Gospel text Sunday 8 July, 2012

Mark 6:1-13
Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them."

Reflection

Can you imagine being one of Jesus’ disciples? You’ve been following him all over creation, listening and watching him preach and teach and do astonishing deeds of power, you know, healing and casting out demons, raising a little girl from the dead.  Jesus has even given you some off line or private lessons, explaining stories to you that were not meant for the ears of those outside the inner circle of disciples. When I imagine being one of those disciples it makes me feel kind of special, but only until it gets to the part about Jesus sending me out to do what he has been doing. “Oh dear. Are you kidding me Jesus? You want me to do what you have been doing and I can’t even take any food or money?  It’s dangerous out there. Thieves lurk all along the roads. I will be incredibly vulnerable and utterly dependent on the good will of strangers.”

 
Can you imagine Jesus shaking his head and saying, “You got it. You are vulnerable. You are dependent. As you enter each town you are to present yourselves as people in need. Your survival depends on the good will of strangers. And in dong this you will provide the opportunity for the kingdom of God to flourish?” Now it’s time for me to shake my head. “Are you kidding me? We just left your hometown Jesus, and your own people wouldn’t give you the time of day. How can we depend on strangers?” And Jesus might reply, “The thing about strangers is they can’t presume to ‘know’ who you are. They can’t put you in a little box and say, “You can carve wood and hammer nails, but you sure can’t preach or teach or do deeds of great power.” When you show up with nothing, all they can presume is that you need their help. The strangers who choose to welcome you, to invite into their home and feed you, are embodying hospitality and compassion. Your very presence ignites a spark of the Good News in them. Together your need and their hospitality is the context within which God’s kingdom blossoms. Now as you sit at their table and begin to preach and teach, do healings and exercise “authority over unclean spirits” it is like a gentle breeze fanning a new flame. The spark of compassion already expressed by the stranger grows as they hear and receive the Good News of God’s kingdom present, already not yet, being shared by you.“

"When strangers choose not to welcome you, don’t waste your time or treasure. If the spark of compassion is not ignited by your need, they have already chosen to harden their hearts to the kingdom of God. Don’t begrudge them their choice.  Just be on your way. They will never know that they missed an encounter with the kingdom of God.” Which makes me think about the admonition, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13.2)

Gospel text for Sunday, 1 July 2012

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

I love the story of the hemorrhaging woman. For me she is a paragon of bold faith expressed in action. Think about it. She had been bleeding for twelve years so physically she must have been extremely weak. Because she was bleeding she was considered unclean and the temple officials believed that anyone whom she touched would be defiled. Nonetheless, when the bleeding woman heard that Jesus had returned by boat she pulled herself together, joined the excited crowd that gathered around him, and in a gesture forbidden by all propriety, she touched Jesus’ garment. What a woman.  Her story is like the sweet white icing of a chocolate cookie sandwiched between the darker crusts of the two-step story about a Jewish religious official begging Jesus to save his young daughter’s life.

All I can say is, I wonder what Jairus (and the other religious officials who later heard the story) thought when the defiled Jesus touched Jairus’ daughter with his unclean hand? I wonder if that made the little girls’ resurrection invalid? Actually I believe it is no mistake these two stories appear knitted together. Jesus keeps sailing between opposites, between cookies and cream, Jewish and Gentile territories, between the ritually pure and the unclean, between rules and the breaking of rules. Jesus refuses to be hemmed in by dialectical categories. For Jesus life cannot be sorted into neat categories of black and white, good and ill, clean and unclean, not even dead and alive. For Jesus you just cannot seperate the chocolate cookies from the vanilla cream.

Jesus said to the unclean woman, “Your faith has made you well…” Just moments later he said to the Jairus, “Do not fear, only believe.” Here again Jesus defied conventional categories. The woman was the exemplar of faith in action,  but the religious official was afraid.

Would that we should all beware of the categories and groups into which we place ourselves and others and remember that even those incomprehensible categories of life and death dissolve in the hands of bold faith expressed in action. So let us boldly go forward and bite into the whole cookie!

Gospel text Sunday 24 June 2012

Mark 4:35-41

When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

 Don’t rock the boat baby…

 
What does it mean to “go across to the other side?” When I read that phrase the first thing that comes to mind is dying… crossing over from life to death. But that’s my human mentality talking. Just like the disciples I am afraid to fully accept Jesus’ invitation to “go across to the other side “with him. I am afraid that along the way I will perish, that I will die.   

But Jesus is not talking about crossing over from physical life to physical death. Jesus is talking about crossing over from fear to faith. The journey with Jesus is a journey of faith. That’s why he asked the panicked disciples, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Just like me the disciples want to make the journey with Jesus, but when things come along to rock our boats we imagine we have been abandoned and accuse God of not caring.  Oh we of little faith.

How is it that Jesus commands peace and stillness when he finds himself in the middle of a raging storm? After all, Jesus is a fully human person too. He’s as blown about by the wind and the waves  as the next guy (and we all know where his story goes). But even a raging storm doesn’t disturb him.  Jesus sleeps then stands in the midst of the storm and refuses to be upset or shaken. Now that is faith, faith big enough to make “even the wind and the sea obey him.”  Nothing can steal his peace.

Jesus’ peace is not contingent on external circumstance.  Perhaps that is why the passing of the Peace with the words, “The Peace of the Lord be always with you,” has been part of the Jesus movement from the very beginning.  God knows that we will face wind storms and dust storms and unexpected trauma on our journey from fear to faith. And Jesus shows us the way of faith, looking straight into the eye of our personal storms and commanding, “Peace, be still.”

Mark 4:26-34
Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."
 
He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."

 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Mark 3:20-35

The crowd came together again, so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons." And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

"Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" -- for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

Gospel test for Sunday 3 June 2012

John 3:1-17

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 

"Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And 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."

Gospel text for Sunday, 29 May 2012

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Jesus said to his disciples, "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

"I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But, now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, `Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."