Regret that this blog is being discontinued 

Sunday, September 12, 2021

Mark 8:27 - 9:1

Who do you say I am?

 I apologize for failing to post last week. Here's what you missed:

Jesus is in a boat with his disciples. They've missed bringing bread to eat. Jesus warns them to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.

Focused on bread, the disciples think that bread is what Jesus is talking about.

Jesus becomes furious with them. "And still you don't understand?!" Jesus is talking about evil influences that, like yeast in dough, work silently and unseen but have great effect. As Jesus sees it, both the Pharisees and the court of Herod are polluting Israel. 

But his disciples seem only to be worried about lunch.

Mark's story of Jesus could have ended right there. Jesus could have dismissed his disciples and sent them home, and recruited less clueless ones.

Instead, now ashore, Jesus heals a blind man. Get it?

This week, then, Jesus and his disciples are in the vicinity of Caesarea Philippi. It's a decidedly secular area, at least to Jewish perception. The Gentile Roman occupiers and their local collaborators have offices there. It is a good place for Jesus to ask the disciples this question:

Who do people say that I am?

The answers are as divers as one might expect, then or today. But then Jesus asks:

And what about you? Who do you say that I am?

Peter is portrayed in the gospels as impetuous. Like here.

You are the Christ.

 Funny, Peter's answer is both right and wrong.

The very first line of Mark's story of Jesus was

 The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God's Son, (Mk. 1:1 CEB)

So at least we readers know that Peter is correct. And Jesus doesn't tell Peter that he's wrong. Actually Jesus switches the language, calling himself "the Human One" ("the Son of Man" in older translations). And what does he say about the destiny of the Human One? 

The Human One must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise from the dead.

Mark then relates something astounding. Mark tells us that Peter took hold of Jesus, scolded him, and began to correct him. Would you do that? Would I? 

Jesus' response is swift and brutal. Turning to look at his disciples (as if they were all complicit) Jesus berates Peter:

Get behind me, Satan. You are not thinking God's thoughts but human thoughts.

And then, to the disciples and to the crowds and to anyone ready to listen:

All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them. Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? What will people give in exchange for their lives? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes in the Father's glory with the holy angels.

Several things to notice here. Jesus doesn't carry the cross for us, we carry the cross with him. And being Jesus' follower means giving up absolutely everything else.  That's not what the Street Religion says. Do we say these things to people who come to join our congregations?

You may have some memory that Matthew tells this story differently. Or that Luke does. Actually, they both do. Mark was writing when the Romans, tired of Jewish intransigence, were about to put Jerusalem under siege and tear it down stone by stone, slaughtering the defenders. Jesus' followers in that time had to make decisive choices about what they would do and who they would follow, and how they would follow. Matthew and Luke wrote a generation or so later when the problems were entirely different. 

So. Who do we say Jesus is? Is he the all-conquering Messiah, one we should take up the sword and follow? Or does Messiah mean something entirely different from that? Like denying ourselves and taking up a cross?

This story is the hinge of Mark's larger story of Jesus. Before this story there are teachings and healings and crowds of followers. After it, basically, it is just the disciples and Jesus, as they traverse the road to Jerusalem. And we all know what happens there.

 September 4, 2021

This blog is under renovation. Be back soon.

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Mark 8:1-10

Feeding in a foreign land

Wait, haven't we heard this story before?

Didn't Mark tell us this story already, back in Mark 6?

So is Mark getting forgetful? What is Mark up to here?

Yes, indeed, the two stories are quite similar indeed. And Mark, always in a hurry, is not one to waste ink or parchment or our time.

There is, however, one very important difference between the two stories, one that made it worth Mark's time to tell it again:

In Mark 6, Jesus is working in home territory, in the "holy land". Everyone in that story, including the disciples and Jesus himself, were Israelites.

But in this week's story, Jesus -- and his disciples -- are out of territory, on foreign soil, outside the pale.

In last week's story, Jesus had crossed the line into the region of  Tyre, near a major Roman seaport. Not exactly home territory. There, in response to a foreign woman's plea for help, he had exorcised a demon from the woman's daughter. And afterward, instead of returning to home soil, "Jesus went through Sidon toward the Galilee Sea through the region of the Ten Cities." All of that is foreign territory, out of bounds. Especially for the One whom Mark has told us is the [Jewish] Messiah. ("Messiah" and "Christ" mean the same thing, "anointed".)

So when Mark tells us that "In those days there was another large crowd with nothing to eat" we are to understand that all those hungry folks were Gentiles, foreigners, infidels.

You would think that the disciples would remember how this story goes. But they ask the same dumb questions that they asked back in Mark 6. As if it mattered to them whether they were dealing with God's own people, or with Gentiles.

And yet the result was the same.

One of the undercurrents of the entire New Testament, beginning with Paul's letters (which were written before any of the gospels) was that the new thing that happens with Jesus is that all the world, and not just God's unique historical people, are the subjects of God's grace and redemption through Jesus Christ. In New Testament days that was a new thing, and clearly it took some convincing. Paul said it this way in Galatians:

You are all God's children through faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now if you belong to Christ, then indeed you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise. 

So perhaps we should ask ourselves: Are we confused about this, even as Jesus' disciples seem to have been confused about it in this morning's story? 

Who do we think of as "foreign" to God's kingdom?  

What class of people are beyond God's grace? 

When we go out on mission, are we bringing Jesus to people, or are we meeting a Jesus who is already there waiting for us?

It's worth thinking about. When we choose to follow Jesus, where do we end up following him to?

 

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Crumbs under the table 

Mark 7:24-30

This week we're skipping a bit of Mark's story of Jesus, moving to a story about Jesus on some kind of retreat into the region of Tyre. 

It's important to note that the last thing that has happened in Mark's story is that Jesus has been in a dispute with the religious authorities about what makes one "unclean" -- religiously outcast. You can read that story here.

It is from that dispute that Jesus travels north, into border territory, even across the border, into the region of Tyre. In Jesus' time Tyre was an important seaport in the Roman Empire. Speaking of unclean...

For reasons not made clear by Mark our storyteller Jesus is trying to remain secluded, entering a house. But we already know from Mark's story that people are often are able to find Jesus wherever he has gone.

The woman who finds him this time is Greek by birth, a Syrophoenician. She is not one of Jesus' own people. And Jesus is not in the home territory of this own people. The whole situation reeks of "unclean". This could be awkward.

The woman begs Jesus to throw a demon out of her daughter. But Jesus replies

The children have to be fed first. It isn't right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs.

The implication, of course, is that Jesus has come for his own people, and not for others. If Jesus is indeed Messiah, the one who will establish the former glory of Jesus' people as it was in the time of king David, then the woman, who is not one of Jesus' own people, is out of bounds.

It is hard to hear Jesus say these words. It's not what we expect from "gentle Jesus, meek and mild". It seems downright cruel of him. Many have tried to claim that Jesus is simply testing the woman, that he actually has compassion toward her. But would compassion lead Jesus, or anyone, to test a woman whose child is in desperate need?

The woman has an answer. She must really be desperate, because in that society a woman would hardly dare say this to a man with any authority:

Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.

The folks who first heard or read this story would expect Jesus to strike the woman for her insolence.

Instead, Jesus commends the woman for her answer, telling her to go home to find her daughter already demon-free.

A question: Did Jesus just lose an argument to a woman who isn't even one of God's intrinsic people? Did Jesus just change his mind because of what the woman said? We don't want to think so. We want to "protect" Jesus, or at least protect our image of him. But what did Mark our storyteller mean for us to hear?

However that may be, the next thing we read in Mark's story tells us that Jesus travels into truly Gentile, truly unclean territory. There he heals a man, and then... Well, that's coming next.

Sunday, August 8, 2021

You give them something to eat

 Mark 6:30-44

The title of this story in CEB is, "Jesus feeds 5,000 people". But that's not actually how the story goes.

It begins with the apostles reporting to Jesus about the preaching and healing mission he'd sent them out on. But this debriefing was being interrupted by "many people... coming and going." There wasn't even a time or place for them to eat. (Remember that, it will be important later.)

Jesus suggests a retreat, a boat trip to a secluded desert place all by themselves. There the apostles could relax and unwind and give Jesus a full report of their successes. 

But many of those same folks who had been coming and going and interrupting lunch before their departure noticed them going. These folks ran ahead, and were there to greet Jesus and the apostles at the place which they thought would be secluded and deserted.

Don't you hate it when that happens?

I'm sure that the disciples were... miffed at this development. But Jesus reacts differently. He has compassion on these masses, recognizing that they were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus begins to teach them many things.

Mark our storyteller doesn't tell us about the disciples' mood as the day wears on, but I think I can guess. Finally they come to Jesus with a suggestion. Sends these folks away (please!) so they can go get food for themselves and not starve out here in this secluded place. 

What follows is one of the most surprising and potentially devastating lines for anyone who is trying to be one of Jesus' followers: You give them something to eat!

The disciples are flabbergasted -- as we ourselves would be. You want us to go off and buy eight months' pay worth of bread? What exactly do you want us to do here?

Jesus is unruffled. What do you actually have? Go look.

You and I know, of course, what they have. They have their own dinner. Are they supposed to give that away and go hungry themselves? They have five loaves and two fish. What is that in the face of the need?

The critical question is: Will they give it to Jesus to use, or will they hoard it for themselves?

Apparently they give it to Jesus. Jesus takes the five loaves and the two fish, and he blessed them. And then... Then he gives it back to the disciples. And the disciples feed five thousand people with it.

What would that be like? Especially for congregations being eaten up by the economy of scale, not to mention the depravations of COVID-19?

Dare we give the little that we have to Jesus, for Jesus to bless and give back to us for Kingdom work?

A favorite preacher story of mine:

The preacher gets up on Sunday morning and says, I have good news and I have bad news.

What's the good news?

We have all the money we need to do all of the things God wants us to do.

What's the bad news?

It's still in your pockets.

Grace and peace... 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, August 1, 2021 

Home, and beyond

Mark 6:1-13

Jesus has been about ministry in the chapters before this one. He has formed something of a reputation. So now he goes to his hometown synagogue, his home church so to speak, on the Sabbath.

What kind of reception would you expect Jesus to get at his some worship place, after the things he's done?

Many of those who heard him were surprised, Mark tells us. Isn't this our hometown boy? Isn't he the carpenter we know, son of Mary and bother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? 

We already know this kid. So where did he get all this. Where did this wisdom come from, How did he learn to do acts of power? Just who does he think he is?

The CEB translates "they were repulsed by him and fell into sin", an awkward construction. The Greek uses a word that became our English word "scandalized". His hometown folks were scandalized by what they saw in a man that they thought they already knew.

In Greek a scandalon is a stone over which one stumbles. The CEB translation catches this meaning -- the folks in Jesus' hometown synagogue tripped over this new-to-them Jesus and "fell" -- fell into sin.

Jesus indeed is capable of acts of power. But not so much in his hometown. Mark tells us that he could only place his hands of a few sick people and heal them. (I might settle for that!) Mark tells us that Jesus was appalled at their disbelief.

And so Jesus leaves. In Mark's story Jesus never goes home again. 

Instead Jesus travels through the surrounding villages, teaching. More significantly, Jesus calls for the Twelve and sends them out in pairs to do the very things he himself was prevented from doing in his hometown -- proclaiming repentance, casting out demons, anointing the sick with oil in order to heal them. 

Jesus' ministry of bringing in the kingdom of God won't stay at home. It spreads out. Eventually, in Mark's story, it will cross many traditional boundaries. 

So, what might happen if Jesus were to come to church with us on Sunday morning? We might think that would be delightful, but in fact it didn't work out so well in Nazareth. Are we willing to hear things from Jesus that move beyond our own small images of him?

And are we willing to be sent out, like the Twelve, so spread the grace and healing of God's kingdom? Or do we think that can only happen in our home church?

Sunday, July 25, 2021

 Mark 1:1-15

"Now is the time! Here comes God's kingdom!

Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!" (Mk. 1:15 CEB)

A few interesting things about how Mark begins his story of Jesus:

• Mark is the only one of the four gospels to use the word "gospel" to describe what he's writing. The above translation renders it "good news". The Greek word is εὐαγγελίῳ, which is the base for our English word "evangelism".
• Mark wastes no time. His first sentence almost gives everything away. in fifteen verses Mark gives us what takes about four chapters each in Matthew and Luke.
• The citation from Isaiah 40 gets repurposed in Mark. In Isaiah (40) it's a voice saying, In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord. In Mark it's the voice that's in the wilderness -- John's voice.
• The picture of John the Baptist reflects a description of the prophet Elijah in 2 Kings. Elijah was thought to be arriving just before the Messiah.

The primary theme in Mark's opening is "repent". John calls those who come to him to repent, and to make a public sign of washing, in order for God to give them a fresh start. Jesus, beginning his public ministry, announces that God's kingdom is at hand and asks that we repent and believe it.

But what is it to repent? It's not to feels sorry for our misdoings. Or to feel sorry that we got caught. The CEB translation that I'm giving translates μετανοεῖτε as "change your hearts and your lives". The basic meaning is to change direction, inside and out. Not just to think about it. Not just to think that it's a good idea. To make an actual change.

And this is good news.