2nd Sunday of Pentecost
Year B
Mark 2:23-3:6
(plucking grains and withered hands)
My first reaction,
and I suspect that some of you might share this…
My first reaction to this gospel reading was
…a tab bit smug
Those Pharisees!
What a rigid lot!
Those Pharisees
Those church going
Institution protecting
Rule honoring good-ole-boys
But with only a smidgen of imagination
I AM a Pharisee!
My friends, aren’t we all the Pharisees?
21stcentury Pharisees?
I hope so! I’m okay with that!
Not only okay…happy even!
The problem is not being a Pharisee
The problem is being a Pharisee made of concrete!
About 4 years ago
When I was working a night shift at the hospital
(which meant that I was the only Chaplain in-the-house)
I got that dreaded page:
“Please come to ---,
The room number is a giveaway
A young couple has lost their baby
Stillborn at 33 weeks
She had a name
She had a crib
There was a nursery waiting with a fresh coat of paint
But before I say any more
I have to back up
You have to know how I feel about Baptism
I love Baptism
I love preparing couples to bring their children to Baptism
I did that for years when I was on staff at my former Parish
I love celebrating Baptism in the midst of the Sunday congregation
Listen!
I have Power Points (really good power points) and handouts!
We had talked about this in the Chaplain Residency Training program I took for a year.
I remember saying (with robust conviction)
how wrong it was to Baptize a baby who had died.
Sacraments are for the living!!!
I have Good Sacramental Theology on my side!
Did you hear me?
I have really really good Power Points!
(and handouts;)
My pager went off
The nurse shared what she knew
The couple weren’t really ‘church-going’
But they were open to a chaplain visit.
In that very quiet hospital room
This grieving and very quiet…all-cried-out… couple
Were holding their stillborn baby girl
There we were
Just sitting in a kind of comfortable and reverent silence
It seemed to last a long time
And finally
They spoke
They simply asked if we could baptize their precious daughter.
It took me a few seconds to realize
This was NOT a catechetical moment
My really really good power point…and my handouts…were useless!
In the face of this small and devastated family…
I was stuck
The Holy Spirit…at least I believe it was the Holy Spirit…
took control of my mouth and said, of course.
Now…Sacraments ARE for the Living
And my Power Point is still REALLY REALLY good
But right or wrong, for me
In that moment
With that family
And that baby
Pouring water
And praying that ancient formula
Was the only response my body could make
I LOVE the order that law and tradition give
But law and tradition are not the end
in and of themselves
And throughout the history of the Jewish people
…through the prophet and on through the history of the church
We…
Institutions and people…
Living…not made of concrete
have always needed
Renewal
Correction
Adjustment
…like being put back in place
Have you ever been PUT IN YOUR PLACE???
I have
Plenty of times
By Mrs Walsh my 3rdgrade teacher
By my brother, my daughter…
Certainly by a boss or two…
But the thing I conveniently forget is why?
Surely…there was a bit of reform/adjustment that needed to happen.
Jesus is putting the Sabbath…
And by extension
The larger tradition
Back in place
Not because Jesus is anti-law or tradition
Jesus loves the Sabbath
Jesus is a good Jew
Jesus is anything BUT stuck in concrete
Jesus wants to put the Sabbath back in its place
As a gift
Not a threat
I want to be a
‘Sabbath is made for Humankind’ kind of person
I want a vision that sees
God as gift-giving
That the Sabbath is a gift embedded in the very act of creation itself.
But what seems to creep in
Like the invisible force of gravity
What seems to happen is that I get the Sabbath-God equation turned around
I turn it into a threat when I creep into thinking that
I am made for the Sabbath
The equation gets turned around
Sabbath isn’t a gift from God to God’s creation
But a test
A test…so that God might know how I measure up
A test…to check my level of holiness…of purity…
A test of…acceptability
Slowly my gift giving God becomes a ‘Pass…Or else!’ God
Jesus puts Sabbath in its place
Others did the same thing before him
The God of this theology is Love,
And Love is always freely given…or it’s just not love.
God doesn’t need the Sabbath---WE DO
God doesn’t need to be schooled in GIFTING---WE DO
God doesn’t need a life-giving example to follow---WE DO!
And here we are
Good 21stCentury Pharisees…not made of concrete
I know that because we are here!
Here…where we come to meet God…sacramentally
…not limited to here but ritually and sacramentally here!
HERE
In each other
And in us as one body
In the Holy Scripture
In the bread and wine
And in our sharing
We come here to remember
Our Baptism
To remember
Being made in the image and likeness of a gift-giving God
God gifts us the Sabbath
and it’s call to rest,
and the tasty grain asking to be plucked,
and the words of invitation and healing
“Stretch out your hand”
Jesus says to the man with the withered hand
‘Stretch out your hand’
He invites the man
He invites US
When we process to celebrate communion
We are asked
To ‘stretch out our hands’
Whatever is withered
Whatever is withering
Offer it
Open it
BRING IT ON
Stretch it out to be healed
And made whole
And this
My friends
PUTS US IN OUR PLACE
Our right and proper
And life-giving place
And from that place
To go and ‘do this in memory of me’
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