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?

Lent 1B (February 26, 2012) Mark 6:1-6a

         On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. 

          They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him?  

          What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary 

          and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” 

          And they took offense at him.                                                                            Mark 6:2-3

I am 'off lectionary' for Lent, but using lectionary Markan texts that would either usually be used on a different Sunday in lent or are assigned to a Sunday in 'Ordinary Time' which will not be used this year because of the date of Easter. This is in order to 'Journey with Jesus' from the Galilee to Jerusalem, to the cross and  beyond.

These two verses occur when Jesus has returned yet again to his hometown of Nazareth. He has already been run out once for his teaching about the fulfillment of the Isaiah prophecy; now he goes back and again teaches in synagogue.

The astonishment occurs because at this time a carpenter, or  tekton, literally a worker of hard substances (wood and stone being the most common) were nomadic peasant workers who went wherever they could find a day or a week's work. They were about as highly thought of as ... shepherds. They weren't really trained or skilled artisans, just day laborers for the most part. 

Now I don't want to sound judgmental, but I do think most of you would have a hard time swallowing a detailed exegetical lesson about this passage from ... an itinerant crop worker. You know, someone from another place with no education who lives in a ratty old Pinto hatchback that has somehow managed to not fall apart from all the rust? OK, so YOU don't have to accept the lesson ... it's his or her HOMETOWN folk who do, and of course they know this person so of course .... they will be ROYALLY offended at the notion s/he has anything to teach ME about this or ANY passage! 

+how do we allow our 'knowledge' of Jesus to put limitations on what he can know, do, and/or teach us?  

+how has the established church, even when trying NOT to, managed to ignore the divinely bestowed gifts and insights of young or new folk because they are .... well .... youngER and newER?

Southern edge of Nazareth (where tradition holds that Jesus was chased to the cliff) 

Entrance to a cave home in Nazareth (wall niche to right is the oven!)

Stone from beside Nazareth home doorway with man ^ holding ^ world (Jerusalem) cross -- the oldest extant Jerusalem cross

Transfiguration B (February 19, 2012) Mark 9:2-9, 2 Cor. 4:3-6)

        Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up

        a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them,

        and his clothes became dazzling white, ... As they were coming down the mountain, 

        he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man 

        had risen from the dead.                                                                    Mark 9:2-3a, 9

        And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing .....
        For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone 
        in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face 
        of Jesus Christ.                                                                                            2 Cor: 4:3, 6


We're so familiar with the story of Jesus' transfiguration that it is very easy to see and hear only what we expect to hear. Thanks to a number of  www.textweek.com  bloggers I have seen a whole new aspect of this story come to life. I pray it will for you as well!


On the mountain Jesus is transfigured. Transformed. Metamorpheo'd (the Greek root of our English metamophosis). He is 'changed' ... but is he made different than he had been? or is he simply revealed in all his glory -- glory that is of .God, divine glory, glory that has always been his and will be fully revealed .when the kingdom comes?


Rev. Mike Baughman, writing for Russell Rathbun's blog The Hardest Question this week, makes a distinction between transformation and transfiguration. The former, he says, does indeed involve change, "We treat new Christians, teenagers and ordination candidates (among others) like cancer patients who need to have unhealthy tumors removed and medicine injected. What if we sought to transfigure them instead?  What if we were confident enough to assume that the full glory of God was already buried inside everyone?  What if we believed that it isn’t our job to inject Jesus into them, but to draw Jesus out of them?"


Jesus is transfigured -- the fullness of divine glory is unleashed (-- not injected!) And then it is veiled once more.so he can return down the mountain. Back to the 'real' world of pain and hunger and illness. Back down to fulfill the purpose of his incarnation.

We have been created in God's image. Even the brokenness of the present world cannot destroy that. Even the god of this world cannot eradicate that from you. It is a bit of God's own likeness implanted within, and it can be clouded or covered over, but not destroyed.

What is it in the world that veils God's glory in you? Will you follow Jesus back down the mountain to listen and learn from him in order to allow him to peel that veil back, layer by layer, until God's glory radiates brilliantly from you?

... And even if our gospel is veiled ...

...it is veiled to those who are perishing

For it is the God who said,

"Let light shine out of darkness,"

who has shone in our hearts

to give the light of the knowledge

of the glory of God

in the face of Jesus Christ.

                                Alleluia!                          Alleluia!                        Alleluia!

Epiphany 6B (February 12, 2012) Mark 1:40-45

      After sternly warning him Jesus sent him away at once, saying to him, 

      “See that you say nothing to anyone;..." 

      ... 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.                                         Mark 1:43, 44a, 45

 One thing I have to give Jesus credit for -- he dealt with interruptions a lot better than I tend to. In the preceding verses (heard last week) Jesus has been healing folks, including Peter's mother-in-law, and rises early the next morning to go off to a deserted place to pray and be with God without distractions. Sure enough, the disciples manage to find him and that's the end of that quiet time. But maybe it was right though, God's timing, because it sent him off on his Galilean preaching tour. 

Which now looks to be all but ended before it began. After interrupting Jesus yet again, the leper couldn't do one simple thing: go home quietly, get his ritual bath, be inspected and be declared clean and just get on with the life he had been denied for so long. NOOOOO, he had to TELL EVERYONE! Which meant that everyone knew Jesus had touched him, and now the roles were reversed: Jesus was not welcome in the towns. He could not go directly TO the concentrated population areas, but had to do his preaching out in the country and WAIT for the people to COME TO HIM. 


+++What if our response to help others causes our life circumstances to be forever 
        changed, to abandon what we always thought was 'The Plan' for our life? 

+++Might God have several 'The Plan' strategies for different life stages?                                                                                                                                                              

After 6 years hard work on the piano, and some success in competitions, I knew I wouldn't be the concert pianist I had thought I was to be; so add the bassoon (and band and orchestra) and shift focus to preparing for a teaching career.

Playing cello duets with my sister (composers didn't give you a break anywhere to catch a breath !)

What can I say? It was the late (VERY late!) 60s -- a guitar was like a car ... in fact that Yamaha 12-string with a adjustable neck set me back more than a friend paid for an old junker he kept running almost a year.

And the music teacher only taught as a substitute in the school system ... but had a fulf schedule of private students and became a certified factory-trained bicycle mechanic to help in our shops. I also developed a pre-school music program for 3, 4, and 5 year old children and later directed children and youth choirs, and musical productions at our large church.

Eventually I added the adult choir and was music director; it was a true ministry. And then I had this strange situation that resulted in thoughts of a masters degree ... and I barely started seminary before it was confirmed clearly to me that my music stand was to be traded in for a pulpit. Imagine my surprise at being ordained to an Interim call -- followed by 5 more. I was sure during that time I would retire having never been installed.

But lots of things change in life; and sometimes the circumstances are beyond your control. Widowed at 50, I slowly accepted the reality that lining up back-to-back interim calls for another 15+ years was asking a lot of God. 

So I am almost 1/4 through my 7th year as the installed pastor of a small congregation. What is the next 'Plan' God has in store for me? And when will it be arriving? Could be in 5 years, or 10, or tomorrow. That's just the way it is with our God of surprises and interruptions!

+++What is the story of YOUR set of 'Plans' so far? 

+++How do you see God's hand at work in guiding, leading and shaping it?
  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

 

Epiphany 5 (February 5, 2012) Mark 1:29-39

        In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went 

        out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his 

        companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, 

        ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on to the 

         neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; 

        for that is what I came out to do.’                                Mark 1:35-38

Yes, I'm late. But I'm still officially on vacation, so I feel a bit vindicated! In my absence Sunday an elder read a meditation on the gospel passage from Rick Morley's blog 'a garden path' entitled 'A Dark and Deserted Place'. He talks about how necessary it was for even Jesus to spend time alone in prayer in order to nurture his spiritual connection with God.  

I have been blessed to have made pilgrimage to the Holy Land twice, and both times to have been able to walk to a small cave on the Eremos Heights a short way from Peter's house in Capernaum. It's a good bit above water level, with a lovely view of the entire northeast and northwest shorelines. I invite you to sit for a few minutes in the peacefulness of this cave, which legend has it, was the very place where Jesus went out to pray by himself whenever he was in Capernaum, and to nurture your spiritual connection with God this day.

Eremos Heights, near Capernaum, Israel