Gospel text for Sunday 26 September 2021

 

Mark 9:38-50        John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Reflection        The problem with this Markan text is that it is not one of Shakespeare’s plays,  not James Joyce’s  Ulysses nor Chris Ware’s graphic novel, Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Boy on Earth. The problem with this text is that it is scripture, sacred writing intended to form, and reform the community of the people of God. That would be us. 

So how are we to find good news in Jesus’ disconcerting dictum;  rather than stumble, chop off our parts in order to avoid being ”thrown into hell where the worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched?” This is a question with which I have wrestled for years. Generally my solution has been, leap over the chopping off of parts and land in the saltiness section because it is not hard to preach about the healing, preserving and enhancing qualities of salt. As professed followers of the way of Jesus we venerate these qualities and have no problem ascribing them to Jesus.

But recognizing, respecting even revering these life sustaining qualities is like pouring salt into a silver plated salt cellar, placing it on a glass shelf, stepping back and staring at it. What good can it do? Unless we swallow the salt, there is no saltiness. Unless we use our  hands to heal, our feet to preserve and our eyes to see the best for our lives, our communities and our planet we may as well chop off our hands, cut off our feet and pluck out our eyes because we are the stumbling blocks creating our own hell.  

In the context of this Season of Creation, the questions before us today are, “To whom have we given a cup of water to drink? From whom have we withheld it? How have we used our hands to preserve and purify that water so that it is a source of life rather than disease or death? How have we used our eyes to see beyond the standards of the way things are to the way things could be; farmers able to water their crops? no one dying of thirst?  adequate sanitation to avoid water borne disease?”

Water is essential for survival. We all know this. We also know the way to heal, preserve and enhance the life giving qualities of water for all. So the real question is, do we have the will to use our hands to heal, our feet to preserve and our eyes to see beyond current standards to enhance the quality of life for all? Here is the thing, if our answer is "no, not on my watch, not at my expense, not if it means I have to change my habits," we will find ourselves “thrown into hell, where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.” 

So where is the good news? We can choose to swallow the salt and be transformed into the healing, preserving, life enhancing people of God.  We can click on the link above and choose to act on "3 Thoughtful Ways to Conserve Water."

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Hebrew Testament & Gospel for Fourth Sunday in Lent 14 March 2021

Numbers 21:4-9        From Mount Hor the Israelites set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

John 3:14-21        Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Reflection        Poor Moses. After all the plagues he handled  to lead God’s people out of Egypt (bloody water, frogs, lice, flies, boils, hail, locusts), instead of being grateful for their newfound freedom the people “become impatient,” complain about their miserable food (who wants manna? we want meat), and “speak against Moses and God.” The poisonous serpents of faithlessness and unconscionable complaining corrupt the hearts and minds of the people Israel and they suffer in the poison of their own protests.

We know how this plays out. Someone whines and grumbles about the way things are. Pretty soon a chorus gathers around the complaint. Social media gets the message and ignites a match. And in a timeless second a protest is roaring with people swallowing their own poison and dying in the wilderness. This is the story of Moses and the moaning Israelites. This is the story of the fickle crowds in Jerusalem demanding, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” on the fateful day for Jesus. This is the story of our country today, with volleys of revolts erupting from the extreme right and flaring back from the far left. 

As if standing in a pit of poisonous snakes, we are split into feverish corners until a crowd is bent on an arc toward destruction. From the ten thousand feet above the ground perspective we can no longer distinguish one side from the other because we are all pointing poison fingers and looking for someone to blame for being stuck between the way things used to be and the promised land. Still, we are not condemned to this agony.

Looking to Moses we discover a way out of this hopeless hostility. Praying on behalf of the Israelites Moses first turns to God then offers the snaky masses something new to look at. Lifting up the bronze serpent Moses invites the cranky crowd to turn their eyes to healing rather than complaining and yearning for yesterdyear.

This was the first time the image of a serpent entwined on a pole enters humanity’s imagination. The Israelites are stuck between Egypt and the promised land, looking with longing backward to the way things used to be until Moses gives them something new to look at. The image of a serpent wrapped around a pole came to be associated with the Greek god Asclepius, the god of healing and medicine.* Today we see the symbol associated with the World Health Organization, The American Medical Association and on the sides of ambulances. What does this perennial symbol have to do with us? I believe it invites us to turn our eyes to healing rather than complaining and yearning for the way things used to be.

Four hundred years after Moses Jesus is still trying to get God’s people to stop protesting and see something new. Much like Moses lifting the serpent in the wilderness Jesus offers himself to be lifted up as something new to look at and be healed. I can almost hear the duet, Moses and Jesus pleading, “People, don’t you see? If you choose to look at the bronze serpent instead of the miserable food and your thirst to arrive at the promised land, if you choose to look at Jesus’ walk through suffering in the company of God, you choose life. You are healed.”

What do we choose to look at? To what do we give our attention?

As social beings in the twenty-first century we can protest forever about our rights; economic, social, cultural, civil and political. We can whip ourselves into frenzies, wag our biting fingers like so many venomous snakes or we can choose to look at something new, something risen from our wilderness journey between the idealized way things used to be and the promised land. Let us not forget, the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians before Moses led them into the wilderness. Why would they want to go back to that?  Likewise, when we remove our collective rose colored glasses we must confess, our past is not pristine. 

Here is the thing, poisonous protests rise on both sides of the aisle and sing every note on the scale. Since the beginning of the beginning this has been our story. Do we really want to continue suffering in the poison of our own protests? Do we really want to choose death and listen to ourselves speaking against God and Moses and crying “Crucify him?” How many hundreds or thousands of years before we choose to look at something new rising in the wilderness between the way things used to be and the promised land? 

 Today is a turning point in our journey. We are being led out of Egypt, out of the reach of Covid-19 into the wilderness where we will either find or lose ourselves while wandering between the way things used to be and the promised land.  It is time us to open our eyes to see something new. This is a matter of life or death.  

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*  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius

Gospel text for Sunday 31 January 2021

 Mark 1:21-28        Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 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.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Reflection       Jesus’ behavior is unthinkable. He crosses well established boundaries and gleans new life for himself and other people whom society consider unclean or unfit to be included.  He touches people whom social, political and religious convention deem unworthy to be seen, heard or included. He ruptures the boundaries of the status quo by recognizing value in the outcast and bringing it to light, which is actually healing.  This is what Jesus is doing when he walks into the synagogue in Capernum, teaching “as one with authority” and healing a man possessed “with an unclean spirit.” Jesus is breaching boundaries, unbinding and setting free.

Jesus is not authorized to enter the synagogue and teach. We have no evidence that he succeeded through the Sanhedrin ordination process, the ancient Jewish court system that determines who is a rabbi and has authority to teach. Nonetheless, Jesus enters the synagogue, teaches unapologetically and the people are astounded. This is the first boundary we watch Jesus bind. 

The second boundary has to do with orthodox Jewish tradition. As an observant Jew Jesus understands that it is necessary to maintain purity in order to approach God. Yet, he reaches out to a man possessed by an unclean spirit, a man who has no business being in the synagogue. By healing the possessed man Jesus is breaching a central religious boundary and making himself unclean. If that is not enough to provoke official ire, Jesus dares to cross a third boundary by doing the work of healing on the Sabbath. Truly, there is much controversy stemming from boundary issues, then and now.

Let me suggest the real issue that undergirds bickering about boundaries is authority. Who has the privilege and power to define boundaries? or borders? or gerrymanders?  What is the source of their authority? Who says?

In secular culture there are institutions devoted to credentialing people, conferring on them the privilege and power to teach or govern, to make decisions, exercise judgments, to define boundaries. This is also true for religious institutions.  But we have already noted that Jesus was not credentialed by the Sanhedrin. His authority does not come from social, political or religious institutions. Jesus’ authority is rooted in his relationship with God. 

In Mark’s text we engage Jesus “as one (who) has authority and not as the scribes.” He has authority to heal the sick, to cast out demons, to teach whatever he wants and to footnote no one. Jesus asserts his authority as a direct experience of Spirit, of God with him. By example Jesus is teaching us this new way, the way of direct experience of Spirit as the path of life that is not defined nor constrained by external systems of belief or boundaries. 

I believe the heart of Jesus’ teaching is showing us this new way of finding our authority and claiming our identity in relationship with God.      

 When we turn away from the quarrels and chaos of the social, political and religious systems that endeavor to define (and confine) us and choose instead to listen deeply for the movement of God’s Spirit with us, we unearth our own true self which is not other than God’s own self revealed uniquely through us.  The thing is, this means we must stop seeking approval from others. Instead of looking outside for our source of authority, we must turn around and look inside to our “with God life.”

Jesus did not seek approval from anyone. He did not quote the rabbis nor did he seek authorization from religious officials. Jesus listened and discerned how the Spirit of God moved him and he aligned his actions with it. The result is clear. Long after we forget the names of the priests and  rabbis who defined the purity codes and the names of the five hundred bishops who hammered out the Nicene Creed, we remember the name Jesus and the transforming power of his words in our lives.

Arguable the most influential being ever to walk this earth, Jesus did not need external authorization. What he needed was exactly what he had, his true self aligned in God. Jesus claimed his “with God life” and let the deepest truth of his being inform his every action, action meant for the good of others, even when it cost him everything. This is the "new teaching."

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Gospel text for Sunday 25 August 2019

Asylum Seeking Families 

Welcomed to freedom and rest in Tuscon's new Casa Alitas Welcome Center

Luke 13:10-17        Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day." But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

Reflection         “Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)

Keeping the Sabbath holy means extending freedom and compassion to all people and all creatures; ox, donkeys, livestock, resident aliens and slaves. No one is to be denied rest, peace, dignity and freedom, even if it is only temporary. Apparently Jesus felt an urgency to fulfill this God given mandate. Offering healing to the long suffering woman could not wait until Saturday night. Jesus is living according to the spirit of God’s law.

I suspect Jesus calls the leader of the synagogue a hypocrite because in the leader’s dogged adherence to the letter of the law he has lost sight of the spirit of the law. If the root of the law is affirmation of the holiness of life and that everyone deserves to be set free, then what possible justification could there be to allow anyone or anything to suffer by being bound, or tied, to the letter of the law? Sometimes we simply cannot wait to do what is right.

This week I received a letter from the Rev. Delle McCormick, retired UCC minister, describing her experience meeting one mother and her daughter at the Casa Alitas Welcome Center, the Tucson site for hosting the newest asylum seeking guests to our country. Rev. McCormick writes,  “The single mom from Guatemala had a college degree, a "good job" with the Ministry of Education. One day after work she was met getting off the bus by a person who ordered her to deliver two "packages." She declined, knowing the packages most likely contained drugs or weapons. The next day when she got off the bus, the same man handed her a picture of her 4 year-old daughter, and said the child would be dead the next day if she didn't deliver the packages. That night, the mom left her job, her bank account, her home, her family, her culture - her whole life, she said - and fled, taking three weeks to make her way with her daughter to the US border. Sitting before me was a person who, without notice, left her whole life behind for the sake of her daughter. Imagine.” *

Sometimes we simply cannot wait to do what is right.

This Guatemalan mother broke who knows how many laws, laws constructed with good intentions to support and protect people and nations.  Nonetheless, can you see Jesus reaching out to help this woman? Can you hear him saying to officials who are swift to remind him of all the laws she has broken and that he too is breaking the law by helping her, "You hypocrites! Would not each of you leave your career, your home, your bank account, your country, everything you know to save the life of your child? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound with threats to the life of her child, be set free from this bondage, on the sabbath or any other day of the week?”

Luke’s text invites us into a complicated conversation. A conversation with which we cannot cease to wrestle. How do we live between the letter and the spirit of the law? Which laws assist us in leading a Christian life? If we believe the root of the law is affirmation of the holiness of life and that everyone deserves to be set free, what actions shall we choose to put flesh on the bones of God’s law today? Compassion cannot wait. 

• Visit ccs-soaz.org. for more information about Casa Alitas Shelter Programs

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Gospel text for Sunday 28 January 2018

Mark 1.21-28        Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 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.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Reflection        The musical extravaganza, The Greatest Showman, roughly relays the story of P.T.Barnum’s rise from impoverished childhood to founding the one hundred and forty six year continuously running big top Barnum circus. From the beginning Barnum breached polite society’s boundaries. Daring to burst beyond his birthright boundary Barnum invites society’s untouchables; a dwarf, a bearded lady, siamese twins, as well as those with unusual talents, flying on a trapeze, dancing with elephants, into center stage, dresses them in glittering costumes and gives them the opportunity to sing and dance and claim their lives in the limelight, instead of in the shadows.

Much like Jesus, P.T. Barnum (notwithstanding his considerable human flaws) reaches out to people whom social, political and religious convention deems unworthy to be seen, heard or included. Like Jesus, Barnum bridges the boundaries of the status quo by seeing value in the outcast and bringing it to light. I believe this is what Jesus was doing when he walked into the synagogue in Capernum, taught “as one with authority” and then proceeds to heal a man possessed “with an unclean spirit.”

In the first place, Jesus is simply not authorized to enter the synagogue and teach. We have no evidence that he succeeded through the Sanhedrin rabbinic ordination process, nevertheless Jesus enters the synagogue, teaches and the people are astounded. This is the first boundary we watch Jesus bind. 

The second boundary has to do with orthodox Jewish tradition. As an observant Jew Jesus understands his duty to maintain purity in order to approach God. Yet, he reaches out to a man possessed by an unclean spirit. By healing the man Jesus is breaching a central religious boundary and making himself unclean. If that is not enough to provoke ire, Jesus also crosses a third boundary by daring to work on the sabbath. The issue that undergirds most controversies about boundaries is really that of authority. Who has the privilege and power to define boundaries? or borders? or gerrymanders?  What is the source of their authority?

In secular culture there are institutions devoted to credentialing people, conferring on them the privilege and power to teach or govern, to make decisions, exercise judgments and define boundaries. We have already noted that Jesus’ authority does not come from social or political institutions. Jesus’ authority is rooted in his relationship with God. We hear this clearly in John’s gospel when, after healing the blind, the lame and the paralyzed, once again on the sabbath, the Jewish officials begin to persecute Jesus, and he says to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise… for just as the Father has life in himself he has granted the Son also to have life in himself and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.” (John 5.19, 26) Oops, another boundary is breached with Jesus claiming his identity with God.

Much as the nineteenth century 'invisible' people were invited to step out of the shadows cast on them by polite societies’ judgments into the limelight of P.T. Barnum’s circus stage we too are invited to step out of the shadows of social, political and religious belief systems and boundaries. Today we are invited to step onto center stage and follow Jesus’ example, the way of direct experience of Spirit.  I believe the heart of Jesus teaching is showing us a new way of finding our authority and claiming our identity in relationship with God. When we turn away from the shadows cast by social, political and religious systems, we find ourselves on center stage, aligned in the spirit of God and imbued with the authority to sing and dance and claim our with God lives.  Come alive!

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Gospel text for Sunday 29 May 2016

Luke 7:1-10        After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us." And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, `Go,' and he goes, and to another, `Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, `Do this,' and the slave does it." When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

Reflection        At first glance it seems we have encountered another Jesus healing parable, then something niggles when we see Jesus turning to the crowd and saying of the slave’s owner, “Not even in Israel have I found such faith.” Jesus finds the Roman soldier, a Gentile, to be more faithful than the Jews? How could this be?

I believe a clue to this mystery is in the endorsement the Jewish elders offered to Jesus on behalf of the centurion, “(This Gentile soldier) is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people (the Jews.)” Could it be? The elders of the Jews who are the radical “others,” if not the outright enemies of the occupying Romans whose centurions lead battalions of hundreds of soldiers to insure Roman power over them,  the Jewish elders are declaring their oppressor legate loves them?

To appreciate the magnitude of this moment we must remember what Jesus was teaching his newly chosen apostles and a “great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon… (Luke 6.17) who had come to him to be healed and cured of their unclean spirits just before the centurion sent a delegation of elders asking Jesus to heal his slave. Jesus taught, “But I say to you that listen, love your enemies… (Luke 6.27) 

From the Roman centurion’s perspective the Jews were the enemy, the rapidly growing population of people who posed a threat to the rule and power of the Roman empire. Nonetheless, the centurion loved the Jewish people and one of the ways they knew this was he provided support for them to rebuild their synagogue. Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when he told the parable, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. (Luke 6.43-44)  

Because the centurion conducted himself as a good tree producing good fruit the Jewish elders could unequivocally endorse the enemy centurion as worthy of Jesus’ healing. Isn't it ironic, the person who lives out Jesus instruction to love our enemies is known as an enemy of the Jewish people. Which makes me wonder, am I producing good fruit sufficient that even my presumed enemies would deem me worthy of blessing?

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Gospel text for Sunday 1 May 2016

John 5:1-9

After Jesus healed the son of the official in Capernaum, there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids-- blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath.

Reflection          At first glance I wonder, why in the world the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years did not leap at Jesus question, “Do you want to be made well?” with an unequivocal, “Of course I do?” But when I pause and ponder more deeply I have to ask myself, “What may the man have to give up to be made well? What does he stand to lose?”

What if Jesus appeared and asked me, “Do you want to be made well?” Would I be able to respond with a resounding, “Of course I do,” or, would I pause to consider how my life might be changed? Honestly, the possibility stirs a tidal wave of questions in my belly.  “What might be the unintended consequences of giving up the way I have lived for the past thirty-eight years? Who would I be if I no longer identified with the countless reasons why I have not or cannot or will not be all that I am created to be, healed in the image and likeness of God? What would my family think if I was as concerned about strangers as I am about them?  What would my friends think if suddenly I stood up and really loved my neighbors and my enemies as God loves me? Who would I offend with my all inclusive love? What if being healed meant I had to break some rules or traditions as did the paralyzed man at the pool who violated Temple law by carrying his mat on the Sabbath?”  No wonder the paralyzed man evaded Jesus’ question. 

The good news is, God is always inviting us into healed or reconciled relationship with God, our selves and others. So it is not surprising that Jesus took the initiative to cut through the years of entropy, the thirty-eight years the paralyzed man was stuck in an unhealthy system of thoughts and feelings, projections and defenses that prevented him from being well.  It is not surprising that Jesus cut to the core of the situation and told the man, “Stand up. Don’t just lie there.” 

I wonder how many of us feel rather like the man by the side of the pool? In what ways are we paralyzed by the ceaseless blasts of bad news?  Do we feel like victims of social, economic, political and religious circumstances created by everyone else “who steps ahead of us?”  Who have we blamed?  How have we remained passive? How has fear supplanted our faith and left us like deer paralyzed in the headlights of a speeding car? Thank goodness God never gives up and never stops inviting us to stand up, be healed and carry on. 

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Gospel text for Sunday 28 June 2015

Mark 5:21-43        When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, "My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live." He went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well." Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, `Who touched me?'" He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."

While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader's house to say, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?" But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!" And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Reflection        What is going on here? A man of position and power bows to Jesus. A powerless woman, cast out of society presumes to touch Jesus. Both of them must have been desperate and both must have over-heard the buzz around the Sea of Galilee. “There is a man named Jesus, a mere carpenter’s son who teaches with great authority, he cleanses lepers, heals the paralyzed and disfigured, eats with tax collectors and other sinners, he even casts out demons! I hear he is coming back to our side of the sea. Let’s go see what he can do.” 

Imagine the hemorrhaging woman hearing all that and being emboldened to break out of her isolation, leave her house in violation of purity code restrictions  and reach out to Jesus? In her desperation the woman did what was unheard of, she boldly touched a man, and”immediately felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.” By fearlessly stepping out in faith the woman was restored to fullness of life because to be ‘well’ meant not only to be physically cured but also to fearlessly show up and take her place in the community.

Meanwhile Jairus, the powerful religious leader, is witnessing the healing of the hemorrhaging woman when the other religious leaders deliver the awful news, “Your daughter is dead.” What are we to make of Jesus’ perplexing response, “Do not fear, only believe.” I believe Jesus is inviting Jairus and all of us to stretch, not only to have faith when asking for healing but also to have faith when faced with death. 

Divine life-giving power flows through Jesus, not like a hammer pounding a nail rather as water or blood poured into an open, empty vessel. You see, faith is the interior state of open, empty receptivity. Divinity is the fullness poured into the emptiness. Emptiness and fullness live in mutuality. This makes no sense to the rational mind that understands things by contrast, black or white, broken or fixed, empty or full.

Faith is a disposition of heart and mind that enables us to know God’s Divine Presence with us regardless of the situation. In the throes of an excruciating chronic illness, when we have used all of our resources, tried every medical procedure, and nothing works, we protest, “God is with us.”  When our friends throw up their hands, wail and cry, “All is lost,” we humbly aver, “God is with us.” 

Gospel text for Sunday 8 February 2015

Mark 1:29-39        Jesus left the synagogue at Capernaum, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

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." And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Reflection           Punctuating our lives with prayer is not unique to the Episcopal Church (Check out the Daily Offices in the Book of Common Prayer!). Our Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and monastic sisters and brothers all teach the value of ordering our lives around regular periods of prayer. Still, many of us are more comfortable with one mega dose of prayer each week. But is it enough to sustain us? Is one whopping Sunday of prayer enough to give us the courage to wholeheartedly pray with Jesus saying, “Not my will but your will be done?” 

This is hard and I believe this is the heart of Mark’s gospel text. “In the morning, while it was still very dark, (Jesus) got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” From the fervid frenzy of the night before, everything is quiet. Jesus goes to a deserted place to confirm his direction, strength and healing power in relationship with God who, little more than forty days earlier annointed him  “My son, the beloved.” All that Jesus says and all that Jesus does is a realization of his relationship in God. That is why Jesus goes off to pray alone, to keep conscious his connection to the source of all that flows through him. I believe Jesus understood that his healings and exorcisms, his parables and preaching were outward and visible signs of the power and presence of God with him. And so Jesus never stopped returning to God, the source and sustainance of his life and ministry. Right down to the wire Jesus submitted, “Not my will but your will be done.”

As daughters and sons of God I believe we too must acknowledge our complete and utter dependence on God, God who is closer to us than our own breath, God who is the source and sustainance of all that we say and all that we do God whose will is not other than our own true will.

It takes courage and faith that God really is with us to drop the arms that keep other people and God at a safe distance. It takes courage and faith that God really is with us to take church outside these doors, connect with strangers, lift them up and invite them into the spiritual consciousness of our interconnected, interdependent relationships with one another and God.  It takes courage and faith that God really is with us to lay down our personal preferences and pray, “Not my will but your will be done.”

One mega dose of praying “Your will be done,” is not  sufficient for me to sustain my courage and faith in the One, Holy and Living God with me as I navigate the moment to moment aches and agony, drama and disappointment, intrigue and injustice that constantly accost me. And so I find myself slipping away from the crowd, sometimes early in the morning when it is still dark, to pray. I find my self closing my office door and taking a few minutes to pray. I find myself sitting in my car praying before the next meeting because one mega dose of prayer on Sunday is not enough to sustain me.

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Gospel Text for Sunday, October 10th

Luke 17:11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

Sorry for the lateness of this post - I had dental surgery and was not up to the computer.

Questions for engaging the text:

- What do I observe" What am I seeing" Does this passage raise questions for me?

- Is anything attracting me, drawing my attention, or repulsing me?

-What response is emerging within me? What is my response to what is attracting me?***

-In what ways might I specifically act on my insights in the world

I really want to hear from you. Thank you for clicking on "Comments" below and adding your responses.

Grace and Peace, Debra