15th Sunday Ordinary Time

Mark 6:7-13

July 15, 2012

 

It's difficult to imagine the courage of those twelve men who left everything they knew, their families, homes and jobs—often at a moment's notice—to follow Jesus.

How much more courage must they have had, though, to leave him.

Today's Gospel tells the story of Jesus sending his disciples out into the world, to preach the gospel, to heal the sick, to expel demons.

He doesn't send them to his friends and relatives with letters of introduction.
He doesn't map out an itinerary for them, with comfortable lodging and good food.
He doesn't supply them with a suitcase of clothes or even an overnight bag.
And he tells them to bring no money.
Not a cent.

Our reading skips over just how the apostles might have felt about all this.
No mention of a vote on the issue. Not a lot of "what-ifs" or "yes-buts."
They just went.
We've all heard the slogan WWJD – What Would Jesus Do?
And it can be an enjoyable mental exercise to think about how Jesus would handle our nosy neighbor, our thoughtless spouse or our ill-mannered cat.
But then we think, "Yes, but that was Jesus.
What would a normal person do?"

We should recall, though, that none of the apostles were chosen because of their stellar resumes.

A few fishermen, a tax collector, a notorious doubter and some guy he found under a fig tree—these were Jesus' choices.
None of them were saintly when Jesus found them, some had great difficulty grappling with their faith (Peter, most notably), and one never got it right at all.
They were all just ordinary men.

Consider, too, that the Israelites didn't take a vote on who would be their next prophet, and there was not a long line of applicants for the job.

One has only to recall the enthusiasm of Jonah, who promptly took passage on a ship heading westward—in the opposite direction from the city to which he was sent.

Our First Reading brings home this point through the testimony of the prophet Amos.

"I was no prophet, nor have I belonged to a company of prophets; I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores.
The Lord took me from following the flock, and said to me, Go, prophesy to my people."

An old saying has it, "God doesn't call the qualified; he qualifies the called."

Wouldn't we be foolish to think that the instruction Jesus gave to the Twelve is somehow limited to those in the inner circles of the church, to those who are ordained or the official representatives of our church.
It is more likely that the urgent concern God has for repentance and compassion and forgiveness finds its expression today in persons from callings in life just as lowly as shepherds and dressers of sycamores, in fishermen and women working at home and in....you, all of you.

 Didn't Jesus send out all of his disciples, 100 percent of them, to chase and heal?

If we are not his disciples, who are we?
If we are his disciples, how are our lives responding to his command?