No Home
Court Advantage
sermon based on Mark 6:1-13
by Rev. Randy Quinn
Anyone familiar with any
sport will be quick to tell you about “the home court advantage.” I’m
not sure I can explain it to those who haven’t heard about it, but there
is statistical evidence to suggest that teams play better in their own
home turf than they do “on the road.”
It’s true in Baseball and
it’s true in Football. It’s true in Basketball and it’s true in
Tennis. It’s true in Little League and High School and in professional
sporting events.
But, if the story of Jesus
is any clue, it must not be true when it comes to faith. Jesus fares
poorly at home, so he sends his disciples on the road where they do
remarkably well. There apparently is no “home court advantage” when it
comes to ministry.
And I’ve spent a lot of
time trying to figure that out this week. Why is it that Jesus “can do
no great works” in his home town among his friends and family? We’ll
hear the results from the works of the Disciples in two weeks, but what
we’ll learn is that they do many great deeds in strange places.
How can that be? What
happened to the home court advantage?
I’ve seen numerous towns
with signs that advertise it as the hometown of some famous person – and
some not so famous people! Most towns are proud of their sons and
daughters who do well because it speaks well of them.
So why do the people in
Nazareth reject Jesus?
Teachers who grow up here,
go away to further their education and then come back to teach. They
have no more difficulty in the classroom than people who grew up
someplace else and come here to teach.
Why does Jesus have such a
difficult time?
In one of the books I read
last year, the observation was made that in many great companies, the
CEO was not hired from another company but was instead, “home grown.”
They know the culture of the corporation and its workers from the inside
out and yet are able to be effective in leading those companies.
So what is going on with
Jesus? He comes home after a fairly successful tour of the region and
cannot make a change in the lives of people he knows so well. Why not?
I know of people who are
quite successful pastors of the church where they grew up – I can think
of two large and famous churches as current examples: The Crystal
Cathedral in Garden Grove, California where in January of this year,
Robert Schuller’s son became the pastor; and Lakewood Church in Houston,
Texas where Joel Osteen succeeded his father as pastor in 1999.
I also know several
pastors personally, people for whom I have a great deal of respect that
grew up in parsonages.
So why does Jesus have
such a hard time in his own home town? What is it about him – or is it
them? – that makes his ministry seem to fail in this setting?
On our family vacation in
2004, we stopped to see “Old Faithful,” the world famous geyser in
Yellowstone National Park. Based on the amount of water that is spewed
out, they can determine within a matter of minutes when the next
eruption will take place.
It’s really quite amazing
to watch. And because it’s so amazing, people stand there – or sit on
the benches – and wait for it to spout off. They even have a clock to
let you know how soon to expect it to happen. It’s so amazing that over
2 million people watched it erupt last year.
There’s even a web cam so people who don’t visit the park can watch from
their computers at home!
People come from all over
the world to watch it.
But the people who work in
the park’s restaurant rarely take the opportunity to go outside and
look. Rather, they take advantage of the crowds rushing outside to
clear tables and refill glasses.
Ho hum. They’ve seen it
before.
Miracle or not, it’s too
common place for them to get excited about it.
Is that what happened in
Nazareth? Did they see too much of Jesus’ miracles when he was growing
up to take much notice of him now?
I don’t think so. I don’t
think so because the crowd seems to be offended by his actions, not
apathetic toward him and his actions. It’s more likely the case that
they want to know why he didn’t heal all the people in Nazareth
before he left on his mission trip. Why didn’t he raise Aunt Martha
from the dead so she could be there for her grandson’s bar mitzvah? And
why is it that he hadn’t come to visit little Timmy and heal his club
foot? And did Jesus think he was too good to stoop down and help his
own teacher Saul when his heart stopped beating?
Maybe, they wonder, it’s
because he is in fact a fake. Maybe he didn’t do anything when he was
growing up because he still can’t do anything now. They know where he
came from and are convinced that his history shows he is not capable of
doing such things. Or, he doesn’t really care about them so he didn’t
do anything about their misery when he was growing up.
You see, I think it’s
because he hadn’t done anything in Nazareth before that they are
upset now. He had just been a carpenter – a good one perhaps,
but a carpenter nevertheless. He had been a carpenter who is either
faking miracles now or a liar who didn’t really care about them before.
It’s their own
preconceived notion that keeps Jesus’ power limited. They can’t allow
him to change so they won’t allow his presence to change them.
The sad part is that we
tend to be like the people in Nazareth. We think we know who Jesus is.
We think we know what he can do. We have our own preconceived notions
about him that limit what he can do in our midst. We limit what God can
do through us because we think we know how it happens. We have a
picture in our mind that keeps us from seeing other possibilities.
We’re like the car sales
team that almost missed a sale when a man walked in wearing bib overalls
and rubber boots covered in manure. He was a farmer who was looking for
a new car, but decided to spread manure before going into town.
Well, the first
salesperson ignored him.
And the second one really
didn’t want to talk to him.
It was the “new guy,” who
didn’t know any better that walked up to him and asked him if he could
help him find a new car. Well, it turns out the farmer had a particular
car in mind. He asked how much it would cost him, and the young
salesman gave him a price.
It was then that the
farmer pulled a wad of bills from his coveralls and asked if he could
pay it all in cash – and he began to count out the hundred dollar bills
while the salesman stood there in amazement.
Preconceived notions can
often limit what happens in our midst.
A pastor was in the
hospital once, visiting a woman who was dying from cancer. He offered
to say a prayer for her, and she enthusiastically asked for him to pray
for a miracle, a miraculous cure for her cancer.
He did so, rather
reluctantly.
The next day she was
ecstatic! The doctors couldn’t explain it, but the cancer was gone –
and she was exuberantly telling everyone that it was the prayers of her
pastor that had healed her. So he had to visit every single room in the
hospital that day.
When he got to the parking
lot, after a very long day in the hospital, the pastor lifted his fist
toward the sky and said, “Don’t you ever do that to me again!”
We tend to like the
picture we have of God, so we find any other image hard to accept.
We’re like the people in Nazareth.
The truth is God can work
with us, if we are willing to trust God rather than our own abilities
and resources. God can work through us, if we are willing to set aside
our own preconceived notions about what ministry looks like. God can
and wants to work among us, but we must be willing to let God do the
work.
Jesus makes the point by
sending his Disciples out into unfamiliar territory with little or
nothing. They have each other. And they have the power of God. They
have no special tools, no special prayers, no special resources other
than a partner in ministry and the authority of Jesus.
If a carpenter can raise
the dead, then surely a fisherman can heal the sick.
Which makes me wonder,
what can God do through us?
Some of us are afraid to
step out in faith. Some of us are waiting until we “know how” to visit
the sick before we visit them in the hospital. Some people are waiting
to be taught how to talk to people about Jesus before they open their
mouths. Some people are waiting for the right time to help a neighbor.
Some people are waiting until they have enough money to give to the
church. Some people are waiting for a sign.
So many of us have excuses
for not letting God work among us. But imagine what God could do with
us if we were just willing to let God be at work!
There is no home court
advantage, but when we are on God’s team, we will always be winners.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
