22 Days

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.”

Jesus said, it’s easier for a real, live, long necked, large humped, vomit spitting, 1300 lb. dromedary to go through the eye of a standard No. 5 sewing needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.  Some folks like the idea  that the “Eye of the Needle” is actually the name of a gate in Jerusalem that you can get your camel through if you just unload all the stuff it is carrying.  Maybe.  But I suspect Jesus was being more hard-core than that.  I think Jesus was talking about both, a real three quarter ton “ship of the desert” camel AND a literal, tiny sewing needle.  So the question remains… how will we get THAT camel… through THAT needle AND how are we going to do the thing Jesus says is HARDER THAN THAT, which is to get rich people (who, if we’re honest, is ALL of us)… how are we going to get all of US into heaven?

We can assume the rich, young man in this story had tried all the usual ways.  He had tried to PAY to have his camel pushed through.  He’d tried to be good and virtuous enough to EARN his camel passage through.  I’m sure he had born the guilt and shame he thought might get his camel through.  He might have even tried to lie and say, “We have the greatest camels and we got them all through.”  No matter what he tried, in the end he found… you can’t do it.  YOU can’t get your camel through the eye of a needle and YOU can’t get yourself into heaven.

 

You see, he was (like us rich folks usually are) used to solving problems on his own.  He had jumped over countless challenges and been successful without any help.  Whether it was his money, talent, privilege, experience or a combination of all of the above, he was used to… convinced even… that HE could tackle anything the world might throw at him BY HIMSELF.  You can see that in the way he asked the question of Jesus, “What must I DO to inherit eternal life?”  What must I DO?  

Jesus knew, that because he had been successful in so much relying ONLY on himself, it would be almost impossible for him to believe there was anything he could NOT do by himself.  Jesus told him, “To get your camel through the eye of that needle you’ll need to GIVE UP.  Give up the idea that YOU can make it happen.”  This guy had never given up!  All his success had been built on the fact that HE could make anything happen.  So he turned his back on Jesus and walked away to keep looking for a way that HE could buy, earn, fix, wheel, deal, scheme, or lie HIMSELF into an inheritance of eternal life. 

In this parable, Jesus is asking us to believe what that rich, young man just couldn’t:  That for mortals, it’s impossible to buy, earn, fix, wheel, deal, scheme or lie yourself into eternal life… but it is not impossible for God.  For God ALL things are possible… it’s possible for God to pull a 1300lb. camel through the eye of a No. 5 sewing needle.  It is EVEN possible for God to pull the likes of you and me through the needle’s eye of death and into eternal life.  

But wait, there’s more!  For God it’s not only POSSIBLE to do all that… but as it turns out for us… God’s already done it!  God’s reached through the eye of that needle that we call the Cross of Christ, grabbed hold of you and me, and whether we like it or not, God’s even reached through and pulled that rich young man through as well.  God, in fact, has pulled ALL of creation through, from death into life.  And if God can do THAT… then… well, what other completely hopeless, terribly frightening, totally impossible thing for YOU to fix, turns out to be something that God can handle without even breaking a sweat? 

So, what is one, horrible, anxiety flooding, sleep depriving, totally out of your control thing that you find yourself facing today?  Hmmmm?  I wonder?  Golly, what could it be?  Maybe something, I don’t know, let’s just pick a random number… how about something maybe, oh, I don’t know… 22 days away?  Anything?  Any worry?  Anything out of your control?  Well, if you come up with something let me know.  In the mean time though, for us mortals… the first take home from this sermon is that ALTHOUGH… YOU OR ME trying to get ANY of those hope stomping, joy trampling, justice wrecking camels that we might think up later through the eye of the needle is soul crushingly impossible… NONE OF IT!  NONE…OF…IT... is impossible for God! 

That was SO hard to believe for that rich young man that he went off sad and alone and the second take home from this sermon is THAT might very well have been his BIGGEST mistake.  Because, here’s what I want you to remember over the next 22 days at least (remembering this for more days would be better, but we can start with just 22).  What I want you to remember is that when we face the impossible, one of the reasons God has given us one another is so that we can get together and remind one another that when we face the impossible GOD HAS…. GOD IS…. AND GOD WILL… do whatever needs to be done… including pulling what appears to be hopeless, horrific, and dead, through the Cross of Christ and into eternal life.  Let’s all do our very best NOT to go off alone in these next few weeks but to gather here in these next 22 days so we can remind one another that God really does have the whole world, in Their Loving, Divine, Hands, okay?  Okay.  Amen.  

Digging Required

Genesis 2:18-24

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Mark 10:2-16

Some Pharisees came, and to test him 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.

Last week was millstones around the neck and cutting off body parts.  This week it’s gender and divorce.  Bishop Jack and I laughed about these kinds of weeks last week at coffee hour but in the end we both agreed that even in these sorts of weeks, there is Good News to be found.  It’s just that in weeks like this, a lot more digging, a lot deeper in the mine, is required!

So the first bit of digging we need to do this week is into the word “man” in that Genesis text.  Dig into the original Hebrew and you’ll first find that the word Adam is NOT best translated as “man” as in a gender.  The Hebrew word A-dam best translates into English as, something like, Earth Person.  In my mind I imagine the A-dam 1.0 model as a sort of proto-human, a person containing the entire spectrum of human gender but without a specific gender or sexual expression.  Why did God create the A-dam this way?  Because, God thought that was the way to go!  So what happened?  The A-dam turned out to be lonely.  Loneliness was not God’s intention.  God had made a mistake!  Gasp!  So what did God do?  The Divine worked out a fix!  And God’s fix for loneliness was and is… relationship!

To do that, God took a rib out of A-dam 1.0, right?  Actually, the Hebrew implies that God cut A-dam 1.0 right down the middle and therefore made two, completely equal “flesh and bone” beings to be in relationship with one another.  Humanity 2.0 was created to have multiple beings, which together would make a fully equal, not lonely, relational whole.  This wasn't about sex or gender.  Let me say that again... This wasn't about sex or gender!  It was ALL about creating a fix for the human problem of loneliness.  How beings should or shouldn't be mixed or matched with regard to sex and gender in the future in these equal, mutual, loneliness-fixing relationships isn’t addressed here at all.  Worth the digging, right?

The next digging to be done is into Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees.  What you find with just a little shovel work there is that divorce in their time was like Trump vs. Harris in our time... An all consuming political issue filled with fear, anger, rage, and divisiveness.  The pharisees knew if they could get Jesus to commit to one side or the other, (they didn’t care which) the other side might just rid them of their Jesus problem.  The pharisees were picking a fight but Jesus chose not to show up for it!  Jesus told them, “It is your hardness of heart” that has you asking this question!  You are trying to use the wonderful, divine gift called “RELATIONSHIP”… God’s fix for humanity’s loneliness… and twist it into something that does the exact opposite!  You’re trying to use it to divide and conquer!  That, Jesus says, is some heard hearted nastiness right there!  

The last bit of digging we need to do is into the conversation Jesus had with the disciples about divorce.  In Jesus’ day we need to remember that women had no legal status.  Without care from a man… father, brother, son, or husband... women could be left literally homeless and destitute.  That gender inequality is NOT how God created humans to live (we learned that digging in Genesis) but it WAS the reality in Jesus’ day, SO that’s the reality Jesus had to address.  Therefore what Jesus was forbidding in this lesson was a man (who in that culture held all the power) FORCING the fate of homelessness and destitution on a woman (who in that culture had absolutely no power)!!  That’s it! 

Now, here’s what Jesus was NOT saying:  Jesus was NOT saying people should stay in intentionally or unintentionally abusive or irreparably broken marriages of any sort.  He was NOT saying that people should stay in a relationship when, for whatever reason, that relationship is no longer able to DO what God created relationships to DO... to cure loneliness and help one another toward becoming the fullness of what God created them to be.  Jesus is NOT saying people must stay in a relationship, when for millions of different reasons, that relationship is no longer able to build one another up in an equal, mutual, and jointly beneficial way, but instead (intentionally or unintentionally) is tearing one or the other, or both, down.  Divorce is always painful but that does NOT mean it is always the wrong thing to do.  Sometimes, one of the hard facts about being human is that doing the painful thing is sometimes the absolutely RIGHT thing to do.  

Relationship and every sort of Gender expression was created as a Divine GIFT from God!  God created those things as tools to move all human beings toward the wholeness and abundant life God created us each to live!  They were given and meant to be shared equally with one another.  They were NEVER meant to be used as a means to denigrate or to dominate the other.  They have always been meant to be tools to lift one another up!  Never were they meant to be used to tear one another down.

These are very hard texts.  Mostly because they have been badly misused for thousands of years.  Undoing all of that damage and pain will take a very long time.  Much longer than one Sunday sermon can possibly last, so with that... let's call this sermon done for now, and say... Amen.    

Terrible Pun Fully Intended

Mark 9:38-50

John said to him, “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.”

In a previous episode of the Gospel of Mark, a father brought his son to Jesus and his disciples.  The son had a demon that threw him on the ground, caused him to grind his teeth and foam at the mouth, and sometimes this would cause him to fall into the fire, or into the water!  The disciples gave it a shot first, but they couldn't get it done.  Shaking his head, Jesus said, “You faithless generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you?”  So, THAT stung the disciples… A LOT!

Now, in this week’s episode of the Gospel of Mark we see the disciples come upon a person casting out demons in Jesus’ name.  Unlike the disciples, this guy had been SUCCESSFUL in the exorcism business.   So, THAT stung… A LOT… AGAIN.  So what did the disciples do?  They told him to stop!  Of course they did!  Because having fewer people walking around this world with seizure-causing demons isn’t AT ALL what Jesus and the disciples are about!  Jesus and the disciples are all about protecting the brand!  Right?  NO!  The goal Jesus had and the goal Jesus was trying to get through the thick disciples’ noggins… disciples then and disciples now… is supposed to be… as Bishop Curry says, “changing the world from the nightmare it is for so many, into the dream that God has for it.”  

Here, in this gospel lesson, Jesus outlines the two ways we can move the world closer to God’s dream.  BOTH are very legitimate and Biblically sound ways of getting to the same goal, and BOTH come with difficult and sometimes nearly impossible demands on those disciples who want to move in the direction of God’s dream for the world.  

The first method is to follow the Law completely.  Follow it like you were driving your car straight down the center line.  Do NOTHING to waver from that center line.  No changing stations on the radio, no sip of coffee, no trying to read that Berkstock sign.  Another car is coming at you?  NO wavering.  A deer?  No wavering!  Not even an inch!  Perfect… and I mean ONLY PERFECT following of the law will change the world, so if something causes you to waver, do whatever it takes… I mean WHATEVER it takes to stay on that center line up to and including chopping off or gouging out body parts.  Hard core, right?  But it is Biblically sound.  You are fully in charge.  It’s completely up to you.  Follow the Law and the world changes.  

The OTHER way to change the world… that is, if you are interested in another way?  You are?  Okay, just wanted to check… the other way to change the world is to be “for” Jesus or I think Jesus would say, to at least not be AGAINST those who walk the Jesus Way of living in the world.  And what is living the Jesus Way in the world?  It is the way of love… doing what is in the other’s best interest.  It is the way of compassion… caring for the least, the lost, and the last.  It is the way of generosity… giving what you have, even if all you have is a cup of water to drink.  Brother Curtis from the Society of St. John the Evangelist, an Episcopal monastic group here in Massachusetts put it this way “There is something about participating in life as a gift, not clinging to it, not hoarding it, but cherishing it, then sharing it with a kind of reckless abandon that is the real deal, because that’s like God. We are invited to be generous with the things in life to which we’ve been entrusted, as well as with our kind­ness, attentiveness, gratitude, gentleness, and interest for others.” 

Nice, right?  A better way than the choppy/gougey way?  I think so too, but it isn’t less difficult… in fact this way might actually be MORE difficult because it isn’t as “clear cut” as the other (terrible pun fully intended!)  This way of changing the world asks for our egos to step fully aside and allow the power of God to do its thing without us worrying about who gets the credit.  This way of changing the world asks us to give a cup of water to someone who is thirsty and then it asks us to keep working on ourselves so we continue to grow into a place where we can give more and more and more of who we are and what we have.  This way of changing the world asks us to live our lives each day living so generously that we approach the point where, as Paul says, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  

The disciples, fresh from their own failures and stinging from seeing someone from the other party being successful, wanted Jesus to bring down hellfire on this other guy who was working outside the LAW.  Jesus reminded them that while the LAW is an option, it literally cuts both ways (again, terrible pun fully intended) and there is no one who can follow that path and remain unscathed. 

Instead, Jesus tells the disciples… the disciples there and us disciples here… that he recommends the Way that, as Brother Curtis says, treats life as a gift, not clinging to it, not hoarding it, but cherishing it, then sharing it with a kind of reckless abandon, because that too will change the world into the dream God has for it… not with any less difficulty on our parts for certain, but with a lot less gore.  Amen.  

Humanity and Divinity

Mark 8:27-38

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Today we find ourselves at the halfway point of Mark’s Gospel.  Through these first 8 chapters Jesus has been showing the disciples WHO and WHOSE he was.  Mark’s Gospel starts with John the Baptist, Jesus’s Baptism, and the voice of God saying “You’re my Son!” In this moment Jesus is showing them his DIVINITY!  But IMMEDIATELY Jesus is pushed out into the desert to be tempted by Satan where a physically hungry and thirsty Jesus shows us his full HUMANITY. Okay.  Then Jesus walks by the sea, calls a few fishermen, teaches, casts out demons and heals Simon’s mother in law and when word gets out he heals the whole town. DIVINITY. Then while it was still dark he snuck out and went to a secluded place to pray and recover.  HUMANITY.  He then tried to move on to do more teaching but was stopped by a leper, whom he healed. DIVINITY. Then got thrown out of a temple for his teaching. HUMANITY. Told a paralytic to “Take up your mat and walk!” DIVINITY. Got in a theology fight with the Pharisees. HUMANITY. Healed a withered hand. DIVINITY. Went out to sea to get away. HUMANITY. Huge crowds follow and called him the SON OF GOD. DIVINITY. Fights with his family who thinks he’s crazy. HUMANITY. Heals a Demoniac. DIVINITY. Escapes in a Boat. HUMANITY. Heals a bleeding woman and raises a dead girl. DIVINITY. Gets rejected in his hometown. HUMANITY. Sends the disciples out to heal people and they did!  DIVINITY.  Grieves the brutal death of his friend John the Baptist. HUMANITY. Feeds five thousand! DIVINITY! Sends the disciples off and climbed a mountain to pray exhausted. HUMANITY. Walks on water. DIVINITY. Fights with the Pharisees and goes up North to get away. HUMANITY.  Calls a Syrophoenician woman the “D” word.  HUMANITY.  Comes around and heals her daughter and the old Jewish deaf man. DIVINITY. Escapes the crowd to get away to Caesarea Philippi. HUMANITY. Asks the disciples “Who do you say that I am” and Peter responds for the group and says “DIVINITY” and Jesus tells them he must suffer and die in his full… HUMANITY. Peter says “GOD FORBID YOUR HUMANITY” and Jesus says to Peter, “GET BEHIND ME SATAN!”

I know it’s a very obscure, hidden, difficult pattern to pick up in all of that but that’s why you have me!  It turns out that Jesus spends the first half of Mark’s Gospel going back and forth between showing his HUMANITY and then his DIVINITY and I think that was very much on purpose.  You see, I don’t know about you, but I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about how to do miraculous healings, raise the dead, or walk on water.  But, you know what I DO know a WHOLE LOT ABOUT?  Desert times.  Fights with bullies.  Family craziness and drama!  You and I can easily relate to being tired, worn, and not acting out of our best selves. You and I know all about trying to get some peace, only to be tracked down by a kid, an office, a genuine emergency, or a perceived emergency that turns out to actually just be a question about potato salad. You and I know what it is to be rejected. You and I know the real and deep pain of the death of someone we love. You and I know what it is to think about and face our own mortality. You and I… you know what it is we know?  We KNOW humanity!  

So, Jesus shows us HIS humanity, because THAT’s the part of Jesus that we can most easily recognize in ourselves… and in that connection, Jesus has offered us a door. A door through which we’re being invited over and over and over again to walk with Jesus from our very recognizable communion with Jesus in his humanity into the much more difficult to see, but just as real, communion with Jesus in his Divinity!

I think we’re being shown, over and over and over again the fullness of Jesus’s humanity so we can see ourselves in the person of Jesus. THEN, seeing ourselves in Jesus… Jesus becomes someone easy to relate to… easy to walk with… easy to live with, and then, as we walk with Jesus in his humanity, day after day, living as Jesus lived, trying our best to live with compassion, love, generosity and grace, we grow more and more deeply into the Jesus WAY of living and then eventually… we end up walking smack dab, right into the Truth.  The Truth, which is that we’re not ONLY sharing this life intertwined in Jesus’ humanity, but we’ve also been walking and living, intertwined the whole time in Jesus’ Divinity as well!

I think what Jesus is doing with all of this, is basically taking us all by the hand walking us all into what he prayed for us in John’s Gospel.  In John’s Gospel he prayed that we may all be One.  One with one another and One with God and here in Mark’s Gospel, he takes us by the hand of our humanity and walks us into the fulfillment of that prayer… into our place within God’s Divinity.   

Jesus meets us where we are, wherever we are, deep within our humanity, and in a generousness of love, grace, compassion and care, walks us into a LIFE filled with meaning, purpose, dignity and self worth.  And there, with our lives interwoven between humanity and divinity, Jesus helps us to discover that together we have all that we need to change the world into the what God created it to be.  So, let's go do it!  Amen.

Jesus Shows his Butt

Mark 7:24-37

From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Hello?  Is this Jesus?  Yes?  Okay good.  Well, I’m calling from HR.  The Heavenly Resources department.  Well Mr. Jesus, we’ve had a serious complaint from one of your co-humans that you were, and I’m quoting from the complaint here, “a pretty big butt” when you first talked to the Syrophoenician woman when she came in to talk to you about her demon possessed daughter.  You apparently called her the “D” word?  No, Mr. Jesus, that wasn’t very nice.  Yes, I am fully aware you did cast out the daughter’s demon and that was absolutely “meets or exceeds expectations” work, but Jesus Christ… you have to know that is simply not an acceptable way to speak to another human being! 

You see, Jesus had just come from a huge fight with the Pharisees.  He had come up North, out of Jewish territory, to Tyre where the world was a lot less “People-y” so that he could come down from that encounter.  It’s easy to imagine then, that Jesus was emotionally, spiritually, and physically drained… you know… fully human.  He was just like we all get when we have to deal with super grouchy people.  He had no more… we’ll say “Cares to Give” and by coming to Tyre, he had TRIED to give himself a timeout to recover.  But what happened?  What happened is what always happens!  He got tracked down by yet another person needing something and the fully human Jesus just snapped.  A Jesus that snaps when he’s tired and over it?  Now there’s a Jesus who looks a whole lot like me!

That’s the first point of this story.  Even Jesus, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Son of God had days where he couldn’t help but to show his butt… just like all of us humans do.  The second point of this story is for us to understand that while showing our butts is a genuine part of being human, it is also NOT a spot where God is calling us to live full time!  That’s why in this encounter we see BOTH Jesus being fully human AND we also see him working with his Syrophoenician, female therapist to help him return to the fullness of the person God created him to be!  Back and forth they went in that therapy session until Jesus finally arrived at a place where both he and that little girl were freed from their demons.  

The story of the deaf man then extends the point being made in the first story.  Because while being run down, out of sorts, hangry, done with people and showing your butt is absolutely a part of being a genuine human being, doing the work to move and grow out of that part of being human, not only opens us to living a more abundant life OURSELVES, but also gives us the opportunity to pass that sort of abundant life on to others.  Whether we do that work on our own, or with the help of our own Syrophoenician therapist, God calls us into that work of becoming a better human being, not just so that WE might live a better life than we live when we’re dwelling in the cellar levels of humanity, but also so that we can move beyond ourselves and also bring a better life to those we meet along the way.  

It was only after Jesus had done the work he needed to do within himself that he was then able to take that deaf man away to put his fingers in his ears, spit, and scream “BE OPEN” so then that man could then ALSO stop living in the basement of humanity and move upstairs where the light shines, friends and family and neighbors come and go, AND where he would then ALSO have the opportunity to be part of lifting up and healing others around him.  

This Gospel story tells us that it is absolutely understandable and fully a part of the human experience for us to get run down, run over, and rung out and end up in a place where we are NOT at all functioning as our highest selves.  Even Jesus, it turns out, had those sorts of days.  But this story ALSO tells us that while being human and getting to that spot is understandable, its NOT the place God created any of us to live full time.  In this story Jesus started out REALLY showing his butt, but then he got help, did the work, got better, and went on to help others.  

SO WHAT JESUS DID HERE IS A MODEL FOR YOU AND ME TO FOLLOW!  We too, just like Jesus, are being called to be open to doing the work we need to do when we get to a place where our butts are showing.  We too, just like Jesus, are being called to be open to getting the help we need from a Syrophoenician therapist, or really a mental health professional of any ethnic origin.  BECAUSE when we DO that work… When we GET help… we FIRST return ourselves to life on the upper floors of humanity and SECOND we become able to help others live into those upper floors of humanity as well and it is there... on the upper floors of humanity where we will all find the abundant life in which God created ALL of us to live.  Amen. 

Tradition!

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

in vain do they worship me,

teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

TRADITION!  Tradition.  Did you have a Best Man at your wedding?  Why?  Because that’s the way you do a wedding?  Okay, but WHY is that the way you do a wedding?  It turns out that the reason folks started to have a Best Man at a wedding, was so that they would have their Best SWORDS-MAN at their weddings to defend you in case the arranged, political marriage ceremony got interrupted by political rivals with swords.  Is swordplay a genuine risk these days at weddings?  Not so much.  So then, why do we still have a Best Man?  TRADITION!  

Alright, brides, your turn.  Did you have bridesmaids at your wedding?  Why?  Because that’s the way you do a wedding?  Okay, but WHY is that the way you do a wedding?  It turns out that the reason folks started to have Bridesmaids at a wedding, was so that they could act as decoys for the bride in case the arranged, political marriage ceremony got interrupted by political rivals with swords.  Is that a genuine risk these days at weddings?  Not so much.  So then, why do we still have Bridesmaids?  TRADITION!

How about those candles on the altar?  Do you know why we have candles on the altar?  Well, the reason we have candles on the altar is that when Christians first began gathering in homes and in the catacombs to worship they needed some light to read the service and the Scriptures.  There weren't any first century light switches available so they put a couple candles on the altar!  But now with electric lights we have no actual NEED need for candles on the altar, so why are they still there?  TRADITION!  

In researching the history of my first congregation for their 125th anniversary I uncovered a congregational tradition of chewing tobacco during worship and spitting on the floor of the church.  I also discovered that ending that tradition almost split the church!  TRADITION!

In today’s Gospel, Jesus was confronting TRADITION!  Jesus, you see, was living out his mother’s song… The Magnificat.  He was scattering the proud.  Bringing down the powerful.  Lifting up the lowly.  Filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty.  He wasn’t just challenging the traditional order of things, he was smashing it to bits!  Eating with sinners and tax collectors.  Having women as followers and disciples.  Challenging the occupying army of Rome and those who were their local toadies and… AND he was eating without, GASP!, doing the correct ritual washing!  

The Pharisees, on the other hand, insisted that things be done the way they had always been done but Jesus was turning over that traditional order.  BUT, Jesus wasn’t doing that just to be difficult.  Jesus was doing it because those traditions had, for the Pharisees, become more important to them than God.  “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition,” Jesus told them.  Their obsession with rituals and traditions had become more important to them than doing what God calls God’s people to do… doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. 

Now, the Pharisees make super fun and tempting punching bags, but we really should remember who the Pharisees were.  They were the regulars in worship back then.  They were the ones who pledged, served on committees, and had the keys to the building.  So when we’re tempted to dump on them we need to keep in mind that Pharisees are just as likely to show up in the mirror as they are in the Scriptures.

We need to be careful, because in every time and place, wonderful, faithful people have started beautiful and powerful traditions.  Traditions which help transport us closer to God and deeper into the love of our neighbors.  But if we are going to avoid the same trap that the Pharisees fell into all those years ago, we too will need constant reminding that even the most amazing, powerful, beautiful and long held traditions... THEY AIN’T GOD!  

That is why we constantly need to ask ourselves... Does this thing we do… does this hierarchy we defend… does this “way it’s always been done”… still help to point us toward God or has it become a god itself?  Does this way of being the church still call us to a deeper love of, and care for our neighbors?  Or has something happened somewhere along the way so that what used to help us connect with God, now ends up distracting us from God and somehow now perversely keeps us from lives of loving kindness, doing justice and walking humbly with our God?  

May God continue to give us the courage to honestly and constantly examine everything we do, and when we find traditions that are becoming gods for us, to allow them to die so that we might rise again, into the new life God has in store for us… a life focused first and foremost on loving God and loving neighbor. Amen.