GET RID OF TRAPPINGS

TUESDAY AFTER THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT 2015

What kind of a picture do I find for "getting rid of trappings?" I found this guy who looks pretty slick!

Today is Mark 7:14-23.

Yesterday I wrote that the Jewish people of Jesus day we so concerned about their identity that “surrounded by the occupying Roman force, (they) are so concerned to guard and protect their way, that they obsess over every little thing, all the while losing the big picture. They have become closed off, isolated, and are not sharing God and God’s love with others.”

We are still in that scene with Jesus…and he continues to shock them. He is driving at what it means to be “pure” or “holy” or “good.” What if we “switch it up?” What if a person trying to get us to understand what it meant to be American, burnt an American flag? What would your reaction be? I know some people burn the flag to indicated their hated. In this instance the person would tell you that they love America, but that you do not know what it means to be really an American. They certainly would have gotten your attention. Go back and read Mark 7:14-23….Jesus is in essence burning the flag by saying all foods are clean.

He is smacking them in the head to get them to understand what it is that makes a person a person of God…it is what comes out of them…out of their mouths and hands and feet…and HEART.

I do struggle with all the “trappings” of being a Christian. My black leather (imitation) Bible. My white collar…even sometimes my blog. I just got back from getting a cup of coffee…with my white collar. I was stopped several times while I was in a rush. I kept telling myself to relax, pay attention to the person, all the while thinking I needed to get my blog typed. What was in my heart? I can tell you why I have and do each little thing…why I wear a white collar…if I were in Jesus’ day, why I do not eat certain foods...but for those who do not know Jesus, if my heart is not right, then they will see someone who is either a little too slick, or even worse, someone with an angry heart. 

BEING HUMAN—WHAT DO WE STAND ON?

KMONDAY AFTER THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT 2015

Today is Mark 7:1-13.

People follow this blog differently. Some “click on it” when they see it on Facebook or get an email. Others check each day. If you are in the latter category, then you know I missed a day…I missed Saturday. Fortunately, the way Bishop Wright has set out his study, he reads Mark sequentially Monday-Friday, so we have not lost the flow. But here is the thing. I said I was going to do something every day for Lent…and I didn’t. Things in life just got a little hectic. Not terribly bad things, but we had ice jams and roof leaks at the Cathedral, I started teaching a new course, some people got very ill, and a number of other demands…and so I did not post a blog for Saturday. It does bug me, the recovering “perfectionist.”

Remarkably it ties into today’s reading from Mark (you would think I planned it—but I am not that clever). In Mark the religious of the day are giving Jesus a hard time because his disciples are not following some prescribed religious rules…like they skipped a day in Lent. Now first off Jesus does not say these rules and customs and traditions are bad. He does however point out that somehow those who are complaining have lost the core, the foundation, of their faith. They, surrounded by the occupying Roman force, are so concerned to guard and protect their way, that they obsess over every little thing, all the while losing the big picture. They have become closed off, isolated, and are not sharing God and God’s love with others.

This need to keep the “big picture” in focus is front and center in my world these next few weeks. I teach a course called Finding your Foundation. I have done it for years. I try to help people explore what they believe, explaining what the church believes, hopefully without forcing those beliefs on them. I do this because I think so many of us have inherited a faith that we may not have had the time to think through, and we all are immersed in a world that promotes some ridiculous ideas about faith and religion…in summary, in this course (or perhaps better said conversation) I try to get us to all think…to think about our foundational beliefs.

I write all that not so much to promote this effort, but to share the intersection of my real life events that mirror Mark 7. On one hand I had a tradition, a good tradition called a Lenten Discipline—and I did not get it done and it bothered me. On the other hand I was leading a discussion about the various ways people understood God, and then we moved to the person of Jesus, and he radically challenges all those ideas—Jesus is the foundation. Which, at the end (or beginning) of the day, is a good thing to keep in focus.

REALLY!?

FRIDAY AFTER SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT 2015

Today is Mark 6:45—56: Jesus walks on water, and he heals many people. Bishop Wright today takes a different tack, he places himself in the role of one of the disciples. If you think about these poor guys, they are on a crazy rollercoaster ride, trying to figure out just who their Rabbi really is…not just who he says he is, but what that means because his notions are radically different.

If Jesus is the new king of Israel, then the disciples have a very specific image in their head of just what this new king will do—he will “kick out” the Roman occupiers and re-establish the great nation of Israel. But Jesus confuses them. He teaches with real authority—a new great king would do that. He does amazing acts of power—a great new king would have power, but maybe not as much as Jesus. He cares about people, real people—what a wonderful way for a new king to act. He tells themn that he is going to die and he is not putting up any real resistance—and there is the rub, this does not make sense.

So this new “on his way to be king” Rabbi says, “Get in the boat and I will meet you on the other side.” 

Now you don’t even have to be Thomas to have the following reaction, “Really, get in the boat, you are kidding right!?” Last time they got in a boat, Jesus slept through a storm. And when they got through the storm, they met a demon-possessed man on the other side. “Really, get in the boat, you have got to be kidding!?”

There is a “tag line” based on the story in Matthew where Jesus invites Peter to get out of the boat and walk on water. It goes something like, “If you want to walk on water you have to get out of the boat.” I have to think that some of the disciples do not even want to get into the boat.

Getting into the boat is doing what Jesus says to do. He tells them to. Getting into the boat to possibly repeat the same stormy night events that require you to simultaneously put all your hope on Jesus (who this time is not even in the boat with you) while you are rowing and straining against the storm. This act of getting into the boat requires faith and trust, even when you do not understand just how he plans on “pulling off this new king thing.”

I am kind of like these disciples. Jesus is Risen Lord. He has broken the power of death. His Kingdom, God’s Kingdom is being inaugurated. Further, I can teach and preach about how we are people who live in a world where this Kingdom of God has not reached its fullness. I can preach we are a people who live in the “now—and not yet” reality of God’s rule. I can preach and teach all that, but I also don’t quite know how he plans on “pulling off this new king thing.” How it all will come to fruition. I also have moments of “Really!?”

Really, this ISIS stuff. Really, all this poverty. Really, the stuff with my family, I mean after all Jesus I have left a lot to follow you…how many more of those sentences I can write. How about you? Can you write some of them?

The issue or situation is that I am often projecting my idea of God’s kingdom into some mental map of how I think this is all supposed to work. If I am honest with myself, the issue is also a little bit too much about me. I want it my way. I want Jesus to look at me and somehow acknowledge all I think I am sacrificing and make it easier for me. I do not want to get in a boat, a boat where I cannot see him, and end up having to row in a storm, and go to a place where there might be another maniac. But it’s Lent. It’s a season of sitting with your Bible. It’s a season of sitting in prayer. It’s a season that I sit and try a get real with our Lord…and then get in the boat.

BALANCE

THURSDAY AFTER SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT 2015

Today is Mark 6:3--44. Today we read of Jesus feeding the 5,000…and he is about to walk on water. All of this comes right after the disciples have returned from their first independent outing as disciples.

Miraculously feeding people is sometimes seen as Jesus having “something up his sleeve,” some sort of magic trick. People puzzle at it. Some even suggest that the crowd really had food, and Jesus just really encouraged them to share it. Some of you reading this blog may have even been subjected to sermons along these lines. Before I comment on what I think this text tells us Jesus is doing, let me ask a different question. What do you think the guy who wrote this Gospel, we call him Mark, what do you think he was trying to communicate? Now mind you, in a moment he is going to tell us Jesus walks on water, and he has already told us that Jesus heals people and casts out demons. When reading a book, we might first make sure we understand what the author is saying…before we choose to re-write it.

Mark is saying Jesus, as God come to earth, is carrying out an act of creation. In the beginning there was nothing—and from nothing God made everything. Whatever your theory of how the universe all came into being…the Bible says He is the source and force behind it all. Jesus demonstrates that he is able to create…Jesus is God.

Now having written all that, this bit of the feeding is not what caught my eye. What caught my eye were Jesus’ words, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest while.” He feeds the people because they find him, he feels for them, and he cares for them. Before all this he looks at his disciples, exuberant upon their return, and his first instinct is to take them to a desolate place and rest. I am really taken by that part—and even within it—the idea of a desolate place, there is probably no cell phone service.

Some of us need to go away, even if it is for a few hours, to a desolate place. Others of us might need some company and activity. It seems like the disciples have had plenty of activity and so now they need some balance…which side of this situation do you need more? Ask God for his help to provide it.

SOME DAYS

WEDNESDAY AFTER SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT 2015

Today is Mark 6:1-29. Bishop Wright focuses on verses 14-29 that describe Herod Antipas’ confrontation with John the Baptist (JB), which led to John’s beheading. In Bishop Wright’s treatment, he again, in a fairly short space gets us to appreciate much of what is going on.

I want to look at the sweep of the 29 verses. In verses 1-6 Jesus is rejected in his home town of Nazareth. The situation was so discouraging that the text says Jesus could not do many miracles. Next, verses 7-13, in a rather summary fashion, chronicle that Jesus sends out the twelve, two-by-two, and with little to no provisions. They come back reporting great success. Lastly we read of Herod, JB, and Jesus. Herod hears of this amazing Jesus and some speculate that it is JB raised from the dead. We then get a rather long section (by Markan standards) describing how JB died.

To me the first bit—Nazareth, and the last bit—Herod, is a little like the world I am living in. I feel like we are in Nazareth—Jesus and today’s church really are like prophets in their own villages—without honor and not really able to do much. I contrast that to what I watch on TV, it is another world. A world of Herod’s. Herod desperately wanted to by King of the Jews; he wanted to be seen as a godly king. So too ISIS. Yet the reality to all who observe is that there are sick pathetic tyrants, using force to perform terrible acts of terror…and all the while it being amazingly obvious to anyone who will look, even to people who reject the idea of God, that they are not men of God, quite the opposite.

The challenge for me is to wonder “how?” How does the church in Albany shake free of the complacency of Nazareth? It seems to me that Jesus did not stop being Jesus when he was in Nazareth and Jesus will not stop being Jesus with Herod looming in the shadow. In fact Jesus will always be seeking to spread the kingdom, and we see a glimpse of that as he sends out the 12. At the end of all of this we need to be the church—the people who proclaim the Good News in-season and out-of-season—regardless of its reception. I don’t mean to say we should not try new ways. I am simply saying we need to be like our Lord and Savior, steadfast and faithful…some days easier said than done…some days he was in Nazareth…some days he and his message was warmly received...some days he was at Calvary…so pray for his Body, the church.

WE KNOW BY DOING

TUESDAY AFTER SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT 2015

Today is Mark 5:21-43. In my blog THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR I note this part of the Gospel is often referred to as a Markan Sandwich. This description tries to point out that this section starts with one story, switches to another, and then the first story is finished up. The reason the word “sandwich” is used is that the two stories play off one another, enlivening the flavor of each. Bishop Wright focuses on the “meat of the story”—the woman with the flow of blood. He again does a wonderful job, and he points out something very interesting, and raises a question for us.

The text says that Jesus’ response to the woman is “daughter, your faith has made you well.” Bishop Wright points out that our Lord’s words say it is the woman’s faith that made her well. Most of us would say it was Jesus, God, that made her well. Why does our Lord say her faith made her well? Certainly God is sovereign over everything. We might even muse that God knew she was going to touch Jesus’ robe. But our Lord’s words bring up an important point, that God whenever it is appropriate acts through people. Yes he parted the Red Sea, but it was Moses who was to hold open his arms. Yes he turned water into wine, but it was the servants who first filled the jars. Yes he healed the woman with the flow of blood, but she first reached out her hand.

I tend to think the acts of people, our acts, are a part of God’s grace or God’s Holy Spirit. For example, it took tremendous courage for the woman to enter the crowd and touch Jesus. I would say that courage was a grace from God, or God’s very Holy Spirit leading her. Having said that, we see that our lives as people of faith is not a spectator sport. We do not stand on the sideline and watch…we are in the game. Even when we are alone in our homes, closing our eyes, and saying a prayer for someone far away…that faithful act is us participating.

When you stand on the sidelines as a spectator then your experience is limited. When you enter into the competition you will experience all sorts of things. The struggle, the challenge, the comradery, the commitment, and more. In fact it is through participating that you learn at the deepest level whatever it is you are doing, is all about. Following Jesus, having faith, is the same way. Standing on the sidelines makes you just as prone to criticism as it does to appreciation—but either way you are not really understanding what it is all about. Following Jesus is about living, living not only faith in God, but in very union with him. 

LEGION OF…HOPE

MONDAY AFTER SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT 2015

Today is Mark 5:1-20. It is the story of the man who is so deranged, so possessed, that chains cannot hold him. Jesus heals the man by sending his demons into a legion of pigs. Bishop Wright in his commentary does a great job showing how Mark’s Gospel is real literature, how this story really functions at three different levels. And it clearly does. The “thing” that I wonder about is how do people who might have a sort of abstract idea of God, but are not too interested in God, react to this story?

My experience is that people, who often are critical of Christians, level the charge that we are literalists in reading the Bible. These folks then become even more literal with the text than perhaps we would be. Now please do not misunderstand, I believe Jesus healed this man and in an earlier post I wrote about demons. I write about literalism because I think it shows that as modern people, part of us are malnourished and underdeveloped in one aspect of our lives. We are so in tune with science, technology and math (all of which I love)…that we have lost our imaginations. We, when presented with something different, immediately subject it to a rational, scientific, critical and even literal critique…we prevent the message of the story to reach us.

So let me ask a different question. When you read this story of Jesus healing this man, don’t you wish it were true? I know the word “wish” is a word that you might immediately react to, so let’s try a better word, hope. Don’t you hope that there really might be a God who cares enough to act as Jesus did in the story? Can you imagine, can you dream? People of faith are people of hope. We would say because of the person of Jesus, his life, and all the eye witnesses of his presence, not just 2,000 ago…but for the last 2,000 years…that we can believe such a God is real…a God who can help us deal with the legions of issues that confront us.