Sunday 4 July: Ezekiel 2:1-5 and Mark 6:1-13
Football’s coming home: It's a quarter of a century since Frank Skinner and David Baddiel teamed up with The Lightning Seeds to write the song Three Lions; a song with the famous refrain “it’s coming home. Football’s coming home, it’s coming home”.
It’s got hints of nostalgia and has become a code for optimism: it veers from disappointment and underachievement to hope for the future and a trust that the team can play.
After last night, may be football’s coming home.
Ahead of this year’s Euro’s, Gareth Southgate wrote an open letter which quickly went viral beyond the world of football. He said something about the desire for a diverse, modern and inclusive nation. A vision rooted in tradition, without being nostalgic; radical whilst being alert to the present and supporting communities post-pandemic.
It acknowledges that this country is a work in progress: it’s full of hopes and disappointments, but wanting to be part of a move towards being a more tolerant, equal and understanding society.
For us, home is daring to seek heaven on earth. For in Jesus, the home of God is with us and through the power of the Spirit, God’s perfect will for humanity is breathed through us. Dare we allow our imaginations to be enlarged by a vision of God’s kingdom?
Heal the earth; meet the need; set the captives free.
Ezekiel: Yet, we know that there will be challenges - within the church and beyond: reducing inequality and social isolation; strengthening families and households; offering the hope of restoration to the vulnerable; inviting the privileged to seek the flourishing of all.
Ezekiel knew all too well the challenges of restoring a people at a time of crisis. He’d trained to be a priest - following in his Father’s steps by serving God in the Temple. Instead he finds himself in exile with his people - far from Jerusalem.
There he his called into service as a messenger of God, a prophet. This call was accompanied by a vision of God’s splendour and majesty; of the dazzling brightness of divine glory.
Against this awesome insight, he becomes aware of the need to rebuild community in the face of disruption. He becomes aware of the ways in which his nation has fallen short; the way hearts had turned inwards away from God and the other.
Today we stand with him as that’s described in stark terms: a rebellious humanity, abandoning the call to seek justice and mercy; a people who’ve transgressed, stubbornly clinging to selfish ways.
Ezekiel’s calling in response to this crisis of fractured to community is to remind them that God is the Lord. The one who sees the ways humanity falls short - and on the one hand offers a rebuke (we were called to more than this) and on the other offers the promise of restoration.
There will be new life; love will be shown in hearts of flesh. God’s loving power will help us live aright and give power to be light.
This God, makes a home with us; but as we hear today, for Jesus’ return home is complicated. Wisdom and power are revealed, yes; but rather than crowds being amazed, it is Jesus who is amazed at their unbelief, and the offence that is taken.
We hear elsewhere, that when Jesus reads and teaches in the synagogue, he takes up texts which speak of God’s power and human need. Texts which speak of God’s perfect will for humanity - speaking life to cities and neighbours.
The refrain might be: heal the land, meet the need, set the captives free.
Carpenter’s workshop: Jesus is one who had an earthly home in Nazareth; who grew up amidst the smell of sawdust and had a trade; one who knew the energy of life with siblings.
But for his hearers, perhaps that was just too familiar. He was in their minds the ordinary lad; they took offence rather than lay hold on this wisdom and love.
This Jesus continues to draw near to us in the places we call home; we are invited to see his words not as a threat but as a gift; as not only rebuke to those things which are out of kilter, but invitation to forgiveness and renewal.
On the road: For those who do respond, who see signs of God’s kingdom and long to understand its meaning, there is another step on the journey. They literally take to the road.
This is the pace of the life of the church: to walk within our communities, step by step. In schools and cafes, in shops and homes, in businesses and surgeries.
The disciples are sent out in pairs - to travel lightly, relying on others to meet their daily needs. They walk and they go to the homes of others; they meet people at the threshold and break bread around a table.
Perhaps these are habits we are now slowly beginning to relearn: learning how to be in each other’s company; learning how to be at home with another, to talk and listen; to break bread.
Where they find a welcome, they are to stay; where they are not welcomed, they move onwards. This judgement comes from being able to listen well; a listening that opens up space for repentance, the turning of hearts to God and others; it allows space for healing, blessing, anointing and renewal.
As God’s people in this place, we welcome Andrew as our deacon: one who will walk with us as we go to the hidden places of our world, as we strengthen connections between our homes and schools.
Deacons remind us that our lives are to proclaim God’s word of healing and reconciling love; and that our hearts and hands are to show that love in healing the land, meeting the need, setting the captives free.
We will listen. We will walk. We will be at home in Hendon.
For it's coming home; God's kingdom's coming home.
We do that fuelled by gathering together - for here as we respond to God’s word and as we break bread together we pray that our bodies - made one in the Body of Christ - will be made alive.
Let us come of one accord; let us see each other and our needs. For when we gather, there is power all around.
Let us gather as our Creator is glorified; all earth knowing God’s name. May the Spirit give us eyes to see God’s will for humanity. For God has made a home in our midst that every nation, tribe, creed and colour might know life and hope.
Heal the land, meet the need, set the captives free...
Refrain taken from The Portersgate "The earth shall know".
© Julie Gittoes 2021
