Readings: Amos 7:12-15; Psalm 85; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:7-13
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus be with you. God has a rich blessing and a powerful message for all of us today.
To explore today’s Gospel, we would need a series. However, I will just draw some salient points and I will leave the Holy Spirit to amplify the message in us.
The Gospel narrates how Jesus sent out the Twelve to minister in the world.
Let us ponder on these lessons.
1. He has given us authority:
Jesus doesn’t keep His authority to Himself. It is not about Him; He is not competing with His disciples nor is He bothered that they will share in His glory. He gave them the authority to do what He does. In the First Reading, Amaziah felt threatened by the ministry of Amos and wanted Amos to leave the terrain. Jesus is teaching us something important here.
Again, just as Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits, we are reminded of something important. Every child of God has authority. You and I have got authority. We may be ignorant of this, we may not understand the significance of this but we have authority.
St. Paul tells us in the Second Reading that God has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ, and this includes authority.
We have authority over 5 Ss:
I. Self: Dominion of the self and all its control.
II. Situation: Authority to change situations through our confession of faith.
III. Sin: Even when we sin, we have the authority of repentance, confession and penance, trusting in God’s mercy.
IV. Spirits that are not of God – spirits of hatred, anger, depression, lust, demonic spirits.
V. Satan: Holiness gives us authority over Satan, just as sin brings us under his jurisdiction.
2. Trust in God and live simply:
Jesus told them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses, no spare tunic. This doesn’t sound sensible but then, this is what Jesus instructs.
One of the greatest successes we can achieve in our Christian journey is to grow in our ability to trust God. God continues to teach us never to depend on ourselves, our preparation, what we have. We must learn to trust and depend on Him.
Again, the Lord is teaching us the value of simplicity and detachment. We all have the tendency of acquiring so much, getting things we don’t need. With time, we start building our happiness, hope and confidence around what we have. Sadly, most of these things we don’t need; they distract our focus, impede total love of God and make dying difficult. Every Christian is called to a life of simplicity and detachment, to trust more in God.
Even the mystery of death reminds us that in the long run, we don’t need much. We are not going with what we have but what we have done.
III. Shake it off:
Finally, Jesus told them to shake off the dust from under their feet wherever they were not welcomed.
The disciples were sent with a great message and given authority to change lives but Jesus knew that some would still reject them.
No matter how good we are and how well we try, some people will still not accept us. Some people will still be unfair, mean and unkind to us. Dear friends, there is no need to stay there mourning, angry, musing over what someone has done. Shake it off! Yes, you heard me right – shake it off and move on.
Joseph shook off the malice of his brothers. He shook off anger and bitterness. He left it for God to deal with and moved on.
We must be able to shake it off and move on. Our inability to shake off is why many of us are still bitter, angry and stagnant today. The Lord is telling someone today to shake off negative feelings because of unpleasant experiences, negative reactions from negative people. Don’t cling to them – shake them off and move on. What is ahead of us is more important, so we must keep moving.
Let us pray that the Lord may open our minds to understand the authority we have in Christ Jesus, that we may learn that there is strength and blessing in detachment and that we may receive the grace to shake off and move on, Amen.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on July 14, 2024.