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

Epiphany 4B (January 29, 2012) Mark 1:21-28

Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” Mark 1:23-24 (NRSV)

My gratitude to dear friend and colleague, Merle Timko, who is preaching for me this week so I could be relieved of the preparation as I needed to have a minor surgical procedure. 

Merle is going to be speaking about 'possession': what can and does possess us -- evil spirits only? And considering voices, wondering whose tend to command our attention and influence our actions?

Does Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy One of God 'possess' you through the voices of those you listen to?

Christian Singers at Wee Kirk (NW Pac) Boise, ID 2009

local band playing at Seacrets, Ocean City, MD

Beth and Bryan Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore (Dallastown, PA)

Kang Yup Na speaking at Wee Kirk NEPA, Laurelville PA, 2010

Band from Church of All Nations, Minneapolis, MN leading singing at GA, 2010

Ashley Crago speaking about a mission trip to San Francisco, 2011

 

YAADs leading a song at General Assembly, Minneapolis, MN 2010

Visit to the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Lunch during the General Assembly, Minneapolis MN, 2010 by Landon Whitsett, V-Mod and Cindy Bolbach, Moderator ::

:

 

Epiphany 3B (January 22, 2012) 
Jonah 3: 1-5, 10 and Mark 1:14-20

     Jonah entered the city, went one day's walk and preached,  "In forty days Nineveh 
     will be smashed."  The people of Nineveh listened, and trusted God......He did change 
     his mind about them. What he said he would do to them he didn't do. Jonah 3:4-5a, 10bc 
     The Message.


     After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: "Time's up! 
     God's kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.".... A dozen yards or so
     down the beach, he saw the brothers James and John, Zebedee's sons. They were in the
     boat, mending their fishnets. Right off, he made the same offer. Immediately, they left their
     father Zebedee, the boat, and the hired hands, and followed. Mark 1:14-15, 19-20 
     The Message.

Who doesn't love a good fishing story?  And here we have two of the best known in all of history! There are so many ways these passages impact people right where they live, inside their skins. I'm sure someone else has noticed this long ago, but I've not heard it preached nor seen it discussed so far: God issues an urgent call and when people respond, it's like being overtaken by a flood. Afterward there's a lot of debris lying around. Or one lone man.

Case in point: one MAJORLY ticked off reluctant prophet who didn't want any part of going anywhere NEAR the enemy's capital to call for repentance. Yet he did that job for God too well ... because when they heard God's word of judgment they actually repented and God did the unthinkable: showed mercy and decided against the planned course of destruction. Result: an even more ticked off prophet, bitter and angry at God's mercy extended to the enemy.

Case 2: I wonder about Zebedee... his sons are working with him and there's enough work to have hired hands as well... then Jesus comes along with his call and now what? Will they expect their share of the income even though they aren't working for it? He'll need a good portion at least to pay for extra help for sure. And there's the pain at sons not following in their father's footsteps. Result: a good dad feels abandoned by his nearest and dearest ... (and by God, too?)

The question I hear from this odd juncture of two fish stories: How much does God expect us to rejoice in another person's generous gift or exciting call? 

Camp Pine Springs, Jennerstown, PA

 

Lake at Green Gables, Jennerstown, PA

Cuthbert's Cell, Lindisfarne, England

Meditating beyond Cuthbert's Cell, Lindisfarne, England

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