6:1-13 [Scripture texts found at the end]

“The truth is, we think church is for people living in the “after” picture. We think church is for taking spiritual Instagrams and putting on our best performances. We think church is for the healthy, even though Jesus told us time and again he came to minister to the sick.”  Rachel Held Evans, Searching for Sunday.

Describing the honesty and openness of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings which often meet in churches, she asks “[W]hy do our churches feel more like country clubs than AA? Why do we mumble through rote confessions and then conjure Barbie and Ken smiles as we turn to one another to pass the peace?”

“Churches should be the most honest place in town, not the happiest place in town.” Brueggeman

If read in isolation from the rest of the book, this passage may seem to brim over with hope and optimism that may feel conjured or artificial. We may trust in God like this. Or there might be times when we do, however, it is also quite likely that we don’t, at least always, or maybe even often.

While I may aspire to be able to speak or exist in such poetic confidence, this is not typically my natural space of spiritual existence.  

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,^[a]
    his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

When we read this passage plucked from the rest of the book, we miss the literary and social context. There is a trust and hope in God but also bitter lamentation. “Lamentations” is literally the name of the book. And this deep crying out goes well beyond a simply complaining about routine inconveniences.

It recounts terrible destruction and suffering as well as sharp language towards God- even accusing God of not only allowing this but causing it.  The book begins describing Jerusalem, the city where God’s presence was most closely felt, and God was seen to reside and where people flocked to worship.

How lonely sits the city
    that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
    she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
    has become subject to forced labor.

Lamenting is one of destruction. Of loss. People being cruel. It is existential. Of people turning from God and one another. Hunger, thirst, and spiritual anguish. So, when we read,

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
    his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

This is not a lightly written fake cheeriness. This models and gives language for deep trust. It also, in the full context, expresses and gives space for deep and honest anguish and distress. Expressing both of these may be individual but also should be communal.

The Gospel of Jesus invites us into restoration, healing, and worship that is personal and individual but also communal. We walk with Jesus together.

Rachel Held Evans, after comparing many churches negatively with AA, describes “The Refuge.” A church specifically gathered and oriented towards openness and vulnerability. People do not need to have it all together to be fully present. The founder and pastor at this church, was a rising pastor in a prominent mega-church—a picture of ministry success.

She describes this turn as taking a “downwardly mobile” path.

In our Gospel passage we see what seems to be Jesus failing.

Just before this passage in Mark we read of Jesus commanding the winds and waves and them becoming still, he heals a man possessed by demons, heals a woman (both physically and from social exclusion), and brings a girl back to life. After these scenes of raging success, Jesus goes home. Rather than a joyous and triumphant homecoming of their rising star in ministry, he is rejected. They say, isn’t this the carpenter, son of Mary. Aren’t his brothers and sisters still with us? It says, “And they took offense at him.”

“And he was amazed at their unbelief.”

Because of their lack of belief, he could not “do any deeds of power.” So, he left and went to surrounding villages. The path he took, or rather the vocation which he embodied, put him at odds with those who were familiar with him. On Friday evening, after we had gone to the Folklife Festival and soaked up (even danced with) several Indigenous hip-hop artists, I returned to my Sunday reflection.

 As I read an additional commentary on our passage from Mark, I felt led to share my experience of something somewhat similar. I grew up in a congregation that was very supportive. We didn’t have paid ministry staff so as high schoolers we voted in “youth advisors” who helped to lead our robust youth group (I think it was 20-30 youth during those years). Not only did we vote for our Sunday School teachers and advisors, but we had a group of youth who worked to plan events.

If we didn’t plan and execute the plan it didn’t happen. There wasn’t arm twisting and pressure in this but an invitation. I’m not sure that I would have labeled this as empowering, but it was formative in my call to ministry and understanding of church. After high school I wanted to do some sort of ministry or volunteer service.

So, I joined Eastern Mennonite Mission’s YES program. My congregation was incredibly supportive, and I easily raised the money that I needed to join the program. And they happily welcomed me back and sent me off to Bible college 2 years later. After ministry training, Jenn and I returned to the area for grad school. We were recruited to join a project to South Sudan and again the church strongly affirmed this calling. After some drama which I won’t recount now, that project was not possible, but we ended up first going to Nigeria just over 15 years ago.

Again, with much support and enthusiasm. However, the welcome seemed to cool. Likely it was, in part, the inevitable distancing of time and distance. Though for some, at least, the work of interfaith peacebuilding was a stretch.

In a few weeks I will have been in a prominent denominational role for 15 years and in the DC work for 12. Not once during this time has there been any expressed interest from the congregation that raised me, beyond a handful of individuals. I do not feel particularly or acutely distressed by this, but as I read and reflected on this passage, I noticed that I have likely not fully investigated my internal pain and sense of dislocation and loss in relation to this. In the spirit of Rachel Held Evans and our Lamentation passage I felt coxed to share it.

I wonder how God is leading me, and you, to greater transparency and vulnerability. How we have been hurt and healed. To confess how we have failed others and been failed. Or how has our vocation or identity put us at odds with those we love or who were once close? How has, or might, the way of Jesus led us bump against norms or take us out of safety?

After being rejected, Jesus sends out the 12 disciples in pairs. The text portrays this as, or almost as, a direct reaction to what happened in his hometown.

Is this a different strategy? Trying something new? Or did he feel that his disciples now ready due to what just happened?  Perhaps seeing their leader be rejected would free them from their own self-doubt.  Perhaps this allowed them to get past the fear of not being perfect or having it all together.

Many people, including myself, feel the acute need to project confidence and success. To build illustrious resumes. Ever increasing responsibilities and positions. Or signs of financial success. Churches and church people also do this. While failure (in the conventional sense) due to neglect or mismanagement shouldn’t necessarily be branded as piety, following Jesus does invite us to question and walk against the flow of societal assumptions. Free from fear, more fully trusting in God, what would we do?

In 2 Corinthians 12:2-10, the Apostle Paul theologizes weakness and reliance on God. I’ll read it in a moment. I find the first part of the passage a little odd—both in cadence and content. Commentators tend to think the person he references is himself. His “boasting” then is likely directly addressing a challenge to his credibility by people from the community of Corinth who are the recipients of this letter. He writes,

² I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. ³ And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— ⁴ was caught up into paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. ⁵ On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. ⁶ But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, ⁷ even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep^[a] me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.^[b] 8 Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, ⁹ but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power^[c] is made perfect in weakness.” So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. ¹⁰ Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

 “For when I am weak, I am strong.” God’s grace is sufficient.

Though the way of Jesus may cut against our sensibilities or challenge the assumptions of our culture or church.

Or when we experience loss, uncertainty, or doubt, may we, through the grace of God and with the support of our community be able to say:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
    God’s mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

May we rest in the knowledge that the one who calmed the raging waters walks with us. May we rest in the shadow of the mothering God who created all from nothing—whose love never ceases.  

Lamentations 3:22-33

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,^[a]
    his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul that seeks him.
²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷ It is good for one to bear
    the yoke in youth,

²⁸ to sit alone in silence
    when the Lord^[b] has imposed it,
²⁹ to put one’s mouth to the dust
    (there may yet be hope),
³⁰ to give one’s cheek to the smiter
    and be filled with insults.

³¹ For the Lord will not
    reject forever.
³² Although he causes grief, he will have compassion
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
³³ for he does not willingly afflict
    or grieve anyone.

2 Corinthians 12:2-10
12:2 I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven–whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows.

12:3 And I know that such a person–whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows–

12:4 was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.

12:5 On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses.

12:6 But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me,

12:7 even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.

12:8 Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me,

12:9 but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

12:10 Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Mark 6:1-13
6:1 He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.

6:2 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!

6:3 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.

6:4 Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.”

6:5 And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.

6:6 And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching.

6:7 He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

6:8 He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts;

6:9 but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.

6:10 He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place.

6:11 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.”

6:12 So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent.

6:13 They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.