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Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Fr. J. D. Ousley
5 July 2009Mk. 6.1-6“Amazing Unbelief”
In the Name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
These days, religion often gets bad press. For example, wars in the Middle East and Africa and South Asia, are blamed on conflicts between different faiths.
Even in this country, where so many forms of belief are tolerated, religious people can be maligned. Christians are often portrayed in the media as puritanical; we are seen as anti-science, and we are viewed as gullible followers of slick, hypocritical leaders.
I frequently have the experience of going to a party where I have no official role and where I’m not therefore required to wear a clerical collar. As I meet people at the party who aren’t religious and in the course of the conversation I tell them what I do, I find that these people are amazed.
They seem to be wondering how an apparently normal person could be a priest? More generally, how could a rational, intelligent person be religious?
Now I would admit that religion can be a challenge. The life of faith requires imagination. It demands perseverance. It requires self-control. So we Christians don't follow this life perfectly. In a sense, we're not really Christians — we're only trying to be Christian. We make lots of mistakes as we attempt to follow Christ as best we can.
That said, I don't think it should be surprising to unbelievers that intelligent, normal people are Christians! In fact, I think that it is the opposite position that is hard to accept. It's hard to imagine how people can not believe!
By saying this, I am expressing the opinion Jesus offers in today's Gospel. In the story, Jesus has arrived in his hometown — presumably Nazareth, in the Galilee region north of Jerusalem.
His preaching is not welcomed there. The people in Nazareth know Jesus' family; for his neighbors, Jesus is merely a local boy, son of a carpenter, with brothers and sisters who still live in the town.
"What is this wisdom that has been given to him?" They ask. How can Jesus presume to be sharing a new understanding of life that the citizens of Nazareth didn't already possess?
But Jesus isn't threatened by the hostility of his fellow Galileans. He chalks it up to familiarity, making the comment that has been quoted so many times since in other contexts: "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown ..."
St. Mark says that Jesus was "amazed at their unbelief." The skepticism displayed by his boyhood friends and relatives was not just hostile: it was amazing!
In other words, how could people doubt the loving words of God? For Christ, the shoe is on the other foot: it is those who don't believe who have chosen an untenable position!
What could have led Jesus to be so confident in his convictions? He was surely aware that people always question the demands of religion. Even if they believe in God, they have a lot of trouble following all the rules and all the ideas of their faith. Jesus himself warned that the "gate" to Heaven was "narrow."
So why is unbelief amazing? Well, for a moment, let's take our cue from Jesus and let's think as he thought. Instead of being defensive about our belief, let's go on the offensive.
Let's assume that the default position of human beings should be faith, not skepticism. Let's be surprised that people doubt that there is a God who loves them!
For example, we can marvel at the beauty of the world around us. As Jesus said, "Look at the lilies of the field." — doesn't the glory of creation reflect the love our Creator has for all things?
Of course, the mountains and the fields and the stars and the sunsets could just be here by coincidence — caused by the flow of random events. We human beings could also be part of a meaningless parade of happenings.
That's what skeptics hold. But believers counter that, when we look around us, we have to conclude that the beauty is just too great. There must be a Creator.
And so the opinion that the universe just "happens" to exist seems to me incredible. The unbeliever's non-belief is unbelievable.
And on this Independence Day weekend, when we give thanks for the particular heritage of liberty that is ours in this nation, it is natural to see our nation as "under God." Of course, the Founders of our country could be very skeptical: they especially distrusted the interference of organized religion in the political sphere.
Yet even these Enlightenment thinkers acknowledged the gifts of their Creator: "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
In addition, those who doubt the truths of religion put themselves in the strange position of rejecting a number of ways to be happy. They reject what are called, the "consolations" of religion — the blessings that God gives to those who follow the way of life Jesus taught.
On this holiday weekend, for example, there may have been times you didn't feel like celebrating. You got tired by the crowds and the noise.
Or you happened not to have much to do, and time and loneliness bore down upon you. Or you couldn't help thinking of happier celebrations of the Fourth of July that you enjoyed in years past.
But whatever the cause of your melancholy feelings, you could still offer prayers and praise to God. And when you prayed, you would have opened yourself to the Spirit of God, and you could have sensed God's love for you in your heart.
"He was amazed at their unbelief." Instead of feeling threatened by those who criticize religion, then, let us adopt the strong confidence Christ had. Let us rejoice in the beauty of the world, the freedoms of our nation, and the joys of our faith.
Like Jesus, we can ignore the jeers of the skeptics. Like Jesus, we can receive the peace that passes all understanding.
And now unto that same God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be ascribed as is most justly due all might, majesty, power, dominion and praise, now and forever, Amen.