Call on the Name of the Lord #5 | "The Carpenter and the Prophet"

0:00 On our journey of Lent, we have been examining the different names for God. And when we think of God, we usually think of maybe one or two, three names. Yet this series has challenged us in good ways to reconsider other names we have seen in Scripture, like Rock, El Olam, the God of Eternity. And this series even inspired me to name my March Madness brackets after the names of God. in the men's bracket we have El Olam and the blue devil and in my women's bracket mother hen and the also go Bruins yet in all seriousness this series has helped my prayer life it has made me think about calling God different names while I pray and it's been fun and last week we transitioned a little bit into different names for Jesus.

0:54 So today we turn to Mark 6 to see Jesus the carpenter and the prophet. So listen now for the word of the Lord as it comes from the Gospel of Mark chapter 6. Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. Where did this man get these things, they asked. What's this wisdom that has been given to him? What are these remarkable miracles he's performing? Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James? Joseph, Judas, and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relative and his own people. He could not do miracles there except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. This is the word of God for you, the people of God. Thanks be to God.

2:11 Take a moment, think about your hometown. Who is a hometown hero or local celebrity? Do you like them? Are you proud that they represent your city? I grew up in Long Beach, California, and I'm sure there are more celebrities from the LBC, but what comes to mind for me is the smooth reggae rock sounds of Sublime in the legendary hip-hop lyrics of Snoop Dogg and Warren G. Just hit the east side of the LBC on a mission trying to find Mr. Warner G.

2:50 Thank you for indulging me. I think hometowns have an interesting relationship with hometown heroes. There are moments when the community surround the hero with love, and at times the hero can even unite the town. We see this especially around the Olympics. When your hometown person is having success and they come home, we expect celebration. There's pride in the person because we get to say that is one of ours. in some way their success is our success. Honestly, I felt this in the last Winter Olympics, and not with any athletes, but with a specific photographer that you heard from today. As many of you know, Elder Porter Binks is a fantastic sports photographer, and his husband Matt sent me this cool photograph of Porter celebrating and showing a picture to the USA women's hockey team's moments, literally moments after they received their gold medals.

3:53 I saw the picture and I was filled with pride. That's one of Fifth Avenue's own. He's ours. Yet sometimes hometown heroes don't have the same reception when they come home. Familiarity breeds skepticism. Their success creates distance. And people say, that's not who you are to us. Think about the Lion King. when Simba returns to the pride land it's not a parade the land is worn down the pride is fearful after years under scar and no one quite knows what to believe anymore even Simba himself isn't sure who he is he still sees himself as the cub who ran away and it takes someone to remind him remember who you are because sometimes the hardest place to be seen clearly is the place that thinks it already knows you.

4:48 Now this sets up a little bit of the tension that we see when Jesus goes back to his hometown. But Mark starts the chapter with these words, Jesus left there. Now something you need to know about the gospel of Mark is that this gospel moves fast. Mark doesn't waste words and he jumps from one thing to another. So even those first three words, Jesus left there, is important. It signals a transition. And for us to understand this passage about Jesus in his hometown, we must know where Jesus was just at before. So where was Jesus? What was he doing? He was in Galilee, moving through towns and villages, and things are happening, big things. He's touching lepers, eating with sinners, reinterpreting what faith looks like, and expanding who gets included. And in the previous chapter, in chapter five, we get two powerful stories woven together. First, there's the woman who has been bleeding for 12 years, 12 years of physical suffering, but also social isolation.

6:00 It's been said that she would be ritually unclean. She's not even supposed to be in the crowd. She's not supposed to touch anyone. But here she is desperate. She pushes through the crowds, and thinks, if I only touch his cloak, I will be saved. And so she does, and she is healed. And Jesus stops and turns, and instead of shaming her, he calls her daughter and restores her publicly. And right in the middle of that story, there's Jairus, a synagogue leader, a respected man, someone with status and standing. His daughter is dying, and he comes to Jesus in desperation. he comes begging so while Jesus is delayed healing the woman word comes that that girl has died it seems too late but Jesus keeps going he enters the home he takes her by the hand and says little girl get up and she does so this is the place that Jesus is leaving a place where desperation meets healing, where faith meets power, where people are open and hungry for what God is doing. And Mark starts this chapter with, he left that place. And just like that, we move from a place of awe and openness to something very different in this chapter. Because Jesus goes home.

7:26 He goes to Nazareth, his hometown. Now Nazareth was a rural working class neighborhood, but kind of the place that people would overlook. There's even the old line of the gospel that says, what good can come from Nazareth? And honestly, that kind of thinking still exists. I have a friend from Visalia, California, the Central Valley, and he loves his hometown, but he would often joke with me, what good can come from Visalia? It's a small city in the middle of California, surrounded by farmland, kind of the place that people most drive by instead of stopping by unless it's for gas. Now, no offense if anybody's watching from Central California, I'm just quoting my friend here, but I think you get the point. Places like that don't carry big expectations, and Nazareth is that kind of place. It's ordinary, it's familiar, it's the kind of place where everybody knows your family and your story, and this isn't the first time that Jesus goes back to Nazareth. Back in Mark 3, Jesus is drawing a large crowd that he and his disciples can't even eat. People are pressing in from everywhere and word gets back to his family.

8:38 And what does his family say? Jesus is out of his mind. They actually come to try to take him home, to restrain him, to pull him out of public eye. And at the same time, the religious leaders are accusing him of being empowered by evil. So you have this moment where even those closest to him, his family, the people that raised him, don't understand him. They don't trust what he's doing and they want to shut it down. Which means when Jesus comes home here in chapter six, it's not a casual visit. It's a collision. A collision between who people think he is and who he's actually becoming. So Jesus is now in a synagogue. He's teaching. Mark doesn't tell us what he teaches, but the Gospel of Luke fills in the gaps by telling us that Jesus reads these prophetic words from the book of Isaiah.

9:32 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Jesus goes to his hometown with a message that is neither neutral nor safe. And instead, it disrupts expectations. His hometown has heard what Jesus was doing in Galilee. The chesema, the gossip, it traveled fast. So I wonder if they're already skeptical of Jesus when he comes in. But then he teaches this. again in chapter 5 the Galileans experienced awe and healing but here the people from Nazareth experienced surprise offense and then they flat out dismiss him there is some surprise where did this man get these things where does this wisdom come from but then they're offended isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this the carpenter? What are they implying with this question? I think what they're asking is, who does this guy think he is? Isn't he just the carpenter? The word in Greek for carpenter can mean builder, day laborer, someone who works with stone, metal, or wood. In other words, Jesus was an artisan. Yet when we think of an artisan, we think of a fine craftsperson, perhaps like the carpenters working in the chapel. But what the people mean here is not necessarily an insult, but they're pointing out that Jesus is just ordinary. New Testament theologian N.T. Wright translates it this way. Isn't he just the handyman? Who does this guy think he is? Why are you acting like a prophet? You are going to get yourself killed by saying what you're saying. Stop it.

11:34 you're the handyman and then mark adds something that feels small but it's not he names his family isn't this mary's son the brother of james and joseph and judas and simon aren't his sisters here with him in that culture it wasn't small talk it was a subtle put down to call someone the son of mary instead of naming the father could raise questions about legitimacy about honor and where exactly this person stands and to list his siblings that was a way of saying we know your people we know your background there's nothing special here it's interesting because in the gospel of Matthew and Luke they mentioned Joseph they clean it up a little bit but Mark leaves it uncut because Mark wants us to feel the weight of the rejection this isn't curiosity isn't this Mary's son it's dismissal isn't this Mary's son and then Jesus retreats he says a prophet is not without honor except in his own town among his relatives and in his own home so here we have Jesus the carpenter and the prophet the ordinary and the mouthpiece for God so go back to thinking about your hometown hero people love the kid who grows up in their midst but once they start to challenge how things are to be, they start to think, who does she think she is? Isn't that Mary's daughter?

13:16 Prophets are people called by God to share a message from God for a particular community, often for people in power. And those messages are usually not pretty. They tell harsh truths, they disrupt comfort, and they challenge systems. And sometimes I wonder if those truths are harder to hear when they are coming from the ordinary person that grew up in your midst. A few years ago, I was talking to a friend in ministry who ended up working for his home church after seminary, and they loved him. In a sense, he was the hometown hero who came home after theological education, and he loved them. But he told me how hard it was for some of the congregation to see him as their pastor instead of the kid that they taught Sunday school to. And the hardest was when he felt a call to do things that were prophetic.

14:13 He challenged the congregation to think about racism in ways that affected their lives as well. And he encountered the most significant resistance from key people who raised him spiritually. He told me that he felt like a prophet without honor in his hometown. But that's usually what happens to prophets. Truth comes at a cost. It comes at the cost of comfort. But those who are willing to pay that cost, they begin to see the carpenter at work. They see the artisan begin to design new things to bring redemption, liberation, love, and a peace that surpasses all understanding. N.T. Wright says that they called him a handyman, but what they don't realize is that he's the kind of handyman who actually came to fix things. Not just a table or door, but hearts, systems, lives.

15:11 Jesus is the carpenter who's repairing the world. Everywhere he goes, he's restoring what is broken, healing bodies, restoring dignity, rebuilding community, redefining who belongs. He is the kind of craftsman who notices what everyone else has learned to ignore. those cracks, those fractures, the quiet suffering and instead of walking past it the carpenter goes to work and in many ways that's exactly how God has always been described as an artisan in the book of Job God lays the foundations of the earth measuring, building, crafting creation itself in Psalm 127 we're reminded that unless God builds a house the labor is in vain. The image of God as an artisan, a builder, a creator is woven throughout scripture, which makes the moment in Nazareth almost painfully ironic. The one who laid the foundation of the world is standing in front of them, and all they can see is a local handyman.

16:21 and maybe that's the tension we're invited to because jesus is both the artisan and the prophet he builds restores creates and he speaks and challenges and disrupts and nazareth rejects him for both they don't want to be rebuilt they don't want to be told the truth and if we're honest we're not always that different because the work of the carpenter it sounds good until it starts to rearrange our lives. The voice of the prophet sounds inspiring until it starts confronting what we'd rather leave untouched. So friends, what if during the season of Lent we are called to be the carpenter's creation and apprentice? Let's start with creation. We're living in a very tough time. We see the injustices that are happening in this war-torn world, in this country, in the cities that you all live in, and sometimes even in your own homes.

17:26 And it's leaving us dry, bitter, and angry. Don't get me wrong, it's Jesus-like to be angry at injustice. But I feel that the majority of people, especially people of faith, we're past in anger. We're actually starting to feel a hatred for those that we despise, and it's hardening our hearts. and when that happens we begin to lose hope that Christ's justice and love can actually make an impact we start to think what good can love from Nazareth do so it's time to let the carpenter start to chisel out the parts of our hearts that keep us from loving our neighbor and our enemy we must pray create in us a clean heart oh god and renew a right spirit within me and this journey of transformation doesn't happen alone it happens when we as a community are committed to the type of love that comes from the divine itself so let the carpenter create something new in you then we will realize that we are also the carpenter's apprentice with a prophetic hammer to be a prophetic apprentice means that we don't just sit back and admire Jesus we step into the work with him it means we let the carpenter shape us yes and then we also pick up the tools that we have been given it means telling the truth when it would be easier to stay quiet it means naming injustices even when it costs us our comfort or approval it means loving boldly speaking honestly and trusting that God can use ordinary people like us to do extraordinary work.

19:19 And it's not always going to be received well. It's going to feel like Nazareth at times. But this is the call, to be formed by Christ and then to join Christ in the work of repair and truth-telling. So friends, may we have the courage to be both shaped and sent. may we allow the carpenter to rebuild what is broken within us and may we have the boldness of the prophet to speak and live in ways that bring healing beyond us and when the world looks at us and says isn't that just the handyman may we remember who we are children of the image of God because within the good news is this God has always chosen the ordinary to do holy work and that carpenter from Nazareth