Mark 6:7-13 (NRSV)
He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered 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 to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Ephesians 1:7-19 (NRSV)
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.
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"[T]he point of Christ’s coming, and of our redemption was the bringing into being of a new fulness, a uniting of heaven and earth, a fulness in which we should be sons in the Son (Eph. 1:1-12). The revelation of this mystery includes the guarantee of an inheritance of which we shall take possession (Eph. 1:13-14). The author is particularly keen that his hearers have their understanding of revelation widened: “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18). That is to say, they are encouraged to center their imaginations on what is coming to them.
"They are also encouraged to know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might” (Eph. 1:19). These two are not separable realities (they are the same sentence in Greek): the centering of the imagination on the inheritance is what permits the working of the great power in those who believe. The same idea is worked through again when the author tells his hearers that they were once dead through sins (full participants in the world of death-oriented desire), but have been made alive (participants in the beneficent [imitation] of life), and raised up to the heavenly places, as awaiting the immeasurable riches of God’s grace. It is because they are being given something through the opening up of their mind to the deathless creative generosity of God that they are saved, not because of any moral struggle of their own."
- James Alison, The Joy of Being Wrong: Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, pp 229-30
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"Today's Mark's Gospel continues straight off from where we left it last Sunday. Last Sunday, if you remember, we were in Jesus's hometown and his relatives and homes people did not seem to be aware of [...] the possibility of a prophet being in their midst. [Just as] Miriam, for instance, had not understood Moses's presence as a prophet and so she had been turned into a leper for a week. Immediately after that incident in the Book of Numbers, Moses chooses twelve people, one from each tribe, and sends them out to spy on the land - the land that they're later, under Joshua, going to occupy, the land filled with milk and honey, the Promised Land.
"So when Jesus sends out the Twelve, this is very clearly the next moment in the enactment of Moses and Joshua which we're going to be following through the next chunks of Mark's Gospel. Remember, Moses sent the people out to spy. Jesus sends them out to preach and to heal, to preach and to cast out demons. [...] In other words, this is not spying, this is a visitation. This is to see if everything's okay in what should now be the Promised Land, living the life that the Lord had wanted to give the Lord's people. That's the question, if you like: what's really going on in the land? So not spies but people who are going to have to go very very carefully.
"And we see that he sends them out two by two. Okay, this is very important because for any announcement to be made it needed to be backed up by a witness. So they are going as witnesses. They're going to be angels, that's to say messengers, and they're going to be acting as witnesses, and they're going to be giving a report of what they found. Now, the most famous two angels who were going to be witnesses, who were going to give a report of what they found, were the angels sent to visit Sodom. And in fact, that's in the background to today's story as we'll see. So they're going to be making an angelic visitation, and he's asking them in fact to occupy a very angelic position. They're going to be very very vulnerable.
"He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except the staff, it says here. That's the translation, but in fact the Greek says: except a single staff, except a lone staff. And certainly, this is not a walking stick, this is a staff which is a symbol of authority. [...] And I wonder whether if you send out two people with one staff between them, a single staff, this is not actually key to the learning exercise that they have to undergo as preachers, because they're going to have to work out for themselves and agree peacefully who is going to hold the staff and act with authority. But also if they are set upon by brigands, there's only one staff, so who is going to defend the other? In other words, they're going to have to talk together to work out how not to be in rivalry with each other. I think that's part of the instruction that's going on here. [...] But just remember that staffs bring with them issues of authority, this is the Mosaic preaching, this is coming to us to see whether Moses's law has been, is being lived and how well it's being lived, and to teach the two of them to work out for themselves how to give witness.
"No bread - they are to be fed by others, they have to be dependent. No bag, no money in their belts. [...] To wear sandals, so not boots, which were kind of a macho symbol, sandals - these are the vulnerable people's clothing. And not to put on two tunics. In other words, if anybody stole their tunic, they would be left naked. In Matthew's Gospel, we have Jesus's instruction on what to do if someone steals your tunic - give him your shirt. In other words, allow yourself to be made vulnerable because that's the only way that you'll disarm people. So he's asking them to go out and bear witness preaching repentance and casting out demons. But in order to do that they have to be in an angelic position, they have to be extremely vulnerable as were the angels who went to work out what was going on in Sodom.
[...]
"[T]hey've been sent out to give this message of repentance in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom. In other words, get yourselves ready: the great forgiveness, the great new Kingdom is coming in. “They cast out many demons and anointed many who were sick and cured.” What is it that put them in the position of being able to heal and cure, what is that enabled them, to tell the truth? Well, this extreme vulnerability, and that's something which is absolutely emphasized by Jesus in his instructions to them. [...] [T]he vulnerable messenger only speaks truth in as far as they are vulnerable - this is one of the great secrets of the Gospel. The power of the Gospel is preached in weakness."
- James Alison, from video "Homily for Sunday 15 in Ordinary Time 2021" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPgkTrcVOrI)
[Note that Mark 6:7-13 is the Roman Catholic lectionary Gospel reading for this Sunday. The Protestant (Revised Common Lectionary) Gospel reading is the following passage, Mark 6:14-29.
Source of quote from James Alison's The Joy of Being Wrong, and for discussion and reflections on all this week's lectionary texts: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/proper10b/]
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