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Mark 6:1-13There are few things in this world more frustrating than trying to be taken seriously by family and friends. Despite the fact that I’m now a middle-aged adult, haveadvanced degrees, and am an ordained minister, to my sister I will always besomeone with the messy room and the thick glasses. My sister loves me, but for her to regard me as a priest and pastor with serious things to say is a bit of astretch.And so it was with Jesus, who after all was just a boy from Nazareth, and Nazarethwasn’t the greatest place to be from. One of Jesus’ own disciples once asked

Cananything good come from Nazareth?

It was just an obscure little town inhabited by perhaps 500 peasant villagers.And Jesus had grown up there. His mother still lived there, and so did many of hisrelatives. The young men and women that he had played with as children hadsettled down now and were raising families of their own. But Jesus had followedanother path. They might have heard some strange rumors about him, about howHe traveled around with a band of followers, preaching and teaching. They saidthat he had healed some sick people. There were even those who thought he might be the long awaited Messiah. But these hometown people knew better than that.After all, he was just a boy from Nazareth.So when he got up to speak at the synagogue that Sabbath day, they weren't toosurprised. He was in town visiting his mother, and Any male from the age of 13was expected to take part in the discussion following the Scripture reading.But when they heard the way he spoke, they were stunned. They didn't expect tohear him speak with such authority. Where was this coming from? This kind of wisdom couldn't come from a man they were acquainted with, a boy who hadgrown up right here and whose family they all knew.That day in the synagogue, the people of Nazareth had a choice. They could opentheir minds and hearts to what Jesus was saying. They could accept that God wasspeaking through this man they knew so well, and they could listen seriously.

Or they could close their minds and hearts. They could refuse to believe that Godwould have a prophecy for the people living in an insignificant little town liketheirs. They could remind him that he was not very important.And that's what most of them did. The Gospel writer reports that "they took offenseat him." Who did he think he was, to preach to them? He was just the carpenter’sson. And they insulted him by referring to him as “Mary’s son” instead of the sonof Joseph, reminding him in a not-so-subtle way that he was not only just a boyfrom Nazareth, but he was probably illegitimate too.And it is recorded that "he could do no deed of power there, except that he laidhands on a few sick people and cured them." In her commentary on this Gospel thenoted preacher Barbara Brown Taylor refers to this incident as an

un-miracle

,writing that Jesus "still had power to share, only he could not do anything with it because they would not let him." She compares it to the experience of trying tolight a match to a pile of wet sticks: "It doesn’t matter how strong your flame is:what you need is something that will catch fire. Jesus lit a match, and absolutelynothing caught fire in the synagogue that day, so he left them to go shine his lightsomewhere else."Of course, we're not so very different from those people in Jesus' home town. Oh,we believe in Jesus. After all, here we are, sitting in church on a Sunday morning,on a holiday weekend no less.But like those people who gathered in the synagogue at Nazareth some 2,000 yearsago, we are also called to open our minds and our hearts. Jesus asks us to believethat "nothing will be impossible with God” but it’s easy to say, "Miracles can’thappen here. We're too small, too old, too poor, or too busy. They might happensomewhere else, but not here. Everyone knows that these days nothing goodhappens in…

Pontiac

.And if we let ourselves fall into that trap, it could well be written of us, "He coulddo no deed of power there." Not because God doesn't have the power, but because

our own fear can prevent us from believing in it, from accepting it, in our lives andin the lives of this congregation. How sad it would be if it were said of us, "He wasamazed at their unbelief."But we do have a choice. What would happen if we banished those negativethoughts and made it our spiritual discipline to look at what we can do rather thanat what we can’t?And now I want to tell you about Dorothy Davis and her annual Fourth of JulyBBQ.Miss Dorothy is a daycare worker who lives in a small apartment in Harlem, andfor the past 10 years she has held a cookout on the front steps of her apartment building, feeding between 50 and 100 family and friends. In her tiny kitchen she prepares a feast of chicken, ribs, collard greens, macaroni and cheese, potato salad,and lemonade. She shops and cooks for weeks on end, and come July 4

she setsup right in the middle of West 119

St. She serves the food until there’s not a scrapleft, and every year spends about $600 on this meal. She receives no financial help,and admits that on July 5

she cries because she’s broke. When asked why shespends so much and works so hard to feed both family and strangers, she simplysaid, “because I have enough.”When I read her story in the NY Times yesterday I had to catch my breath out of astonishment for this woman’s dedication to making a difference in her neighborhood by the simple act of grilling chicken and giving it away. It made mewant to rush down here to the church parking lot, get the coals on, and startcooking for whoever happened to walk by. I didn’t this time, but…maybe nextyear.Can you imagine what the world would be like if more people opened their hearts,like Miss Dorothy Davis of Harlem New York, and allowed themselves to be led by the Spirit to do good despite the obstacles in the way?That’s an openness that involves risk, because the prophecy sometimes come fromunlikely people and happens in strange places. It often involves struggling withthose who go negative, who at the drop of a hat can give you a dozen good and