This Is Only A Test

The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark, the 8th Chapter

Then Jesus began to teach the disciples 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.”

Do you remember mimeograph machines?  The smell?  How many of you did badly on algebra tests because you were high on mimeograph fumes?  For those from that era, the word “mimeograph” immediately connects with exactly what it was.  For others, not from that time, the word “mimeograph” has no connection with anything at all!  Mark’s Gospel (not originally printed on a mimeograph machine, by the way) uses a lot of language long separated from it’s original meaning.  Because of that, over time, some of the words and phrases have taken on new meanings that neither Mark nor Jesus ever intended.  

One of those is the idea that God must demand suffering as “satisfaction” for humanity’s sin.  That didn't originate with either Mark or Jesus.  It was an idea, created in the middle ages, because it seemed to make sense in that time.  Back then an insulted knight would throw down their gauntlet and “demand satisfaction!”  Human sin began to be seen as an offense to God’s honor and therefore God must “demand satisfaction” through suffering.  It made sense to the knights.  It’s just not what either Jesus or Mark meant.  

Jesus’ prediction that he would suffer, was not about God demanding suffering in payment for our sin.  That prediction was simply an acknowledgement that if Jesus was going to follow God’s call and confront the exploitive, violent powers of Rome… that was going to inevitably lead to his suffering.  He was planning to take on an Empire!  Taking on empires always hurts… a lot.

Another thing that’s gotten lost over the years, like kids knowing how to use a rotary phone, is what Jesus meant when he talked about "elders, chief priests and scribes".  Some now read that as Jesus attacking Judaism.  But for Mark, “elders, chief priests and scribes” was code for Roman collaborators.  Jesus never had an issue with Judaism.  He was Jewish after all!  But he had serious issues with folks who championed their religion one minute and then in the next minute, used Roman violence and corruption to make a themselves very rich and powerful at the expense of the poor and most vulnerable… something opposed over and over again in their religion.  

  

And then there’s Satan!  As confusing to many, as texting with thumbs is to me, Satan is that red guy with horns and a pitchfork, right?  Well, in reality, that idea of a personalized character with the proper name of “Satan” didn’t show up for well over a thousand years after Jesus was around.  In Jesus’ day, “a satan” was a job, NOT a red guy with horns.  A satan was someone who administered a test of morals and character.  When you came to a place in your life where you needed to choose which way to go… someone would inevitably offer you the choice.  Would you choose to go God’s way or a different way?  This week, Peter gave the test… Peter played the satan... and the test was HOW would Jesus be the Son of God.  Would Jesus confront the powers of the Roman Empire and their collaborators in God’s way... in other words, directly but non-violently, confronting their injustice and corruption and calling them, like the prophets before him, to return to God’s way of living?  OR would Jesus do it another way?  You see, Peter and almost the entire population of Israel at the time, thought the Messiah would usher in God’s Kingdom a different way… they would raise an army… fight a holy war… defeat the Romans, throw Herod off the throne and rule with strength and might like King David did back in the glory days!  He'd make Israel great again!  But going to Jerusalem unarmed, without an army? That'll just get you killed.  

The test Peter administered to Jesus all those years ago is the same test we are being given today.  Like Jesus, we too are being called to usher in God’s Kingdom… to work at changing the world.  Now like then, suffering happens today for those who work for God’s Kingdom, not because God demands satisfaction for our sins, but because confronting violence, injustice, racism, sexism and all the other isms that make up the brokenness of our status quo world, will run us directly into very angry people and seemingly immovable systems who do NOT want their world to change.  

Today, just like back then, there are people who hide behind the words and images of their religion, but who have set aside the principles of that religion to cozy up to those in power.  They do twists and bend principles in a way that a sideshow contortionist would envy, simply to justify collaborating with those in power… even though those in power embrace the same sort of violence, corruption, and immorality that the law, the prophets and Jesus opposed all those years ago.

This, like other times in history, is a time of testing.  The test, as it always does, has two parts.  A part that asks us what sort of world we want to work for, and a part that asks us HOW we will work to create that world?  Will we work toward the Kingdom of God… a world where everyone has enough… enough food, shelter, health care, safety, dignity and purpose… or will we work for a world where only the strongest survive?  Will we do that work the Jesus Way… through compassion, sacrifice, direct, but non-violent confrontation, caring for the least, the last and the lost along the way?  Or will we look to use might to make the world right, using stronger armies, greater force, and spiraling violence believing the ends justify any means we might use along the way?  These were the questions back then for Jesus and these are the questions for you and me today.  How will we answer?  Our test begins… now.  Amen.  

Down By the Riverside

Genesis 9:8-17

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Do you know that song, “Down By the Riverside”?  

I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield, 

down by the riverside (x3)

I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield,

Down by the riverside

Well that song’s been stuck in my head all week because the first lesson for today is all about laying down a weapon of war.  That bow God sets in the clouds… that bow ISN’T simply a rainbow.  When God said, “I have set my bow in the clouds” the Hebrew word for “bow” is specifically the word for a WAR BOW… It’s a weapon of war that God’s hung up.  So even though it’s not about a sword and shield, God’s still saying…

I ain’t gonna study war no more (x3)

God knows how tempting it is to use violence to get what we want… tempting to be used even as a means to achieve peace, security and safety for the world.  This story says it’s SO tempting that even God, it would seem, was once willing to try to achieve peace through the violence of a flood.  

Surely, God once thought, with a God-sized war bow a God-sized flood could be rained down on the earth and surely THAT would bring the world to peace.  But it didn’t.  Even a good guy with a bow couldn’t force the world into peace.  Even in Biblical proportions, it STILL didn’t lead the world back to safety and peace.  This story is put right at the very beginning of the whole of Scripture, in the hopes that we might learn, right off the bat, that even if we could bring God-sized violence to the earth, it would still NEVER lead to our security, our safety or to peace.

This story screams at us, using the most dramatic and awful imagery we could possibly ever imagine, that our path to security, safety and peace will NOT be found with more or more powerful bows of war, raining down even Biblical amounts of fury on the world.  In this story God is pleading with creation to learn this lesson… to learn directly from the Divine experience… the ONLY place for a bow of war, is hanging in the clouds.   

This week, was the 18th school shooting this year… that’s three per week… so once again it's clear, that we have not yet learned that lesson.  We have turned our national back on the wisdom of our God who showed us the futility of violence and demonstrated for us the only way forward was to hang up the bow.  In 2012 following Sandy Hook, Gary Wills wrote an article for the New York Review of Books entitled “Our Moloch.”  I try to share it, following the lead of a friend, after every mass shooting… although there are so many, I confess that I miss some.  Moloch is the name of a demon from Leviticus… a god to whom communities would sacrifice their children in exchange for the Moloch’s promise of security.  Wills writes, “Few crimes are more harshly forbidden in the Old Testament than sacrifice to the god Moloch… Ever since then, worship of Moloch has been the sign of a deeply degraded culture.”  “The gun,” Wills contends, “is our Moloch.”  

What that means, is to think that we have simply have a gun problem misses something much more deeply disturbing and that is that we have a demon problem.  This demon insists on being fed our children three times a week in exchange for the promise that we will somehow be safe!  I have yet to see even an inkling of a delivery on that promise of safety and in any case, the price this demon asks is much, much too high.  Now, I’m not into literal demons, although there is much more to the universe than I can wrap my mind around, but this metaphor is the best way I’ve found to explain the senseless, illogical, continued devotion and worship of a thing that demands the lives of our children three times a week!  

So where do we go from here?  How do we fight a demon!  Where do we find hope?  I believe hope is to be found, not coincidentally, DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE.  In the waters of Baptism we have the answer.  Because in the sacrament of Baptism there is an exorcism.  It's not referred to by those words anymore and it's not anything like the movies, but that's what it is.  We ask, “Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?” and the reply is “We renounce them!”  We ask, “Do you put your whole trust in God’s grace and love” and the reply is, “I DO!”  And when we come up out of the water we hear the same words said over us that were said over Jesus… “You are my child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” and so in Baptism we put down our trust and devotion and worship of the sword and shield and exchange them for the long white robes of Baptism as we are clothed in Christ: 

I’m gonna put on my long white robe,

Down by the riverside (x3)

I’m gonna put on my long white robe,

Down by the riverside

You see, in baptism, we, like Jesus are given the strength to go into the wilderness of our lives and into the wilderness of this world and live even among the wildest of beasts, resisting the temptation to take down that bow of war and attempt to manufacture our own safety.  In our baptisms we are connected to the power of the resurrection, a power no weapon of war could ever even begin to match.  In the resurrection is the real power to bring peace out of fear and life out of death.  

May we hold tight to God’s promise made to us in our Baptisms, that there is safety and life only in the ways of the God, who long ago hung up the Divine Bow for good and proclaimed so that we might follow:  

I ain’t gonna study war no more (x3)

Candy Hearts and Ashes

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 6^th Chapter

"Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

"So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

  "And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

  "And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Happy Ash Valentine’s Wednes- Day?  There have been endless jokes in the nerdy clergy circles I run in, about Ash Wednesday falling on Valentine’s Day this year.  Memes on the internet of little candy hearts that say, “You are Dust!” or “Dust 2 Dust” using the number 2.  And then there have been the hyper-serious clergy types that chastise their colleagues who even hint about joking about this in any way!  But come on!  This is weird!  Ignoring it won’t make it any less strange!  And really, this is the way life happens most of the time, isn’t it?  Life is rarely one thing or another.  Life is almost always a mix of things as bizarre as Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday falling on the same day!  Life is BOTH pink candy hearts AND ashes…  Both “Be my Valentine” AND “You are dust and to dust you shall return.”  So what are we going to do with this day that seems, at first glance, like the worst sort of heavenly calendaring blunder?  Well, I don't think raising one up and ignoring the other is the way to go.  Instead, I think we should try to hold them both together in all their strangeness and see what they have for us when held together.  

Both days do have at least one thing in common.  They've both become a bit twisted over the years.  Ash Wednesday wasn’t originally intended as a day to usher in a season of suffering for suffering’s sake.  Suffering just for suffering’s sake is frankly pretty twisted and twisted isn't really God’s style.  Lent was really meant as a time to focus... to focus people on their upcoming Baptism or focus on a return to the relationship made in the waters of Baptism.  Lent was a time to either give up things or take on things that would help us steer our lives more directly toward, and more deeply into, our relationship with God.  So, for us today, if candy and chocolate distract you from moving deeper into your relationship with God, then by all means give them up for Lent!  But if it happens to be something like over scheduling your life or a need to be perpetually busy or something else that gets in the way of being still and better knowing God… well then, keep eating the chocolate and give up some of the “crazy” that makes life so frantic and distracted.  

That’s really true for Valentine’s Day as well, isn’t it?  It’s become this consumer driven, present buying, anxiety ridden day.  But really, isn't the point of Valentine’s Day to take time out of all the frantic, over busy, distracting aspects of life and do something that will move you toward and more deeply into the relationship you have with your significant other?  So, if candy and flowers and dinner do that… if those things grow your relationship deeper, then by all means do them!  But if what would really grow that relationship deeper is a walk together in a place with absolutely the WORST possible cell service… then maybe THAT’s the thing to do instead.  

It turns out the point of Lent and the point of Valentine’s Day aren’t as different as we first might have thought.  Ash Wednesday, in the best understanding, is a specific day, set aside to reflect on the ONE who loved us into being... into life!  It's a day to take a good look at our mortal selves in the mirror and see where we might have become distracted from the ONE who loved us into life… see where we’ve fallen short in our relationships with God and one another and make a commitment to do something intentional that will both sweep out the distractions and at the same time broaden and deepen that relationship.  Valentine’s Day too, at it’s best, is a day set aside to sweep away the distractions of the world.  Reflect on the gift of the relationships we have in our lives and commit ourselves once again to sweeping aside distractions and focusing again on broadening and deepening our relationships with those we love.  

The REAL goal of both of these days is to give us time to pause in our hectic lives, reorient ourselves back to an orientation around love, and change our focus from ourselves and our wants, back toward God and the others in our lives.  Do your current Lenten plans help you do that?  If they do, that’s great!  But if they don’t, then there’s still time to change plans and do something different.  What REALLY gets in the way of loving God and loving your neighbor?  What REALLY needs to be set aside so that you can focus?  Like I said, there’s still time to change your plans.  

May both your Lenten plans and your Valentine’s Day plans move you closer to the One and the ones you love.  May you honestly confront the things that distract you and courageously sweep them aside.  May you move closer and more deeply into your relationships with God and with the people in your life, so that you may more deeply experience the abundant, meaning-filled life God created you to live.  Amen.  

Hey Ma! How 'Bout Some Mini Corn Dogs!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark the 1^st Chapter

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

This Gospel lesson always reads like a Saturday Night Live skit to me!  Jesus and the boys head over to Simon’s place after a hard day of preachin’ and exorcisin’ demons, ‘cause that stuff makes a disciple HUNGRY, don't cha know!  Simon yells out for his mother-in-law.  “Hey ma, whatcha got to eat around here?”…MA!!  Where are you? Ma?”  Simon looks all over the house and then finds her in bed with a horrible fever.  

“OH MAN!” Simon says, “She’s got a fever!  Now we’ll NEVER get something to eat!”  Just then, Jesus hoists himself up off the plaid couch in the living room, walks over to Simon and says,  “Lemme see what I can do.”  Then, with a miraculous touch… WHOOSH!  She’s HEALED and walks out into the living room…  just to have Simon come up and immediately steer her off into the kitchen to whip up a bunch of mini corndogs, cheese dip and quesadillas!

So, that’s probably not EXACTLY how it happened, but every time I read that part that says, “as soon as Jesus healed her she got up and served them”… it always makes me chuckle.  In reality, what Jesus was showing us here is how we are all intimately connected, and interdependent upon one another.  Jesus healed people and cast out demons, NOT ONLY to bring an INDIVIDUAL to health again, but to also bring healing and wholeness to the entire community.  With that individual restored to the community, able to once again use their gifts, now the whole community is made whole again!

Demons and illness aren’t just bad for the person affected.  When sickness, demons or anything keeps an individual from playing their part and using their gifts to build up the people around them, it affects the wellbeing of the whole community!  Simon’s mother-in-law was a widow.  Which means she didn’t have a legal place in the community.  She wasn’t living with her own family or even her husband’s family, she was living with in-laws.  But even without a legal status, her role in the family and in the community was vital.  She mattered because by using her gifts, she built up the community around her.  

By healing the sick and casting out the demons, Jesus didn’t just heal an individual.  He also returned the entire community to wholeness!  That’s why this story isn’t just another miracle for us to marvel at the powers of Jesus.  This was a parable, acted out without words.  With this action, Jesus was teaching something very counter-cultural for his day and sadly it’s still very counter-cultural in our day as well.  Jesus was insisting that EVERY individual is a critical, essential part of the community.  EVERY individual matters, everyone has a place, everyone plays an essential role in making the community whole.  When even one individual is put on the sidelines for ANY reason, the WHOLE community suffers without them being present and active in their lives.  

That’s really the heart of the message Jesus was bringing to Capernaum and throughout Galilee.  In Christ, God is about the business of making bodies whole.  Individual bodies whole.  Church bodies whole.  Community bodies whole and the body of all of creation whole.  Jesus insisted that the path to that wholeness was through the radical inclusion of ALL people.  No person is expendable.  Every person, town, city, state and nation is valuable and essential to the wholeness of the world.  It was quite a lesson way back then and not exactly one we’ve fully learned even now.  It’s a message that insists that until every single individual has an equal place where they can live with health, dignity and purpose and use their gifts… until that happens, none of us will be whole.  Until that happens, the world just isn't working the way God intends it to work.

As Christians though, we’re called to do more than to simply lament over our species' slow learning speed.  We’re ALSO called to transform those words and ideas into a new reality for our world… just like Jesus did.  It’s not enough to stay out of the way and hope for God to bring in the Kingdom; we’re called to actively work with God to MAKE God’s Kingdom come and God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  

For most of us that won’t look like casting out demons in the classic sense or healing someone’s fever with a miraculous touch.  It will look like more like widening our welcoming circle.  It will look like finding a place for each person to fit... and not just a place to sit and watch, but a place where each of us can contribute and build the Kingdom alongside the rest of us.  It will look like keeping our eyes open for those who have been cast out, cast down or cast away and finding a way to bring them in, lift them up and draw them near. 

Jesus brought God’s wholeness to individuals, but he did that as a means to bring wholeness communities and to all of creation as well.  As the Body of Christ bringing wholeness is what we do too!  May we proclaim the message of God’s desire of wholeness for the world!  May we cast out the demons that insist some individuals, communities or nations are LESS.  May we, with even the seemingly simplest of actions, bring wholeness into the world, and may we smile when we realize that even something as mundane as shuffling out to the kitchen to make the "boys" some mini corndogs widens our circles and moves us one step closer to God's Kingdom.  Amen.