In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

I realize the summer has only just begun and high school graduation ceremonies have recently just finished but in two short months many of these graduates will be going off to colleges and universities. Some may choose military service or service with a non-governmental organization overseas.

They will begin to develop intellectually and socially by quantum leaps. They will develop in ways that will take them away from their friends, and even their families. Although they may not realize this until their second or third visit home. The realization that this has happened will come as a shock to them and probably to their family and friends too.

This was my experience when I returned home on the Christmas break during my first year at university. My father was not impressed with the musical stylings of the Hamilton punk rock band, the Forgotten Rebels. He looked somewhat askance at my copy of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. But it was the ear rings that caused my poor father to wonder what exactly were they teaching me in that school.

This experience which has happened too many of us gives us an opening into our passage from the Gospel of Mark. Jesus returns to his hometown. You would expect this to be a where he could enjoy family, friends and relax. But things turn out differently. He goes to his “home church”-the local synagogue on the Sabbath.
At first, family, friends and neighbours alike are amazed at his teaching.
But because they have known Jesus since he was “knee high to a grasshopper” their amazement soon turns to hostility and outright rejection. We are told that he could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. It is Jesus’ turn to be amazed at their lack of faith.

Now I don’t know which is worse: to have one’s ideas or concerns ignored or that have one’s ideas rejected. Certainly rejection can undermine our self-confidence. And it can possibly damage or at least threaten our sense of self for we all want to be accepted. However, Jesus meets his rejection “philosophically”. He spouts a proverb: “only in his home town, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honour.”

Jesus is simply sharing in the experience of the prophets who had come before him. They too suffered rejection at the hands of their own people. Many Christians have found that the intensity and passion of their faith has been led to their rejection by family members and even by those who claim membership in the church. When I was in L’Arche, I heard the pain of rejection expressed different times by assistants. Their families didn’t understand why they were living with “those people” meaning the mentally and physically challenged. When were they going to get a real job. One assistant was the son of a Presbyterian minister.

But then we come to the second part of the Gospel reading in which Jesus sends out his disciples two by two to advance the work of God’s kingdom. They are to rely simply on God’s grace and the hospitality that they receive. Note that Jesus sends them out to do what he himself did, namely to preach, teach, heal and exorcise demons.

Now this commissioning of the twelve raises two insights concerning ministry. The first deals with the very nature of ministry. In our denomination, the common name for the ordained clergy person is the minister. And yet this term has come to imply that the clergy are the only ones who minister-who serve. How often have you heard that a church is vacant when they are without a minister. Does this mean then that there is nobody left in the church to carry out ministry? It is empty?

Somewhere along the way we have lost the ancient vision of the church as a priestly people-set apart for ministry through the sacrament of baptism. And yet I’m not the only minister in this church. You are all servants and ministers chosen by Christ himself to take responsibility. As your minister I am not the only one who does ministry. I’m at best a theologian, a co-ordinator, an equipper of you, the ministers.

Our reading from Living Faith makes this clear: “All Christians are called to participate in the ministry of Christ…we all gifts to use in the church and in the world to the glory of Christ, our King and Head.” This is one of the cardinal principles of the Protestant Reformation from which our denomination has sprung.

Prior to the Protestant Reformation it was the “religious”-priests, monks and nuns who were considered to be leading the true Christian life. The laity-those who were not ordained or not a member of a religious order were simply to “pay, pray and obey.” And unfortunately this attitude is still embraced by some members of the church and fostered by some ministers. But Martin Luther rediscovered our first insight- the principle of “the priesthood of all believers”.

Some charged that Luther dragged the priesthood down to the level of the laity but actually he did the reverse: he raised the laity up to the level of the priesthood.
Each of us are ministers then by virtue of our baptism although our particular ministries differ.

We all have a responsibility in announcing the Kingdom of God but our context for carrying out this ministry is different. I spend a great majority of my time with Christians.

Whereas you have the privilege and the challenge to “preach the Gospel always and sometimes use words” in situations where the Gospel is a foreign concept- in your relationships with co-workers, in your clubs and societies etc.

And this brings us to our second insight from our reading in Mark which brings us full circle back to rejection: Don’t waste time. In your situation there is a greater risk of rejection concerning the good news of Christ that you share. But don’t waste time trying to convince those who will not be convinced but be ready to give witness to the hope that is in you. Don’t hang around Nazareth dealing with rejection, move out into the rest of Galilee. We only have so much time and energy to carry out the ministry that Christ has given to each of us.

For there is only one essential ministry within the church, which is the ministry of the risen Lord. Each of us has responsibility. Each of us participate in it, a variety of gifts but the same Spirit, the same God inspires us all for we are a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people”.
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.