Dangers of Contempt
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Psalm 123 and Mark 6:1-13
July 7, 2024
As I read the ever so familiar scripture from Mark and considered what message God might want me to speak about, the words from Psalm 123 spoke to me, “Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease of the contempt of the proud.”
To better understand contempt, and the dangers of contempt, let’s look at its definition. Contempt is the feeling that a person or thing is beneath consideration, worthless or deserving scorn. It is a disregard for something that should be taken into account.
Now, I really feel that reading this definition of contempt, I could say, “There you have it; contempt is what the people of Nazareth showed toward Jesus when he returned to his hometown to teach in the synagogue,” and we could have communion and our closing hymn and all go home, BUT there is so much more that we need to consider that God is speaking to us in this scripture.
Let’s back up a minute and set the scene of how we have gotten to this point. Jesus, having previously left Nazareth, has been baptized, has chosen the disciples, and has been teaching and healing in Galilee.
In fact, it is just previous to his return to Nazareth that Jesus has healed the woman of her hemorrhage because of her faith, and the daughter of the leader who had been reported dead as he took her hand and said, “Little girl, get up!”
Jesus’ popularity was becoming known, not just in Galilee, but throughout the region, and many were coming to him, even as far as Jerusalem to be healed and hear his teachings.
So today, he returns with his disciples to his hometown, to the people who knew him as a child, as the son of a carpenter.
I imagine that from Jesus’ perspective, he is excited to return home to his people, to show them what he has become, having been given wisdom and power from God so that he can heal those he surely knows and loves. After all, they are family, his hometown family.
It would have been his custom to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. It would have also been tradition that he would have been asked to read from the scriptures.
The Gospel of Luke tells us this scripture was from Isaiah, “The Lord has put his Spirit in me, because the Lord has anointed me to tell the Good News to the oppressed, and to bind up the brokenhearted. He has sent me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind they can see again…to announce the time when the Lord will show kindness…” (Isaiah 61:1-2)
Rather than receive this message with joy, the people question is authority. They wonder from where did he get this wisdom. Rather than embracing him, they have contempt for him to the point they want to throw him down a steep cliff!
However, God delivers him through the crowd, and he is able to escape through the crowd to continue God’s work. Amazing how God doesn’t let anything stand in the way of his purpose, even when humans try to derail those he has anointed to fulfill his purpose. Even when those God has anointed want to turn and walk the other way, God turns them around.
Let’s back up a minute though, and consider those who held contempt for Jesus. What was their reasons for their contempt? We don’t know a lot about Jesus’ childhood, but the people in the synagogue knew him. Maybe they didn’t think Jesus was “good enough,” or “educated enough,” after all, he was just the son of a carpenter.
I wonder, had they not heard of the healing and teaching that had been going on in Galilee? Surely, there had been rumors, and maybe this is why Jesus was invited to read the scripture in the synagogue on this Sabbath.
Yet, in their contempt, his people reject him.
It is truly sad, when we consider the wars going on in our world today. The contempt that countries have for each other. This contempt that causes wars begins with contempt from the people, or at least some of the people in those countries. I would even go a step further in saying that it is not so much the contempt of people between countries as it is the leaders between countries that focus more on their individual wealth and power they can garner that breeds hatred among their people.
I imagine that not all people in the synagogue held contempt for Jesus, but enough of the loud voices that persuade because of their influence lead the majority into wanting to throw Jesus over the cliff.
One of the dangers of contempt is that we have to be careful that we keep our focus on Jesus so that we do not allow ourselves to be persuaded by loud voices wishing to garner authority over us so they can maintain power.
I want us to look carefully at verse 5, “And Jesus could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.”
Because of the contempt Jesus found there among the people he thought would know him best, he was not able to do any deeds of power. What does this mean exactly?
When we recall the miracles Jesus had been performing in Galilee, just like the ones I mentioned earlier before his return to Nazareth, they were indeed powerful miracles. I’m sure Jesus wanted to go back home to the people he knew best, the people he had grown up with and loved, and he wanted to take care of them because he cared about them and loved them.
Yet, because of their contempt, he had not been able to heal them in the way he could have. He was not able to fulfill them with the peace he could bring to their lives because they rejected not just him, but the good news he brought.
Jesus is amazed at their unbelief. I’m sure he was thinking, “Hey guys, you know me! I grew up here. You can trust me, it’s Jesus, Mary and Joseph’s son! You remember me with my brothers and sisters, we used to play together, we grew up together….why do you show contempt for me?”
He is amazed that rather than the joy and peace he had planned to bring to his people as he came into Nazareth armed with his disciples, he is welcomed with scorn. He is met with those who think him worthless and without merit. Those who consider his words and wisdom beneath consideration.
And he could do no deed of power there.
Think about the gravity of those words. Because of their unbelief, their lack of recognition, their lack of faith, God’s work could not be done there.
The dangers of contempt lead to not only rejection of Jesus, but to the rejection of the love and joy and peace held in the good news of God’s greatness and God’s ability to deliver his people from despair.
I love the way our Psalmist begins, “I lift up my eyes to You!” When we look down, we tend to be in dialogue. We tend to reflect on negative events and negative thoughts, but when we look up, we create, and we open ourselves to new ideas and new ways of doing things.
So today, I invite you to look up, to let go of any contempt that you hold for another person or another thing. Look up to God with the willingness to show love instead of hatred, to find joy instead of scorn, to believe in the goodness of all that God provides instead of living in doubt.
I have just spent three days in Salt Lake City at the PC(USA) General Assembly where new ideas are brought to be considered for how we Presbyterians govern, not just within our churches, but within our daily lives. As this was the first General Assembly I have ever attended, I did not know what to expect. Over the years, I had heard good and bad. I had been cautioned by Flint River Presbytery over what new overtures being presented might cause division, and I was certainly encouraged to pray more times than I can recount. So to say I was a bit apprehensive would be putting it mildly as I entered a group of thousands of PC(USA) Presbyterians from all over the world.
What I can share is that although the days were long beginning at 8:30 a.m. and ending around 9:39 p.m., it was extremely enlightening that while there may have been times of disagreements, for the most part, I witnessed God’s people coming together in love with a common theme of doing better, positive things in the world. Doing things to take care of the people of the world. I was encouraged when I heard messages from pastors from Brazil, Grenada, Vietnam, Scotland, Myanmar, Guatemala, the United States, including Puerto Rico, and from the World Council of Churches.
I was incredibly encouraged that while we live in a world full of contempt, and the dangers this contempt brings, Jesus is still sending people out to the villages, Jesus is still giving his disciples authority over unclean spirits, and God’s word is still being proclaimed so that many are being healed even today.
Let us not stand in the way with our own contempt for others who are different from us so that Jesus Christ doesn’t look in amazement at our disbelief, at our lack of faith of all that could have been done to show God’s love for one another.
(Silent Reflection)
[AFFIRMATION OF FAITH]
[GLORIA PATRI]
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND LORD’S PRAYER
God of All People, we recognize you as the Shepherd who brings all to your flock, even the ones that wander off, you look for that one and bring it back to the fold. We ask that you would hear our prayers this day, and forgive us for any contempt we hold for another. Lord hear our prayer to free those held captive against their will, and for all who are abused at the hands of those who participate in systematic injustices. Lord hear our prayer for governments that hold contempt for each other, and heal our nations so that peace shall reign over wars. God of the Universe, we pray for our earth and ways to be good stewards of it as storms ravage; we pray for protection for those in the path of these storms. Lord hear our prayer for healing for those who suffer illness of any kind, and remember those who have asked for our prayers as we pause silently to pray for them and others on our hearts and minds _________________________________________________________________________
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Healing God, we give you thanks for your Son Jesus Christ who came to restore your people, and taught us this prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven……