Well, good morning, church. Our sermon text today is Mark chapter 6, verses 1 through 13.
That starts on page 789 in the Pew Bible.
Mark 6, 1 through 13. Let me pray for us, and then I'll read.
Father, we have just prayed that all of our delight is in you.
Lord, we ask that by your Spirit that would be more and more true.
And that as we come to your Word now, you would grant us by your Spirit the heart that delights in what you have to say to us.
Help us to receive it, to believe it, to live it to your glory.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, let me read Mark 6 for us.
He, that is Jesus, went away from there and came to his hometown.
And his disciples followed him.
And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue.
And many who heard him were astonished, saying,
Where did this man get these things?
What is the wisdom given to him?
How are such mighty works done by his hands?
Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?
And they took offense at him.
And Jesus said to them,
A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown,
and among his relatives, and in his own household.
And he could do no mighty work there,
except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.
And he marveled because of their unbelief.
And he went about among the villages teaching,
and he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two.
And he gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
And he charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff,
no bread, no bag, no money in their belts,
but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.
And he said to them,
Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there.
And if any place will not receive you,
and they will not listen to you,
when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet
as a testimony against them.
So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.
And they cast out many demons,
and anointed with oil many who were sick,
and healed them.
So from the very beginning,
the church has been a people on mission.
In Christ, God redeems a people for himself,
that they might display his glory
and take his saving good news to the ends of the earth.
A people on mission.
And this means Christianity has always had a profound answer
to one of the deepest human longings.
The longing for purpose.
Why am I here?
What's my life for?
We all know, or at least we find out sooner or later,
that living for things like pleasure or money or fame fall short.
But if not those things, what then do we live for?
Is there a bigger story or a bigger purpose
that can embrace and give deep meaning
to our, well, most of the time, ordinary lives?
Well, that's exactly what the church believes.
That in Christ, we've been given a mission, a purpose,
to make much of him and to be agents of his new creation in the world.
To advance a kingdom of love, of righteousness, of peace,
of forgiveness, of truth.
A truth that sets people free.
And what we see here in the opening of Mark 6
are two interconnected episodes that have to do with mission.
Now, that's fairly obvious when we consider the second half of the passage,
verses 6 through 13.
There Jesus sends out the 12 apostles for the first time.
Clearly, this is a passage about mission,
even if many of the details are specific
to that particular moment in salvation history.
But what does the first half of the passage have to do with mission?
Verses 1 through 6, where Jesus is rejected in his hometown.
Well, it's important to see that since chapter 3 of Mark's gospel,
Jesus has been preparing the 12 for mission.
He called them in chapter 3, verse 14,
so that they might be with him,
and he might send them out to preach.
So all this time in chapters 3 and 4 and 5,
Jesus has been training them, preparing them,
to be heralds of the in-breaking kingdom of God.
And so Mark chapter 6, verses 1 through 6,
is sort of like their last lesson
before heading out for the first time.
And what does Jesus have for them?
What does Jesus want them to learn?
What does he want us to learn?
Well, what he wants them and us to see
is that his mission will often cause offense.
In other words, he's preparing them
for the reality of rejection.
Now think about it.
Why is this an important lesson?
Since being chosen, the 12 apostles had been with Jesus.
They had shared his experiences.
They had heard his teaching.
And on top of that, they had seen his power.
Power, as we saw in chapter 5 over the last couple of weeks.
Power over demon possession.
Power over sickness.
Power even over death.
But imagine going directly from chapter 5
right to chapter 6, verse 7.
In other words, imagine going directly
from seeing Jesus' authority over all those things
directly to being sent out.
Imagine the expectations they would have had
for their mission.
Imagine how triumphalistic they would have been.
They might have thought nothing could stand in their way.
They would have thought that being a follower of Jesus,
being a part of his kingdom mission,
was only about power.
Only about victory.
And not also about suffering.
And so first, Jesus must also show them
the offense that he brings
and the reality of rejection.
So let's look a little more closely at our passage then
and see why Jesus causes offense,
how he responds,
and then in light of that,
how we can respond when we face rejection for Christ's sake.
So first, let's look at why Jesus causes such offense.
Let me read again verses 1 through 3.
Now, Jesus' hometown was Nazareth.
Nazareth was a small village
about 15 miles southwest of the Sea of Galilee.
And archaeologists estimate that the population of Nazareth
in Jesus' day was about 500 people at most.
So it was a very small town,
even by first century standards.
And Jesus returns home with his disciples following him.
And when he teaches in the synagogue,
their response is not the kind of beaming pride
in their hometown hero, right?
You know, he's not like the kind of hometown pro athlete
who comes home after winning the championship
to his small hometown
and they give a little parade in his honor.
You know, out comes the one fire truck
and out comes the one police car.
He's back!
In fact, the sentiment is just the opposite.
The people are astonished, Mark says,
but not in a good way.
Indeed, they are offended.
They could not think it possible
that one who had lived among them so many years
and whose brothers and sisters they knew
could deserve to be followed as a public teacher.
Their skepticism is most evident in verse 3.
Isn't this the carpenter?
Isn't this Mary's son?
Now, the word carpenter there
means something a little more broad
than our word carpenter.
It means something like craftsman or workman.
It was used of a broad range
of kind of manual laborers,
stonemasons, builders,
not just woodworkers.
But you hear the cynicism in their voice, don't you?
How are such mighty works done by his hands?
Aren't those just the hands of the carpenter?
Now, we should mention that in Jewish society,
there was nothing necessarily demeaning
about manual labor,
which was different, say, than Greco-Roman culture
that tended to look down on it.
But even if manual labor was more respected
among the Jews than among the Gentiles,
there is still a tinge of contempt in their voice.
The contempt that says,
you're rising above your station.
Who do you think you are?
Do you really think you're better
than the rest of us?
Now, as an aside,
isn't it wonderful
that our Lord Jesus,
the eternal Son of God,
spent the first 30 years of his life
as a tradesman,
as a manual worker,
as a carpenter,
as a stonemason?
And doesn't that completely deconstruct
the sort of worldly values
we place on different professions
and workplaces
that some are sort of inherently better
or more valuable than others?
Jesus blessed our ordinary life
and filled it with dignity.
One writer put it this way.
He said,
it's no disgrace to work with our hands
and earn our bread by our own labor.
The thought of the carpenter shop at Nazareth
should cast down the high thoughts
of all who make an idol of riches.
It cannot be dishonorable
to occupy the same position
as the Son of God
and Savior of the world.
Now, for the people that day in the synagogue,
why were they offended at Jesus?
Jesus,
the word Mark uses for offense
means a stumbling block.
What is it they were tripping over?
What was the great obstruction
to faith in Jesus?
Well, on the one hand,
it was their familiarity, right?
Their familiarity.
They had watched him grow up.
They knew every one of his living relatives.
Look, there are his brothers.
There are his sisters.
And I would imagine in a town of 500,
everybody knew everything
about everybody else, right?
There probably weren't many secrets
in a town that small.
They could not,
they would not believe
that one whose face
they knew so well,
who lived so long
eating and drinking
and dressing like one of them
had any right
to claim their attention.
Their long proximity to Jesus,
what they thought
they knew about him,
that supposed familiarity with him,
was the very thing
that made them turn away.
Of course, the same thing
is true today, isn't it?
A lot of people think
they know
what Christianity is all about.
And even if they didn't
grow up going to church,
they've grown up
in a post-Christian culture
with vestiges of Christianity
still sort of hanging on,
empty though they may be.
And that familiarity
so easily breeds contempt,
as we say.
But this might be
even more of a danger
for those inside the church
than those outside.
You know, if you've grown up
in the church,
hearing the Bible read,
hearing the gospel preached,
hearing God praised,
hearing prayers being made,
it's easy for it all
to become just a familiar thing.
Maybe it is a part of your life.
Maybe you'd say
it's an important part
of your life.
But Jesus Christ
is far from being
the Lord of your life.
And without knowing it,
perhaps your repeated exposure
to the gospel
has actually made you immune
to the very real grip
and power of it.
It's kind of like
being exposed to a virus
a little bit at a time
for a long period of time.
And your immune system
eventually builds up
a resistance to it.
And eventually,
you're kind of inoculated to it.
It has no power over you.
Has the reality of Jesus Christ,
has the wonder of the gospel,
has the power of the forgiveness
of sins and of reconciliation
with a holy God
become like that to you?
Something you're just
inoculated to.
If so,
pray to God,
our merciful God.
Ask Him to remove
the callousness of your heart,
to make Christ unfamiliar to you
so that you might really come
to genuine saving faith in Him.
But you know,
it wasn't just familiarity
that caused the offense.
It was also the claim
that Jesus was making.
In the rest of Mark's gospel,
we know when we see Jesus
teaching in the synagogue
that He did so with authority.
He was claiming to be
the one who could rightly
teach the way of Israel's God.
The one to rightly interpret
Israel's scriptures.
He wasn't like the other rabbis
or religious scholars.
He didn't quote other authorities
or teachers or traditions
to support or prove His point.
In fact,
He would often just simply say,
truly, truly,
I say to you.
But you know,
even more than that,
Jesus was claiming
to be the one
to usher in God's kingdom.
Now we know from Luke's gospel,
actually,
what passage
Jesus read from that day.
It was Isaiah 61.
What Jesus read was this,
the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me
because He has anointed me
to proclaim good news
to the poor.
He sent me
to proclaim liberty
to the captives
and recovering of sight
to the blind,
to set at liberty
those who are oppressed
and to proclaim
the year of the Lord's favor.
And then He said
to all those sitting there,
today,
this scripture
has been fulfilled
in your hearing.
This is the offense
of Jesus.
He claims to be the one
who can open
your blind eyes
and set at liberty
your guilty conscience.
But that's just it,
isn't it?
We don't want to be told
that we're blind
and guilty,
let alone be told
that some manual laborer
from Nazareth
is the one to fix the problem,
the problem
we don't even think we have.
And that's why Jesus
is still offensive today
and why He will always be.
Because He's making a claim
that goes as deep
as our very self,
our very identity.
And He's making a claim
on our very way
of viewing ourselves
and the world
and the God who made it.
And that's why
the mission of the apostles
that He sends out
was offensive too.
Notice that
He doesn't tell them
you're going to be
received everywhere.
He says some of them
are going to reject you.
Why?
Because they went out everywhere
saying that people
should repent.
And that word repent
doesn't just mean
feeling sorry
for particular sins.
Everybody does that, right?
You don't have to feel,
you don't have to be a Christian
to feel sorry
for doing wrong things
from time to time.
No, repentance,
what repentance really means
is not just that,
but changing your whole outlook.
That your whole way
of viewing yourself
and the world
has Jesus Christ
in the center as Lord.
That He really defines
what's right and wrong,
what's beautiful,
what's true.
He's the fountainhead
of it all.
Repentance is changing
your whole worldview
to put Christ in the center.
Now, I'm guessing
that if you're here
and you're not a Christian,
that idea sounds
pretty impossible, right?
Why put Jesus
at the center of everything?
And let me just say,
if that's you,
almost everyone else
in this room
who is a Christian
at one point
felt exactly the same way
as you.
In many ways,
we all start out
like the folks
in Jesus' hometown.
So don't feel like
you can't stick around
here at Trinity
and ask questions
and be honest.
But you know,
here's what's fascinating.
Historically,
we know
from passages like this
and many others
in the Gospels
that Jesus'
immediate family
pretty much
all rejected Him
during His earthly ministry.
James and Joseph
and Judas and Simon
are some of the brothers
listed here
and there's mention
of sisters too.
By the way,
this is a different Judas
than Judas Iscariot.
This Judas is later
in the New Testament
called just Jude.
Now, you have to imagine
that there was probably
nothing
that would convince
someone to believe
that their sibling
was the Messiah,
right?
I mean,
if your older brother
came home from college,
sat down at dinner
and said,
I've come to set
the captives free
and open the eyes
of the blind,
you wouldn't sell everything
and become His disciple,
right?
But here's the thing.
Eventually,
there was something
that convinced them.
When we study
the historical records
of the earliest days
of the church
after Jesus is crucified
and killed, no less,
who's there among
the leaders
of the earliest
Christian movement?
Who is there
selling everything
and proclaiming
that the crucified Jesus
is Israel's Messiah
and the world's true Lord?
Who's there
among the leaders?
It's James,
the Lord's brother,
and Jude.
Something happened
that changed
the most cynical
and skeptical minds.
What would it take
for you to believe
that your brother
was the Son of God?
Well, we think,
you know,
people do lots
of irrational things
for money
and power
and fame, right?
But that's not
what they got
for believing.
They got poverty,
extreme social marginalization,
and death.
So what was it?
What could take
the most skeptical
and cynical person
and make them believe?
The answer
the earliest Christians gave,
the answer
that James and Jude
themselves gave,
is the resurrection.
Jesus Christ
was crucified,
died,
and was buried,
and on the third day
he rose again.
And he appeared
to Peter,
then to the twelve,
then he appeared
to more than 500
at one time,
then he appeared
to James,
then to all the apostles.
Jesus claimed
to be the one
to heal our blindness
and to liberate us
from guilt.
And how did he do it?
Not through teaching
some path
for spiritual betterment,
but by accomplishing
something on our behalf.
To rescue us
from death,
he himself died
and rose again
to break death's power.
To deliver us
from guilt,
he suffered
under the penalty
of our guilt,
and then rose again
to pronounce us righteous.
That's why his claim
to be our Lord
isn't the selfish demand
of a divine despot,
but it's the irresistible call
of divine love.
the sort of call
that makes you want
to surrender
your whole life
to it.
The sort of call
that makes you want
to view
your whole world
anew.
In other words,
it's the sort of call
that leads you
to joyfully repent
and put the risen Lord Jesus
at the center
of everything.
Now,
if you are a Christian,
the idea that Jesus
calls the apostles here
to share
in his offense,
in his rejection,
probably makes you
a little nervous
because it means
he's calling us
today
to do the same.
But let's look quickly
at how Jesus
responds.
Pick up again
in verses 4-6.
And Jesus said to them,
a prophet is not
without honor
except in his hometown
and among his relatives
and in his own household.
And he could do
no mighty work there
except that he laid
his hands on a few
sick people
and healed them.
And he marveled
because of their unbelief.
I think the first thing
to notice here
is that Jesus,
he doesn't take
massive offense
in return.
We might even say
he doesn't take it
personally.
He has a deeper
understanding
of his own identity
that allows him
to be rejected
without rejecting
in return.
Notice he says,
a prophet is not
without honor
except in his hometown.
Jesus knew
that because of
who he was,
and certainly
he was even greater
than a prophet,
but he knew
that because of
who he was,
rejection in his hometown
would not necessarily
be surprising.
Are you and I
willing to do the same,
to face rejection
with this same composure,
to not take it personally,
to expect that
because of who Jesus is
there will inevitably
be some offense,
and so not to respond
with anger
or offense in return.
The second thing
to notice is that
Jesus doesn't just
refuse to be offended
in return.
He doesn't just refrain
from kind of rejecting
them in return.
He actually responds
with compassion.
You know,
Jesus could have
stormed out of Nazareth
as soon as the synagogue
service was over.
Right?
Stupid hometown idiots.
I'm out of here.
Right?
No.
He doesn't storm out
as soon as the service
is over.
Apparently,
he stayed long enough
to heal a few sick people
even when,
because of their unbelief,
he wasn't able to do
what Mark calls
a mighty work.
work.
In other words,
Jesus knew,
Jesus knew
that he wasn't
going to do
anything amazing there.
He wasn't going to do
anything
that would draw a crowd
or amaze the onlookers.
No one was going to
post a reel
of what Jesus did
in Nazareth that day.
Right?
He wasn't going to get
a lot of new followers
and build his brand.
But he stayed.
He stayed anyway.
And he healed the few
that he could.
Now,
it's interesting to ponder,
isn't it,
in what sense
Jesus was unable
to perform
a mighty work
in Nazareth?
Did human unbelief
literally prevent
Jesus from healing
that day?
If Jesus is God,
couldn't he have just
overridden their unbelief
and healed them anyway?
Well,
Mark obviously
doesn't delve
into these questions here.
Theologically speaking,
certainly Jesus
is able to heal
and therefore
he was,
we might say,
choosing not to.
But Mark's kind of
narrative accent
falls more on the humanity
of Jesus here
and on the gravity
and tragedy
of human unbelief
and hardness of heart.
Their unbelief
and their hardness of heart
was so grave
and so serious
and such a problem
that it just put
a great hedge
between them
and the deep blessing
that Jesus could bring.
And in the face
of such unbelief,
Jesus marvels,
Mark says.
James Edwards
puts it this way
in his quite excellent
commentary
on the book of Mark.
He says,
what amazes God
about humanity
is not its sinfulness
and propensity
for evil,
but its hardness
of heart
and unwillingness
to believe in him.
That
is the greatest problem
in the world.
And so,
Jesus' response
to rejection
is not contempt
and rejection
in return,
but compassion,
even amazement
that they would
fail to believe.
Now,
as we consider
how Jesus responded,
we start to recognize
that this isn't always
how we respond,
is it?
Because we certainly
face rejection today
as well,
don't we?
You know,
just like the first century,
Jesus is still
offensive today.
The human heart
does not want to admit
that it needs a Savior
and the human heart
certainly would prefer
to be its own Lord.
And so,
the claim of Jesus
will always offend.
So,
how do we respond
when because of Christ's sake
we too face rejection?
Well,
of course,
like Jesus,
we don't take offense
in return.
We don't take it personally.
After all,
it's not really us,
it's Christ.
And after all,
didn't you and I
think the same thing
before we came to faith?
That this was all
crazy and offensive.
Why would we expect
anything different
from our friends
and our coworkers,
right?
And,
of course,
we continue to respond
with compassion.
Jesus didn't stop
loving his hometown.
His heart was still
soft,
still amazed
at their unbelief.
And so,
we keep a soft heart
as well.
Now,
you might be noticing
that Jesus told the twelve
to shake the dust
from their feet
when a village
refused to receive them.
And you might think,
well,
that doesn't sound
too soft hearted,
right?
But we have to remember
that the initial mission
of the twelve
was aimed at whom?
At religious Jewish villages,
right?
And in that time,
shaking the dust
from your feet
was something
that a pious Jew did
when they left
a Gentile area.
And so,
during this preliminary mission,
if there was any place
that thought
they didn't need
Jesus' message
to be faithful
to Israel's God,
then this act
by the apostles
was communicating
to them
that they were
actually responding
not like faithful Jews
but just like
the unbelieving Gentiles.
It was saying to them
that their religion,
their tradition,
their family heritage,
as great as all
those things were,
were not going
to save them.
Only Jesus
and his kingdom could.
And in our context,
of course,
there may and will
come times
when we need
to be bold
and wise
to speak clearly
about the necessity
of Jesus
for salvation.
And in moments
like those,
compassion
and a soft heart
are even more critical.
Lest our hearts
begin to believe
that it's anything
other
than sheer grace
that has opened
our eyes
to see the beauty
and necessity
and sufficiency
of Christ.
So we don't respond
in kind,
we don't take it
personally,
and we continue
to have a heart
of compassion
towards those
who may even
be rejecting us.
but we have
to go even deeper.
The question
isn't just
how do we respond
when we experience
rejection
for Christ's sake.
At a deeper level,
we need to ask,
how can we
overcome
the fear
of rejection
that keeps us
from publicly
identifying
with Christ
in the first place?
On Monday,
when your coworkers
or your classmates
ask how your weekend
was,
are we willing
to say,
you know,
I went to church
and it was really
encouraging.
The sermon
was a bit long
and I couldn't
quite follow
his outline,
but overall,
I'm really glad
I went.
That's the first
step of mission,
you know.
just making
Christ known
through your
everyday life,
identifying
as a believer,
making it normal
to be identified
with Jesus.
You know,
the first step
of mission
is not sitting
someone down
and walking
them through
the four spiritual
laws in one sitting,
right?
It's just letting
the aroma of Christ
be known around you,
being able to
publicly identify
with Christ
where you are.
But of course,
even that step
is difficult,
right?
We know that
even that step
can and does
cause offense.
Even that first
step of mission
can bring on
the reality
of rejection.
So what do we do?
Well, there's
actually one more
thread that ties
the two halves
of our passage
together.
And it's found
in verses 8 and 9,
believe it or not.
In verses 8 and 9,
Mark writes,
Jesus charged them
to take nothing
for their journey
except a staff
no bread,
no bag,
no money
in their belts,
but to wear
sandals and not
put on two tunics.
Now on the surface,
it seems like Jesus
is just telling
the apostles
to travel light
on this short
mission.
Travel light
so you don't depend
on your own resources
but rather depend
on God to provide.
And of course,
that's very true.
But you know,
there's actually
an Old Testament
illusion here.
What Jesus tells
the twelve
to take and wear
on their mission
is in fact
identical
to the belongings
God instructs
the Israelites
to take
on their flight
from Egypt.
Belt,
sandals,
staff in hand.
In other words,
Jesus tells
the apostles
to go out
wearing
Exodus
apparel.
Why?
Well,
because their mission
is announcing
something as foundational
and as revelatory
as the Exodus
from Egypt,
yes.
But what was
the event
of the Exodus
all about?
Well,
God was liberating
his people
from 400 years
in slavery
and finally
at long last
bringing
them
home.
he was
calling
the Israelites
to leave
what was
at that point
familiar for them.
They were leaving
what for a long
time they might
have called
home
and being
brought out
and taken
to their real
home
and their
true home,
the home
God had
prepared for
them.
Think with me.
What makes
us so afraid
of rejection?
Of course,
nobody enjoys
it,
but where
does the
fear come
from?
Isn't it
the fear
that we'll
lose
the security,
the safety,
the welcome,
the belonging
that whether
we like to admit
it or not,
our hearts
really need?
In other
words,
the human
heart
longs
for home,
a place
of belonging,
a place
of acceptance.
As Robert
Frost said,
home is the
place where
when you have
to go there,
they have to
take you in.
And the fear
of rejection
rises because
we know
that that sense
of belonging
in home
will be
threatened.
What if my
co-workers
reject me?
What if my
friends reject me?
What if my
sports team
rejects me?
What if my
roommates reject
me?
Where will I
belong?
Where's home?
But here's
the good
news.
The proclamation
of the gospel,
the good news
of what Jesus
has done,
is the message
that God
has always
had our
home in
mind.
He created
us in a
garden home
to live
and to
flourish.
And when
sin destroyed
it,
he laid a
plan that
would stretch
for thousands
of years
to bring us
back again.
And the
exodus from
Egypt was
a picture,
a foretaste,
right?
A people
far from
home,
languishing,
but liberated
and brought
finally to a
permanent home,
their new
garden in
the promised
land.
But even a
greater liberation
was coming,
a greater
exodus,
a greater
home,
the place
our hearts
were always
made for,
the new
creation where
God dwells
in fullness.
And what
is it that
would win,
that would
win this
greater
liberation?
What is it
that would
launch us
out on
this new
exodus to
our greater
and our
true home?
Look at
Mark 6.
The Son of
God is
rejected.
He loses
his home so
that you and
I can gain
ours.
And Jesus'
loss will be
even greater
on the cross
when he cries
out in Mark's
gospel,
my God,
why have
you forsaken
me?
On the cross,
Jesus is
losing his
eternal home.
He's facing
cosmic rejection
in a way that
we cannot even
fathom.
He's losing
his home
for you.
So an even
greater exodus
can begin.
So an even
better home
can be opened
wide.
And in this
home,
there's no
more condemnation
and there's
no more
performing
and there's
no more
pretending
and there's
no more
rejection.
This isn't
the home
that when you
have to go
there,
they have
to take
you in,
right?
This is
the home
where the
God who
made you
is glad
to take
you in
because you're
his beloved,
purchased by
his own
son,
sealed with
his own
spirit,
kept for
eternity.
God
and that's
how you
and I
can face
the everyday
fear of
rejection,
the fear
of losing
our belonging,
losing our
home.
We see
that Jesus
lost his
home for
us so that
we could
have an
eternal
home that
surpasses
all the
rest.
And when
the reality
and the
security of
our true
home in
Christ becomes
more and
more real
to our
hearts,
then the
more and
more will
become a
people of
mission.
Our lives
will be
dressed in
exodus
apparel,
living in
that unencumbered
freedom of
Christ,
taking this
journey together
as the
church,
knowing that
our home
is secure.
and when
the Lord
Jesus returns,
that home
will one day
cover the
earth like
the waters
cover the
sea.
Let's pray
together.
Lord Jesus,
you said,
blessed are
those who
are persecuted
for righteousness
sake when
others revile
you and
reject you.
Then you
are blessed.
Oh Lord,
help us to
embrace that
blessing for
your sake
with the
deep peace
and confidence
you give,
knowing that
you love us
and you've
walked this
road before
us.
In our
mission,
Lord Jesus,
make us
compassionate,
courageous,
and wise.
We ask this
in Jesus' name,
Father.
Amen.