The text opens with Jesus and the unbelief of his hometown (6:1-6). Then we see another one of Mark's sandwiches. We start with the sending of the disciples (6:7-13), and we end with the return of the disciples (6:30). The meat in the middle is the story of how John the Baptist was beheaded. Someone may wonder why we would pick a passage about the beheading of someone else. What kind of weird church is this? I think we will all be surprised to see how much this passage has to teach us about our discipleship in this crazy world in which we live.