Thoughts going in, Feb 26th (Lent 1)

Mark 1:9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." 12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. 14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!"

Mark's version of the wilderness temptation account is interesting both for what it says and for what it doesn't say. To begin with, Mark wants us to see the dual activity of the Spirit. On the one hand, the Spirit falls out of heaven and onto Jesus at his baptism. This is the Spirit of anointing; of power; of 'Messiaship.' The anointing of the Spirit is accompanied by the heavenly voice which completely affirms Jesus in what he's doing.

And then... it might seem.... that the Spirit does something strange, the Spirit "throws" or "casts" Jesus out into the wilderness. The above rendition from the TNIV is ok... At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness; but I don't think it fully captures the nuance of the Greek "ekballo"--which literally means to "drive out" or "cast out." Jesus was thrown out into the wilderness by the Spirit, the way John Wayne throws the little boy into the pond in "Hondo." And in Mark's gospel, this leads to more questions than answers. Why? How long did he have to stay? Did he have any choice in this? We're not told. We're not even told of the very interesting dialog that occurs between Satan and Jesus (these details are in Matthew & Luke). All we're told is that he was "tried" or "tested" by Satan.

One side-note on the temptation of Satan in Jesus life: Hebrews 4:15 is very applicable, where it says: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin. Occasionally a debate will start regarding the 'reality' of Jesus' temptation. If he's divine, the argument goes, then it's really impossible that he could've been tempted in any meaningful way to do something that would go against his nature. On the other hand, biblical Christology presents Jesus as both fully HUMAN and fully DIVINE. As a human, temptation would've had to have been real or else we could never say that Jesus "lived our life," or truly "walked our walk." Hebrews 4:15 does a nice job of holding these realities in tension. We can rest assured that Jesus knew precisely what it meant to be tempted. Further, we can rest assured that Satan never threw him any softballs. Just as Satan knows EXACTLY which of your buttons to push and when, the same can be said of his temptation of Jesus--the most pointed example of which was probably during the crucifixion when the satanic temptation came from the voice of the crowd, if you are the son of God, come down from the cross (Mt 27:40). Further, these insults during the crucifixion (and other times) indicate that Satan was more active in Jesus' life than simply during the wilderness experience. Back to Hebrews... while we can say with certainty that Jesus was tempted in every way just like us, we can also say with just as much certainty that he was VICTORIOUS. He perfectly did what we could never perfectly do. He never gave in to temptation.

The image Mark presents us with in this account is, to my mind, very vivid. It's as though Jesus has been thrown out into a Garden of Eden in reverse....or, if you will, the Garden of Eden as ruined (from the Genesis account). Satan is still there, animals are still there, but now they're wild/brute beasts; and it's no longer a garden, it's now a wilderness. It's the 'paradise' that sin created. And Jesus goes back there to do battle with Satan with the difference being that this time Satan loses. In the end, rather than Cherubim and flaming swords threatening the man, angels come and minister to him.

So what's the point? There's an obviously Lenten focus where we talk about contending against the powers of evil just as Jesus did--though of course we want to be sure not to give the misperception that we only bother doing this during the season of Lent (as if the rest of the year we are free to cave-in). But there's more. Mark in his typical succinct manner is presenting the whole of the life of faith. It begins with Baptism; and while baptism is EVERYTHING...it rescues from death and the devil; it is our adoption as children of God; it bestows everlasting life... it is also true to say that it is our baptism that enlists us in the great spiritual war of the ages. And, just as in the life of Christ, we find ourselves often engaged in this battle at some level. In the Markan narrative, it seems pretty linear: Baptism-->wilderness-->mission, although in real life, any christian can attest to the fact that the line between wilderness and mission is often blurred--and real life is anything but linear.

A good Lenten lesson here is always to come back to our Baptism. Even if the work of the mission or the foray into the wilderness has taken its toll, we are STILL BAPTIZED. No one can take that away from us. May we learn to treasure this gift of gifts and thank God daily for claiming us as his own.

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Feb 19th

Mark 9:2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5 Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) 7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!" 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

This Sunday is "Transfiguration Sunday." It's a "theme" day. It breaks the mood and breaks the narrative that we had been studying. All at once we jump from Mark chapter 1 to Mark chapter 9. Not that there isn't a good reason for this. We're on the verge of Lent. It would be difficult to go from the 'mood/themes' of the Sundays after Epiphany to such a sudden and drastic change as the 'mood/themes' of the Sundays of Lent. And so it is very common to have what I call "bridge Sundays" on the calendar--and this is one of those. On this bridge day we step away from where we've been, without fully stepping in to where we're going--and all for the sake of examining some independent themes.

Of course there's no RULE that says when--or even IF--we need to have a special "Transfiguration Sunday." All of that is simply a matter of tradition and judgment of the lectionary makers. The Roman Catholic lectionary has traditionally had it as the theme for the 2nd Sunday of Lent. There is, however, at least one neat thing about having Transfiguration Sunday occur just before Lent. It's highly symbolic and informative that just before contemplating the suffering, rejection, and ultimately the death of the Lord, that we be reminded of his glory. In other words, there is nothing that will happen to him that he doesn't freely embrace--for the salvation of the world.

This is one of those times when it's very difficult to find much NEW to preach about. It's like Christmas or Easter. Once you've heard the story of the transfiguration a couple of times, and heard a sermon or two on the topic, it's pretty difficult to expect any vastly new insights. About the best a preacher can do is to try to key in on the differences between the accounts (and there are some), but even this isn't enough to break the usual emphasis. And the usual emphasis goes something like this: Jesus, and Peter, James & John had this shared, wonderful, mountaintop experience. It was nice...but they couldn't stay there. They had to get back down off that mountain and go back to where the work was waiting--in Jesus' case, the hard work of pressing onward toward the cross. And so, that's how we too should view our mountain top experiences. They're nice when they happen, but we can't stay there. There's work to be done in the kingdom down off that mountain. And so we must resist the urge of Peter to build "booths" that will enable us to stay longer, and get back down there to work.

Well, what can I say? I'm in broad general agreement with that line of thought. Mountain top experiences ARE NICE....but we're called to do more, etc. etc.

There's another slightly different way to look at this, though, and that's from the perspective of the 9 disciples who never got the mountain top experience in the 1st place. Seems a bit unfair. But it also seems a bit typical. It seems very much like where I live my life... very much like where the average Christian lives his or her life. After all, when was the last time you received a heavenly vision of the glorified Jesus? To me, the question of faith isn't so much what to do with Mark's rendering of the Transfiguration narrative, or what to do with the 'experience' that Jesus, Peter, James & John received, but rather what to do with the lack of experience of the other nine, because that's where I'm at.

So as I go into this Sunday, the thing most pressing on my mind will be the role of experience in the life of faith vs the role of promise. Stay tuned.... and be sure to check out the podcast of this Sunday's sermon to see how I wrap it up.

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Feb 12th

Mark 1:39 [And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.] 40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44 saying to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

A couple of text notes before I really dig in… technically verse 39 was part of last week’s reading, but I’ve included it here as a way of sorta getting a running start at this week’s reading. Also, I’ve used the NRSV version instead of the one or two others I tend to prefer. There’s a couple of reasons for this, but the primary reason has to do with cleansing vs healing. Whatever leprosy was in the 1^st century, it was not Hansen’s disease (that which we today call leprosy). It was some sort of skin ailment. To say that it may need “healing” is true, but more to the point what it really needs is CLEANSING. Being a leper meant being UNCLEAN, in the ritual sense. This is one of the hardest things for 21^st century people to get our minds wrapped around. UNCLEAN. Coming into contact with a corpse made one unclean. Yet, death happened…and sometimes you did become unclean. Ok, now you have to go through the proscribed acts to become ritually clean again. Only thing is, as a leper, you were like a WALKING CORPSE. People who touched you became ritually unclean—at last for a time, until they could be purified again. If they became leprous, they remained unclean indefinitely. It was widely felt that only God could cure a leper. Well, as I say, since this is a reading about a ‘cleansing,’ I appreciate the way the NRSV holds that out.

So, what’s going on here?

Well, in a typically dense Markan sense, a LOT of things are going on. First, Mark is continuing to lay the groundwork for what it means that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the identity he gives Jesus within the first few verses of the gospel, but what does it mean? It could mean almost anything; maybe it’s a nominal title; something very honorific, but that in the end has no ground-level significance. But, no! Mark then goes on to show just the opposite. If all we had was the 1^st chapter of Mark, at the very least we’d be able to say that being the son of God means (a) authority over demons and the spirit world; (b) authority over illness; and now (c) authority over matters of ritual purity.

Ok, cool. What else? Well, in the story the leper is a bigtime rule breaker. He came to Jesus. This is NOT the way it’s supposed to work. Lepers are to avoid contact with others. They’re even to yell out “unclean” so as to warn others to keep their distance. This leper does none of that. Why? Mark doesn’t really say, but given the word that is spreading all over about Jesus, what could be said is that this leper, by faith, recognizes that Jesus is unique. This is consistent with Mark. Earlier, the demon recognizes Jesus for who he is. Now this leper does. Only God can cure leprosy; the leper appeals to Jesus for cleansing; ergo the leper is confessing up front that he considers Jesus to be at the very least a broker of divine power.

At this point, Jesus has 2 choices: cleanse the leper or not. But in reality it’s more like 4 choices: cleanse or don’t cleanse; touch or don’t touch. And of course he opts for maximum effect: cleansing by touching.

What I like about this story…

The world is full of untouchables….lepers, to one degree or another. Even nice suburban Chicagoites would be considered UNWELCOME, base, crass, and uncouth in certain high society enclaves. That someone higher up the food chain may consider me to be untouchable, dirty, leprous….is usually no big deal. I can most often find someone further down the foodchain to think that way about. In so doing, it seems to strangely make me feel ok. But it’s possible to get so low on that foodchain that there’s no one lower. An untouchable at that point is considered to be untouchable by EVERYONE. His situation is hopeless.

Until Jesus arrives. He came to cleanse the dirty… and not just the little bit dirty, but the dirtiest of the dirty. And not only that, he came to do so in a very hands-on way. How often do we see on tv or whatever, the rich hoity-toity types who show their “concern” for this or that charity—not by rolling up their sleeves and lending a hand, but rather by keeping a nice safe distance and mailing in a check or something. Not Jesus. He touches the untouchable.

And that means 2 things for us…

1. It means that when everyone else has deserted us (maybe even through our own fault), Jesus won’t. It is impossible to become so untouchable that Jesus will hold his nose & look the other way. But perhaps even more important, it also means

2. We have a Savior who does things with & for people who maybe we, ourselves, wish would remain excluded. Have you ever been embarrassed because a friend stopped to help a homeless bum or gave money to a pan-handler, or something like that? In that regard, Jesus is VERY EMBARASSING. He’s always consorting with the wrong sorts. He’s always showing up late at gala events because he stopped to mingle with the wrong sorts.

And here’s the point…it’s not that he calls us to learn to be ok with his quirks; it’s not that he calls us to learn to deal with the fact that he’s just the eccentric son of God, what can ya do about it. Nope. It’s actually much worse than that. He calls us to be like him. He calls us to touch the untouchable. He calls the Church to be the “new humanity,” the place where none of those things like “clean or unclean” matter. He calls us to admit that from a sin perspective, we’re all “lepers” in the eyes of God. But he likewise calls us to embrace and believe that in the cross, cleansing for all has been achieved.

It’s interesting that 1John 1:9 even puts it that way: If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

cheers

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Feb 5th

Mark 1:29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went into Simon and Andrew's house with James and John. 30 Simon's mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. 31 So He went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she began to serve them. 32 When evening came, after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all those who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. 33 The whole town was assembled at the door, 34 and He healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons. But He would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew Him. 35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He got up, went out, and made His way to a deserted place. And He was praying there. 36 Simon and his companions went searching for Him. 37 They found Him and said, "Everyone's looking for You!" 38 And He said to them, "Let's go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come." 39 So He went into all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Well, as usual, I find a LOT going on in this small chunk of Mark's Gospel. It would be true to say it's all about Jesus, but the question is HOW and in WHAT WAY is this all about Jesus? Let's break it down:

vs 29: Following the worship/prayers/official expressions of faith, Jesus enters the home of his disciples. This little nugget is not lost on evangelical commentators. They rightly note that true worship of Jesus is not a matter of a once-a-week nod his way at an official worship service. Just the opposite. As we see in this passage, true worship & true discipleship is about integrating Jesus into all aspects of our life--taking him into our homes, as it were.

vss 30-31: This is a "take it to the Lord in prayer" moment. Prior to this point in Mark's gospel, Jesus had healed no one.... he had only just performed the exorcism at the synagogue. In the big picture, Mark the evangelist is systematically presenting Jesus as LORD over all: the demonic forces, illness, and later ceremonial uncleanness, nature, etc. etc.

In the short-haul, however, two words are very interesting in the Greek. The first is where Jesus "raised her up." The word in the Greek (egeiro) is the same that will be used for HIS RESURRECTION. In that sense, the healing of Simon's mother is an anticipation marker. The first time through, anyone unfamiliar with the story wouldn't catch it--but they would the second time. Hearing of her being "raised up" would immediately remind us of Jesus, and the fact that he not only conquered sickness in his earthly ministry, but was raised up victorious over death itself. But there's also another point to ponder. The believer's encounter with Jesus as Savior is ALWAYS a raising up. The big theological word often employed is "regeneration," a bringing back to life; infusing with new life, etc. In that sense, the 'raising up' of this woman is symbolic of the believer's conversion. S/he passes from spiritual death to spiritual life; s/he is 'raised up.' And this spiritual passing from death to life, this spiritual 'raising up' of course also anticipates the final resurrection (as per the creed: we believe in the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come).

The second interesting word in the same verse is where she began “to serve them.” The word in the Greek (diakoneo) is where we get our word “deacon” from. Here, then, Mark uses this story of the healing of Simon’s mother to paint an interesting picture: The life of faith begins with an encounter with Jesus who raises us up, and then continues on with a life of service/diakoneo to him. In this way Mark is presenting Simon’s mother as a ‘model’ of the Christian life.

Vss 29-35: On the other hand, we also see the Christian life modeled by Jesus himself (after all, giving us the ‘example’ is one of Christ’s main concerns). He takes part in public worship at the synagogue; following that we see that his faith/faith-life impacts his treatment of others (both in terms of Simon’s mother & the crowds). This brings to mind the collect of the day for this Sunday where we pray: “make us agents of your healing and wholeness”). Are we divine? Can we cure? Obviously not, but the creedo of the Stephen Ministry is helpful here: God is the only “cure-giver,” yet we by virtue of our baptism are all called in one way or another to be “care-givers.” And then, of course, later we find the Lord in prayer. PUBLIC WORSHIP; CARING MINISTRY; DEVOTIONAL PRAYER….. this is the life of faith.

Vss 36-39 Lastly, this passage has a very interesting ending. The disciples go out into the middle of nowhere to find Jesus; they tell him that today’s crowd is already lined up waiting for him to return—even though it is evidently still very early in the morning. Given the flow of the story, one would expect Jesus to go back with them to Simon’s house & get on with the day’s healing(s). Yet he doesn’t. He moves on to the next place because PREACHING/PROCLAMATION is his primary mission….not being the local healer.

Cheers,

TM