130127 Be There

Have you ever spent a season really nailing it? Your walk with God was pegging the faith-o-meter, you felt like you were living the life you were created to live, and it was like you were riding the crest of the wave that joined all of God’s Kingdom and our very tangible daily world. Ever had one of those seasons? Maybe it lasted weeks, or days or fifteen minutes. Maybe it was brought on by some retreat, or worship service, or project, or crisis. When you are on a high like that, the last thing you expect is to be brought back to your former reality. But it happens, and often in unexpected places.

At the beginning of Mark’s sixth chapter, we get a surprise. After an absolutely amazing season of ministry along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus displayed just how powerful and accessible God’s Spirit is as it flowed through him, he went back to Nazareth, his hometown. The disciples were probably looking forward to meeting his family, and learning about Jesus’ life before his fame. So they showed up, and Jesus took a turn teaching the next Sabbath in the synagogue. He likely talked along the same themes he had before, where he experienced incredibly positive feedback from those who heard the Good News. But in Nazareth it was crickets. And complaints. And criticism. They didn’t buy his message because they didn’t buy him. Where other people could see what God was doing in and through him, all the Nazareth villagers could see (including his own family) was a lowly carpenter who had no business pretending to be anything more than that. This was Jesus’ homecoming experience.

We should expect no less. The people who have known us and been around us before we found ourselves in Christ sometimes have the greatest difficulty embracing what has happened to us. They can only see our former identifiers – it’s all they’ve known. While there is a natural part of us that gets upset at our “base” for not being supportive, the reality is that this is reality. The early disciples certainly experienced this phenomenon. They would have received much comfort from this story, and would have affirmed by their own experience Jesus’ words: “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family.”

Not much happened in Nazareth while Jesus was there. It takes two to tango. Much of what God wanted to do there didn’t happen because the people could not see what was before them.

So Jesus and the boys left. Tragic. But sometimes the only way we can become our Truest Self is to leave the environment that will not allow us to grow and thrive. Seek counsel on this before making a drastic move, of course, but be aware that you may be restricted because of the voices closest to you.

Once out of town, Jesus sent out the disciples to do the same kind of stuff he was doing. In essence, he was telling them that the very same Spirit that was enabling him to say and do all the cool God stuff was now at their disposal. So they went. And they did. And their Truest Selves began to take root and grow in ways they simply could not have imagined.

You and I are called by the same God that flowed so powerfully through Jesus and his disciples. And we are given the same potentiality. And the same charge. What does that mean for us?

One thing for sure, it does not mean to sit on our duffs and watch life pass by. It means we go. It means that we heed the call to “be there” as a bearer or God’s Good News and sharer or God’s Spirit.

A great thing about God’s call is that he is calling you and me to be who we are made to be where we are called to be. In other words, God is not asking us to put on a mask or a cape. He is asking us to go as we have been made and gifted, to bring hope and presence – to be there – not as someone else, but as ourselves holding God’s hand as we reach to take another’s hand in ours. You and I get to be part of something beautiful, grand, life-giving, healing, renewing, restoring. Amazing stuff if we’ll embrace it. Will you embrace it? Will you “be there”? Where is that for you today? What are you waiting for?