River Revelations on a Story Sandwich

Mark 5:21-43

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

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

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

First off, thank you for the gift of vacation.  And thank you for being a congregation who says, “Go!  Enjoy!”  So I went and enjoyed!  And I did enjoy, and even though over the river and through the woods and down the two track road to Karas Camp was not quite out of the reach of the news, the time away allowed me to remember something I often forget and I think it might be something many of us forget… particularly in these sorts of very terrible times.  

What I remembered, is that God is working.  Now, I usually remember that God’s DESIRE for all of creation is “Shalom”… a wholeness created by a radical re-ordering of the world.  God’s desire is for the world to work in a way where the widows, orphans and foreigners (the Bible’s shorthand for all those on the margins) are cared for and everything hoarded by the few is redistributed, so that everyone has enough… enough food, shelter, safety, health, security, dignity, self worth and purpose.  I usually remember that’s God’s DESIRE… for spears to be beat into pruning hooks, which means war is no more and for everyone to have a fig tree to sit under which means everyone has enough food AND a little extra time to grow dessert!  What I forget is that it’s far more than just God’s PASSIVE desire.  It’s something God is ACTIVELY WORKING to make happen in this world!  The part I REALLY forget is that God is actively working to make that happen BOTH with my hands AND WITHOUT MY HANDS!   It’s not ONLY our hands that are working to change the world.  It is God’s presence APART FROM ANYTHING WE DO that changes the world as well! 

This Gospel lesson reminds us of that with this story sandwich.  One story starts and is interrupted by the other.  The second story starts and resolves in the middle of the middle of the sandwich, and then Mark returns to the first story and finishes up.  In the first story, Jesus HEARS about the little girl.  He LISTENS to the cries of the lamenting parents, and GOES to bring wholeness out of brokenness, healing from disease, life out of death… all hands-on-action-verb stuff.  

As the Church, we’re called to that same hands-on-action-verb stuff.  We’re called to use our ears to listen, our feet to go, our voices to cry out and our hands, hearts, minds and resources to make wholeness happen where there is brokenness… healing where there is disease… life where there is death.  As the Body of Christ, you and I are called to live out that ELCA slogan, “God’s Work, Our Hands” and do the work needed to reorient the world from what it is now, into that “Shalom” sort of creation God intends.  

But in the middle of THAT story there’s the other story and that’s not an accident.  We see another woman healed as well and reoriented from dis-ease to health, from brokenness to wholeness and from death to life.  BUT, in THIS story, the healing happens PASSIVELY.  Now, here’s the part I remembered in the river… the part I all too often forget… You see, Jesus didn’t see this woman, or do any action-verb-stuff for this woman, but God was working anyway.  Without Jesus doing any action-verb stuff, she was reoriented from dis-ease to health, from brokenness to wholeness and from death to life!  BOTH were healed.  BOTH were given life.  ONE because Jesus heard, cared, went, and spoke and through all that hands-on-action-verb “God’s Work, Our Hands” stuff.  The OTHER woman got her world reoriented from death to life simply because wherever God goes, the world is reoriented from death to life in God’s wake…  without any assistance from you or me!  

Walter Brugemann tells us that's something worth thinking about, because we often forget that God is, what he calls, a “lively agent and a real character.”  He goes on to say that conservatives don’t allow for God to be a “lively agent and a real character” because they’ve got God so locked down they believe God only works their way and progressives don’t allow for God to be “an active agent and a real character” because they don’t really believe that God can work in any way other than through our hands. 

What I had forgotten and what I was able to remember in the river, is that God is working!  Through our listening, yes.  Through our voices, yes.  Through our protests and activism and hands and hearts and doing, yes, yes and yes!  AND, AND, AND God is ALSO working simply by being present in the world.  God’s presence apart from anything we do is transforming the world into a place of “Shalom,” a place of wholeness, a radically re-ordered world where widows, orphans and foreigners are cared for and everything that is hoarded by the few is redistributed, so that everyone has enough.  A place where weapons are made into garden tools and everyone has dessert to eat after dinner.  And really, when you think about it… who am I… who are WE… to think that God won’t get what God desires for the world?  

God is working!  THAT’s the Good News of Mark’s woman-healing-story-sandwich.  The world is being healed!  It doesn’t stay torn apart.  There IS reason to hope even in these darkest, most overwhelming moments because God is working!  God is certainly working through our empathetic ears, insistent voices, caring hands and crafty minds, but God is ALSO working, as the prophet Isaiah saw, while sitting on a throne, the hem of God’s robe filling the temple and touching the earth.  It is our call to do “God’s Work” using “Our Hands” AND it’s just as important… JUST AS IMPORTANT to regularly stand in a river, listen to the poets, sing songs together, laugh, share a meal and a glass of something refreshing and tell the stories so we ALSO remember that all of creation, RIGHT NOW, while we’re all doing absolutely nothing, is brushing up against the hem of God’s garments and in God’s wake, the world is being made new!  Amen.  

Waiting In The Darkness

Mark 3:20-35

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

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

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

T.J. and Dave come out on stage and say, “Trust Us, This Is All Made Up.”  The lights go off.  No one knows where this is going.  No one.  Not the audience.  Not even T.J. and Dave!  This is improv.  But it’s improv with no starting point.  Just two guys on the barren stage looking at each other.  Waiting.  Waiting for one of them to begin.  In the few minutes that takes waiting in the darkness, some people actually leave!  They can’t take the tension of not knowing or even having a clue as to what comes next! 

We humans like do patterns.  We like to have clues and put clues together and anticipate how things will turn out.  It’s helped us survive.  We notice “leaves of three” and that pattern helps us make better hygiene decisions when camping.  It’s why we like Sherlock Holmes and Columbo.  It’s why, when T.J. or Dave eventually says something and the other responds, the tension in the theatre drops for everyone, including T.J. and Dave.  Everyone gets a clue where it’s going.  Those patterns of life are helpful… Well… helpful until they aren’t.  What happens when something new comes along?  What happens when old patterns no longer fit?  What happens when someone begins to discover, explore and live into their true, authentic, self and that authentic self is suddenly very different?  

What happens, is what happened in today’s Gospel.  People who knew Jesus before… who knew his old patterns as a good, Jewish, son and brother… they were disturbed that Jesus wasn’t following those old, established patterns.  They could no longer anticipate where he would go next so they forced him into a box they understood… they said he was crazy.  The Scribes too, couldn’t see where he was coming from or where he was going.  He didn’t fit the patterns.  He healed on the Sabbath, which shouldn’t be possible!  He was an unpredictable rebel in an occupied country.  It scared them and so they forced him into a box they knew… they said he was possessed!  

In both cases, they had trouble allowing Jesus to live into his true and authentic self as the Son of God.  Now, from our perspective it’s easy to give the family and scribes grief for not catching on, but we have 2000 years of perspective.  T.J. and Dave describe their improv process as stepping into complete darkness… into an abyss, and trusting that the next step will rise up and be there when they put their foot down.  And that’s what Jesus’ family and the Scribes were being asked to do… step out into an abyss and trust that the next step would appear.  If that was you, would you take that step?  If that was you, would you trust the unseen or would you try to fit this never before seen thing into some other, more familiar box?  If that was you, would you have let Jesus live into his true, authentic self?  

It’s still a good question for us.  How do we handle Jesus being his authentic self?  How do we do with the death part of death and resurrection?  How do we do with Salvation being for ALL of creation… including the mean people!  What do we do with an angry Jesus and the parts of Scripture that make us uncomfortable?  How are we at allowing God to be God and not insisting that God go into a box of our own making?  And what about the regular people in our lives?  Do we allow them to live into the authentic person they have been created to be?  Do we give them the space and support to explore their next step, or do we have a step in mind for them?  Are we willing to sit with them in their darkness, before the lights come up and someone finally speaks… are we willing to love them no matter who they are when those lights come on and they find their voice?  Are we willing to love ourselves as we sit in our own darkness?  

In this lesson there is a beautiful piece, in the middle of this story about Jesus, his family and the Scribes.  It might not seem beautiful at first, but if you are willing to see it authentically, it is something wonderful.  Jesus begins by saying, “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter.”  This is Jesus telling us that as people stop fitting into old patterns and as they begin to explore, experience and experiment to find their truly authentic selves, there is infinite grace and forgiveness for them in their journey and for us as we struggle to keep up with them along the way.  Regardless of the missteps and blunders and slips made along the way as we inevitably stumble not quite getting it right the first or even the fiftieth time.  God knows this is a difficult, but holy journey and there is infinite grace as you walk this path and stumble along the way… and there is infinite grace for us as we struggle to support others as they look to walk their path.  

The second part of that piece where Jesus says, “but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” is harsh but not nearly as easy to commit as most people worry about.  Blaspheming the Holy Spirit means waging a relentless campaign against God.  The word in Greek makes it clear, this isn’t about having questions, or searching… it’s not even about doubts or getting things terribly wrong… it’s not even about being frustrated, scared, angry or wandering lost in the darkness for a while.  To blaspheme the Holy Spirit you have to oppose God relentlessly.  To commit this sin, you need to insist that God has never and will never do anything new and you must slam the lid closed on the box you've built for God and sit on top of it without ever considering that God might just be doing something new.  

This lesson is a call for us to allow God to be fully God.  It is a call for us to be open to God doing new things in new places.  This lesson is a call for us to set out on our own journey as well... a journey to discern our authentic selves and not limit ourselves to the standard, culturally approved boxes and paths.  This lesson is a call to be gentle with those on that journey and grace for when we don't get it exactly right.  This lesson is a call to sit in the darkness, knowing it will be okay, until God brings up the lights and the Holy Spirit provides the next step.  So, this week, trust the Holy Spirit… sit in the darkness and open yourself to God’s new thing.  Amen.