“For this month’s newsletter I am submitting to you the following meditation by Mary Luti, a long time seminary educator and pastor.” –Rev. Dr. Diana Leaf, Chaplain
The man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. But Jesus refused, “Go home to your own people, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” – Mark 5:18-19 (NRSVUE, adapted)
“Go home” is hardly the answer you’d expect after telling Jesus you’re ready to follow him wherever he goes. You’d think he’d want a committed believer like that just-healed man to join his intimate band. Why not take all the eager beavers you can get?
But Jesus doesn’t seem intent on adding people to his traveling inner circle. Although it’s necessary to have a nucleus of trusted souls with him, he knows it’s also necessary, maybe more so, to have lots of others at home among their neighbors announcing the mercies of God.
In the church, we sometimes make the mistake of regarding clergy as a privileged in-group on whom Jesus relies most to advance his mission. Too often, people who want to follow Jesus think the best way to do that is to go to seminary and join us.
But the truth is that the clergy, although we have a particular role to play, aren’t necessary to the mission in any super special way. We’re not extra holy, or even extra effective. If there’s anything extra about us, it’s likely to be an exaggerated sense of our own importance that requires occasional rebuking, as often happened with The Twelve.
Telling God’s mercies at home, in your own zip code, wherever you find yourself—that’s where the crucial action is. Jesus needs local witnesses more than anything else. The so-called inner circle is called to witness, too, of course. But to make sure the news travels everywhere and gets told convincingly, Jesus wisely sends his best people home.
Prayer
Send me home, God, to tell my neighbors your mercies and to multiply them everywhere.