Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost Yr B Proper 21 Sept 26 2021

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost Yr B Proper 21 Sept 26 2021

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22, Psalm 124, James 5:13-20, Mark 9:38-50

 

We enter the gospel of Mark today in the middle of this hard teaching about what it means to follow Jesus. This is the bread and butter of the gospel, wrapped around the Transfiguration story. Mark doesn’t waste a single word as he shows us what this life of following Jesus looks like. What matters to Mark is not who is first or who is last. What matters to Mark is not who is casting out demons in anyone’s name. What matters to Mark is that you follow Jesus all the way to the cross and empty tomb, even though the disciples had a lot of trouble doing that themselves. What matters to Mark is that you follow Jesus all the way to the cross and through the resurrection, and that in the doing, Jesus’ love matters, your love matters.

 

Remember last week we heard the hard teaching about what it means to be great, and that greatness doesn’t look anything like what we think it looks like in our world, or in Jesus’ world. Mark continues to show us, through Jesus’ disciples, that following is hard. It seems like the disciples keep on stumbling. Jesus must keep on showing them what following looks like. Jesus puts a child on his lap and tells them that following him looks like this. Mark shows us that those who seek out power are not followers, but those like this child and those who serve, are followers. But the disciples are not really getting what Jesus is saying, and as you and I overhear this conversation, we may wonder why Jesus can be so harsh. Jesus told them of the importance of welcoming the little ones; now he warns of what will happen if they act hostilely toward those same little ones. Jesus takes several runs at explaining the perils of acting scandalously. Jesus talks about the cost of harming people with lies and innuendo. Jesus says this over and over and it feels almost like we’re getting hammered just like those who were hearing Jesus for the first time. But the repetition serves to drive home Jesus’ warning vividly.

 

Jesus states three times that losing a scandalizing member is preferable to gaining a place in the eternal fire. Mark has warned previously that we must lose ourselves to find the fullness of our life in God’s love, and that metaphor in Mark becomes very concrete right here. Hands, feet, and eyes are lost so that oneself is not.

 

This seems a little exaggerated, a bit like hyperbole, don’t you think? Really Jesus? Cutting off a limb, losing something as important as an eye, is better than losing myself? But the trouble is, it’s a short trip from deciding Jesus really doesn’t mean what Jesus says and that what Jesus says is too hard to do, to deciding that someone who speaks their truth is just making it up. Or just maybe overstating something that may have happened, possibly, but not believable. We do it with our children; maybe that’s why Jesus is using a child to teach this to the disciples. We tell them not to exaggerate or we’ll stop believing them, we call that crying wolf. Hyperbole becomes the convenient excuse to stop listening, to stop believing, to question the veracity of the claims, claims that take an extraordinary amount of courage to utter.

 

Twisting, turning, tying up the truth, happens now as much as it happened with Jesus’ disciples, and this is the truth that Mark is trying to tell us. We don’t want to hear it, Peter never wanted to hear Jesus tell him the truth, every time Jesus told Peter that the son of man would be put to death, Peter said no, no, that could not happen. But this is what is right in front of us.

 

But there is also so much grace, so much good news in Mark’s gospel. The truth, the grace, is that following Jesus is about love that is brave, and courageous, and fierce. Jesus is brave, and courageous and fierce in Mark’s story. Jesus keeps at the disciples so that they may believe that it is in living in love, it is living in truth, honesty, integrity that matters. And life is best lived when we fully and completely embrace the truth that love wins. You see, God in Christ came to be with us and for us, to take on our life and our lot that we might not simply persist, but flourish, not simply have life, but have it abundantly, that we might understand that the God who created and still sustains the vast cosmos not only knows that we exist, but cares. Cares about our ups and downs, cares about our hopes and disappointments, cares about our dreams and despair, cares about all the things we care about, promising to be with us, to walk alongside us, to never, ever let us go, and in time to bring us into the company of saints.

 

It is best, Jesus says, to love and to live fiercely, bravely, and courageously in the company of others who live and speak the truth. Jesus keeps telling the disciples and us, that it is in dying to selfishness, dying to greed, dying to arrogance and boastfulness, that we are raised to abundant life. A life that is connected, a life that is great, a life that is worth living. And that is exactly what Jesus tells the disciples. Live this life, live it fully and completely, and the gospel writer Mark shows us that it won’t be easy, this kind of love, this kind of truth, this kind of courage, comes at a cost, and the cost for Jesus is his life.

 

Jesus’ love matters, your love matters. And you do it all the time, you followers of Jesus, you disciples, you courageous ones. You take care of each other better than any group of people I’ve ever met. You show up and you stand up for each other. You are so generous with your money and with your love as you support our own families in need. Jesus’ love matters, your love matters, you courageous ones. You love and support one another when babies are born and when loved ones die. You have stood by each other when conversations have been difficult; you love each other even when it is easier to leave. You are rock stars.

 

And I want to challenge you to even more. I want you to help people who are not here yet, to find what you have found. I want you to courageously carry this love that wins into the difficult conversations that are happening in our families and our community. I want you to speak truth to power and be carriers of justice and mercy. I want you to change the world, or your little corner of it. I want you to follow Jesus into the difficult places, the difficult conversations, and the unfair and unjust systems. Not only do we remove stumbling blocks, but we create safe places, and opportunities for people to know that truth matters, and love wins. Amen.

 

17th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 20 Yr B Sept 19 2021

17th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 20 Yr B Sept 19 2021

Proverbs 31:10-31, Psalm 1, James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a, Mark 9:30-37

 

What does it mean to follow Jesus, for those who were Jesus’ friends in this story, and for us today?

 

We are in the heart of Mark’s gospel; Jesus and the disciples are on a journey that will end in Jerusalem, the place where Jesus is killed. Jesus has told the disciples once already, this is the second time Jesus tells them he will be killed, and the third time Jesus tells them they are further along the path to Jerusalem. Every time Jesus and those who were following him pass through Galilee, we are reminded that Jesus is trying to teach them something, and us as well. They are on a journey of discovery, and as they journey Jesus tries very hard to keep them away from the crowds who are beginning to amass, so that Jesus can care for them.

 

So, let’s take a look at a couple of important details in these few verses. First, Jesus is to be betrayed. The gospel writer Mark, as we already know, is a man of few words, and gets straight to the point. Mark writes that Jesus is betrayed into human hands, and that Jesus suffers at the hands of the Jewish elders, those who were powerful, and maybe even considered great. And secondly, further along the road, Jesus hears his friends bickering, and finds out they are arguing about who of them is the greatest. As way of illustration, Jesus picks up the child and teaches them about greatness, about welcoming, about what it means to be a follower. Now you all know that these are crazy words. Children had no power, no greatness. Children were of no account. Oh, of course, their parents loved them, but they had no rights, no influence, no standing. They were utterly dependent, utterly vulnerable, utterly powerless. So how could caring for a child count as greatness? That is crazy talk.

 

It seems we haven’t changed much in all these years. We’re still wondering about what constitutes greatness. Is greatness measured by power and wealth? Is greatness measured by the ability to control people? Is greatness about being first so that others may be last? We hear this definition of greatness pretty consistently by some leadership in government and business. Is greatness measured by where one sits at the table? Is greatness measured by winning and losing? Is greatness measured by fame? Is greatness a competition? Is the person who wins the game, the football game, the tennis game, the basketball game, great? Is the person who wins the bachelor’s heart, or the amazing race, or American Idol, great?

 

What if we stop defining greatness like all of that, and start measuring greatness like Jesus shows us? What if we imagined that greatness wasn’t about power and wealth and fame and all the rest, but instead we measured greatness by how we share with others, how we take care of others, how we love others, how we serve others. What kind of world would we live in? Can you imagine if people were regularly trying to out-do each other in their deeds of kindness and service? Or if there were nationally broadcast competitions to see who was willing to be last so that others could go first? Or if there were reality TV shows that followed people around as they tried to help as many people as possible? Not for the fame or celebrity, but because it’s the right thing to do, it’s the way of following Jesus. What kind of world would we live in? I don’t know about you, but I think it would be a pretty great world.

 

The definition of greatness Jesus offers seems crazy because it is so completely, utterly counter-cultural and boundary breaking. Jesus calls us to imagine that true greatness lies in service and taking care of those who are most vulnerable – those with little influence or power, those the culture is most likely to ignore. And this is what it means to follow Jesus. True greatness is vulnerability. True greatness is foolishness. True greatness looks to the world like loss. Jesus looks to the world like loss. Jesus says he will be betrayed, and killed, and rise again. And in doing that, Jesus transforms the world; Jesus transforms us. Jesus shows us that in God’s kingdom, letting go is freedom, and greatness is in service to the ones God loves. Jesus shows us that those whom society throws away, are brought to the center of God’s love and life.

 

Those who welcome a child, welcome me. Jesus does not say, those who welcome those in power, welcome me. Jesus does not say, those who welcome the wealthy, welcome me. Jesus does not say, those who welcome only those who look like me, welcome me. Jesus says, greatness is measured by welcoming the one who has no power, serving the one who is on the fringes, healing the one who is hurt and crossing boundaries to serve the other, the alien, the outcast.

 

What if this became the measure of greatness in not only our church lives, but also our social lives and our community lives? What if this became the measure of greatness in our government? What if we share the love that wins so that the rules change and those on the margins are brought into the fullness of the community. What if we share the love that wins in service to the broken hearted? What if we share the love that wins in service to those who have been kicked out, not listened to, or shamed for their truth.

 

What if we took Jesus seriously? “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” What if we approached our neighbors with kindness and generosity, trusting that each and every life, each and every story is precious in God’s sight? I believe greatness is in vulnerability, greatness is in giving, greatness is in gratitude.

 

In the larger cotext in this part of Mark’s gospel, Jesus teaches about prayer. The disciples learn about staying close to God through prayer and drawing strength from God and one another through service. In fact, the way of the cross is the way of servanthood. Prayer and service are hand in hand, there is not one without the other. Following Jesus is about what we do each day, each hour, each moment. 

 

It doesn’t have to be hard. I offer today a prayer and service practice I learned from the author Ann Lamott. Three prayers, Help, Thanks, Wow.

 

Lord, help. 

In our time of desperation, 

in our time of need, help us to follow you, 

to see you, to hear you.

Lord, thank you, 

all that I am, all that I have is not mine, but yours.

Wow, this creation is amazing.

 

Help, thanks, wow. Amen.

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost Yr B Proper 18 Sept 5 2021

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost Yr B Proper 18 Sept 5 2021

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23, Psalm 125, James 2:1-10, [11-13], 14-17, Mark 7:24-37

 

I grew up in a wonderful community, where kids ran around and rode their bikes, played outside until their moms called them in, there were no streetlights to go on to tell us it was time to go inside, I ran into the homes of my neighbors to eat sweet treats. My memories are nostalgic, innocent, maybe even naïve. What I never knew in those days was the extent to which people who were not like us were kept out. Looking around me I could see that everyone was like me, but only in the last twenty years did I know the extent of that reality. 

 

Historically, one of the most pernicious practices in communities like mine was the widescale adoption of so-called “restrictive covenants” by housing developers. Compacts like these barred BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) and non-Christian families from living in many Edina homes – originally or at any point in the future. Covenant clauses leave little room for ambiguity. A representative buyer’s agreement from the Country Club District in the 1920s read “No lot shall ever be sold, conveyed, leased or rented to any person other than of the white or Caucasian race.” This practice not only kept people unlike me out, but it also kept them from building wealth, it kept them from good schools, it kept them away.

 

I do not say these things to make us feel bad, I say these things because I believe that when we know better, we do better. I say these things because I believe following Jesus is doing just that, knowing better and doing better, and nowhere is that clearer than in this story from Mark. I’ll tell you why. 

 

Remember, a huge theme in Mark is boundary breaking. Mark shows us that the reign of God is all about breaking boundaries, and like our hymn today teaches us that “in Christ there is no east or west, join hands, then, people of the faith, whate’er your race may be. All children of the living God are surely kin to me.” In Mark’s gospel, Jesus learns to break boundaries and calls us to that work as well.

 

Mark breaks boundaries with bread. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus makes available to the Gentiles the bread he gives to the people of Israel. First Jesus feeds five thousand people in Jewish territory, and then Jesus feeds four thousand people on Gentile soil and then immediately fights with the Pharisees over his authority to do such a thing. However, nowhere is this point clearer that when Jesus compares the healing of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter to the sharing of the children’s bread with Gentile dogs. Bread, in other words, is a boundary-breaking symbol. 

 

Throughout Mark, the contrasts between insiders and outsiders are vast. We see and hear that in the conversations between Jesus and the Jewish authorities, the Pharisees. The lines of purity are so clear so that you are able to identify who is a Jew and who is a Gentile just by observing what they do, what they eat, how they wash. But what Mark wants his readers to know, both Jesus and Gentiles, is that food laws no longer determine relationship with God’s reign; it’s not what you eat but how you live your life that matters. 

 

Jesus is now wiping out those distinctions and shattering the boundary the distinctions had imposed. So listen to this. If Jews could eat any kind of food without becoming unclean, that meant that when Gentiles ate those foods they were no longer defiled by them. The bottom line is that Jews and Gentiles could now eat together. And that gets us to this boundary breaking story about this Syrophoenician woman, absolutely not Jewish, asking Jesus to heal her daughter from an unclean spirit. 

 

Let’s take a look. Jesus went away to a region in Tyre to get away from everyone. Maybe he’d been walking all day, his feet were dirty and sore, his back was killing him, all he wanted to do was find a comfortable bed and take it easy for a while. While he was imagining the wonderful foot wash and nap he was going to have, a woman approaches him. Not a Jewish woman, but a Gentile woman, a Syrophoenician at that, a woman so very far outside of Jesus' neighborhood. 

 

Now this woman who in her time and place had no right to speak to Jesus asks Jesus to heal her daughter. She must have been desperate. She must have been at the end of her rope. Not unlike the woman who touched Jesus’ cloak, not unlike the woman at the well. Women, who just want to be well, to have their children well, who want to be seen. 

 

But Jesus is tired, there’s no excuse for it, and Jesus barks back at her. “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” The children in this story are the people of Israel, the Jews. She retorts, and reminds him that even the dogs under the table get the children’s bread crumbs. The dogs in this story are the Gentiles. What is astounding in this is that this woman has stood up to Jesus when Jesus is at his very worst, there really is no excuse for his words and behaviors here, and she claims that Jesus’ mission is not only to the Jews but everyone else as well. This is huge, the bread that Jesus breaks is for Jews as well as Gentiles. The boundaries are broken.

 

This woman shows us that Jesus’ boundary breaking mission is for all people. Where the traditions of the elders and the religious law could see only an outcast, Jesus sees the woman’s heart of faith. Jesus heals her child. Jesus does not hold his saving power in reserve but expands the circle of God’s mercy to include those once considered outsiders. Jesus welcomes all who put their faith in him. It is at this very point that Love wins because Love crosses boundaries. Love crosses the walls that we have erected. Love pushes against long held prejudices and practices that keep people apart. When we know better, we do better. 

 

Following Jesus is about breaking down boundaries. Following Jesus is about participating in systems that welcome all God’s beloveds and divesting ourselves of systems that continue to exclude and divide. When you have more than you need, you build a bigger table, not a thicker wall.  

 

Jesus is the bread that feeds us, all of us. God’s reign includes every one of us, there are no boundaries separating Jew from Greek, black from white from indigenous or alien, gay or straight or both or none. When we know better, we go out and do better. We go out and with this Syrophoenician woman we change the systems that keep us divided. We call out the systems that continue to oppress. And we always offer the bread of life to each and every person. Amen.