Thoughts going in, Sunday Jan 29th

Mark 1:21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24 "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!" 25 "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. 27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching--and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

This is a passage about AUTHORITY…exousia in the Greek….a word that can be applied to the authority of a landowner over his property, or a King over his realm, or in the case of God in the flesh, the authority of God over the entire created order.

The lectionary has given us a very brief--yet dense Gospel reading for this Sunday. Before we even begin to plumb the depths of the reading itself, we have to begin by taking note of the Old Testament reading that the lectionary pairs it with. It's Deut 18:15-20, part of the goodbye speech of Moses to the people, where he assures them that the day will come when the Lord himself will raise up a prophet who will speak with the very words/voice of God. The Deut passage has long been seen as a Messianic promise. Many prophets were raised up after Moses, but only in Jesus do we see that when he opens his mouth and begins speaking, we hear the very voice of God.

And so what does this mean? What--specifically in terms of Mark chapter 1 does this mean? We have this interesting setting of Jesus, worship space (the synagogue), disciples, observers, and .... EVIL. One of the things I love about modern commentaries is that they wrestle with this idea of EVIL/UNCLEAN SPIRITS, and demonic possession, etc. The complete rationalist has so fully explained away the 1st century's superstition and penchant for ascribing EVERYTHING to the presence of an "evil spirit," that passages such as this end up being explained away. Oddly, they seem oblivious to the idea that if evil spirits/demons can be rationalized out of existence, so can evil itself. Yet, we continue to live in a world that seemingly has no shortage of evil. On the other hand, even those who readily have room in their theology for evil spirits are a little bit at a loss to address the sheer frequency/number of ....er.....'sightings' in the Gospels as compared to ALL of the rest of the Bible...and even into our day. In other words, in the Gospels it seems like every 3 paragraphs Jesus is confronted by another evil spirit. But where were these things in Genesis-Malachi? We see them a little bit in Acts, but where are they in all of the epistles? And what about now?

Here's my take on that question. In the weeks and days leading up to the Normandy invasion during WW2, the Germans knew the Allies would launch an assault. They didn't know precisely where the assault would occur, but there were only so many logical choices. And so there was a massive buildup of German forces in that area. I view the Incarnation of God in Christ Jesus in similar terms. This world of darkness had been invaded by the Righteous God, in the flesh...and this invasion did not go unnoticed by the powers of darkness. They were concentrated against him in a way that was unique to human history, with a multi-faceted goal: kill him before his time; or tempt him into derailing his cause. In other words, it seems like there was more demonic activity in the Gospel narratives than anywhere else in Scripture, and at any other time in history because there WAS MORE. It was THE theater of operations in terms of the cosmic battle against God’s plan of salvation.

This needs to be remembered when we get to the end of the story and view the Son of God hanging on the cross, suffering the insults, “he saved others but he cannot save himself.” He speaks with the AUTHORITY (exousia) of God. He tells the evil spirit to be muzzled (a literal rendering of the Greek in the passage) and it shuts up; he tells it to come out, and it comes out. It is this same one whose AUTHORITY far exceeds anything in the human or spirit world that hangs on that cross, and he does so not for lack of AUTHORITY, but precisely out of that authority. That the God of the universe would take on flesh, allow himself to be tortured and killed by his own creation, is often viewed as the greatest act of love ever. It was. But it was also the greatest demonstration of his authority, for it was with that act, there on the cross, that Satan, the demonic realm, and the entire power of Sin were defeated.

But there’s still evil in the world. All we need is to turn on the tv to see that. True. But it has been judged and sentenced, and when Christ returns it will be no more.

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Jan. 22nd

Mark 1:14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." 16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Every now & then the lectionary has a little fun with the preacher by choosing readings that are essentially the same story for more than one week in a row. Example: last week we had the call of Philip and Nathanael in John's Gospel, and now this week we have the call of Simon, Andrew, James and John in Mark's Gospel. Two weeks worth of calling stories regarding the first disciples. This is one reason why pastors enjoy having other readings to choose from when it comes to trying to find something different and interesting to preach on week after week.

So I suppose the first question is whether or not this week really forms a "doublet" from last week? For all of those who follow my blogging & sermonizing, you'll perhaps recall that last week I focused on FOUR THINGS about the call of Christ: Its beginning--as an act of divine grace; Its targeted audience--normal people like you & me; Its tolerance of our innate skepticism(s); and finally, its 'locale'--living our lives of discipleship where heaven meets earth. And while I still stand by those four things as being not only highly relevant, but also an appropriate exegesis of the passage from John 1, I guess it's also fair to say that those highly relevant points don't really cross over much into what Mark is saying in this week's passage. In other words, we have the SAME THING.... a call of the first disciples passage...but with different points being made. Like what?

To begin with, let's not breeze past the first few words too quickly. After John was arrested, Jesus came... Although John's activity seemed to have been conducted primarily in Judea (as per the Gospels, at least), it was Herod Antipas of Galilee who had had John arrested. [point being, if you have an army at your disposal you can arrest someone who doesn't]. If Jesus had wanted to avoid difficulty, in other words, it seems like Herod's backyard in Galilee would've been the last place he would've wanted to be. Yet, he specifically takes over John's message in the backyard of John's captor.

This week I've been meditating a lot on the line of the psalm: thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. There are a lot of ways to extrapolate & apply all that that statement means for us in our lives, but at least in terms of Jesus, his mission, the Gospel message, and what he's about.... we could say that this is war; this is a battle. God in the person of Jesus Christ has invaded territory held by an enemy and he boldly sets up a command post. Herod Antipas represents all that is wrong and evil in the current setting. The masses are captive and downtrodden; the elite live and rule with their own self-interests paramount. To those and myriads of other sins, God in the flesh appears and says REPENT... and he doesn't do so from the safety of an anonymous internet blog or a hidden enclave far far away, he does so in the presence of the enemy.

Lots of other things stick out concerning this text….the part about the time being fulfilled and the Kingdom of God being at hand, for instance. I have always found it most helpful to view the Kingdom of God “incarnationally.” Where is the Kingdom of God? Where is His gracious rule of mercy, love and forgiveness? It is **ANYWHERE** Jesus is. Jesus is the Kingdom of God in the flesh. Hence when he announced that it had come near… he meant it LITERALLY.

Last thought going in…. the passage is about calling disciples and disciples answering that call. Yet, what about Zebedee and the hired servants left behind in the boat mending the nets? Was there no call for them? Here’s it’s important to remember that SOME of what Jesus said applied to everyone. “Repent, embrace the Kingdom of God for it has come near” applies equally to Zebedee, the servants, and James and John. The call to “follow” and become a disciple was, that day and for those men, an additional extra. What’s the point? I was raised in a church where it was considered that being in the holy ministry was the pinnacle of doing God’s work. One should be devoted to “fulltime Christian service,” whether as a pastor, missionary, or pastor-missionary. Being a regular person, a “butcher, baker or candlestick-maker” was seen almost as a FAILURE in terms of the Christian life. How odd. Who would support the pastors, missionaries, and pastor-missionaries if there were no Christian butchers, bakers & candlestick-makers?? Thank God for Zebedee and his servants.

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Jan. 15th

John 1:43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 46 Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" 48 Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." 49 Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50 Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." 51 And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

As the new liturgical year gets off and running tracking on the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, the bird’s eye view to this point is pretty easy to follow. Advent was all about the promise of The Promised One. During Christmas, we celebrated the fact that the promise(s) had been fulfilled. The Promised One is now here. Moving into Epiphany, the theme(s) change a bit. Now it’s more than the fact that the Promised One is HERE. Now the emphasis is on MANIFESTATION and RECOGNITION.

As a brief aside, I should mention that this is the NORMAL way things work in the human experience. As a football fan it’s been interesting to track the responses to Tim Tebow as the starting quarterback for Denver. He has been MANIFESTED/REVEALED as their starter, but even now it’s safe to say that he has not been fully RECOGNIZED as “starting quarterback” material by all of the talking heads around the NFL. At least until the next playoff game there remains an interesting mix of (a) true Tebow believers; (b) fence-sitters…. those who’d like to believe but continue to fret about his unorthodoxy; and finally there are (c) Tebow skeptics—those who point out that, for instance, that Pittsburgh did more to beat themselves than Tebow did to accomplish this defeat. (note: if you’re wondering where I stand on the whole Tebow-as-messiah-for-Denver question, the truth is that I don’t really care. If I had to pick an option, I guess I’d be a fence sitter)

The point is—this is what’s going on with the ministry of Jesus in the narrative of the Gospels. WE in the community of faith know the whole story because we work our way through the Gospels every year. Within the story itself, though, what’s going on is that the MANIFESTATION of Jesus as Messiah is being RECOGNIZED (or not) at varying degrees.

Within this part of the text from John I find several fascinating things going on. Within the first couple of verses the word “found” (in English and Greek) occurs 3 times right off the bat. Jesus FINDS Philip; Philip FINDS Nathanael, and then Philip informs him that “we have found” the one… Theologians talk about “Divine monergism” in terms of how salvation operates. The term means it’s ALL the work of God. Yet this does not mean that humans are robotic. This little passage **wonderfully illustrates Divine monergism. Philip had been looking for something/someone….but it took FIRST the Divine work of grace in his life in order for him to find what he was looking for. Because Jesus first found Philip, Philip was able later to say that he found Jesus.

There’s another very interesting side observance I’d like to make. Frequently we in the Church talk about the “normal, everyday, Joe-lunchbucket type blokes” the disciples were. They were just ordinary fishermen (etc.). In our day, we’d equate them with ordinary working class folks: truckers, farmers, and….well….fishers. In our time the persona of such men ranges from honest/dependable/hard-working….to…hard-living/hard-drinking/hard-cussing, etc. etc. The point is, we do not typically assume such people to be much in the way of religiously zealous; deeply spiritual; intent on attaching themselves to a program of higher education in religious studies. In other words, I find it interesting that it is not the scribes and Pharisees, or sons of scribes and Pharisees, or even scribe and Pharisee wanna-be’s that throw in their lot with this new Rabbi. [of course THOSE guys had regular day jobs too…but they’re always introduced to us & known not by the titles of whatever those regular day jobs may be, but rather as scribe or Pharisee).

If there’s a point here, I think it’s just that the story presents to us the idea that the Messiah, and living a life of discipleship within the Messiah’s community, is precisely FOR everyday ordinary blokes.

There’s a lot more that could be said. There’s Philip’s low-key invitation to Nathanael in addressing Nathanael’s initial skepticism. O the times we could take a page from Philip’s book when we’re dealing with skeptics. And then there’s that whole point about Jesus “seeing” Nathanael under the fig tree. What’s that all about? All we really know is that Nathanael is impressed by this revelation from Jesus. It’s also somewhat noteworthy that the writer John doesn’t unpack this further. Does this imply that his readers have more clues than we do regarding what’s going on?

Regardless, Nathanael responds with a very obscure way of referring to Jesus: “thou art the KING OF ISRAEL.” The phrase is very rare in the NT. It occurs in Matthew & Mark at the crucifixion scene as a term of derision from the mouths of the mocking crowd. In John it occurs twice: here, and at the triumphal entry where Jesus is hailed as KING OF ISRAEL. Even the word “Israel” itself is rare, as more frequently people are referred to as Jews/Judeans and the geographic area is referred to as Judea. Israel is a throw-back word. It denotes a time when God’s Davidic King ruled over his united covenant people. However, it’s also a “throw-forward” word…because it denotes the era of fulfillment of the Messianic promise concerning God’s Davidic King ruling over his re-constituted covenant people (Jew & Gentile alike).

The passage ends with that very enigmatic statement of Jesus in v51: Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Every commentator points out the similarity between this statement and the “Jacob’s ladder” scene in the Old Testament. It’s HIGHLY symbolic. In the Genesis/Jacob story, Jacob is convinced he’s stumbled upon a very unique/special place… the place where heaven joins earth. Thus, he names the place Bethel—literally, “house of God.” But come to find out, BETHEL is all over the place. Jesus, PERSONALLY, is the place where heaven joins earth, so wherever he is that’s where Bethel is; his cross where the sins of the world are laid open to Divine judgment is the place where heaven joins earth; The Church, as the mystical Body of Christ…here doing his work…is the place where heaven joins earth, and most specifically the altar, where the true body & blood of Christ is sacramentally joined to bread and wine is where heaven joins earth.

In closing… this is a passage about discipleship; a passage about being found, which entails finding precisely what we were looking for all along. It’s a passage about sharing our discovery with others; and it’s a passage about BEING and REMAINING at “Bethel”… the place where heaven joins earth.

Cheers

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Jan 8th

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, "Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'" 4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." (ESV)

The actual text for this Sunday does not include vss 1-3, but for the sake of my 'thoughts' going in, I wanted to include those verses.

This Sunday marks the Baptism of Jesus--and there's a LOT of stuff going on here. At the very least, 3 things confront the preacher going into this Sunday:

1. The liturgical theme of the day/season. This is the first Sunday following Epiphany. EPIPHANY ITSELF (Jan 6th) is a greater festival on the church calendar. The story of Christmas is that God becomes human, but other than some animals and a few shepherds, NOBODY KNOWS about it. The major themes surrounding EPIPHANY are all about PEOPLE FINDING OUT that God is Emmanuel.... God really is with them in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. GOD IS HERE! Historically, there have been 3 events from the Gospels that were given special attention as proclaiming the Epiphany theme: (a) The story of the great star and the Magi from the East; (b) the accounts of the Baptism of Jesus where the voice from heaven is heard and the Spirit descends as a dove; and (c) the performance of the first "sign," the first public miracle of the changing of water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana. At issue in terms of Epiphany is the tendency to 'historicize' things. For instance, for the people alongside the Jordan River that day, God **WAS there in the person of Jesus. That was an Epiphany moment for **THEM. Cool. But that was in a land far far away a long long time ago. Where are we in this story?

2. The Narrative of the story itself--as presented in MARK'S GOSPEL. Having 4 Gospels is challenging. It is, to be sure, a great blessing...but on the other hand it can lead to some textual and narrative laziness on the part of a preacher. You know this has happened if/when the preacher "fills in the gaps" of a story with pieces of the same story from one of the other Gospels. For instance, in Mark's story John the Baptist says that the one coming after him will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (v8). The end. But Matthew & Luke's version say "the Holy Spirit AND FIRE." Why do they *add fire, or why has Mark *omitted it? In the end it DOESN'T MATTER. What matters is the narrative that we have & being fair to what Mark has given us. In that sense, it's noteworthy that in the Gospel as a whole, Mark has NOT given us a birth narrative. His "beginning" begins with the Baptism of Jesus. The "birth" in Mark's Messiah-story is the birth of the TASK of being the Messiah, doing the will of the Father,....and the pivotal role Jesus' baptism plays with that.

3. Baptism itself. If radio and tv are representative of anything, it seems safe to say that the most predominant form of Christianity in our culture is an ANTI-sacramental, and hence, ANTI-baptismal form of the faith. "The Gospel," as such is routinely preached as lots of things: asking Jesus into one's heart; accepting Christ as Lord & Savior; answering the call of God; acknowledging that God loves me & has a wonderful plan for my life...etc. etc. Baptism, however, is nowhere in sight. If it should be mentioned at all, it's usually done so as an addendum to a "conversion experience," often times called "the first step of discipleship." But it's viewed as an otherwise meaningless event. One of the things that seems evident from Mark's telling of the story is that even if we use the paradigm of the "first step of discipleship" in the life of Jesus, it is ANYTHING BUT A MEANINGLESS EVENT! The voice of the Father claims Jesus as his own; the heavens are torn apart, and the Spirit descends INTO Jesus (eis in the Greek, vs 10 means 'into.' The Spirit did not perch on Jesus' head; the Spirit entered INTO Jesus. His body became the Temple of the Holy Spirit--as St. Paul later says is the case of all believers.)

In tying it all together, talking about Jesus' baptism MUST lead us to talk about our own. For Mark the story of Jesus began not at his birth, but at the birth of his ministry at his baptism. That says something important about us and our lives. True, meaningful life.... in terms of the spiritual, in terms of the heavenly, and in terms of our relationship with God begins at OUR BAPTISM. Also, Epiphany should be de-historized. For the people in the story in a land far far away a long long time ago, God really was with them in the person of Jesus in the Jordan River. But Epiphany is MORE than a past event or group of events. In the waters of OUR baptism we are joined to the son in whom the Father is well pleased. The font is OUR JORDAN where the Holy Spirit enters US. We come up out of our baptismal waters prepared for the life of service God has intended FOR US..... being Christs to the world He's put US IN.

cheers,

TM