I'm All For Following Jesus, But...

Mark 8:31-38

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.”

Before we really start, I want you to know that this lesson has three bad potholes in it.  Neither Jesus nor Mark put them there, but, if you aren’t aware of them they can really mess up the alignment on your faith.  The first pothole is Mark’s use of the phrase, "elders, chief priests and scribes.”  In Mark’s day this was shorthand for Roman collaborators, not an attack on Judaism.  Jesus didn’t have a problem with Judaism.  He was Jewish after all!  But he had a HUGE issue when people mixed their faith with the violence and corruption of the occupying empire to make a themselves rich and powerful at the expense of the poor and vulnerable.

The second pothole is the bit about “suffering.”  God did not “require” Jesus to suffer.  That’s just completely twisted and not what Jesus meant.  When Jesus said “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering” he was simply stating what he knew was inevitable.  His plan was to go up against the empire and when you go up against any empire, it’s gonna hurt!  Now we’ll work on patching up the last pothole with the rest of the sermon.    

This week in the Berkshire Eagle there was a letter to the editor that began, “I’m all for following the science…BUT.”  As I read that, my Biochemistry diploma gave an audible shudder from the shelf inside the cabinet where it lives in my office.  It seems this person was all for following the science when the science reinforced their opinions.  But now that the science was challenging them to think differently… weeeeeellllll… this person thought we should really use our “street smarts” instead of the science.  

In this week’s Gospel lesson Peter chimes in and says, “I’m all for following you Jesus…but.”  At which point my seminary diploma gave a similar audible shudder from the same shelf inside the same cabinet in my office.  Peter was all for following Jesus when Jesus was doing it the way Peter thought it should be done…  but when Jesus proposed a different way forward than the way Peter’s guts felt was right… he was “by no means” into following Jesus THAT way!  In that moment, Peter was not the capital “S” personified Satan.  He wasn’t the red, horned guy… that guy didn’t show up until the Middle Ages.  No, in that moment Peter was a lower case “s” satan.  Which means he was a “tester”.   

A lower case “s” satan in Jesus’ day was just another human being, who knowingly or unknowingly, administered a test of morals and character to someone who found themselves at a crossroads.  Now, like then, when you come to a place in life where you need to make a hard decision… someone inevitably shows up to offer you the choice.  Will you choose to do this hard thing you’ve got to do God’s way, or will you do it a different way?  This week, Peter gave the test… Peter played the satan... the tester… 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... directly… but non-violently, calling out their injustice and corruption like the prophets before him even if that way involved great suffering?  OR would Jesus choose to do it another way… the way Peter expected?

 

You see, Peter and almost the entire population of Israel at the time, thought the Messiah would come… should come… MUST come… wrapped in a flag and wielding a sword.  He would raise an army.  He’d march on the capital and hashtag “stop the Romans!”  THAT made sense to Peter in his guts.  THAT was using street smarts.  Going to Jerusalem alone?  That was just dumb!  That would just get you killed!

Peter’s test for Jesus back then, is exactly the same test for us in our world today.  Will we confront the empires of our day who wield the swords of violence, out of control capitalism, white supremacy, fascism, sexism and all the rest, the way Jesus confronted them?  Directly but non-violently.  OR will we, like Peter, try to shape the world to OUR will by wrapping Jesus in a flag and forcing modern day weapons into Jesus’ hands?

We see people making that decision in both directions every day.  Just turn on the breaking news and you'll see it isn’t hard to find people, just like back then, who are all too willing to twist their religion to justify cozying up to those in power.  Happy to twist and bend their principles and the words of Jesus himself like a sideshow contortionist to justify using the sort of violence, corruption, and immorality, that the law, the prophets, and Jesus himself railed against all those years ago.

Our time too 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 toward, and the part that asks us HOW we will work to create that world?  Will we choose to work toward a world that Jesus calls 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 and most powerful survive?  

And will we do that work the “Jesus Way”… by the way of  compassion, sacrifice, direct, but non-violent confrontation… no matter what the cost, caring for the least, the last and the lost along the way?  Or will we choose to use might to make the world into our version of "right"!  That path always leads to using bigger lies, stronger armies, greater force, and spiraling violence, all the while saying, “the ends justify any means.” We are facing the exact same test today that Peter gave Jesus back then.  The question for us is how will we answer? Our test begins… now.  Amen.

Where is the Wilderness?

Mark 1:9-15

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is “Immediately” driven into the wilderness.  Luke and Matthew’s version gives details.  Mark's does not.  While we might be tempted to fill in Mark’s version with details borrowed from Luke and Matthew, I’m going to suggest that maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to do that.  Because, I think, Mark is actually trying to give us a gift by leaving out the details.  

When Jesus is “Immediately” transported into the wilderness we immediately picture a physical, geographical, place.  Rocks and sand and sun.  But Mark’s not the one who gives us those details, is he?  WE read the rocks, sand, and sun INTO what he wrote.  So, could it be that the wilderness to which Jesus was “Immediately” transported, at least in Mark’s understanding, was not necessarily a PHYSICAL place of rocks and sand and blistering sun, but perhaps a spiritual, emotional, or existential kind of wilderness instead?  

That wouldn’t make Jesus’ experience less REAL, but what it does for me, at least, is to allow this story to hit closer to home.  You see, I’ve never stood in a physical desert being tempted by Satan with red horns and pitchfork in hand.  But I’ve absolutely spent time in an emotional and spiritual wilderness.  When Mark chose to NOT have the specific temptations laid out for us, OR stage the scene for us with solid rocks, intrusive sand, and blistering sun, Mark is giving us a gift.  He's allowing us to imagine Jesus himself perhaps experiencing a type of wilderness that we ourselves inevitably experience in our own lives. 

So here in Mark’s version, Jesus is tempted for forty days by Satan… “forty days” is Bible shorthand for a very long time.  AND at the same time he was being tempted, he was also with the Wild Beasts…  AND at that same time, angels waited on him.  ALL of it seems to have been happening together, according to Mark, in a giant jumbled mess!  That experience of life as a jumbled mess feels more like what I’ve experienced in my life as well. 

My experiences with wilderness have been more with emotional and spiritual, than physical.  All in my head, yes, but still VERY painfully real!  Wilderness time filled with Wild Beasts.  Some helpful.  Some not. Beasts who held me, not trying to “fix” it with words but simply being present.  But also Beasts who fed on my pain.  And with both sorts of Beasts there have also been angels, not just after the fact, but all the way through.  Nearly always, I saw those angels only with hindsight, but they were there, bringing unexpected kindnesses and generosity, seemingly out of nowhere. 

And then, in Mark’s story, Jesus appears to simply leave the wilderness behind.  Off to Galilee.  Or do we read that part into the story too?  Because here in Mark’s Gospel, if Jesus’ wilderness is not a physical wilderness built only with rocks and sand and sun… then perhaps it was a wilderness that he brought with him, even as he moved on into Galilee.  THAT rings true for me as well.  A wilderness that comes with you.  Because none of us, not even Jesus, can un-experience the experiences of our past.  Our brains are wired so that we MUST take all of our experiences with us through the rest of our lives.  We carry it all.  Times of wilderness and times of wonder.  Times of pain and times of pleasure. Times we never want to forget and times we’d do almost ANYTHING to forget.  Regardless of the experience… regardless of whether we see them as “good” or “bad” we carry every single one of them through our entire lives.  

All our baggage.  Always with us.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  We don’t have a choice about that… and BELIEVE me, I would LOVE to have a choice about that!  But what Jesus shows us here, is that even though we carry it all, we can still also choose to move on.  If we wait for our baggage to disappear, we’ll stay stuck forever.  So we have to move on... yes, all of that baggage still in tow.  But... WE can decide HOW to carry it.  

Will we carry it like a cartoon bell boy, stacked so high we can’t see… no idea where we’re going… constantly dropping our baggage on the heads of the people around us?  Or will we carry it like Jesus carried his?  Gather it all up… the good the bad and the ugly… and bring the lot of it to the cross.  Not because the cross is just one last horrible experience to pile on our load, but because the cross is the ONE PLACE where all of our entire lifetime of experiences are transformed from darkness into light… from despair into hope… and from death into life.

  

Lent… this season of just forty days… is meant to be a time for us to practice, every year, dealing with our wilderness bags so that we might carry them more like Jesus carried his.  A time to practice techniques passed on through the ages that help us do that instead of lying crushed beneath it.  To practice what the Disciplines of Lent... Repentance, fasting, prayer and works of love.

It is those ancient practices that are meant to help choose to move on and show us how to move on.  To help us remember, that while all our experiences… the good, the bad, the ugly… the rocks, the sand, the sun… the joys, the triumphs and the pains… ALL come with us... 

As God's Beloved... WE, like Jesus, get to decide whether we will stay stuck, crushed under it's weight, or choose instead to take each bag, each wilderness experience, each encounter with devil, beast, and angel and let God transform each one into stepping stones to guide us in our following of Jesus toward a life transformed.  Amen. 

Soap Wednesday

 Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near— a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.

Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God? 

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep. Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Last year for Ash Wednesday I proposed the idea that instead of focusing primarily on ourselves and our sinfulness for the whole 40 days of Lent, that perhaps we might instead do what Joel suggests.  That we might instead “Call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast.”  I suggested a year ago, that once gathered together, Lent could then be a time where each of us could really support one another in finding a balance during this season between self reflection and service to the world… a balance that God hopes for us all.  It was a really good idea, if I do say so myself!  Then, of course, four days later we had our last in person worship and we’ve been neither assembling nor gathering in-person ever since! 

 

To gather, as Joel had suggested, became a challenge.  It was a bumpy ride through that challenge, with glitches and gremlins along the way. But in spite of that, we really HAVE found ways to “gather our solemn assembly” and worship together, cry together, laugh together, serve together, and then bring kindness born in those assemblies, in new and creative ways, out into the larger world. 

With livestream and Zoom and text groups and videos and meals and boxes of cookies we’ve been doing just what the prophet Joel suggested.  Pulling our congregation together… the whole directory, young and old, lifelong members and newcomers, the solemn and the silly of our assembly.  Joel KNEW that gathering was key to binding the wounds of the people in his congregation AND also key to creating a group of people ready to begin to repair the wounds of the world around them.  Joel could never have imagined the ways we’ve found to do that this past year, but it’s made a real difference in our lives, in the lives of those who have joined us online from far away, and in the lives of our neighbors.   

 

So assembling we’ve figured out.  Glitches and gremlins are mostly… mostly… kept at bay these days.  But NOW our challenge is how do we do ASH Wednesday… without the ASH?  Isn’t ASH the point?  That mark of ash mixed with olive oil, given with the words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  Isn’t that the whole thing?  It reminds us of our mortality and calls us to “Return to the Lord our God, for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”  Ash seems key to “Ash Wednesday” doesn’t it?  It’s even half of the name, for crying out loud!  

But there’s more to oil and ash than just a reminder of our mortality.  For over 5000 years, people in the Middle East have been mixing Olive Oil and wood ash for another purpose… to create soap.  The same two ingredients found in Ash Wednesday ashes!  So in the same spirit that helped us learn to “gather” without gathering to care for one another, THIS year I propose we still have Ash Wednesday… Including the ASH and the Olive Oil! But this year we have it in the form of soap.  We will wash our hands, both to continue to keep the pandemic at bay, and then turning at least one of our daily hand washings with soap into a new Lenten discipline.  A prayerful act of care for ourselves and our neighbors and a physical practice to connect us more deeply with God.

Joel had gathered his people because they were experiencing a “day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!” They were living in a time the like of which he says, “has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.”  In this past year, we too have learned how to gather our solemn assemblies in our own time of “thick darkness” using the technology that makes it both possible and safe to connect.  Perhaps the soap we use to wash our hands purposely… consciously… prayerfully... each day in Lent… soap that in Jesus’ day was made, from ashes and olive oil, can serve as this year’s reminder of another sometimes forgotten aspect of the season of Lent… to connect more deeply with God, praying… “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” 

May your Lent’s gatherings in solemn assembly feed your heart, minds, and souls.  May those assemblies strengthen you to bring compassion and kindness out into the world around us.  May the soap you use each day this Lent, begin by cleansing your hands, but then in these forty days become a practice that moves you toward a clean heart as well.  And through the rest of this pandemic and through the season of Lent, may you hold tight to the truth that our God is, “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.  Amen. 

Any soap will work just fine should you choose to take on this new Lenten Discipline.  If you are curious about the ancient soap, still made in the Middle East the same way, here's a link to the soap I bought.  

Pandemonium

Mark 1:29-39

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.

John Milton created the word Pandemonium in his epic poem "Paradise Lost" from the Greek words “Pan” meaning “All” and “Daimon” meaning... well... “Demon”.  Pandemonium was the place where ALL the demons lived… the Capital of Hell.  The question for us though, is what do WE do with the pandemonium going on in this Gospel lesson?  This story starts with an understandable fever but quickly becomes a veritable Demon-o-rama!  So what are we… a modern-rational-ish people who, at least among those listening here, lean more toward science than toward woo-woo… what are WE to do… how are we to make sense of all this talk of demons? 

Some folks dismiss the talk of demons as simply, ancient people trying to make sense of things they didn’t understand.  A case of a now known disease like epilepsy, polio, or Parkinson’s.  A mental illness that we would now call we borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, or malignant narcissism.

I think that’s probably mostly the case, but one thing I learned studying science was that the more you learn about one specific thing, the more you really began to understand how much you really DON'T know.  I think that’s also something to keep in mind as we talk about demons.  There remains A LOT out there we still don’t understand.  I suspect much of what is still unknown will eventually become clear, but being honest about what we don't know... in things Divine or Demonic, keeps us from being blindsided out of arrogance.   

 

So, what ARE we supposed to do with fevers that don't spike a physical temperature, or the chatty demons and non-medical diseases of our society?  In spite of the risk of sounding like a broken record… I honestly think the answer for us is to follow Jesus.  I know I say that a lot… one step at a time… walk in Jesus’ footsteps… see the world and the world’s people as Jesus saw them… do the things Jesus did back THEN, for our neighbors NOW.  Blah, blah, blah… I know I say that stuff a lot… but that really, really is all there is to say!  It’s all just that easy.

And of course… it’s all just that hard as well.  Jesus and that  fully Divine thing of his, makes living like Jesus look easy.  Being entirely human… I seem to have a perpetually harder time “simply following Jesus.”  Maybe you do too.  The Good News is that these stories show us over and over how Jesus did what he did and if we can look beyond the fantastical   Jesus really does model for us HOW we might at least head in that Jesus direction.  

In this story, Jesus first removed the barrier that kept Simon’s mother from her calling as a deacon.  It wasn't just a calling to making snacks for the boys.  Her calling was a calling to Word and Service.  As we try to follow Jesus, we too can look for the people who have been kept down by the “fevers” of our time… the things that still to this day keep people from doing what they are called to do… things that would be of service to all of creation.  Fevers that don't show up on a thermometer, but are fevers all the same.  Racism, misogyny, privilege... those are just some of the fevers that still keep people from using the gifts God gave them to care for the world.  Jesus shows us that our job is to do like he did... to reach out to them… take them by the hand... lift them up!

Jesus also gives us in this story the place we are to start.  Not in some far off land, but right at our own front door.  Start with those who are ready and right there at our own front door.  Not everyone is ready for healing or too far away for the moment.  Jesus also shows us in the story the power of silencing the voices of the demonic.  He heard the voices... he heard the hate.  He read the Tweet.  He saw the post.  He saw the outrageous statement on the news.  But he chose not to give that voice any more reach.  The spread of the demonic voices, ended with him.  

Jesus also shows us the power of sabbath.  Not running from the problems, but a time to recharge and reorient for his real mission.  Then, even when the disciples, using their best fishing techniques, tried to hook Jesus and pull him back to town, Jesus didn’t take the bait.  He didn't let the demonic set his agenda.  The healing was important, but he told them, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message... for that is what I came out to do."  

So what can we learn from Jesus and his pandemonium that might help us through our own pandemic plagued pandemonium filled with the fevers and diseases of white supremacy and Christian Nationalism and the demons that make people believe in cannibalistic conspiracies and Jewish space lasers?  Without direction we just stay home and raid our pantries eating panini, pancetta, panittoni and panfried pancakes until our pantaloons pop!  So WHAT do we DO here in the midst of OUR pandemonium filled with a pantheon of social fevers and modern day demons?  

We follow Jesus, the tried and true.  One step at a time.  We move toward the people we love.  We move toward our neighbors in love... with our words and our actions and our hearts, minds and hands.  I know I may sound like a broken sermon record sometimes, but the truth really is, that following Jesus REALLY IS the panacea for our current day panoply of pandemonium.  Amen.