Lent 5B (March 25, 2012) Mark 10:46-52

        Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, 
       “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” 
       Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.               Mark 10:51-52

We are very near to Jerusalem now -- in fact, in the very next verses (11:1-11) we will hear Mark's account of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem next Sunday. 

But for today we hear this one last miracle of healing, of faith, of restoration and discipleship enacted in the most basic way: in the act of following.

Mary W. Anderson (in the article 'Blind Spots', Christian Century/2003) discusses the passage in its 'usual' lectionary placement: the end of October. She sees a connection between Bartimaeus and the Reformation. Seeing and believing miracles are so strong and generally do emphasize growth in faith over 'taking off dark glasses.' (ibid.) 

Those who, like Bartimaeus, 'see' Jesus and recognize who he is, are able to follow him and practice a life of discipleship. Of course that required reformation/change (loss) and THAT we will resist tooth and nail.

The other point that really struck me from my studies of the passage this week came from Michaela Bruzzesse in the article 'Let Us See Again!' in Sojourner's Living the Word/ 2003. Blind Bart is lauded by biblical scholars as a paradigm of discipleship, an example of God's attention to the vulnerable one who is persistent. He knows he is blind and needs to be healed and follows Jesus immediately.

But go back to the beginning of the month and another one who came for healing and had to be persistent, not to other folks who shushed her, but to Jesus himself! The Syrophoenician woman came to him for her daughter's healing and she would not give up until she had been heard. She is almost grudgingly acknowledged as the one person in all of scripture to whom Jesus conceded the point in a verbal debate. And she is not named; not lauded for her faith and her courage to stand up to Jesus when she was on God's right side; she is not remembered by the church fathers or many of today's theologians as a key player in the freeing of the world from sin and death.

       +how might we re-vision our faith today so that both our vision and our practice may be liberating AND seek the well-being of all? 

       +what might our unborn grandchildren (as adults one day) look back at from our current day and say, how could they have been so blind not to have seen that? to have allowed it to continue? 

       +what is one big thing that you need to change/allow to be reformed so you'll be turned in the right direction and be  able to follow Jesus?

  

Judean Mountains

                                                                                                                                                                

Judean Wilderness

 

At top center: stacked rock section of the original Wall of Jericho

       

Following in the footsteps of Jesus

 

Lent 4B (March 18, 2012) Mark 9:30-37 


        Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them,
            “What were you arguing about on the way?” 
        But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.
        He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, 
            “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
        Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them,
            “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me 
            welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”                                        Mark 9:34-37
                                                                           


This is Jesus' second teaching that he will die and be raised on the third day. The disciples have no easier time wrapping their brains around it than they did days before in Caesarea Philippi.They are still fixated on the image of 'Messiah'  they've always heard of, and are ready to start whacking elbows and jockeying for position.

Last year I left my Labrador retriever, Keira (you saw her 2 weeks ago eating popcorn!) with a friend who boards dogs in her home. She has a few of her own, and watches a few at a time so they truly 'live' with the family, not in a kennel. I was gone for over 2 weeks, and when I got back Janie told me after about 10 days  of the 'boarding dogs' coming and going and Keira still there with 'her dogs', she noticed Keira starting to look around with a calculating eye as to if to say: Is it time to start figuring out my place in the pecking order?

That's how a pack governs and orders itself. But humans have other alternatives. And Jesus makes clear once again the 'pecking order reversal' that is expected of those who intend to be his disciple. To abandon seeking prestige and position and become like one who is completely without status, not even enough to repay a kindness (see Dan Nelson's Lutheran Seminary blog and Chris Haslam's Comments and Clippings).

    +what does this say about how the Nominating Committees of our congregations, presbyteries, synods, and general assembly go about their work?
    +how does this leave us feeling when we consider the way we 'spend' our time and energy each day? how much is in humble service? how much in welcoming (serving) those without status?
    +how well does our congregation truly welcome children and those without status into our life and community? does our language and music sound like it's from another country? do we dress in ways and do things that make us seem alien?  
    +how can we be as welcoming to these others as we would be to Christ, and do it as deeply as Christ himself does for us? and how might that make our congregation look worse? better? 

One of the original 'Mile Markers' on the Roman Road .... Jesus and the disciples would have followed it traveling down to Capernaum.

 

Ruins of the synagogue at Capernaum

Remnants of the walls of Simon Peter's home in Capernaum

Can you tell which of the three is the Alpha? Does it matter?

 

Lent 3B (March  11, 2012) Lwnr 4

       He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”

        He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, 

        let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For those who want to 

      save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel,

        will save it                                                                                               Mark 8: 29, 34-35 

                                                                                                                                    
This is without doubt one of my favorite of Jesus' teaching moments. Peter, God bless him, has just had the 'insight of a lifetime' and has a whole list of (no, I exaggerate, there were just 4) ways that Jesus has just blown up the image of 'Messiah' as Judaism knew it. The royal son of David (1) would be preceded by the return of Elijah (2) and enter commanding his powerful army (3) accompanied by many signs and wonders (4). [see John Shearman's Lectionary blog]

But Jesus comes with a whole new understanding of 'Messiah'. He will suffer and die helplessly, and by doing so he will most clearly and plainly reveal God's strength. Jesus is constantly 'inverting' realities and calling us to live in those new inverted realities.  If we are unwilling to let go of our preconceived notions of who God is and how Jesus is to fulfill his role as Messiah, then we can have no part in the kingdom. 

Sometimes God's chosen manner of demonstrating God's love and salvation makes me a little crazy. And a lot disappointed. We certainly know that God is able to save our loved one from any disease or in any time of peril. From our perspective it is a no brainer which way is up, which way is down, and just what God 'ought' to do.

But remember the way God created our eyes to work? We see an image and it comes in to our eyes, and in passing through the pupil, the image is inverted -- turned upside down. Our brains are the /corrective lenses for our eyes ....

    +think of a time when God made a decision OTHER than you would have; 
       can you see Jesus saying 'you must lose your life' to you? 
       is he really saying 'you must literally die, right now'?

    +could he be saying 'you must lose your life by losing control over it, 
       giving that control all to me, letting me be the lens you see through ... 
       THEN you will live'?

This is not a 'perception', but how our eyes actually see a tall city building.

This is what we see, however, after our brains learn to make the adjustment  

Caesarea Philiippi: where Jesus taught the disciples; one of three headwaters of the Jordan River (the spring literally flowed out the mouth of the cave)

In this closer shot you can see the size of the cave relative to the people; following an earthquake in the 6th century, the was block from its path to the cave and now exits a number of feet just below the cave floor.          dc

Another inverted perspective from this passage: there are 2 common Greek words for 'rock', petros (masculine) and petra (feminine). The former refers to those rocks that can be picked up and carried, like those used to make the walls above. The latter refers to very large, even massive rock which cannot be moved except by large teams of animals and/or people .... or not at all, as in the massive rock face the cave sits in above. Simon is named Peter (in Matthew's  telling of this story) 'petros', the smaller and portable form. Hmmmm.......

 

Lent 2B (March 4, 2012) Mark 7:24-30

        From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not  

        want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose 

        little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and 

        bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. 
        She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.                     Mark 7:24-26

This week in the Presbyterian Church (USA) is designated as the 'Celebrate the Gifts of Women' Sunday. Our Presbyterian Women's group who meet monthly led worship using much of the materials prepared for the day. What I did NOT do is preach the story of Hagar, as suggested. Yet to continue our 'Journey with Jesus to Jerusalem' I did at least focus on a woman -- one who both exhibited great faith and insight, and also openly questioned Jesus (and her reward was more than a healed daughter!)

The visual/vivid part of this passage (vv.27-30), where Jesus uses the unkind rabbinic metaphor referring to Israel as 'children' but the Gentiles as 'dogs', stating it is unfair to take the food from the first to feed the second.  The woman's calm, measured response: even the dogs are allowed to eat the crumbs the children drop, brings Jesus up short. He recalls God's gracious mercy and abundant love, all the same, given to all the varied people. Here is Jesus, questioned by a WOMAN -- and a GENTILE woman at that -- and he admits she is right and changes his mind. It is the ONLY time in all of scripture that he concedes the point when questioned. And it's a WOMAN who does it!

Having a wonderful, biddable, fairly trained black Labrador Retriever (Keira, 10 1/2), I thought creating new pictures for that theme would be easy. Crumbs under the table: yes! But Karen A. Keely in Witness Magazine: Lectionary Reflections (9/3/06) took it further: 'The "dog" becomes a dinner guest and gets to sit at the table with the "children," ...'. Little did I know how WELL trained Keira was to stay off of furniture!!!! She was in the chair less than 10 seconds; I barely got the shot before she jumped the arm!

Meanwhile, as I continued to dig deeper into the  passage I found that I had to agree with John Shearman: that the main point is actually the miracle of healing (which Jesus had at first declined to perform) and Jesus' efforts to keep it a secret. This was more than a good deed by an exceptionally skilled. charismatic, caring healer. It (as were all the other miracles in Mark) was a transcendent event that brings us to a point of decision about this Jesus.

  +who is this Jesus of Nazareth to you? 

  +is he, as Mark proclaimed in the first words of his gospel: “Jesus Christ, the Son of God"?

Mediterranean Coastline north of Haifa, Israel

Patiently Waiting

Eating the Crumbs

Nervously Seated at the Table (but not for long!)

 

          How often do our grand plans to bring diverse peoples around one table together 

          end up going in some way completely 'other' than we had imagined or hoped?