February 25, 2024 - 2LentB - Why the Cross?

2LentB
February 25, 2024

Suffering. Rejection. Deny. Take up your cross. Lose life

This Gospel reading is heavy. 

It is Lent, So I’m thinking we are ready;)

 

A while ago I was at a workshop

For three days we reflected on three different questions

Why…Why did it take the Incarnation to save us?

Why did it take the cross/crucifixion?

Why did it take the resurrection?

 

These are really fundamental questions

But it seems to me that we often

kinda just glide over them 

with vague churchy language

 

I’m not the sort

Who is immediately impressed by the guy selling pillows on TV, or the beautiful newscasters who wear crosses front and center…

It seems too cheap…too easy

I need more…

I need more from myself.

As fundamental as these questions are 

I found that I hadn’t given them much attention

I really hadn’t made them real

 

Today…Our Gospel reading is about as direct as it gets in asking us to:

Deal! Deal with the Cross…

what does it mean to me…to us

and how does it, somehow, give shape to the way we live out our faith

And because after 2000 years we are still wrestling with this question

It isn’t about THE ONE AND ONLY CORRECT answer

…it’s an over and over again invitation to ponder 

 

[TEXT]

Today’s Gospel reading from Mark 

is asking us to DEAL

WHY the Cross?

 

The lectionary has jumped forward a bit

And here we are in Chapter 8 
Chapters 1-7 Jesus is healing right and left

He is alleviating any and all suffering

Placed before him

 

But here…in Chapter 8…we have a pivot point.

 

“THEN. Then he began to teach them”

That first word THEN

indicates that what follows has something to do with what came before

 

Just before today’s text, Peter has answered the question 
“Who do you say that I am?”

And he (at least on the surface) gets it right…but even as he gets it right TECHNICALLY

He gets it very wrong.

You are the Christ!

Well…yes…but not the kind you have in your head.

And so THEN…

 

“THEN he began to teach them.”

 

It’s kinda like show and tell

7 chapters of showing

And now some TELLING

 

“THEN he began to teach them.”

 

One thing we can say for certain

For 7 chapters…with all that healing and alleviating suffering right and left.

we can be sure that

Deny

Taking up your cross

Lose your life

Isn’t about looking for suffering…or somehow glorifying suffering.

JESUS does not want more victims!

 

SO…How do we think about Denying oneself?

 

The word translated LIFE

Is something like how we use the word SELF

For us moderns, selfhood is the sum of everything I am

MY past experiences, my accomplishments, my traumas…it’s very individualized

So when I hear “deny myself” 

I hear something like “that means that I can’t do what I want to do?”

 

Selfhood…or identity in the ancient world

Wasn’t something “I” construct
It’s given to me by my birth, my tribe, my trade…just the whole web of my world.

 

Denying in the ancient world would have a sense of losing one’s identity

Like breaking apart that web

 

Using words that might work for us today

Jesus might be saying to us:
“separate yourself from the things that PURPORT/PRETEND to make you who you are” 

 

We know what that means…my career, my health and vitality, the fact that I can run 5 miles a day, --- just fill in the blank
Separate…not get rid of…Just remember believe that these are  NOT your identity.

SEPARATE, why?

…to make room for a new belonging and a new identity

 

We are here 

In our prayers and creeds and petitions

We confess our belonging to Christ

Christ crucified

 

But what does that mean?

 

I think there are as many ways of expressing the answer to that question as there are Christians who ponder it.

 

Obviously I’ve had a head start;)

But here is mine.

However incomplete 

 

The cross is where God was willing to go

The place where God could say NO

Not with words but by way of Jesus’ actions…

Or better yet…actions done to Jesus. 

Actions so vivid and in your face that we humans couldn’t miss it

In the crucifixion

God says:  NO…absolutely NOT

I’m not playing your game

NO…the word is NO…to the never-ending cycle of revenge and violence 

that you humans seem to think is the answer

 

On the cross God says NO to the over and over again cycle of winners and losers.

 

I won’t participate in victory parades arising out of that!

 

DO NOT EVER do THIS in my name!

[and later at the Last Supper I gave you another THIS…wash feet, share a meal…now that you can do in my name]

 

But NO not this…Not EVER!

 

But there is a promise in the text as well:

8:35 those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

 

So we lose our lives/our selves by separating ourselves from those things that purport/pretend to make us who we are SO THAT we can become grounded in Christ.

And this LIFE we are talking about isn’t individualistic.
And that means that just as my SELF/my LIFE is constituted corporately…communally

SO TOO…is the SAVING

I don’t go it alone.

We don’t go it alone.

 

Okay…so we can relax a bit knowing that we don’t have to take on the world by ourselves.

 

But still…The business of Jesus

The business of Messiah-ship

Is the business of turning (the tense is important) 

…turning the world “right-side-up”

that is the role of a messiah…

 

Still…We have to live with the fact that it is VERY. SLOW. GOING!

 

Its true, right?
THUGS/Dictators/ Liars and Cheats seem to win more than their fair share of the fights! 

 

Into this complaint, Jesus, THE GOSPEL

Is reminding us that there is no other way

The other way…the way of force

Just makes us into new Romans, new Thugs, new oppressors.

 

Losing my life

Means disentagling my life from all that I think makes me me

My job, my education, my family, accomplishments…

And subjecting it all to my life, my identity, in Christ

 

And…my life in Christ means that I continue to be drawn into a parade

I am being drawn into an ongoing, 2,000 year old parade

Not a victory parade

But a peace parade

A justice parade

A cross-bearing parade that many will call 

naïve, immature, snowflakey, gun-hating, kumbaya

 

And that’s okay

Because it’s not a victory parade yet

We are living in the mean-time

In the middle of a story about our God 

who raises people from the dead!

 

And, my friends, we have all glimpsed just enough of a right-side-up world 

To keep parading

 

We parade to the food pantry

We parade to the ballot boxes

We parade to visit a grieving neighbor

We parade to this church for the company we so desperately need
on Sundays and sometimes carrying a large pot of soup

 

We sing in the parade too

If its not always a HAPPY parade

It is a joy-filled one

Joy-filled 

Because we are propped up by an immense fellowship

Of the living and the dead

 

And parade

Inch by inch

Decision by decision

Loving choice by loving choice

As we contribute to the 

slow bending [To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr]

of the arc of the moral universe towards justice.

 

Kinda? Sorta?

4OTB

Mark 1:21-28

Palm 95

KINDA?  SORTA?

I am so happy to be here

I was with my Dad for 3 weeks

And then I was helping with a retreat 

45 priests and Deacons, an Abbott and a Bishop

Sounds like the beginning of bad joke

It was nice to miss all that super frigid weather

But there is nothing like laying down 
on your own bed 

and resting your head on your own favorite pillow

 

At the retreat, my colleague Deb and I led a session having to do with 

“Theological Reflection”

And while there are shelves of books written about theological reflection

And methods of Theological Reflection

Essentially it is simply how we practice being Christian in the world

It’s what we just did as we called to mind what we did and what we failed to do 

It’s what we do at night when our heads hit the pillow 

and we wonder

“Where was God, today?”

 

That’s the question of Theological Reflection
“Where is/was God in this…in this tragedy…in this joy”
and how might attending to this question
help me grow in Christian living

 

So… over these past few years, two stories have perculated to the top

of my beautiful Dad’s repertoire of stories 

The first is about meeting my mother 

(describe-Officer’s Dance, her holding that cigarette)

The second is about the time he lost his job 

(describe-after only 2 weeks, after leaving the security of the AirForce and moving to another planet called OHIO, far away from family and deep relationships, 3 kids under 5)

My guess is that these two stories have always been the weightiest

The ones he returns to…the ones that remind him of God’s presence in the unfolding of his life.

One when he was overwhelmed by joy

The other when he was overwhelmed by fear 

 

If we ponder Psalm 95 alongside today’s Gospel about the Exorcism at Capernaum

I think we will hear a good word…for TODAY.

 

 

We are only in chapter 1 of Mark’s Gospel

In quick succession and surprisingly few words

We have had the Baptism, the temptations in the desert, 

and the calling of a first handful of disciples

And today…we have Jesus’ first public act

 

What sticks out to me is this question of authority

What is real authority?

It is clear that Jesus’ teaching 

What Jesus said

Though we aren’t given any details

Somehow caught the attention of the hearers

It was different…not like the scribes

 

the scribes were not original thinkers

Their ministry was to gather from the tradition of prophets and maybe wise teachers to come up with a re-warmed way to say…pretty much the same thing.

 

On THIS day the menu changes
The hearers notice something

Jesus’ teaching possesses this quality called “authority” 
The hearers recognize it.

[But we don’t get anymore than that] 

 

We’ve all heard of show and tell

Well the movement in this reading is tell and show

First the words…then the thing itself

This language of Exorcisms and unclean spirits

This isn’t language we are particularly comfortable with

But it was in 1^st Century Judaism

Much of Scribal teaching had to do with purity codes

How do we deal with “unclean”

Unclean actions, unclean foods, unclean people

The ‘cleanest’ way
the easiest way

Is to STEER CLEAR!

Unclean was a way of expressing a kind of disorder

Menstration=unclean because it was a disordered time of the month 

Pigs/Pork…they don’t chew their cud = disordered
Bottom dwelling fish…they don’t swim = disordered

The Leper, The dead, THIS man suffering from possession = disordered

 

And the teaching says, clear and direct – STEER CLEAR

 

One of the major themes of Mark’s gospel is boundary-crossing

And today’s boundary-crossing is between Clean & Unclean

 

Remember how Jesus says “you’ve heard it said…but I say”???

That’s how I see what’s going on here.

Instead of STEER CLEER

Jesus has another theology…another answer

He doesn’t appear to respect purity boundaries

…he even trespasses them

 

If we think about it

Just steering clear isn’t particularly helpful---

In the immediate, it might help the person remain undefiled
But everything else remains the same

Steering Clear gives …Whatever it is (in this case demon possession) 

…Whatever is dominating by fear…

Its power

Its like pleading NO CONTEST

YOU WIN

I just want to STEER CLEAR

 

The literal answer Jesus gives

What the Greek means

Is SHUT UP…GET OUT

 

And the unclean spirit leaves the man

The man is set free

But the “unclean spirit” 

Whatever it was that was controlling this man is not destroyed 
…that’s another sermon;)

 

The good news is that now there is a different course of action

A different teaching…a teaching with Authority
Whereby Healing and freedom are possible

 

 

Here’s where your internal voice might be saying:
Well…all well and good…but I’m not Jesus!

I might be having a good day---I came to church and all…But

I’m NOT Jesus

 

You are right

We aren’t’ Jesus

I’m not Jesus

 

(Wink) But we Kinda-Sorta are

 

In the Synagogue at Capernum

Jesus crosses the boundary

Between clean and unclean

Not all boundaries need dismantling

Some boundaries are essential to healthy living

“good fences make good neighbors”

Isn’t that the saying?

 

But boundaries, that feed fear, 

boundaries that result in division and exclusion

These are the boundaries that call out to be crossed 

to make room for the path of love

 

We aren’t Jesus

But we Kinda-Sorta  are

 

Our baptism is a continuance of that first Pentecost

The Spirit of the Lord came upon that gathered community

That same Spirit is still active

upon us---in us---between us

 

Kinda-Sorta 

We say that when we mean

Sometimes, yes --- sometimes, not-so-much

 

So my friends

Here is where Psalm 95 comes in for the rescue!

Psalm 95 is a kind of antidote for 

Kinda-Sorta  

 

IN her wisdom

The Spirit-guided Church

Or the Spirit-guided committees who put together our prayer patterns

Chose Psalm 95 to guide us as we begin each new day

 

Today…we only recited the first 7 verses

But we need to reflect on the whole Psalm to grasp its gift and wisdom

 

The first line says sing…so that sounds like an imperative to me

It always strikes me funny when it says SING and we only SPEAK

The tradition of chanting the psalms goes way back

And chant is a means to help the words and poetry sink deep into our bones

 

Rob is going to help me
You can follow along the first 7 verses from page --- of the bulletin

And then listen carefully to the movement of verses 8-11

which are left out of our Morning Prayer 

but which are offered in full in the Liturgy of the Hours

 

[chant]

 

The first part is a call to worship
a joyful and lively one 
Then we remember the greatness of God 

by calling to mind the mighty works of creation

Then another call to worship

This time bowing down

AND THEN THE WARNING

Stop praising and Listen!

Then God helps us remember back when…

For the Israelites…the memory is back in the desert

All that grumbling
I gave you water when you were thirsty
and Manna when you were hungry
and still you rebelled

Remember the golden calf?

Same goes for us

Can we remember when our hearts were hardened?

When fear took hold of us and drowned out God’spresence?

 

For my Dad is was that fear…terror even…
of relentless questions like

“Why did I ever leave the safety of the Air Force and move to this land of OHIO where I have no family, no history?”
“How will I feed the growing family of 5?”

There is a “rest of the story”

Remembering is the only way to see what we couldn’t see at the time

It’s the way to see in a way that will carry us forward.

 

So…in the Psalm

There is remembering, 

and then…let’s move forward…let’s get on with it.

 

The inspired compilers of the LOH
chose this Psalm as a way to start every day
TODAY

…If TODAY

Every new day is TODAY
Today is what is before us
we can act on Today

 

Let me make this day an act of worship

Let me meet this day aware of how easily I can go astray
This day…Let me set my feet on the floor by my bed pointed in the right direction

 

And little by little

Day by day

…as we repeat the words:

If today I hear God’s Voice
Harden not my heart

 

I will/We will…walk and talk and act and breathe

More than Kinda-Sorta 

like boundary-crossing Jesus

 

And just

more simply

straight-up

More like Jesus

 

Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning

Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning

Matthew 25: 1-13

I like weddings in John’s Gospel

And the problem is too much really good wine

 

In Matthew’s Gospel…well, they are odd!

Someone (God even)

Is either throwing a guest out for improper attire

Or barring them entry altogether!

 

I don’t know about you

But I want the foolish to get a second chance!

And…Why couldn’t the others JUST SHARE! 

Slammed and locked doors 

so…final!

sooooo harsh!

 

But…

The first law of parable interpretation says

That I mustn’t approach this story/parable 

using my first 21^st century vision.

 

Let’s dig a little 

Judaea…Roman territory since 200BC

province from 6AD

A backwater…hardly on the radar in Rome
Free to worship

Not slaves…but not ideal

The Romans 2 goals: keep the peace and collect taxes
Pockets of rebellion rose up from time to time
And finally they had success in a coordinated revolt in 66AD

Predictably…and after hundreds of thousands of deaths…

A swift and crushing response by Rome

Temple in rubble

Jewish life in an existential Crisis!

How could God let this happen?

Is God still powerful…is God faithful to the covenant?

Is there any benefit in keeping the Torah?

 

In the absence of the Temple, and the cultic priesthood, and the economy of sacrifice two (at least two) movements fell into the vaccum and began to reground Jewish life

 

One was the evolving Rabbinic movement
Jewish life began to organize around communities led by learned Rabbis.

Another was offered by early Christians (not yet distinct from Judaism)

…such as Matthew’s community

 

And this is the backdrop of Matthew’s Gospel

The way forward, 

Understood as in absolute continuity with all that has gone before,

is Matthew’s…Christian… vision of adopting a way of being…of living…in the light of hope, fidelity and vigilance/watchfulness…these are some of Matthew’s themes.

 

 

Matthew’s Gospel is organized into 5 sermons or discourses
The 1^st is the “Sermon on the Mount” 

Where we hear the famous beatitudes…
“Blessed are the poor, the peacemakers, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…”

As well as the language…the teaching…

about being the light of the world

“You are the light of the world. 

A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden

Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a bushel basket,

But on a lampstand,

And it gives light to all in the house.

So let your light shine before people, in order that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (MT 5:13)

 

Scripture scholars understand the Sermon on the Mount as one tool for interpreting the whole of the Gospel. First things are always important.

Another interpretive tool is how the Gospel ends The last 2 verses, known as “The Great Commission”….(Endings are also important;)

 

“Go, make disciples of all the nations (the gentiles), 

baptizing them in the name of the Father 

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 

teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. 

And behold I am with you all days until the end of the age.”

 

We need these two tools…interpretive keys

…this “light of the world” business

And this promise of companionship

To help unlock today’s parable 

 

I know that right now 

Many of us…some more intimately than others… 

Might feel frozen…or at a loss to understand

the violence and war and cruelty 

that is raging in many places around the globe

And we have plenty of our own

Closer to home

 

My friends…if our faith

Our traditions and prayer and Scriptures

All that reminds us WHO/WHOSE we are…

If this has nothing… 

for us RIGHT NOW

Then it is not what we claim it is

If it has NOTHING

It has no power to save.

 

But we believe it does

I offer that this parable 

of the wise and foolish bridesmaids

has light and it has companionship

 

Bridesmaids in our culture are pretty much 

Let’s admit…unnecessary!

just a beautifully clad ceremonial photo op!

But in this story…they have an important, SINGULAR role

Their duty is to be there, ready to light the way. 
These weddings were days long occasions. 

Not just family affairs but occasions for everyone in the community

 

The Bridegroom travels to the home of the Bride
she gathers up her life…all that she has known

And is led by her groom back to his home and family

The story doesn’t tell us how faraway the two households were

…but even in our time any number of things might delay an arrival

…weather, run out of gas, flat tire

…some commentators suggest that the groom and the bride’s father 

might have been haggling over extra bride-gifts

(think tipping)

 

The point is…delay would not have been particularly unusual. 

The celebration would not begin without the couple. 

 

The last line about keeping awake…can’t be about literal awakeness

After all---all 10 fell asleep

More likely it refers to being awake in the sense of being vigilant in preparedness…

The bridesmaids had ONE job

…to light the way for the wedding party

To bring them into the celebration

 

In a society ruled by honor and shame

(and one without electric light) …this

torch-bearing responsibility was no small matter

If they all arrived with burnt out torches 

the result would have been profound humiliation

…and unending gossip!

 

In this light, the un-sharing bridesmaids really saved the feast!!!

 

Now, this parable, as it says in the first line, is about the “Kingdom of Heaven”

 

We are the light of the world…Matthew pronounces in Chapter 5.

We are Lamps…with trimmed wicks 

and loaded with oil…At least potentially;)

 

Q: What is it about us…
or maybe, When is it, 
that we glow in such a way 
as to light the way to the Kingdom of Heaven? 

 

This question made me recall those categories in the prayer of St Francis…

*When hating seems to make the most sense…love instead

*Wounds …my own or other peoples’…don’t pour salt in them…soothe them instead

*When I encounter someone lost…how about sharing what gets me out of bed in the morning

*In the face of despair…I can listen…even listening is an act of hope

*Is it dark?…Open a crack somewhere…that is how the light gets in

*Joy… not necessarily the absence of suffering but the presence of God

So… put on Joy…every morning put that on first…

 

I suggest that these actions 

These St Francis Prayer Actions

are generators of Christ-like lamp-light

 

At our house 

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving

We put up our outside Christmas lights
(only the outside…no skipping Advent;)

We have a row of bushes near the door to our house.

ONE string of lights is, like, nothing
…hardly noticeable

Three is still not enough

But 10! 10 strings of light well

…now we are talking

It is 10. But the effect is WAY more than 10!

It’s like 10 x 1 = 100!

 

So too with our lamps. 

Putting our lamps together creates an almost irresistible sign of the Kingdom of Heaven

 

Some days we know ourselves as those vigilant bridesmaids

…gathering our light together to make a great splash to light the way. 

Other times, when we’ve lost our way

…we might find ourselves extremely grateful to others for their vigilance in keeping their wicks trimmed and the oil supply at the ready… 

 

The penetrating light from these Lamps

Is exactly what we need to help us recognize the sometimes tricky, and confusing

Signs of the times

…hidden causes of hatred, woundedness, emptiness 

This light helps us see clearly so that we can act honestly…like Christ…

So that we can grow in Christ-likeness

 

Unlike In Matthew’s Time

Or the time of any of the Old Testament Apocalyptic/End-Times writers

The end of time, for us,  

isn’t week-night supper table conversation. 

Not usually anyway.

 

But when crisis comes

When someone I love gets a terrible diagnosis

Or I lose a job just when I’ve begun saving for retirement

Or there has been an unbearable rupture in one of my most intimate relationships

Or war and conflict seem to be erupting all around

 

In crises…When I don’t have any answers

When I don’t have any creative energy left

I might just want Christ to come again…right now!

Or at a minimum…make a guest appearance! 

 

I think We’ve sort of forgotten something

Something essential to our Christian faith

Something we proclaim every time we gather for Eucharist

Christ has Died

Christ is Risen

Christ will come again

 

It’s the verbs that we need to pay attention to

HAS died –on the cross---in history

IS Risen (Is and still is…present…risen and among us…as promised in those last verses of Matthew’s gospel)

WILL come again (this is a promise and not a threat)

Christ will come again

Which means to me that some of the things I’m trying to figure out

Just don’t have to be figured out by me!

 

A promise and not a threat…but also a call.

 

To keep our lamps trimmed and burning

So that whatever Christ-likeness I bear may be a gift to someone else who needs it and though I’m not sure how the math works

…I just believe

That our light… 

Somehow…

Reaches around the world.

 

This I believe

 

Thanks be to God

(sing/hum…Keep your lamps trimmed and burning…)