Risky Business
a sermon based on Mark 6:1-13
by Rev. Rick Thompson

Life is a risky business.

Those who invest money in the stock market hope and believe that their investment will pay off, but they also know there is some risk. In fact, they could lose their entire fortune. That’s what happened in the stock market crash of 1929—some of the nation’s wealthiest investors lost everything they owned!

Some of the choices we make put us at risk. If we choose to smoke, or drink, or use drugs, or engage in unsafe sex, our health could suffer; we could even die. If we run out into the street, or jump off a roof, or swim too far from shore, we put our lives at risk.

Life can be a risky business!

That’s why we are often so careful. We want to avoid risk as much as possible.

We invest conservatively. We try new experiences reluctantly and cautiously. We step forward, oooooh so slightly, moving very gingerly, when faced with an unfamiliar opportunity or challenge.

“Be careful!” That’s our approach. We don’t want to move out of our personal safety zone, don’t want to venture too far, don’t want to risk too much! Life is a risky enough business, isn’t it, without our going out of the way to make it more so!

So we play it safe. We play it safe, even in the church. We try not to offend and make waves. We change as little as possible. When we talk about Jesus, if at all, it’s usually with those who already know the story, and seldom with those who have never heard it or don’t believe it.

We’re timid, cautious, careful—especially when it comes to going public about something as personal as our faith.

Maybe that’s because we know what can happen if we’re not careful, if we do take risks!

There was a woman, no longer living, in the church I grew up in, who wore her faith on her sleeve. She taught Sunday School, and really wanted her students—including me—to know Jesus. She displayed bumper stickers announcing her faith and her moral convictions based on it. Frequently, she would talk about Jesus in personal conversations. Like all of us, she had her rough edges—but no one doubted how important Christ was to her! Some people admired her, but many people labeled her a “fanatic”. They knew that, while it was OK to be a Christian, one ought not be too public and forward about it! It’s not respectable, not the careful and cautious kind of behavior we are taught to exhibit! To risk going public with our faith leaves us open to laughter and ridicule.

From our gospel reading today, it appears my former Sunday School teacher was in good company!

Jesus entered his hometown synagogue. They knew him, knew his family, had watched him grow up as a boy in Joseph’s carpenter shop. He exercised his right as an adult Jewish male, and stepped forward to read and explain the Hebrew Scriptures. Mark tells us that the congregation was astounded! But many were offended; the Greek says, literally, “they were scandalized!” Who did Jesus think he was? What gave him the right to proclaim so boldly the will and the ways of God? Where did Jesus get off, announcing that people ought to repent and get ready for the kingdom of God? What had gotten into this hometown boy, who claimed he was bringing in God’s rule through his words and deeds of power?

Jesus took a risk—a huge risk—didn’t he, that day! He forgot to be careful! He threw caution to the wind, went public with his message. And he did it in front of those who knew him best, who would judge him most severely, who couldn’t just write him off as another crackpot, a fanatic; he was one of them—and now he was running around the countryside acting and talking like God’s Messiah! It’s no wonder they were offended and embarrassed!

Beeing the Holy One of God was risky business for Jesus! It was a hard road to walk!

It was a difficult thing to enter his hometown synagogue, and face the rejection of the people there. But it was just a taste of what was yet to come!

For Jesus didn’t just enter his hometown synagogue and proclaim his starting message. That was risky enough!

But it was riskier still for God to enter human flesh!

Yes, that was what really offended people about Jesus—the claim that he was God in the flesh. “How preposterous!” they thought. The holy and mighty God, walking among humans, walking this earth like you and me? “It just can’t be!”

Jesus was rejected for making that claim in the synagogue at Nazareth.

But that was mild, compared with what was yet to come.

Flip ahead, almost to the end of Mark’s Gospel. What do you see? Yes, that’s right. You see Jesus, again, and you see people around him, offended again. Now he is dying. He hangs on a cross, humiliated—crucified. Rejected—the crucified.

Jesus took the risk of being faithful to his mission—and look where it got him!

No wonder we’re so inclined to be cautious, so reluctant to put ourselves and our faith on the line!

We know we may have to pay a price! We know it could lead to rejection and ridicule!

But we know one more thing, too—don’t we?

The risk Jesus took didn’t end with his rejection at Nazareth synagogue, nor did it end with his terrible, excruciating death.

Jesus’ willingness to take a risk ended in LIFE!

Jesus gave life to many he encountered as he went about the countryside of Palestine. He cast out demons, and healed diseases, and fed a hungry multitude. Jesus filled the hearts of the ordinary, forgotten folk with hope and joy in the expectation that God indeed cared for them! He crossed the boundaries of gender and class and ethnic origin, and declared in his words and deeds that all are precious to God!

That’s the risk Jesus took.

And it ended in life—life for those who received his mercy, life even for Jesus! The grave couldn’t hold him, we know. Death wasn’t strong enough! Jesus was too full of the power of God—full to overflowing—for death to hold him down for good!

The rejected one, the one who risked so much, was raised up to life by the power of God!

Doesn’t it seem that one has to take a risk to get somewhere?

That’s what Sheila did. She was stuck in a dead-end job, a dead-end life. She never got all the bills paid. She was lonely, and tired all the time. Her ex-husband was a deadbeat, and her children were often in trouble at school. She hated to get up to face each day, and more than once she was on the verge of throwing up her arms in despair and running away from her responsibilities.

But, through the encouragement of others, and the help of her parents, and her own determination, Sheila was finally able to pursue her dream. It took a risk—she had to give up her job, and give up some of her already-meager income. But Sheila went back to school, and got her degree, and found a job that was immensely satisfying and enabled her to take care of her family’s needs comfortably. For Sheila, the risk paid off!

And now, we modern disciples of Jesus are the ones called upon to take a risk. We are called to live intentionally the risk of faith in Jesus Christ. We are sent out by Jesus as he first sent out the original twelve disciples.

And did you notice that in our story? Jesus enters the synagogue and teaches, is rejected, then sends out his disciples to continue and expand his mission. They—we—are sent out to teach and heal and call others to repentance. Yes, it’s risky business. No one likes to be called a sinner. No one—especially those in power!—likes to witness the power of God releasing those who are trapped by life and its unfairness.

That’s our task now—to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. To call sinners to repentance. To boldly proclaim the gracious rule of God in all we say and do. To name the name of Jesus publicly and proudly. To tell the good news and live the good news.

Yes, it’s risky business.

But, really, life is full of risk, isn’t it?

So, if we’re going to take a chance, why not take a chance on Jesus? Why not stand up for him? Why not serve the one who was rejected, who suffered, who died—and who then was raised to glorious and eternal life!

It’s time—well past time!—for the church of Jesus Christ to stand up and be counted!

It’s well past time for us to take seriously the risky—and exciting!—business of living our faith, day after day after day!