IS IT WORTH THE BOTHER?

WEDNESDAY AFTER FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT 2015

Today is Mark 3:20-35 with Bishop Wright focusing on verses 20-30. Today we need to look at the Scripture—and there are two broad points, compliments of our commentary:

The first is about The Scripture in general. Today these 15 verses are the kind of verses that if you were trying to convince people that Jesus is this amazing guy, you would not necessarily include them. I mean think about it. Mark’s Gospel is short. He probably had lots of material he could have used. So why does he include this bit, and the bit about how it seems like Jesus is disowning his family…it kind of makes him seem like a lunatic…unless of course he really is healing all these people and is as amazing as the text seems to be describing.

The second is about this Scripture specifically. People struggle with this apparent unforgivable sin statement in verses 28-29. But here is the thing, do not pull these two verses out of context. In verses 20-27 people have accused Jesus of being from Satan. Consider all that is going on, Jesus is doing what he is doing in the power of the Holy Spirit. But if people look at the Spirit’s work and call it the work of the devil, they are (to quote Bishop Wright) “erecting a steel wall between them, and the powerful rescuing love of God.” The point is that there is not some singular unforgivable sin, what condemns people is their rejection of Jesus—who He is and what He has come to do.

But now I come to my bit, my bit is that I am often approached to answer random questions about God and the Bible. Especially questions about the hard or apparently confusing parts of the Bible. When I talk to people who are not regular “Scripture Readers”—and this includes people inside and outside the Church—the above explanation of this tough passage often falls flat. It feels to me that I am working on pulling a rabbit out of a hat. While they may be entertained with “my trick” it does not really have the desired effect. I think that when I offer this sound reasoning, showing how the Scriptures hold together, that people will say, “Oh wow, I never knew that, I will now believe!” I know that is naïve, but when you commit your life to something, you tend to want to have some impact. When you don’t, there are days I wonder if “it is worth the bother.”

But that is the other point of the story today. Jesus, in the midst of teaching with authority, and having performed amazing miracles is not believed…he is rejected. Why should I, or others who are trying to follow Jesus expect any difference? As we journey through Lent, people may misunderstand us or worse. They may think we are simpletons, or we have bad motives, or we are fundamentalists, or even extremists. We need to remember that, as the text says, the strong man is bound. That won’t make it necessarily easier…we often want people to respect and even like us…but if we remain faithful, then He who is faithful will be with us—so I need to keep bothering with it all.

“THERES GOIN’ BE A REVOLUTION…”

TUESDAY AFTER FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT 2015

The Beatles sang that song in 1968. Today is Mark 3:1-19 with Bishop Wright focusing on verses 13-19. In the first 18 verses Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath and large crowds continue to follow him. Then, he calls the disciples—12 of them.

Bishop Wright tries to get us to understand how revolutionary this action by Jesus really is. Most of us understand the symbolism of the 12 disciples…to replace the 12 tribes of Israel…but Wright asks, “Do we really?” What if you saw someone hold a press conference at the White House, or on the steps of Congress, announcing a new group of followers…what would that mean to you? And notice, Jesus is not one of the 12, but he calls them. Who called the 12 tribes? We might say Jacob, their earthly father, but we might also say, “God.” Jesus, in addition to healing people and in addition to teaching, is doing revolutionary things.

His idea of revolution will take some time for the 12 freshly minted disciples to sort out. Their mistake is that they are expecting it to follow all the earlier attempts at revolution, but this time to succeed. Jesus has a completely different plan. His revolution leads to Calvary. It is first a revolution in the heart. A revolution to overthrow the forces that seek to enslave us. What are those force? Anger, lust, impatience, and more (see Galatians 5 for one such list). They are very real forces that take very real power to defeat. How then do we defeat them? The answer is by following Jesus. Let’s face it, you cannot only partly be a revolutionary…you are either all in, or not. As our world became to look more and more civilized, we looked less and less like revolutionaries. Being a good citizen, following the law, well, it looked (I repeat looked) approximately Christian. Today however, people we Christians call brothers and sisters are being beheaded by ISIS, we see just what it means to be a revolutionary…to oppose those who are motivated by anger and hatred…we see these martyrs at their own Calvary…we should not be surprised for this milepost on their journey of faith is the milepost that most of the first 12 endured. I say milepost because these terrible deaths are not the end. It is Lent. A time to reflect on the path to the Cross. A time for us, not to beat ourselves up, but rather to reflect on the call of Christ—the call that is deadly serious…may we, may I, truly follow.

BLOOD, SWEAT, TEARS…BUSINESS

MONDAY AFTER FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT 2015

Research shows that only 30% of family businesses survive the second generation, and only 12% the third.* Why do I bring that up? I will get to that in a minute.

First, today the reading for Mark’s Gospel is from chapter 2, verses 18-28. Verses 23-28 focuses on people asking Jesus why his disciples pick grain on the Sabbath; verses 18-22 on why they do not fast when apparently it is a day to fast. It is this fasting situation that Bishop Wright concentrates on. He makes some powerful points and again has a wonderful analogy to help us understand. A day of fasting in the Jewish culture signifies a big important day. Some of us grew up with a different tradition of fasting that deserves a separate blog. In Jesus’ day you fasted when the nation mourned, remembering a solemn event. Bishop Wright’s analogy is America’s 9/11. He had just returned from a very solemn 9/11 commemoration. Imagine if, in the middle of this solemn remembrance, clowns and a parade appeared with people laughing and playing. I expect we would take great offense. In this era of social media, I further expect it all might go viral.

That is the scene in Mark 2:18-22. Please do not misunderstand. There is no inkling that Jesus and his disciples were clowning around and being disrespectful…but they were not observing the fast. Why? Because something so new, so wonderful, is breaking into the world, that while it does not erase 9/11, it points to a future of hope and peace. All the suffering, all the loss, and all the mourning will come to an end…there will be no more 9/11’s. That is what Jesus’ coming to this world inaugurates. And Jesus is not critiquing the Jewish people or the Law. He is simply saying that all that they have been pointing to in hopeful expectation is beginning at last…so catch the vision.

Vision…the first generation of family businesses possess it. It resides in the owner/entrepreneur. He/she is driven to bring into being that which they dream. When they succeed not only is a vision advanced, but it is done so with values; the result is often a culture. The succeeding generations, when they succeed, catch some piece of the vision, values, and culture. Sometimes they just ride on earlier success, but when they spend the time to learn the history, when they spend the energy to understand all that their predecessors endured to bring to life that which did not exist before, when indeed their hearts are converted that in their own day the business, the endeavor, is worth a similar expenditure of the blood, sweat, and tears that their forbearers expended…when that happens…the enterprise lives.

Christianity is no different. One of my priests, and a good friend, says that Christianity is always just one generation away from extinction. In this phrase he is communicating the same idea. That we need to catch the vision. That we need to understand that Jesus coming to earth is so “earth-shaking” that a new world order is emerging. The challenge of course is that we live in a world where “God’s Kingdom has been inaugurated, but has not yet reached it fullness.” That means we still live in a world where the 9/11’s of our day continue. It means that we should not expect to ride along on Jesus’ success. Yes there is power in the Resurrection. It is the Resurrection, Ascension, and the Holy Spirit that has brought this enterprise we call “church” into existence, and also sustains it...but we cannot ride along on the coattails. We must spend the time to learn the history. We must spend the energy to understand all that Jesus endured to bring to life that which did not exist before—His Body on earth. We must go deeply into God’s love of humanity. Can we fathom our worth to God, worth so much that the blood, sweat, tears, and death that Jesus endured is more, much more, then metaphor…when we do this we do not merely catch the vision, but we enter and become intrinsically connected deeply to the Body...and the enterprise, the Body, lives. Lent is the season given to us for such a time.

*http://www.jsaadvising.com/facts-figures-2 accessed February 23, 2015

YOUR KING

SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY 2015

Today Bishop Wright has circled back into Mark, chapter 1 verses 9-15. At first this surprised me, but in some ways, using all of Lent to work through this rather short, yet densely packed, Gospel allows this sort of circling.

Bishop Wright’s points out that if you know a little about the Old Testament, then there will be some phrases that really jump off the page at you in this account of Jesus’ baptism. He specifically notes how Psalm 2 is echoed in part of the text. This Psalm declares the kingdoms of this world are no match for the Kingdom of God…and God’s King. He then notes that there are tones from the servant poems of Isaiah 40—55. The point is that Jesus is God’s King…and that this king will be a very different one, one who will be a servant. It really is a nice piece of exegetically work and it is very approachable. Bishop Wright wants us to understand that, when we read Mark’s Gospel with the trained eyes, that it is shouting from the mountaintops, that Jesus is the long awaited Jewish King, the God’s King, the Servant King…all of that from verses 9-15.

So let me ask. How are you doing with all this “king-stuff?” I really just would encourage you to ponder what it means to have a king. If you got to pick a king…what would your king look like, what would your king do, and what would the effect of having a king mean for your life? I say Jesus is my king…and I say it rather matter-of-factly. So I am off to ponder all of this myself.

FOLLOW

FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY 2015

Today we continue in Mark’s Gospel, chapter 2 verses 1-17. Bishop Wright’s commentary focuses on verses 13-17 where Jesus calls the disciple Matthew, and where we learn that Jesus is also fond of hanging out with all the wrong people.

The verses that Bishop Wright does not focus on is the wonderful story of the friends lowering their paralyzed friend down through the roof. There are many lessons of faith in that event and I commend it to you.

The bit that Bishop Wright does focus on brings to light that Jesus is hanging out with dodgy characters. It is telling that the Pharisees are bothered by this. If you or I were hanging out with the wrong sorts of people, a few folks might notice, but I imagine not too many. If our president or governor were doing it, then everyone would know. The point? Noteworthy people have their movement closely scrutinized. Jesus, this early in his ministry, is apparently so important a figure, that even those who are not quite sure who he is, are watching his every move. They ask why he is with such people of ill repute.

Jesus gives answer to their charge, that he has come for those who need him. Don’t miss the move. In the second half of the first chapter and in the first half of the second chapter, Jesus is performing physical healings…now he is moving onto dealing with people whose whole lives need the Good News.

My reaction to all of this flows from me re-reading the first and second chapter of Mark to make sure I have the flow, and then to think about how the flow of that story intersects the reported 85,000 in the city of Albany who don’t much know the story.

The Gospel has an audience that has in its mind that there is a God, and maybe this God is the God that the Jews have worshipped. It is that point of view that the Gospel of Mark takes as its starting point. Consider that Mark opens his story with a quote from Isaiah. Consider my titles of today and the first two days: REPENT…AUTHORITY…FOLLOW. These themes are themes that work with Mark’s audience. I am asking myself if these themes really resonant with us?

Yesterday I wrote a rather long post about Authority, and my aim was to invite us to consider how, whether we think so or not, we have given someone or something authority in our lives. For many it is a “narrative.” The word “narrative” has been used now for a few decades to denote that there is a big picture story, and if you accept it, then you will try and live your life according to it. Consider the story of the American Dream; much is being talked about today in our political sphere because people are questioning whether today this “story” that so many lived into, is still real. If that story is not real, if through your hard work, you are not living in a land of opportunity, then, well, people will lose hope…and the hope, the belief, that you through your hard work could improve your life and the life of your family, has fueled this country. Eliminate that story and you eliminate the hope and the drive.

I offer that explanation, praying that my using the American Dream as an example of how “narrative” actually shapes people and societies, you may then be able to think about the narrative of: God has come, so “turn-around” [repent] and start following God…Jesus. That is what Mark is offering. He has provided:

1.  That this point in our cosmic world history is fully consistent with the Bible
2. That Jesus is this God: simply look at the events of his baptism, temptation, teaching and healings.
3. That Jesus, that God welcomes everyone to follow. This is not a message of “you’re ok, just keep doing what makes your happy.” No, it is a message that God loves you and wants you to live a life that will give you the capacity of knowing his love and offering his love to others.

So how are you with this narrative? How are your friends? How are my friends? Let’s start first with us. If we believe “the story—the narrative—the Bible” then we will be people who are first and foremost looking in the mirror and asking God to help us keep “turned the right-way-round.” By that I mean that we will be continually repentant, asking God to keep us from thoughts, words, and deeds that are harmful to us and to others—REPENT. We will also be people who are trying to understand more and more of the story, the narrative, so that we might fully live into it. Why? Because we believe it is the story of life. So we give it, the story, we give God—AUTHORITY. The Good News, especially as we see Jesus hanging out with all these so-called dodgy characters, is that this is not some school examination that we are graded on. No, this is simply and complexly, life. Jesus says to you and me, at times dodgy characters in our own right, to come, to learn the way of life, to FOLLOW.

Which brings me all the way round to those 85,000 people who might not “buy into the narrative.” They will be looking at you. Just like people who had another narrative in Jesus’ day were looking at him. Don’t misunderstand, you will need to talk to them someday about “your narrative.” But for today, my question to me, and to you who are reading, is what narrative are we following. 

AUTHORITY & DEMONS & HONESTY

THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY 2015

Today we continue in Mark’s Gospel, chapter 1 verses 21-45. The text is aimed at quickly showing that Jesus really is someone special. In Mark’s Gospel, while we have barely started reading it, Mark has claimed that Jesus is the Messiah. He chooses some events aimed at beginning to prove his point. When we look at verses 21-28 we note one thing, and Mark tells us the people note something else. We note that a man with “an unclean spirit—a demon” is ordered out of a man. The text says the people note that Jesus taught with authority. We might pause and just ponder why we react more to one part of this text, as compared to the people in the text.

Authority is the dimension that Bishop Wright digs into. We in the 21^st century read the word authority and think one thing…but what we are thinking is not the same as in Jesus’ day. Teaching, teaching the Law, was a big deal. Following the Law is what set the Jewish people apart from all others—it was a badge of honor. If you were going to set yourself apart by following the Law, you would want the best instruction on how to live the Law. Often times, the teachers of the day, the Scribes and Pharisees, would not offer their own understanding of the Law. Instead they would refer back to a famous Rabbi’s, or even Moses…in other words they did not teach as if they personally had authority...enter Jesus.

Jesus taught with authority. Not only did he teach with authority, but he backed it up with his actions.

The classic points that Christians make in these texts is that Jesus really is God, that he has authority over all, including phenomena that we have trouble understanding and explaining. The obvious conclusion is that we should let Jesus have authority over us.

So here are my two questions. How do you deal with authority? What do you think about the idea of unclean spirits? Quite frankly, how you answer those questions will go a long way into whether or not you can accept the Scriptures. Let’s turn first to authority.

When my mother yelled, “David Joseph Collum, you come in here right this minute” I responded. I moved. I did not delay. My mother’s authority was real to me. As I grew I went to college, worked, got married…the stuff of life. Who and what had authority over me evolved. In many ways, an idea had authority over me. By authority, I mean that “thing” which governed my actions. In my world it was my idea of success, or the American dream, or happiness…I would shape my actions and my focus my energy on these very fuzzy and ill-defined endpoints.

My point is that Authority is more than you or I starting or stopping something at the command of another. Authority is bigger. It is very similar to what I just described as how the Jews of Jesus’ day viewed the Law. Many of us think “we are our own people,” that no one has “authority” over us. But here is one of the reasons I put the word “honesty” in my title. It we are honest with ourselves, if we think about it, we will admit that something or someone has authority in our life. Not so much that if they tell us to “start or stop” that we will, but more that we keep aiming for, striving to achieve, some goal that they hold up. And quite frankly, it may be fuzzy and ill-defined in your life. But take a moment right now and answer the question: What are you aiming for?

Some people say they are aiming for fun, or happiness, or success, or family, health. The Gospel suggests that you aim to follow Jesus.

But following Jesus, at least from the text today means what? Does is mean we have to deal with all this unclean spirit stuff? Let’s again come back to this word “honesty.” For me, someone who is trying to share the Good News with others, I have to be honest. I have to be honest that there are things in the Gospels that our world struggles with. Honestly, would I prefer it if the text said that Jesus was confronted by a lunatic, and through his wisdom diagnosed him with a mental disorder and then saw he got proper treatment…honestly would that make my announcing the Good News easier?

At first blush, the answer to the question might seem like yes; but if I think about it I have to honestly tell you my answer would be no. No, don’t change the text, let me have the story of the man with the unclean spirit. Why? Because the story of Jesus the Messiah is the story of God come to earth. It is the story of this “person(s)” that is beyond our description, this force that is beyond our natural world, breaking into the world we say “he” created (and unpacking that sentence is more than a blog entry—but this is what we claim). My point in all of this is that to believe in God is to believe in things and forces and beings we cannot see, and to believe that there is One who has authority over all of it…that we are not merely caught up in some random chance world careening nowhere…but rather that we are loved by the One who creates and sustains it…want to see that love…want to know you are loved…want to believe that there is more to your life than fun…honestly do you…the text today suggests then that we follow Jesus because he has authority over it all…even the crazy stuff we cannot understand.

ISIS—50—ASHES

ASH WEDNESDAY 2015

This blog for the season of Lent is taking its cues from Lent for Everyone by NT Wright as he takes us through the Gospel of Mark. I will try and summarize of bit of what Bishop Wrights says, and then offer some other comments with regards to how I am thinking about each day’s theme. Today’s theme, as it is Ash Wednesday, is to “get ready” and to “repent.”

The text is the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, chapter 1 verses 1-20. Today Bishop Wright has a wonderful story about how a new restaurant is using locusts in its salad. In an interview with the chef, he points out that people eat prawns, so why not locusts. This is one of the reasons I enjoy Bishop Wright, he has wonderful modern connections to these 2,000 year old texts—modern day locusts eaters, who would have thought, it seems rather odd?

His point is even in the first century eating locusts would have struck people as odd, gotten their attention you might say. It, or rather he, John the Baptist did get people’s attention and the text notes that they heard his message: get ready—repent. Why? Because the long awaited Messiah is coming! The imagery in Mark’s Gospel are people in large numbers being plunged into the waters of baptism because they have taken to heart the message. Bishop Wright posits that if the message was Victoria Beckham is coming to your house, you would get ready! Victoria Beckham—really Bishop Wright—are you trying to get my attention? He skillfully gets you into the text, all the while making some of the classic points of Ash Wednesday. John the Baptist is announcing that something new, or rather someone new, is coming. Get ready; what “rooms in your personal house” need cleaning for the new guest? 

And indeed Mark’s Gospel rockets out of the starting gate with Jesus as the Messiah. Skeptical readers will need to stick with Mark to see if they buy his story—but he certainly does not keep you waiting until the last page to announce his radical news—and many find this idea of God coming to earth in human form, well rather odd news.

My mind is stuck with other odd, even disturbing news. As Fifty Shades of Gray broke Box Office records this past weekend, apparently ISIS beheaded 21 Christians. Please do not misunderstand. ISIS’s actions are not connected to the movie debut. These two headline grabbing events are simply merged in my mind. As I grind the ashes, burnt from last year’s Palm Sunday palms, I find myself simultaneously thinking about this week’s events and asking, “Do people believe they need to repent?” While we seemingly live in a world far from Thomas Anthony Harris’ 1969 best seller “I’m OK, You’re OK, we nonetheless generally believe that we are not the problem.

How can I find a voice that invites people to even consider the need to “repent?” To what am I asking them to repent of? It is quite frankly easy to look at the atrocities being committed in the name of God and demand those people repent. It is even easy to point out how the latest movie craze is something that, if you are on your way to go see, well turnaround. Yet pointing out how others should turnaround, should repent, seems as if I have somehow appointed myself the self-righteous already-repentant one who knows best.

The air of self-righteousness has a decided stench to it. It usually elicits from our world the classic complaint that the church for too long has wagged its judging finger at people, keeping them downtrodden as it, the church, goes about indulging in its own sins. The post-Enlightenment world has long since shaken off sin for a new ideal of self-confidence and self-esteem. My mind comes back to the question, “In this world, is there room for, and can I articulate, a real need not for ISIS or Hollywood, but for me and the several hundred people I will administer ashes to, to really repent?”  

And this is where I return to this weekend’s headlines. Most people are outraged by the beheadings, and some people are disappointed that a carefully created narrative, with some very gifted marketing, has made millions of people at least curious about a type of relationship that is ultimately about power of one person over another. Without getting any higher on my high-horse, it is my reaction to this weekend’s odd disturbing news that points me back to the odd news of John the Baptist. ISIS, Fifty Shades of Gray, and the like, make us less human. For me these two events are some deep low points of what plagues all of us…that we all tend to make others and ourselves, less than God created us to be.

Jesus’ coming to our world is, as Bishop Wright is fond of saying, to put the world right. To make us more fully human. He did not come so that we could create some utopian world on earth, but he did come to set things right. Turning and following Jesus, seeking to live like Jesus, is to seek to walk a path where each and every day we are more and more human—each and every day we try and treat others like they are humans created in the Imago Dei. Dare I look in the mirror with enough confidence in God’s love, with enough sense of self, with enough courage, and admit that there are attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in me that are off? It seems to me that this is one of the key issues as I seek to engage the world. And here I must tread lightly and think carefully because I am dangerously close to appearing as if I am communicating that I, the self-righteous repentant one, am wagging my finger at you. Please know that I am looking in the mirror, and inside I am shaking my head, all too aware of my besetting foibles, my persistent behaviors that de-humanize me, that de-humanize others...you might say my sin. Ash Wednesday is not about sitting on the sidelines of life moralizing about others. Ash Wednesday is about entering life. So this Ash Wednesday I will kneel and have a different shade of gray placed on my forehead that tells me to remember that between my starting as dust and returning to dust, is a life that Jesus came for, and that he invites me again to turn, follow, and live in his grace and love.