Gospel text for Sunday 14 November 2021

 Mark 13.1-8         As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”

Reflection       “Not one stone will be left here upon another….” Immediately my mind leaps to images  seared to my heart twenty years ago of the one hundred and ten stories of the Twin Towers in New York City turning into dust and again January 2021 watching the U.S. Capitol building, battered, trashed and dishonored. Peeking through the eyes of the disciples at these icons of civilization we see a glorious way of life that is too big to fall. But Jesus’ vision penetrates external appearances. He sees beyond the impressive edifice and the elaborate rituals practiced therein. Jesus shines light on the shadow-side of our institutions. 

Just one day before we meet Jesus sitting opposite the temple on the Mount of Olives, we find him standing inside the temple quoting the prophet Jeremiah,  “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den for robbers.”  (Jer 11.17) Gasping we watch as Jesus chases the money changers away and curses the temple. Peter, James, John and Andrew are with us so they should not be shocked when the very next day we hear Jesus say, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another…”  There is no reading  between the stones. Jesus sits in opposition to the religious and economic life of temple culture and predicts its demise.

Thirty years later Jesus’ prediction is fulfilled. The temple that has been the center of Jewish life for hundreds of years is destroyed by the Romans. But this is not the end of the story.  As Jesus insists, “It is but the beginning of the birth pangs.” In fact, it was after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem that Rabbinic Judaism arose with its emphasis on a disciplined life as practiced by reformed Jews to this day. New life.

Returning our attention to birth pangs, in most cases they are not impotent anguish and sterile suffering. Birth pangs are productive labor. Something new is being born. I believe this is what the German poet Marie Rainer Rilke meant when he wrote, “what batters you becomes your strength.” Birth pangs.

Considering the present moment I believe  birth pangs bear down on us from every corner. We hold our breaths as hurricanes swoop across the nation in the wake of rampant wildfires and melting glaciers. Images of war and rumors of war break into our living rooms and vibrating pockets. Birth pangs.

Mass marketing aims to delude, distract and tempt us. Social media blows wind on words meant to coax and craze us. Pundits of every persuasion smugly warn us, “If you listen to the other guy, you and the whole world are going straight to hell in a hand basket.” Is that what Jesus is talking about when he warns the disciples and us, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray?” Who are we to believe?

My vote is, Jesus whose words ring with the wisdom of the prophets. “Not one stone will be left here upon another”  because the way of life governed by gross abuses of power and failure to care for the human community must come to an end. Birth pangs. We are meant to live in humble relationship with the One sovereign and merciful God and extend that mercy to all people. Birth pangs. Thousands of years ago and today our religious and political institutions are intended to support and sustain the embodiment of the people in communion with God and each other.

But woe to us when our institutions aim is to sustain them selves and  serve those in power. Woe to us when we lose sight of right relationship with God and human community. “For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom” until false gods are tumbled,  the arrogant humbled and the fear mongering are tamed. Birth pangs. 

Jesus continues, “Do not be alarmed; this must take place…” for in Rilke’s words, “What batters you becomes your strength.”

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Gospel text for Sunday 7 November 2021

John 11:32-44        When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

Reflection        How can we not join Martha and Mary, the grieving Jews and Jesus weeping, weeping because we are “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved” by the deaths of so many of our loved ones, friends, neighbors and strangers throughout the world? We weep as we recount the deaths of much loved members of our community, family, luminaries in public life, neighbors  as well as the 482 children and adults murdered in mass shootings this year and the gruesome deaths caused by COVID-19 of more than five million folks worldwide. Today we feel compelled to join Martha and Mary chastising Jesus “Lord if you had been here these people would not have died!”  

And Jesus replies, “Take away the stone, the stone that covers your heart and darkens your eyes such that you fail to see your with God life is already right here. Resurrection life is now.”  Here is the thing. In the remarkable story of Lazarus walking out of a tomb Jesus shows us that we do not have to wait until after bodily death for resurrection because resurrection is for now. Resurrection affirms the value of life right now. Lazarus returns to life for now… even though as with all of us… ultimately his body will die. 

This story, God’s story, is about life right now, resurrection life. When we choose to follow the Way of Jesus we pick up the cross to which our particular life is nailed and affirm; dying we are restored to life because resurrection is the way to live freed of whatever binds us.

Consider the times you have died in your lifetime. While in the womb most of us experienced near perfect symbiosis until the muscles that cradled us contract so savagely that we nearly smother while being squeezed through a canal smaller than our tiny fist until we are expelled into an explosion of light and sound. Dying to our celestial womb-life we are resurrected in the roar of terrestrial life. Loosed from the womb that bound us we are let go into new life.  Death and resurrection, our story continues. 

Presuming our care givers are fairly competent and we learn to trust and depend on them, we fast forward to another series of deaths having to do with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Images of God and our selves. The strongly felt and unexamined beliefs to which our youthful selves cling must die as our minds take flight and we are resurrected as something more than the roles, relationships and statements of faith prescribed for us by authoritative family, friends and religious leaders who are quick to tell us, “You ask too many questions. This is what we believe. Who do you think you are? Where do you get your authority? How dare you rock the boat? You must be crazy.” 

Rolling the stone away from our hearts we unwind the conditional threads that bind us, which is to say, we die to claim our own convictions and values.  The cost is everything. No more Santa Claus. No more Easter Bunny. No more up there and out there all powerful God with a hand extended to specially chosen people just like me or you. With Mary, Martha, the Jews and Jesus we are “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved” as our naively innocent self dies (along with its sticky support staff clinging to “the way we do things here”) and we are resurrected in self-authenticating life. Here is an example of one of my many deaths and resurrections.

Having completed my dissertation, winning a fully funded NIH grant, working with colleagues at the top of our field and a baby on her way, I was ‘living the dream’ until the final in a series of three deceitful events shattered my images of myself  and academia. My fierce feelings of disappointment, anguish and grief refused to be restrained in a culturally endorsed container. I could no longer identify myself with colleague friends and an academy that tacitly condoned cheating, which meant I had to die as the rising star in the institution to be resurrected as a woman whose own convictions and values preside from the inside out. 

When I told my colleague friends that I could no longer continue in an environment that winked and looked away from breaches of integrity and that I intended to return my grant to NIH their response was heart breaking. “You must be crazy. You have it all. How could you possibly give this up?” From that moment on the people with whom I had so closely identified treated me as if I was dead.  

And I was dead. Dead to a life defined by authorities mostly outside my self. By the grace of God the stone was rolled away from my heart so I could see and be free of the grave dictates that bound me. Dying to my old way of life I was let go to find my with God life already right here, resurrection life.  Living from the inside out.

Weeping with Martha, Mary, the grieving Jews and Jesus we are “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved” by the deaths of so many of our partners, friends, neighbors and strangers throughout the world whom we love and see no more. And  following the Way of Jesus we welcome the many deaths we endure, including our attachments to the ones we love and see no more. With fear and trembling and unswerving faith we pick up the cross to which our particular life is nailed and affirm; dying we are restored to life because resurrection is the way to live right now.

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Hebrew & Gospel Texts for Sunday 31 October 2021

Deuteronomy 6:1-9       Moses said: Now this is the commandment--the statutes and the ordinances--that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, so that you and your children and your children's children, may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Mark 12:28-34        One of the scribes came near and heard the Saducees disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ —this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

Reflection     Both Moses and Jesus preach about the dance of grace in the covenant relationship between God and humankind. First Moses summarizes the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments that the people of God received “On the mountain out of fire” just one chapter earlier in the Hebrew text. (Deut 5.6-18) Between thirteen and sixteen hundred years later Jesus quotes Moses, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength,” again summarizing the first five commandments then recaps the last five adding,”You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

The commandments and their summary constitute a bilateral covenant describing how humanity is meant to order life in relationship with God and one another.  Rather than legalistic imperatives, the commandments are actually descriptions of how we are to respond with grace to grace.  Our relationships with God and one another are meant to be articulated in the intimate mutuality of receiving and extending the movement of grace.

So what is grace?  In the Christian tradition grace has meaning beyond the secular understanding of good manners, elegant movements and poise. It means more than a deferment of time as in ‘grace period’ or the address of nobility, “Your Grace.”  In religious parlance grace refers to Divine favor in relationship with humankind. We understand grace as God giving God’s self to us so that we will embody that grace and extend it to others.  Which means, grace is not a thing, not a particular gift, “I thank God for the grace of giving me brown hair and making me short and providing a good medical plan.” No.

Grace is the movement, emergence, becoming of Divinity in and of, with and through each one of us. We are meant to participate in this dance of humanity with divinity and, as with every dance, graceful partners co-operate. The Divine spark at the core of each of us moves as grace inviting us to dance.  It is up to us to choose whether or not we accept the invitation. When we do say “yes,” grace flows to us and through us. We dance.

Although we can do nothing to earn or deserve grace it is our obligation to respond to grace. The eternally generative outpouring of Divine grace summons our unrestrained continuing of its flow through us to others.  Think of it as a dance between the effusion of God’s grace and our grace-filled response, grace upon grace upon grace flowing for the good of all. The  Decalogue as well as the summary of the law are meant to order our lives, essentially give us the dance steps to advance a mutuality of affection and exchange of grace for grace. 

How do we deliberately participate in the flow of grace to us and through us? We begin by recognizing the presence of grace. Acknowledging the kindness, comfort, help, assistance, advantage, aid, profit or goodness of grace flowing to us opens the way for grace to continue to flow through us. Consider it this way. You are a beautifully formed vessel filled with living water but  being preoccupied with the shape of your vessel you fail to notice the water and never open the spout that allows the water to flow. Not only will your neighbors’ thirst not be quenched, soon the living water will be stagnant and evaporate. Grace, like water, intends to flow to us and through us and it does so by our deliberate choice to allow the flow.

Describing the covenant relationship between God and humankind both Moses and Jesus are preaching good news because being in covenant with God and our neighbors elevates our relationships from sparring grounds for grumbling, if not outright war about entitlement, rights and responsibility to jointly generative collaboration where fulfilling our obligations to one another is not a burden but rather the outward and visible expression of the unearned grace poured to us and through us. Shall we dance?

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Gospel text for Sunday 24 October 2021

Mark 10:46-52        Jesus and his disciples came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Reflection        “What do you want me to do for you?”

I will never forget the first time I heard those words spoken to me through human lips. An Episcopal priest whom I had been pestering for months to be my spiritual director kept saying “No, absolutely not. I am not a spiritual director.”  Several months slipped by and I decided to call one last time. He answered the phone and after a bit of small talk he asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” I felt passed through to my core. 

“How can I admit the deepest desire of my heart? I don’t deserve such a generous invitation. I am not good enough. I am not holy enough. How dare I say what I really want?” This one question, “What do you want me to do for you?”  pulled back the curtain veiling a malevolent chorus of authoritarian voices bent on keeping me cloistered and divorced from God.

I stuttered and stammered until I finally squeaked out “I want you to help me see how God is working in my life and help me discover what I am to do about it.” The twisting in my stomach and the knot in my throat waved a crimson flag, “Oh Debra, what have you done? Life will never be the same.”

Which brings us to the curbside, outside Jericho.  Jesus and the disciples are coming and going to and from Jericho. Contrast that to Bartimaeus whose blindness sandbags him on the curb outside city limits, not only because he cannot see but also because the authoritarian voices of his culture insist that being afflicted with blindness is evidence he or his family have done something terrible which renders him unworthy. He has no voice, no place.

But a flare of faith deep inside Bartimaeus rebells against the chorus of afflicting voices, “You are not good enough, not holy enough. How dare you speak up and admit the deepest desire of your heart?” because when he hears that Jesus of Nazareth is nearby somehow Bartimaeus musters his mettle and shouts above those sternly ordering him to be quiet, “Son of David, have mercy on me.”

His spirited shout stops Jesus in his tracks where he stands still and watches blind Bartimaeus spring to his feet and throw off his cloak. Without a hint of hesitation Bartimaeus cast off what was likely his only worldly possession as well as every limiting social proscription about who he was, a blind beggar with no place nor value in society who had no business calling out to the prophet, the Son of David. How dare he?

From our twenty-first century perspective blindness is a biomedical problem resulting in the sightless person’s inability to function. Healing involves restoring the person’s ability to function. Two thousand years ago in Palestine blindness is a social rather than biomedical problem, therefore healing involves being restored to a place in society. Throughout the Gospel according to Mark we meet Jesus as he heals people which restores them to a place in society. 

Jesus heals a man with a dreaded skin disease, sends him to a priest to be ritually cleansed and return to community. (Mk 1.40-45)

Seeing the faith of folks who carry a paralyzed man to him, Jesus heals the man and sends him home.  (Mk 2.1-12)

When a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years touches Jesus and is healed, it is her breaking the taboo about touching that heals her and Jesus affirms, “Your faith has made you well.” (Mk 5:25–34)

When townsfolk come to tell Jesus that Jairus’ daughter is dead he says, “Do not fear, only believe” and the child is healed. (Mk 5:21–42)

After touching and healing the blind man at Bethsaida Jesus sends him away to his home. (Mk 8:22–25)

The overarching message is, faith makes us well by restoring us to right relationship with God and community. When we choose to live by faith we are able to break through the physical, social, emotional and religious taboos that curb and constrain us, prohibiting us from participating in the fullness of life. 

Belief or faith is kin to hope in the possibility of what can be. Belief or faith foster a kind of fearlessness that enables us to get off the curb at the side of the road, and boldly answer the question, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Do you dare to pause and admit the deepest desire of your heart? Are you willing to cast off all constraints that limit your idea of who and whose you are? Are you ready to live by faith and be restored to right relationship with your neighbors, the world and God? What do you want me to do for you?

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Hebrew Testament Text for Sunday 17 October 2021

Job 38:1-7, 34-41

The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Gird up your loins like a man,

I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk,

or who laid its cornerstone

when the morning stars sang together

and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

so that a flood of waters may cover you?

Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go

and say to you, ‘Here we are’?

Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,

or given understanding to the mind?

Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?

Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,

when the dust runs into a mass

and the clods cling together?

“Can you hunt the prey for the lion,

or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

when they crouch in their dens,

or lie in wait in their covert?

Who provides for the raven its prey,

when its young ones cry to God, 

and wander about for lack of food?”

Reflection         God is God, unfathomable as the unborn, undying eternally all that is, and, at the same time God is bound at the center of the whirlwind of our suffering. God is the humility that tempers our pride. God is the generosity that empties our gluttony. God is the peace that eases our anger. God is the joy that supplants our suffering. God is all and beyond all, closer than our breath, ungraspable as mercury.

The sooner we get on our knees and admit our complete and utter dependence on God (not to mention unspeakable smallness in the face of all creation) the sooner we will experience the mysterious wisdom and grace of God in us and of us, with us and for us.

In all twelve step recovery programs the first and essential step toward freedom from a particular obsession, compulsion or addiction is to admit we are not in control, in other words, to get on our knees and surrender to something greater than ourselves. Which is the second step in every twelve step program, recognizing there is indeed something greater than ourself. The thing is, not all of us loose our freedom to drugs, alcohol, sex or gambling. Like Job some of us loose our freedom to ideas or images about ourselves; we are righteous, dutiful, smart, law abiding, altruistic, successful, philanthropic, good people, aren’t we?.

In the gospel according to Mark we meet Jesus as he “was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”” (Mk10.17) Apparently Jesus was familiar with the Hebrew scriptures and took Job’s lesson to heart. God alone is good or righteous. And we are meant to be in humble and reverent relationship with God. 

Here is the interesting twist. Although we are not God, we are not other than God. As long as we get on our knees and admit our complete and utter dependence on God, there is every chance we will be surprised by the lavish grace of God flowing to us and through us, even and perhaps especially in the midst of our suffering.

God appears to us in a whirlwind of run-a-way thoughts, anxiety, pain, fear, grief, and every variety of addiction, obsession and compulsion - whatever it takes to put us on our knees. Still, all is not lost because freedom calls us as Job’s young friend Elihu admonishes,   “(God) delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear by adversity. (God) also allures you out of distress into a broad place where there is no constraint…” (Job 36.15-16)

When swept away in a whirlwind of our suffering, God is not absent. God is not silent. God is speaking through our distress, and not only speaking but also inviting us to a bigger, broader life of freedom in humble relationship with God’s Indwelling Presence.

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Gospel text for Sunday 10 October 2021

Mark 10:17-31        As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Reflection        I was shocked. The moment  happened to coincide with the early birth pains of the U.S. bursting housing bubble accounting for the startling number of  people of every stripe and reason huddled in store doorways and slumped near street signs. I had just arrived in Berkeley, California to begin the chapter of my journey toward ordination as an Episcopal priest at the Graduate Theological Union. I was shocked.

Old, young, families and individuals, I lost count of the number of homeless neighbors I passed before reaching Church Divinity School of the Pacific, the destination of the 1.6 mile trek from my flat. A week of maneuvering past bodies while giving away my lunch and cash left me not only hungry and broke but also morose. How was I to live and breathe and find my being in the wreck of this waterloo? 

That was the question I brought to the first meeting with my faculty advisor, The Rev. Dr. Louis Weil. And Louis said to me, “Choose one person. Make him your person. Jesus healed one person at a time.” And so that evening as I returned to my flat the question, “Who will be my person?” whispered me along the way. 

With only four blocks remaining between me and my flat I began to worry, “How will I know who is my person?” I have no idea what I expected but suddenly I knew when a gaunt and gangly shadow of a man looked up at me from his seat on the sidewalk in front of the Blockbuster store, and through clear blue yonder soul searching eyes, “He looked at me and loved me.”  

I could hear my heart hammering as I lowered my eyes and said, “Bless you.” He uttered not a word.  Most days for the next three years I visited Eugene offering him breakfast, a few dollars, assistance getting an identity card, a word about whatever and blessing. And every day “He looked at me and loved me” 

In the eyes of the world Eugene had nothing, No possessions, no wealth therefore no security, no safety, no esteem, no power and no control. But in Eugene’s eyes he had everything because his treasure was in heaven. Every day Eugene experienced the kingdom of heaven delivered to him by strangers. And so with clear eyes and unfettered heart he could “look at me and love me.”

I believe Jesus’ instruction to the rich and rule abiding young man, “sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me” is the Markan version of Jesus’ famous sermons on Matthew’s mountain and Luke’s plain. We remember them as the Beatitudes. 

In Luke’s gospel we meet Jesus “Looking at his disciples (saying), Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” (6.20) The poor are blessed because they already inhabit the kingdom of God. How is that possible? Because they are not depending on stuff that will fail them. They know they are dependent on God’s mercy.

I am not romanticizing the tragic consequences of poverty and homelessness. What I am suggesting is that the possessions and wealth that we believe give us security, safety, esteem, power and control are not and never will be the source of mercy, joy or blessing. All the wealth in the world is nothing compared to being blessed in the kingdom of God. And how do we receive such blessing? By realizing our dependence on God, accepting blessing delivered through the mercy of others and being merciful.

Which brings us to Matthew’s nuance of the First Beatitude, ^“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” (5.3) What does it mean to be poor in spirit? I believe it means we find our security, safety, esteem, power and control depending on each other and God rather than on the crap and crunder of this world. When like Eugene we accept our poverty of spirit we understand our dependence on God’s mercy, mercy meant to flow to and through us. This is meaningful for both the material and spiritual realms. 

The very last thing I did before driving away from Berkeley to continue my life and ministry in Arizona was go to the corner of Shattuck and Dwight to say good bye to Eugene. And he “looked at me and loved me,” God’s merciful benediction. I pray to pass it on to you.

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Gospel text for Sunday 3 October 2021

Mark 10:2-16        Some Pharisees came, and to test Jesus they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.ca

Some Pharisees came, and to test Jesus they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Reflection          Having been divorced, remarried, and divorced again I want to shout, “Hay God, Jesus’ words cannot be right. Furthermore, the Church has used them to do much harm. Do you know how many broken hearted Roman Catholics turn away from You because once divorced their priest refuses to give them communion?  Do You know how many men and women want nothing to do with a Church that refuses to affirm their love? Jesus’ words have caused too much harm.”

Although presuming to know Jesus’ intention when instructing the disciples and us is rather bold, considering his first century honor shame society and his overarching message of compassion and inclusion, I find it impossible to interpret Jesus’ words as merciless and prohibitive. What then? By reading this text out of context and making a direct leap from the first century to current time, not only do we miss the radically liberating message that Jesus is delivering for women and children, we also create another group of outcasts deemed unworthy to participate in the Church. 

What if instead of using Jesus’ words as warrant to essentially dishonor people by excluding them from Rites at God’s Table the Church heard Jesus’ words as instruction to elevate the value of women and children?

In the first century only men could be honored or dishonored. Women had no voice, no vote, essentially no value. Therefore a man could not commit adultery against his wife because she had no position of honor to be offended.  When Jesus says, “whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her…” he elevates the value of a woman to be equal to that of a man. This is revolutionary. This is good.

Here is another point. The Pharisees are interested in the issue of legality, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” Jesus is interested in relationship.

“Man shall leave father and mother and be joined to wife….” This is another seditious departure from the culture in which marriage as we know did not exist.  In Jesus’ context families offer their daughter and son to consolidate honorable relationships between the families. The man did not leave father and mother, rather he was a negotiating chip enhancing the family’s honor in a brokered deal, a business transaction that joined two families with an eye toward enhancing honor. 

In his not so subtle and subversive way our inveterate troublemaker Jesus elevates the relationship of a man and woman from a legalistic business arrangement to a union mediated by God. “What God has joined together let no one separate.”  Jesus is not interested in dividing, he is all about unifying. Twice he says, “They are no longer two but one…”

“From the beginning of creation” humanity, all of us, are called to unifying consciousness but because of our ‘hardness of heart’ we set our minds on matters that divide rather than unify. We turn away from one another and  from God. We could call this divorce consciousness. Its signature is discord, division and disunity. Dare I suggest this is the prevailing form of consciousness in our country today?

From the beginning of creation we are meant to live in concord and community. No one is less than or more than. No one is to be left out, which brings us to Jesus’ reproach of the disciples who are trying to prevent the children from bothering him. “Let the children come to me.” 

Once again our rebel Jesus is stirring the pot. In his culture children have no value but much as he does with women, Jesus elevates the status of children as he takes “them up in his arms, lays his hands on them, and blesses them.”

Without pointing fingers or assigning blame Jesus makes it crystal clear, the way things are is not good enough and I believe the difficult words of this text invite us to do the same. Look carefully for divorce consciousness in the written and unwritten laws in our community, our country and our hearts. Notice where we set our minds on matters that foster discord and divide us. Confess that we have turned away from God’s unifying consciousness. Amend our lives to be in communion with each other and creation. Which do you choose; divorce consciousness or unifying consciousness?

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