He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.<\/p>\n
2<\/sup> 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!<\/p>\n 3<\/sup> 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.<\/p>\n 4<\/sup> Then Jesus said to them, „Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.“<\/p>\n 5<\/sup> And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.<\/p>\n 6<\/sup> And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching.<\/p>\n 7<\/sup> He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.<\/p>\n 8<\/sup> He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts;<\/p>\n 9<\/sup> but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.<\/p>\n 10<\/sup> He said to them, „Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place.<\/p>\n 11<\/sup> 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.“<\/p>\n 12<\/sup> So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent.<\/p>\n 13<\/sup> They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. (Mar 6:1-13 NRSV)<\/p>\n Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n Back in May our neighborhood had their annual spring yard sale.\u00a0 It\u2019s a pretty big event for our neighborhood.\u00a0 We advertise, we get as many people as possible to participate and it goes on for about 6-7 hours.\u00a0 Lots of traffic in an out of our neighborhood, and it starts really early.\u00a0 Carrie and I spent the weeks before hand going through some of the kids\u2019 old toys that they don\u2019t play with anymore.\u00a0 One of those toys was a Mr. PotatoHead that Addison had gotten at some point as a little kid.\u00a0 We put it out and I think asked $5 for it.\u00a0 It was one of the first things sold, and the person that bought it said \u201cI want my kids to have the real Mr. PotatoHead like they see in the Toy Story Movies.\u201d\u00a0 Her comment was based on what we as a society calls \u201cCancel Culture.\u201d\u00a0 Mr. PotatoHead as we all knew him or Mrs. PotatoHead as we knew his wife are not more\u2026they are now gender neutral.\u00a0 They have become victims of cancel culture\u2026which is nothing more than feeling based ostracism.\u00a0 In our modern times, it primary gains traction via social media.\u00a0 Social media itself is a form of cancel culture, because individuals have the ability to cancel out anything they don\u2019t agree with.\u00a0 Facts don\u2019t matter.\u00a0 Truth doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 Freedom doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 The only thing that matters in cancel culture is the feelings of the individual.\u00a0 And that is dangerous.\u00a0 Social media that has given rise and power to this modern form of ostracism is dangerous.\u00a0 But what is scary about cancel culture is that it has been dangerous for a long, long time. \u00a0The only thing new about cancel culture is the name and the way in which it is spread.\u00a0 But the notion that facts and truth don\u2019t matter is a long time problem within the world.\u00a0 In the church we have two words that describe the same situation:\u00a0 Orthodox and Heterodox.\u00a0 To be orthodox is to conform to what is known as traditionally right, true, and established.\u00a0 To be heterodox is to do the opposite\u2026to be non-conforming and open to anything.\u00a0 I would add that the heterodox often also engage in a form of cancel culture against the orthodox.\u00a0 The church has been struggling with that for a long time, and it has led to break ups within the church, new denominations, and extreme arguments.\u00a0 It\u2019s a form of cancel culture, although it isn\u2019t labeled as such.<\/p>\n As we heard in our lesson today from Mark 6, we see that even Jesus was a victim of what we today would label cancel culture.\u00a0 Jesus has come to his hometown with his disciples.\u00a0 On the Sabbath, he goes to synagogue and begins to teach.\u00a0 Mark describes those that hear as \u201castounded.\u201d\u00a0 But they then start to question it.\u00a0 Who is this?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t this the son of Mary?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t he just a carpenter?\u00a0 How can he have this wisdom?\u00a0 Notice in the midst of all the questions they ask is a statement of exclamation:\u00a0 \u201cWhat deeds of power are being done by his hands!\u201d\u00a0 That is an affirmation of Jesus.\u00a0 But it is offensive to the hometown crowd.\u00a0 They don\u2019t like it.\u00a0 No person from their hometown can be like this, and although they are astounded, although they see the deeds of power, they do not believe.\u00a0 Mark tells us that Jesus was \u201camazed at their unbelief.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s surprising that in his hometown Jesus is rejected, but it\u2019s also not surprising because we know just how many times the Son of God was rejected and still is today.<\/p>\n Even today Jesus is rejected throughout the world.\u00a0 We can look at the alarming downward trend of church worship attendance as just one example.\u00a0 Church attendance though is not only a rejection of Jesus though.\u00a0 It is also a rejection of Christians\u2026.modern day disciples.\u00a0 Like Jesus, disciples also are the subject of cancel culture.\u00a0 Jesus sent the twelve out 2 by 2, and even as he did so he knew they would not be accepted everywhere.\u00a0 He knew the welcome mat would not be out, and gave his disciples instructions on what to do when that was the case.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure \u201cshaking the dust off our feet\u201d is an option for us today.\u00a0 But standing up for what is right and true is still very much an option for us.\u00a0 Teaching our kids about the dangers of things like social media, bullying, and the culture of self-importance over everything else are all ways that we as the church can \u201cshake off the dust\u201d.\u00a0 But as we do those things, we also continue to teach about the love of God for all creation, the power of forgiveness, and the power of prayer.\u00a0 The world can try to cancel all that is right and true, but the world cannot cancel God.\u00a0 They cannot cancel our faith in the resurrection of our Lord.\u00a0 They cannot cancel the work of the Spirit among us today.\u00a0 They can try, but they can\u2019t.\u00a0 Years from now cancel culture will still be a thing\u2026although it may be known by a different name.\u00a0 Feelings may still be the guide for many people.\u00a0 But feelings do not always equate truthfulness.\u00a0\u00a0 And as Christians, we know the truth:\u00a0 That God\u00a0 so loved this world that he sent his only Son to suffer and die for us, so that we may be forgiven.\u00a0 And nothing\u2026repeat nothing\u2026.will ever cancel that.\u00a0 In the name of the Father, and the +Son, and the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A sermon on Mark 6:1-13 | by The Rev. Dr. Judson F Merrell, STS | Pentecost 6B July 4, 2021 | He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,157,108,110,235,763,349,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-5386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-markus","category-beitragende","category-current","category-engl","category-judson-f-merrell","category-kapitel-06-chapter-06-markus","category-kasus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5387,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5386\/revisions\/5387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5386"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=5386"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=5386"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=5386"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=5386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}