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...