The Scandal of Christmas, Part 1 (Mk 6:1-13)

I just want to give amazing uh shout out

here to all the people that are doing so

much every single week to get this place

set up and looking beautiful. Um, if

you're new and um, just joining us in

the I don't know the the most recent

season, we have moved five times this

year since uh, it was literally this

Sunday last year that we moved out of

uh, out of Pi Hop where we'd been for

like I don't know how many years um,

into a season of of uh, of wandering as

we continue to wait. And I have no

update for you even today uh, about the

the next status of our wandering. I do

know that we are welcome to be here as

long as we uh would like and uh I just I

just want to thank every single one from

the people that are setting up the tech

every week. It takes literally like a

church three months to get acclimated

and I don't know if we've been in a one

location for more than three months

since uh this time last year. So I just

I just want to thank everyone for that

and just the patience and the grace. Um,

and then also just acknowledge like as

our as our just the lack of familiarity

as things change and then each place we

go to gets a little bit like more

cavernous and difficult to navigate and

we don't even have signs and that sort

of thing yet perfectly set up. Um, just

thanks for the grace. We believe it or

not despite five moves we're continuing

to grow and to flourish um against all

odds and the church not just of our

nation but of the nations. I can't say

this enough. There is a there is just an

absolute cultural directive that is

drawing people into the curiosity of is

this Jesus real and alive and does he

make a difference? Can he actually be

the solution to my yearning and my

longing and my purpose? And and I I

actually almost felt like I was going to

close the year out with a couple of

vision messages for Frontier. But I I

just felt I need to just take a deep

breath. We're going to start the year

with a fresh vision series of where

we're going in the next 10 years. Uh but

in the midst of that, I felt like the

Christmas message today and next week is

one that that I believe is really going

to confront us and comfort us. I hate it

when the Lord starts talking like that

to me, like I'm going to confront you so

that I can comfort you because that's

usually like a painful process that I

need but I don't want. And so today, I

think um the Christmas message is uh is

one that I believe that you need and

that I need, but you don't want. How's

that for good news? Okay, not a good

response. You're gonna It's going to get

better, guys. Help me. Help me. All

right. So, I I there's this the message

today is all about scandal.

And we love scandal um culturally, don't

we? There's there's a scandal going on

here in Mark 6. We'll look at in a

second. Um, but we expect scandals in

our culture. Uh, and leaders, we love it

when leaders fall. Not so much in the

church. That's more embarrassing and

horrific and traumatizing. Uh, for me

and all of you. Amen. Amen. No one's

going to talk to me today. This is going

to be awkward, guys. Okay.

>> We don't like scandals in the church,

right? Yeah. No. Good. Okay. We can

agree on that. Uh, we acknowledge that

there are scandals in the church.

Thankfully, we have not had one here and

and uh and Lord willing, we won't. But

the beauty is is that if we do, it

doesn't devalue or

shift our purpose, our mission, our

directive, and the eternal dynamic of

what we're here for. Because it's not

about a person. It's not about who

falls. The beauty is though that

scandals are all about leaders falling.

Mark six, we have a scandal that's a

different kind of scandal. And it's

about a leader who rises. Jesus is

rising. And that is the scandal because

he's an ordinary man who's more than

they expected. And he's scandalous not

because he did something wrong but

because again Jesus was so much more

than the people around him expected but

he was less than they really wanted.

That was the issue. More than they

expected and less than they wanted. Uh

if you've read um one of my favorite uh

I don't believe he's a Christian

Jonathan height written a lot of books.

He's a NYU professor and uh he has this

story that he tells. Anyone heard it

about eating the family dog? Anyone

heard that story? No. Okay. Well, um I'm

going to tell it to you right now. Uh it

goes something like this. The

And if you have had a dog pass away

recently, I'm just going to maybe don't

listen for a few minutes. Um,

those of you that can have the capacity

to imagine your dog passing away

accidentally being killed by a car and

and then the the family since the dog's

already dead. Let's just say the family

that likes exotic meats like many of you

do. I've been with you. I I I think I

had, you know, I had an interesting meal

with Gus this week. I don't know what

half the meats that I had was, but it

was exotic.

No dog, though. uh the the dog. Let's

just say you like exotic meats. You

decide to cook the dog again. The car

killed the dog, not you.

And and you have that you have that dog

for dinner with your family. No one is

harmed. No one is traumatized other than

your small child wondering why you're

eating cocoa.

But you're not breaking any laws, right?

No laws are broken. No one's harmed.

It's cooked safely. Respect. Let's say

you cook it well done, which is, you

know, I would never give you I mean, I'd

never say it's okay to cook something

well done, but but let's just say that

for just to be safe. You know, she had a

stomach issue a month ago. I just not

sure what's going on. We're going to

cook it well done. You have a meal

privately, respectfully, and safe.

But that does something inside. Every

single one of us has this like gut

instant disgust about eating the family

dog, right? What is that? And height

asks why people stumble over this. And

and when he asks them, why does that

disgust you to eat the family dog?

Everyone's just like, I don't know. It

just is. It's gross.

Vile.

It's just wrong. And he and he calls

this moral dumbfounding. Moral

dumbfounding. And And what he means by

that is it's the moral sense that fires

before your your rational mind connects

with what's happening. And we feel

scandal before we can explain the

scandal. And so that that the the thing

that I want you to take away from this

is that moral offense, we feel it before

we think about it. Our our gut reacts

before our reasoning. And scandal is

often about like it's violate. It's a

category that violates more than

anything else. It's not just that it's

wrong. It might not even be wrong, but

it violates some kind of category that's

not okay. And here's what we're going to

look at in Mark 6 in Nazareth, Jesus's

hometown today. Jesus doesn't break a

law, but he's violating categories that

they were okay with. And here's the

thing. You and I have categories that

that we are comfortable with Jesus. And

then there's categories that we're not

comfortable with Jesus. And I just want

to invite you in to that place of

discomfort. So Christmas is the original

scandal.

Uh we love nativity scenes. They're

cute. We've got like 17 of them

scattered among our house. some carved

out of olive wood from the holy city of

Jerusalem that we got from street

vendors that I'm sure Bethlehem even

better. Jerusalem, Bethlehem doesn't

make any difference to me where she got

them. We overpaid for them and that's

fine because they'll sit on our mantle

forever.

We love the nativity scenes. Uh but in

Mark 6, this is not actually a nativity

scene moment. And yet, there's a dynamic

here where they called Jesus Mary's son.

Now we we focus on him being the son of

God which of course he was but here they

call him Mary's son and this is an honor

shame culture you take the father's name

my last name is Martinsson Norwegian son

of Martin

it is the most normal thing in the world

from ancient neareastern Israel to

modern day today to take a father's name

so the fact that they're calling him

Mary's son what is married remembered

for

The Virgin. The Virgin. They gave birth.

I say it that way because that's how his

entire town would remember Mary and

Jesus. The Virgin.

A virgin birth was just as obnoxiously

offensive. Obnoxiously offensive then as

it is today. No one believed it.

And so when they call him that

in an honor shame culture, it's an

insult. And they're questioning Jesus's

legitimacy.

And Jesus doesn't just challenge their

belief, he challenges their entire

system of dignity. So the big idea today

that we want to look at the scandal of

Christmas, here it is. Christmas is all

about God coming close, coming near to

us. And it's in worship, we talk about

him feeling his presence coming near.

And oftentimes, I'm not sure if it's him

actually getting near or we're opening

ourselves up to a God that wants to be

near and is always willing to be close.

But the reality is that the Christmas

story is where God came to us in the

person of Jesus, flesh and blood. And

that scandal of Christmas, it confronts

us. It frees us. And then it sends us

back out. So what we're looking at here

is that God chose to enter the world

through absolute shame but into the

ordinary into ordinary life and

discomfort so that he could confront us

then free us and send us out and bring

his not just his ordinary but his

extraordinary kingdom through our very

very ordinary lives. Christians today

are so tempted to live extraordinary

lives and and we post about it and we we

put these high water marks of what life

is meant to look like and we do this in

every realm of culture.

But Jesus and his message is always

found in the ordinary. And there's

something that I want to invite us into

is to live

for the moments of the ordinary where

you can feel and know that you are

living a a life where you are inviting

the God

of the Christmas story to enter into the

mundane. If you invite that, your life

will never be looked back at as mundane.

It will have impact that endures

forever.

As many of you have heard the quote, we

overestimate what we can do in a day or

in an hour, but underestimate what can

be done in a lifetime. The lifetime work

of the gospel is mundane.

But a moment, the moments that God

invades happen because of those who

allow the extraordinary into the

ordinary. And that's what we're getting

at today. We're going to look at three

things. The offense, the ordinary, and

the rejection. The first, the offense.

Why Jesus offends us, the ordinary, why

he insists on working through the

mundane. And then thirdly, the

rejection. Why following him will

sometimes cost us comfort, approval, but

it will free us ultimately in the

process if we allow the rejection to be

used for his purposes. So Mark 6 verse1

says this, he 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?" So he's saying profound things

of wisdom and saying, "Where did he get

these things? We know him. What is the

wisdom given to him? How are such mighty

works done by his hands? Is this not the

carpenter?" And even the language there

is is this is is carpenter. We think of

like the guy with his dad like doing

some woodwork in the back of a shed, but

this is a guy that it's it's working

with the hands. It would also include

stone work. There's an area close to

Nazareth where all this work was being

done by the Romans. And Jesus would have

been a hired hand with many other people

that worked with their hands. And what

they're saying in the language is

actually saying is we know Jesus. He's

just one of those guys who works on the

Roman projects.

He's familiar.

Where is he getting this kind of wisdom?

And they took offense. The main point

here is that they're offended at the

mundane ordinary of Jesus. And Jesus

says 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. So the first

point is the offense. Why Jesus offends

us? I want us to understand something.

We need to expect the scandal of the

gospel.