November 27 - 1st Sunday of Advent

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

John 1:1-5

In the beginning there was the Word;
the Word was in God’s presence ,and the Word was God.

the Word was present to God from the beginning.
Through the Word all things came into being,
and apart from the Word nothing came into being that has come into being.
In the Word was life, and that life was humanity’s light—

a Light that shines in the darkness,
a Light that the darkness has never overtaken.

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS – ANCIENT LIGHT

                Those members of the worship who attended the Worship Design Studio last month were inspired and energized by that event. These basic plans were formed in the midst of that workshop. We were excited by a new process and the ideas that process led us to. When we looked at Advent we seemed drawn to the anchor idea of “A Light in the Darkness.” We talked about the concepts that fly in orbit around that notion. The light shines in the dark. It offers a beacon to hope and safety. The light shines in the dark, but does not obliterate it. The light of Christ shines in the midst of all kinds of darknesses in our world. We then talked about those kinds of darkness: loneliness, lostness, and more. We laid some initial frameworks based on those conversations, and continued to work on crafting these worship experiences.

                As we continued that work and the conversations that go with it, we realized that we had a focus problem. To focus on the darkness as the primary factor was not leading us toward the excitement or energy that the best of worship elicits. So we realized that our anchor was still good: A Light in the Dark. But we need to focus on the light more than the dark. And so we shall.

Advent has often been called a season of Light. The four weeks are traditionally marked with the lighting of the 4 Advent candles. It is a season of waiting and preparation. We are waiting and preparing for the coming of Christ. Advent is a season of marking time.

                Humans have used the stars to mark time almost as long as we have been human.  They watched the stars to gauge the changing of the seasons. The winter solstice became a great celebration for ancient humans living in colder climates because they could see that the nights stopped getting long, and that the warmth and light of the sun would return. Winter and night would not last forever. When the early followers of Christ encountered those solstice celebrations they said that they knew something about a Light that gives life to the world and they knew that Light as Christ. That is one of the reasons that we celebrate Christmas in December.

                The authors of John’s Gospel had a sense of this 1900 years ago. The book of genesis begins with an account of God creating the world. The first thing created in Genesis is light. The Gospel of John also begins with an account of Creation, but here the Light is Christ and that light is life of the world. We are beginning the season in which we prepare ourselves to see that light enter our world again.

                As we begin this year’s Advent season we are inviting ourselves to participate in that most ancient of practices looking for Light in the Dark: star-gazing. The vastness of our universe is practically unimaginable. As we gaze up at those jewels of light in the night sky, the light that is reflected on our retinas began its journey across space millions if not billions of years ago. It may be the first time we’ve seen it, but it is ancient light indeed.

                In much the same way, God’s love has been journeying toward us from that first moment of Creation billions of years ago. That long-journeyed love culminated for us as Christians in the life of Jesus. We wait through four weeks for Christmas to arrive, but the love that formed (and forms) the universe has waited much longer indeed. That ancient star light can remind us of that love which God is still waiting for us to look up and see.

Anchor: A Light in the Dark

Frame: Ancient Light

Thread: “More Light” by Christopher Grundy (you can hear it at www.christophergrundy.com

Resurrection: Back on the Way

November 20

Mark 16:1-8

When the Sabbath was over, Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, and salome bought perfumed oils so that they could anoint Jesus. Very early, just after sunrise on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb. They were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked, they found that the huge stone had been rolled back.

On entering the tomb, they saw a young person sitting at the right, dressed in a white robe. They were very frightened, but the youth reassured them: “Do not be amazed! You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, the one who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. Now go and tell the disciples and Peter, ‘Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee, where you will see him just as he told you.’” They made their way out and fled from the tomb bewildered and trembling; but they said nothing to anyone, because they were so afraid.

                Like the Palm Sunday text last week, it is difficult to read this passage and not call to mind all the trappings and alleluias of Easter. And those are the first things to notice about this first telling of the resurrection of Jesus: no angels (a messenger referred to only as a youth in a white robe), no earthquakes, no heavenly choirs, and particularly no Jesus. All we have, all the story tells us is the word that Jesus has been raised and has gone back to Galilee where we will see him.

                I use the pronoun “we” intentionally. One of the major differences between Paul’s letters to the churches and this telling of the gospel is the way the hearers interact with the message. Paul, whose writings are the earliest in the New Testament, are letters to people or churches which most often address specific situations in the development of the faith. Paul refers to the death and resurrection of Jesus but never actually tells the story. The gospel of Mark was the first written source to actually tell the story. And just like the parables, a story told invites the hearers to participate in the drama. So it is not just the disciples who are told that they will see Jesus back where the story began. We are told that WE will meet Jesus on the way. Or, “on the Way” if you will.

                While some later authors felt that the original ending of Mark’s gospel was insufficient and added their own endings, Mark’s ending abrupt. The women, the only people at the tomb, are terrified at what they find: an empty tomb, a strange young person, and a message that Jesus who died is alive and on the move. They are so terrified in fact that they run out of the tomb and say nothing to anyone. This is one of the ways we know we are in the story, too. If the women said nothing then how does the word spread? It spreads because we are at the tomb, too.

                I think one of the difficulties in approaching this text is that we know it too well.  We hear it every Easter. We already know the end of the story. We have tamed and contained it. Nothing here surprises us, much less terrifies us. Nothing about the resurrection is new to us. And too often, because we know it too well, it doesn’t change us. The resurrection of Jesus should open to us the possibility of our own resurrection, our transformation into a new life. But instead we are content to allow the resurrection to be something that happened to Jesus a very long time ago. We have lost the very kernel of reconstructing hope that the resurrection embodies.

                We also put a lot of emphasis on the empty tomb. The open, empty tomb is indeed a powerful visual. But I think too often that empty tomb becomes the sole focus of our Easter attention. We forget that we never see Jesus in the empty tomb. mark tells us that only place we will see Jesus is back in Galilee, back on the way, back in the daily life we live.

                Marcus Borg tells us this about the early followers of Christ: “For early Christians generally, Easter had two primary meanings. Jesus lives—he is a figure of the present, not simply of the past.  And that Jesus is Lord—one with God, raised to God’s right hand, vindicated by God as both Lord and Christ, and thus vindicated against the powers that put him to death.” Jesus is the architect of our reconstructed hope because “in this person, we see the decisive revelation of God—of God’s character and God’s passion.” (CWS p. 108)

                We began this journey through Mark back on September 11, in the remembered shadow of the World Trade Center disaster. That event has rocked our confidence in a good world, and its consequences have devastated dreams and civil rights alike. Just as the message of the first gospel was given in an age which needed a new hope, it is our assertion that Mark still offers us a Way to reconstruct the hope of our world today. By inviting us on a two-fold path of inward transform of the heart and spirit along with an outward worldly transformation that fosters justice, peace, and equality the story of Jesus moves out of history and into our present reality.

                Somehow, Christians in the 21^st continue to experience Jesus as “a figure of the present” in ways as varied and individual as those who call themselves Christian. Somehow, the Way of Christ continues to transform lives and the world. The end of Mark’s gospel directs us back to Galilee, back to the beginning of the story, and there we will see Christ. But as is true for much of the gospel, Galilee is a metaphor, a parable. Galilee is for us wherever we began our journey of transformation. It doesn’t end, it begins again. Mark wrote the first gospel. The next one is ours to tell and to write.

                I hope that in the Studio we avoid simply doing another Easter celebration. I think our focus needs to be more of discovering Christ on the way. The Way of Christ is the way by which we reconstruct ourselves and our world and it is on that very path that the life-renewing presence and power of Christ will be experienced. This would be the week to share stories of our lives transformed and reborn.

                Sue reminded me of my own story of new life. A couple of years ago I found myself gripped by depression. In one of the terms we learned at the Worship Design Studio, I am a “hanger.” Hangers are big-picture viewers, and possibility-explorers. We hangers can often see a number of ways of approaching most situations, even if we have trouble committing to any one of those. My depression robbed me of my vision. I could not see any possibilities. I could not see the next step in front of me much less any piece of the big picture. Thankfully, I was not suicidal but I had no sense of what life tomorrow could be. And for me, I guess that is a kind of death: having no tomorrow. I did not experience my recovery from depression as an instant resurrection. It took counseling, medication, time, and persistence. It was a journey. That journey led me to a renewed sense of possibility and vision. It allowed me to reconsider myself, my career, and the choices I could make.  There were possibilities available to me in that newness that were not present in my old, shut-down life. What looked and felt like an ending to me became a new beginning. I found myself in Galilee again.

                I do not feel particularly called to share this story on Sunday morning. I offer it here as an example of the kind of stories of resurrection that exist in our midst.

                The challenge for this Sunday, the culmination of our series, is how to offer people an experience of resurrection and reconstructed hope.

Anchor:  The window through which we see the world as God does.

Frame: we experience new life in Jesus by walking the Way in our world

Thread: Let Me Be Your Servant? Hope reconstructed (in process)

November 13

The Theater of Hope

Mark 11:1-11, 15-19

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent off two of the disciples with this instruction: “Go to the village straight ahead of you, and as soon as you enter it you will find tethered there a colt on which no one has ridden. Untie it and bring it back. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing that?’ Say, ‘The Rabbi needs it, but will send it back very soon.’ ” So they went off, and finding a colt tethered out on the street near a gate, they untied it.  Some of the bystanders said to them, “what do you mean by untying that colt?”  They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them take it. They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks across its back, and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. And everyone around Jesus, in front or in back of him, cried out, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of our God!  Blessed is the coming reign of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest!”  Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the Temple precincts. He inspected everything there, but since it was already late in the afternoon, He went out to Bethany accompanied by the twelve.

Then they went on to Jerusalem. Jesus entered the Temple and began driving out those engaged in selling and buying. He overturned the money changers’ tables and the stalls of those selling doves; moreover, he would not permit anyone to carry goods through the Temple area. Then he began to teach them: “Doesn’t scripture say, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples’?  but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” The chief priests and the religious scholars heard about this and began looking for a way to destroy him. At the same time, they were fearful because the whole crowd was under the spell of his teaching. When evening came, Jesus and the disciples went out of the city.          

                I know that we revisit these events every year at Palm Sunday. My hope is that an off-season exploration can help us see the event s differently, sans the layers of celebration and adulation. When the gospel of Mark was written, the liturgical year was not yet set, and the annual observations of Palm Sunday and Easter were years from being established. The authors of Mark’s gospel included these events not only because of their historical importance in telling the story of Jesus’ life, but also because they are integral to telling the story of bringing about the Kin-dom of God in this world.

                A note here on bibliography. Marcus Borg gives a compelling but brief overview of these events int eh book we have been using, “Conversations with Scripture.” But the definitive and comprehensive consideration of the this material in Mark is “The Last Week” by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. Written in response to the erroneous and theologically-bereft movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” the book examines in detail chapters 11-16 of Mark’s gospel. These chapters walk through the events of the last week of Jesus’ life day by day. Borg and Crossan show that the Gospel fo Mark tells a radically different story than did Mel Gibson. Theirs is the landmark commentary for this material, in my opinion. While we are going to be brief in our consideration of this material, I heartily recommend “The Last Week” for everyone to read.

                The first episode is best known as “The Triumphal Entry.” On Palm Sunday, the Church uses this event to greet Jesus as the King of Kings with loud “hosannas” and waving palm branches. (Interestingly enough, no account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem mentions palm branches at all.) Hymns like “All Glory, Laud and Honor” are sung as if Jesus really paraded into Jerusalem actually wanting to be proclaimed as the king of Israel. But a lot more is going here than we learned in Sunday school.

                Sometimes we tend to read these stories with the idea that first they did this, and they went and id that, and then another thing happened. But a close reading shows us that something completely different from happenstance is taking place. The “triumphal entry” is the farthest thing from an incidental occurrence. Borg tells us, “Jesus has made elaborate pre-arrangements. His riding into the city on a colt is not incidental or accidental, but deliberate and intentional. As my mentor George Caird wrote over forty years ago, this is a pre-planned public demonstration.” (CWS p. 91)  This is public theater. In today’s parlance, this is a Jesus led flash mob.

                That being said, this is no mere moment of entertainment. Jesus is using the public arena to say something. This is a parable in action.  Remember that at the beginning of the gospel Jesus comes not to proclaim himself, but to proclaim the advent of the Kin-dom of God. And that is precisely what Jesus is doing in this piece of political theater, proclaiming the nature of God’s Kin-dom.

                The content of the drama comes from traditions of the Prophets, specifically from a reference in the book of Zechariah:

   “Look! Your ruler comes to you:
    victorious and triumphant,

    humble, riding on a donkey,

    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

    The ruler will banish chariots from Ephraim

    and horses from Jerusalem;

    the bow will be banished.

    The ruler will proclaim peace for the nations;

    the empire stretching from sea to sea,

    from the River to the ends of the earth. (Zech. 9:9-10)

Jews in Jerusalem would likely have recognized the reference when they saw Jesus riding into the city on a donkey. Certainly the well-trained religious scholars would have made the connection. Jesus rides into Jerusalem under the nose of the Roman garrison proclaiming a radical kind of peace. The Kin-dom of God is the kin-dom of peace. It is an image of the present world in Jesus’ time turned upside down. And remember that the gospel was written in an intensified time of strife with the Roman Empire. Jesus’ political action took on additional import in Mark’s own day. Jesus’ political action was a visible attempt at Reconstructing the Hope that he world really could change for the better.

                Borg spells this out: “As a political symbolic act, it was both protest and affirmation. As protest, it was an anti-Roman act for Rome was the empire that ruled the land with the instruments of war. As affirmation, it symbolized a different vision of life on earth: the kingdom of God of which Jesus spoke, and which his followers heralded as he rode into the city. That kingdom is about peace and non-violence—not just internal peace, but the alternative to domination systems imposed by violence and the threat of violence.” (CWS, p. 91)

                The next day, as Mark tells it, Jesus’ altercation with the money-changers in the Temple has about it the same air of theater. After driving the people out of the Temple forecourt, the statement that Jesus makes again references the Prophets.  In verse 17 Jesus says: “Doesn’t scripture say, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples’?  but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” Borg tells us that the first phrase comes from Isaiah. The second phrase comes from Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 7:11 the Temple is described as a den of robbers because of the violence done to the people under the hypocritical shadow of Temple worship. Jesus uses the phrase to decry the collaboration between the Temple and Rome. It is not an accusation against the money-changers or dove-sellers. (CWS p. 94)

                Every day of that last week, Jesus led his followers into Jerusalem and publically acted out the faith he was teaching. And precisely here is where I believe Jesus’ teaching is different from most other wisdom traditions. Like those other traditions Jesus taught about an internal transformation, a new birth of the heart and spirit. But he also taught that the world in which we lived could also be transformed. The external reality in which we live and move and have our being is also the reality in which the Spirit of God is at work. In Jerusalem, Jesus takes all of the teaching, parables, and prayers into the public streets and puts them on display. In many ways, it was these public displays that set in motion the machinations that led to Jesus’ execution.

                Nonetheless, we have to realize that one of the answers to the overused question, “WWJD?” is that Jesus takes it to the streets. Which is why we as Jesus’ 21^st century followers have a difficult case to make when we want our religion to be personal but not political. To follow Jesus’ own example means that we have to tend to both our internal growth and transformation  and to participate in the external, political evolution of God’s Kin-dom in our complicated political world. We are called to live a life of piety and prayer but just as much we are called to live that faith in the public arena. A retreat center in Pennsylvania sums it up succinctly: Picket and Pray.

                This is the public discourse that embodies the idea of “Reconstructing Hope.” Mark’s gospel was written in the middle of a war which was devastating the life especially of the peasants (doesn’t war always do that?). The authors of Mark’s gospel believed that the story of Jesus made a different, more likely they thought it made all the difference. It was for them the preeminent example that it was not military might or power or money that could change the world. That change would come from the justice and love taught and embodied by Jesus. They proposed that hope was not dead. But a hope based on overthrowing an occupying army by military might was shattered. Hope that strength could overcome strength was vanquished.  Hope in a messiah who could outwit and overpower Israel’s enemies was crucified. Hope needed to be reconstructed. Jesus’ public actions in the last week of his life were the beginning of that reconstruction. That is why Mark included them so dramatically in this gospel.

SCUCC has had a dynamic history with this kind of public, hopeful reconstruction. The Walk was this kind of in-world action. In the 1960’s, the call for integration and civil rights was also of this ilk. The concept of finding God in culture is an affirmation of living our faith in that same culture. This Sunday's Crop Walk is itself part fund-raiser, part public symbol of hope and solidarity.

                I can envision drawing a comparison between a contemporary flash mob event and what Jesus did. Maybe we can create our own flash mob for Sunday morning! Certainly the flash mob at Chik-Fil-A that Brad Wishon participated in comes to mind. Occupy Wall Street and its permutations are an ongoing public theater event. These scriptures invite and challenge us to take our faith to the people and to the streets. The window which is our anchor image reminds us to look at the world the way God does. The heart of that concept is that God is looking at the world. Hopefully, God will see us out there, too.

Anchor:  The window through which we see the world as God does.

Frame: following Christ takes us into the world where we work for its transformation

Thread: Let Me Be Your Servant? though Reconstructing Hope really comes into play here

November 6

The Way of the Cross: The Way of New Life

Mark 8: 27-38

Then he and the disciples set out for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way, Jesus asked the disciples this question: “who do people say that I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptizer; others, Elijah; still others, one of the prophets.” “And you,” he went on to ask, “who do you say that I am?”  Peter answered, “You are the Messiah!” 30 But Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him. Then Jesus began to teach them that the Promised One had to suffer much, be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and religious scholars, be put to death, and rise again three days later.  Jesus said these things quite openly.  Peter then took him aside and began to take issue with him.  At this, Jesus turned around and, eyeing the disciples, reprimanded Peter: “Get out of my sight, you satan! You are judging by human standards rather than by God’s!” Jesus summoned the crowd and the disciples and said, “If you wish to come after me, you must deny your very self, take up your cross and follow in my footsteps.  If you would save your life, you’ll lose it, but if you lose your life for my sake, you’ll save it.  What would you gain if you were to win the whole world but lose yourself in the process?  What can you offer in exchange for your soul?

Mark 15:21-41

A passerby named Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was coming in from the fields. The soldiers pressed him into service to carry Jesus’ cross.  Then they brought Jesus to the site of Golgotha—which means “skull Place.” They tried to give him wine drugged with myrrh, but he would not take it. Then they nailed him to the cross and divided up his garments by rolling dice for them to see what each should take. It was about nine in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription listing the charge read, “The King of the Jews.”  With Jesus they crucified two robbers, one at his right and one at his left.  People going by insulted Jesus, shaking their heads and saying, “So you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days! save yourself now by coming down from that cross!” 31 The chief priests and the religious scholars also joined in and jeered, “he saved others, but he can’t save himself! 32 Let ‘the messiah, the King of Israel’ come down from that cross right now so that we can see it and believe in him!” Those who had been crucified with him hurled the same insult. When noon came, darkness fell on the whole countryside and lasted until about three in the afternoon. At three, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” A few of the bystanders who heard it remarked “Listen! He is calling on Elijah!” Someone ran and soaked a sponge in sour wine and stuck it on a reed to try to make Jesus drink, saying, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down.” Then Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.  At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The centurion who stood guard over Jesus, seeing how he died, declared, “Clearly, this was God’s Own!”

    There were also some women present looking on from a distance. Among them were Mary of Magdala; Mary, the mother of James the younger and Joses; and Salome.  These women had followed Jesus when he was in Galilee and attended to his needs. There were also many others who had come up with him to Jerusalem.

                Last week we took the discipline to face the cross. Jesus told the disciples the kind of death he would face in Jerusalem. We explored a bit what Jesus’ death might still mean for us today. That would be difficult enough if it weren’t just half of the equation. This week we face the second half.

                Jesus told the disciples that if they wanted to follow him, they must deny themselves (this translation pushes that a bit further and states “deny your very selves”), take up your cross and follow in his footsteps. I have included the second scripture selection simply to underscore that this was not a flippant invitation. The account of Jesus’ crucifixion lays bare the extremity of what Jesus expected of his followers.

                What does Jesus expect from his followers? Way back at the beginning of our series we listened to Marcus Borg talk about Christianity as a two-fold journey of transformation. One we have spent a good deal of time with: the transformation of our present day world into the Kin-dom of God. The other part of the transformative journey is the personal revolution. To tell his followers that they must take up their own cross, Jesus understood that for a true new life to be possible the old life must end. Jesus’ crucifixion is the model to open the door (tomb?) for resurrection. But do not misunderstand: this is not a call for suicide. It is a call for ongoing rebirth throughout this life. Remember that Jesus’ proclamation that God’s Kin-dom is at hand values this reality. Christ is not calling us to disvalue our lives, but to value them enough to allow the best of life to blossom.  Jesus desires us to change the direction of our lives and our word (repent!) and to orient ourselves toward God’s Kin-dom coming on earth. That change of direction is embodied in the metaphor of death and resurrection. So the pivotal question becomes, what needs to die in us to make room for God’s life to grow?

                One turn of phrase that this language has given rise to is “each person’s cross to bear.” The apostle Paul talked about a thorn in his flesh. More often we refer to something like an annoying in-law, a domineering boss, or an allergy to chocolate. Clearly this is not what Jesus meant. Paul’s condition, whatever it was, was evidently serious enough that it impacted his life in significant ways. That is different than putting up with irritations. To bear the cross is a life-changing experience. Transformation is a painful, almost tortuous journey. But transformation is life-giving: New Life giving.

                So taking up one’s cross is more than a matter of giving up caffeine in order to sleep better, or to exercise more to be stronger or healthier. Those working the twelve steps understand that they are in the grips of a terminal addiction and that if they don’t change their lives they will die. The middle steps embody the concept of denying self and cross-taking. Step 4 is to make a fearless moral inventory of oneself. Step 5 is to admit to God and another human being the exact nature of one’s wrongs. Step 6 is to be ready for God to remove one’s defects. Step 7 is to humbly ask God to remove these shortcomings. An addict has to die to the addiction in order to live. If we follow this as a metaphor for the spiritual journey of transformation, then the question about what needs to die is the same as asking what we are addicted to. As a society we are addicted to violence, to greed, to power, to guns. Individually, we each may suffer from these to one extent or another as well. We also may be addicted to our own anger, or despair, prejudices, illusions, not to mentions the usual addictions to chemicals, gambling, or the like. What are we addicted to that prevents us from living fully in the Kin-dom of God?

                An idea for Sunday might be to get a railroad tie or some other big piece of lumber to use as an example of what a cross-beam might be. It should be heavy and cumbersome. It is difficult to pick up, much less carry. We might have a few people ready to name something they see that needs to die, something that they can say aloud as they lift the beam. We might even invite those worshipping to lift (or simply touch) the beam and name the cross they need to carry.

Here’s an attempt at the language we learned last week:

Series anchor: The window through which we see the world as God does.

Frame: dying to that which prevents us from living fully, taking up our cross

Thread: the servant song

October 30 - In the Cross is Freedom

 October 30 – In the Cross is Freedom

Mark 10:32-45

32 They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way. The disciples were baffled by this move, while the other followers were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside once more, Jesus began to tell them what was going to happen. 33 “We are on our way up to Jerusalem, where the Promised One will be handed over to the chief priests and the religious scholars. Then the Promised One will be condemned to death and handed over to the Gentiles 34 to be mocked, spat upon, flogged and finally killed. Three days later the Promised one will rise.” 35 Zebedee’s children James and John approached Jesus. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to grant our request.” 36 “What is it?” Jesus asked. 37 They replied, “See to it that we sit next to you, one at your right and one at your left, when you come into your glory.”

  38 Jesus told them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup I will drink or be baptized in the same baptism as I?” 39 “We can,” they replied. Jesus said in response, “From the cup I drink of, you will drink; the baptism I am immersed in, you will share. 40 But as for sitting at my right or my left, that is not mine to give; it is for those to whom it has been reserved.” 41 The other ten, on hearing this, became indignant at James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know how among the Gentiles those who exercise authority are domineering and arrogant; those ‘great ones’ know how to make their own importance felt. 43 But it can’t be like that with you. Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest; 44 whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all. 45 The Promised One has come not to be served, but to serve—to give one life in ransom for the many.”

What does it mean to die and rise? If being a Christian were just about living like Jesus, helping the poor, and loving each other we would all find it so much easier. But the living like Jesus also means dying like Jesus. We cannot be Christians and ignore that Jesus was crucified. Our particular challenge as progressive Christians is to find a way to understand Jesus’ death that is not morally or theologically reprehensible. And then to share that understanding.

Let me start with what I believe, or actually what I don’t believe. I don’t believe in a God whose anger has to be appeased with blood. I don’t believe in a cosmic system whereby a sinless sacrifice is required to expiate the sins of the world. I don’t believe that God wanted Jesus to die, or sent Jesus to die, or in any way planned that Jesus’ death was required to re-establish right relations with us. I believe that Jesus lived fully in God’s presence, as fully as humanly possible. Being fully open to God, that means that Jesus could not respond to violence with violence. Like Gandhi and MLK after him, Jesus faced the systems of violence with love and non-violence and he suffered for it. Jesus’ trust in God and hope that the world could be transformed by love allowed him to face the cross. The cross becomes our symbol that the powers of violence and oppression will try to stop us, but there is always an Easter after Good Friday.

Jesus’ sense of his impending execution seems to point in a couple of directions. First, he must have been politically astute. He knew that the direction he was leading his followers in would take him into conflict with the powers-that-be (both governmental and religious). Secondly, that his path, the road to Jerusalem and the cross, was a completely different way of living than playing the world’s game. The world tells us that only the strong survive, might makes right, the bigger the better. Jesus said the first will be last, and the greatest will be the servant of all. His way of living turns the rules of the world’s game upside down. Jesus’ Way of salvation takes the focus off of saving ourselves and onto serving others.

The last line in the scripture needs some examination. Common, conservative theology uses this verse as a proof-text to support their assertion that Jesus’ life was the price required by God to save us from our sins. But that reads modern assumptions back onto the text. “The Promised One has come not to be served, but to serve—to give one life in ransom for the many.” To our modern ears and eyes, the word “ransom” sounds like the money given to kidnappers to secure the return of a captive. The theological thought here is that God is holding the life of the world for ransom, and Jesus’ life is the pay-off. But that is not what is described here at all. Borg tells us that in the first century, “ransom” was the price required to buy a slave’s freedom. That Jesus’s death is described as a ransom points to liberation, to freedom. Jesus sets us free from that which enslaves us. The wordplay here is clearer when we know that where many English translators soften the original language and use the word, “servant”. Jesus did not call his followers to be servants of all (as quoted in the translation above), but more accurately to be slaves of all. And yet even as we are to be slaves, in Jesus’ death the slaves are free. 

Moreover, to simply focus on Jesus’ death leaves half of the equation unspoken. It is always death and resurrection. Jesus tells his followers not only that he will die, but that God will raise him. Whether or not you see this as a prediction of bodily resurrection, it says nonetheless that death, even Jesus’ death is not the end but actually a new beginning. It heralds a new life, a new world, freed the chains of the past and open to a new hope.

This is the crux (no pun intended, or maybe it is!) for Reconstructing Hope in our world today. Those for whom life is difficult (the poor, the oppressed, women, etc.) are told that “that’s the way the world is.” The subtext to that message is, not is that the way the world is, but it always has been and always will be. When we capitulate to the powers that be, we are trapped in that hierarchical world-view (with them on top). We are trapped, enslaved if you will. Who can deliver us from that slavery? Not politicians, not generals, not CEO’s. Oddly enough, a peasant from an ancient age. The death and resurrection of Jesus opens for us a new vision and a new hope. The world doesn’t have to be the way it is. It can be better. In the cross is freedom, freedom from the slavery to hopelessness.

Part of our obligation as progressive Christians is to find ways of sharing that freedom with those for whom the substitutionary atonement models feel like chains and fetters. We need to share the ways we are freed. Which then begs the question, can we articulate the ways that we experience freedom in Christ? In what ways are we willing to confront the status quo for the sake of the Kin-dom quo? What life are we daring to suffer and give up to transform God’s Creation? The cross beckons to make our faith visible, tangible, material. The cross stands in the midst of a dying world to herald that God’s Kin-dom is at hand.

Good News: The cross is never the end, it leads to resurrection.

Subject: We can still claim the cross as a symbol of hope.

Igniting Desire: The desire for freedom: live-giving, hope-giving freedom.

October 23 - Jesus Taught Parables, Jesus is a Parable

4:1 Again Jesus began to preach beside the lake. But such a huge crowd gathered around that he got into a boat and sat there, while the crowd remained on the shore. 2 Jesus taught them many things in the form of parables and, in the course of his teaching, said, 3 “Listen carefully. Imagine a sower going out to sow, scattering the seed widely. 4 Some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it. 5 Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found a little soil, and sprang up immediately because the soil had little depth— 6 but then, when the sun came up and scorched it, it withered for lack of roots. 7 Some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. 8 And some seed fell into rich soil and grew tall and strong, producing a crop thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.” 9 Jesus ended by saying, “If you have ears to hear, then listen.”

         21 He also said to the crowd, “Would you bring in a lamp and put it under a bushel basket or hide it under the bed? Surely you’d put in on a lampstand! 22 Things are hidden only to be revealed at a later time. They are made secret only to be brought out into the open. 23 If you have ears to hear, then listen!”

         24 He continued, “Listen carefully to what you hear. The amount you measure out is the amount you will receive—and more besides. 25 To those who have, more will be given; from those who have not, what little they have will be taken away.”

        26 Jesus said further, “The reign of God is like this: a sower scatters seed on the ground, 27 then goes to bed at night and gets up day after day. Through it all the seed sprouts and grows without the sower knowing how it happens. 28 The soil produces a crop by itself—first the blade, then the ear, and finally the ripe wheat in the ear. 29 When the crop is ready, the sower wields the sickle, for the time is ripe for harvest.” 30 Jesus went on to say, “What comparison can we use for the reign of God? What image will help to present it? 31 It is like a mustard seed which people plant in the soil: it is the smallest of all the earth’s seeds, 32 yet once it is sown, it springs up to become the largest of shrubs, with branches big enough for the birds of the sky to build nests in its shade.” 33 Using many parables like these, Jesus spoke the message to them, as much as they could understand. 34 Everything was spoken in parables, but Jesus explained everything to the disciples later when they were alone.

                Jesus spoke in parables. While earlier we explored how during his lifetime Jesus’ fame spread as a healer, his method of teaching also was his hallmark. And just like the healings, Marcus Borg reminds us that more parables are attributed to Jesus than any other Jewish teacher. It seems that by and large when Jesus taught he did not use syllogisms or logic or didactic methods. He told stories.

                But a parable is not just any story; it is a particular kind of story. It is an identifiable form. Borg notes several characteristics of parables: 1. It is a story, something happens in a parable. 2. It is a made-up story. Parables are fictions that impart truth. 3. Parables were repeated. Like a good joke they were told time and time again. And like a good joke, while the kernel remains constant the form or details may vary. One can imagine Jesus using the parable of the mustard seed on a number of different occasions, and possibly drawing different points out from it. 4. Parables invite the hearers into the story. They do not often themselves offer a tidy little answer to the situation they embody. They leave room for the hearers to enter and engage in the story (sound familiar, Studio designers?) Parables presume and invite conversation.

                One of the first methods I was taught about parables is that each parable has one particular point to make, and once you’ve got it, you’ve got it. It think some unimaginative Sunday School teacher must have come up with this method, one who didn’t want us students coming up with lots of messy questions and ideas about Jesus or God’s kin-dom. The one-point idea is wrong.

                This is a better short-hand for the nature of a parable: it is a window through which we see the world as God sees it. Though not in Mark’s gospel, the parable of the Prodigal Son let us see unconditional love that accepts both wayward children and resentful ones. The parable of sower lets us see that the seed is scattered, not often placed carefully, so that in God’s way of seeing you never know which seed will take root and flourish. With parables you can look around, explore, ask questions, and get involved. And this is one of the reasons we have a window up front for this series on the Gospel of Mark.

                One more idea about parables that is pertinent for this Sunday has to do with the story of Jesus himself. While the life of Jesus does not fit all of Borg’s criteria for proper parables, Jesus himself can be seen as God’s parable. Jesus is a story that God told to let us see into the Kin-dom. (I do not believe that Jesus is the only story God ever told this way, but for us as followers of Christ, it is our significant example.) And, to deposit layer upon layer like a sedimentary rock, Mark tells the story, too, often shaping and retelling it in his (or their, since I believe it was a group effort) own voice and purpose: telling us just who those early believers believed Jesus to be. And if the life Jesus is a kind of parable, then we, too, are invited into the story. We can look around and tell what we see and experience. We are invited to add our own layers, too.

                So this may be a day storytelling. We can do that in lots of different ways. I have a DVD of Tex Sample telling some of his best stories, stories where he sees God in life (his book “Earthy Mysticism” is another treasury of these kind of parables). I wish we could get Dr. Sample himself here to tell a story, but I have not been able to make contact with him directly. The scripture included above are some of the parables Mark included (I edited out the explanation of the parable of the sower to save space).

                What are stories that show something of the Kin-dom of God to you? What do you see of the Kin-dom in Jesus’ stories? What does Jesus show you of the Kin-dom? Have you ever been someone else’s parable?

                Parables are about showing God’s Kin-dom. The twenty-four hour news cycle shows us plenty in this world that is not about the Kin-dom. We engage in reconstructing hope for the world, and for ourselves, by entertaining the notion that there is more to see here than the TV can show. We need a glimpse of the Kin-dom.

Good News: Jesus taught in parables, Jesus invites us into the conversation.

Subject: Parables still happen, and even Jesus’ ancient ones are not yet exhausted.

Igniting desire: The desire to see and hear God today, to experience the Kin-dom.

October 16 - Follow Me: the Path of Jesus

1: 16 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw the brothers Simon and Andrew casting their nets into the sea, since they fished by trade. 17 Jesus said to them, “Follow me; I will make you fishers of humankind.” 18 They immediately abandoned their nets and followed Jesus.

  19 Proceeding a little further along, Jesus saw the brothers James and John Bar-Zebedee. They too were in their boat, putting their nets in order. 20 Immediately Jesus called them, and they left their father Zebedee standing in the boat with the hired help, and went off in the company of Jesus

2:13 Jesus went out again and walked along the lake shore, but people kept coming to him in crowds to listen to his teachings. 14 As he passed by, Jesus saw Levi, ben-Alphaeus, sitting in the tax office. Jesus said, “Follow me,” and Levi got up and followed him.   15 While Jesus was reclining to eat in Levi’s house, many other tax collectors and notorious “sinners” joined him and the disciples at dinner. There were many people following Jesus. 16 When the religious scholars who belonged to the Pharisee sect saw that he was eating with tax collectors and sinners, they complained to the disciples, “Why does the teacher eat with these people?” 17 Overhearing the remark, Jesus said to them, “People who are healthy don’t need a doctor; sick ones do. I have come to call sinners, not the righteous.”

10:46 They came to Jericho. As Jesus was leaving Jericho with the disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus ben-Timaeus, was sitting at the side of the road. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and to say, “Heir of David, Jesus, have pity on me!” 48 Many people scolded him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the louder, “Heir of David, have pity on me!” 49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they called the blind man. “Don’t be afraid,” they said. “Get up; Jesus is calling you.” 50 So throwing off his cloak, Bartimaeus jumped up and went to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said, “What do you want me to do for you?” “Rabbuni,” the blind man said, “I want to see.” 52 Jesus replied, “Go, your faith has saved you.” And immediately Bartimaeus received the gift of sight and began to follow Jesus along the road (the way).

                What does it mean to follow? Today we follow directions given to us by our GPS devices. When we lose our way or deviate from the planned course, the (almost) exasperated voice tells us, “Recalculating route.” So we learn to follow directions, follow a recipe, and (if we have the willpower) to follow a diet. But what does it mean in the 21^st century to follow Jesus?

                In childhood we played follow the leader. A little more challenging game was Marco Polo where a blindfolded person was “it” and was guided (or misguided) by spoken signals. Jesus is a good bit more elusive as a leader in our daily lives. Most of us do not see or hear him directly.

                I think that most people in Western culture assume that following Christ means signing on to a set of rules and behaviors and beliefs. The bible is seen as a rule book that governs the game. In previous generations the rules were clear: no drinking alcohol, no dancing, no movies, no cards or gambling, no cussing (some peripheral rules were given religious authority: no mixing of races, women were inferior and subject to men, and your government had God’s blessing and approval). The beliefs were equally clear: Jesus was the Son of God (actually meaning more God than human), who gave the sacrifice of his life for your sins so you could go to heaven. It was A + B = C. A – if you believed in Jesus and B. you behaved appropriately (followed the rules) then C. you were a Christian.

                Marcus Borg points out that in the earliest descriptions of the followers of Jesus, there was no talk about rules. It was not an exercise of conforming to a list of behaviors set in stone (or inerrant ink in a holy book). Rather, it was a Way. “The gospel as ‘the way of jesus’ suggests a path and a person to be followed, and not primarily a set of beliefs to be believed.” (Conversations with the Gospels, p.22)

                The call stories of the first disciples and of Levi are fascinating for the conversations they do not have. Jesus says, “follow me.” None of them ask, “Why?” “I will make you fishers of humankind” is hardly a detailed plan of action, much less a job offer with retirement and health benefits. To be sure, Jesus himself must have had an intense charisma if these call stories are at all historically accurate. Why else would someone respond by leaving their father and hired hands sitting in the boat? But beyond Jesus’ personal charisma, did they ever ponder the “what” and the why for” of the call to follow? What did they think “follow me” meant? What do we think it means?

                Borg points out that the earliest name for Christians was “Followers of the Way.” The Gospel of Mark begins with a quote from Isaiah that proclaims “Prepare the Way of our God. Clear a straight path for God.” Borg says Mark is announcing one of the themes of this gospel: the Way. Ancient Greek does not differentiate the way that English does on this. Path, road, and way are all separate words in English, but they are all used to translate the same word in the Greek. The first Christians may well have been the Followers of the Path, or those “On the Road.”

                That being the case, Simon and Andrew, James and John, Levi and Bartimaeus were likely not signing up for an agenda or a couse of action. When they followed Jesus, they set their direction. Remember that the very first thing Jesus called people to in verse 1:15 was to “repent,” to change your hearts and lives. Literally, to change direction.

                The story of Bartimaeus is the most clear on this. He first calls out to Jesus to cure his blindness. Jesus stops and restores Bartimaeus’ sight. Mark tells us: “And immediately Bartimaeus received the gift of sight and began to follow Jesus along the road.” Again, along the road, or the path , or The Way (in fact, anytime a road or path is mentioned in Mark it can be seen as a footnote reminding us that we are on a journey of spirit and transformation). When he can see clearly (and Mark is using this blindness and sight as a metaphor for those who come to see Christ clearly), Bartimaeus is on the way with Jesus, even though that road leads to Jerusalem and all that will happen there.

                The early followers of Christ were not followers of rules or behaviors and certainly not of a set of beliefs. They had committed themselves to the way that Jesus lived because they saw that way as tho one that could transform their lives and transform the world. They set out on a journey of transformation.

                A lot of people today have an intense realization that the world needs to change. Along with that, many understand that the transformation of the world begins with a changed heart. What if Christianity was seen as an invitation to a journey of transformation instead of as a litmus test of beliefs? Instead of escaping Hell and securing admittance to Heaven, what if Christianity were seen as a way of living in the world that made life worth living and offered the hope that God is still speaking and working to transform the world through love and peace and compassion? Hope is reconstructed not as a cosmic cavalry saving us from suffering or sin or whatever, but as the path to see us through the worst life has to offer and beckon on to the best.

                I have a clip from the movie “Monte Walsh” that I’ll show you on Wednesday. It is a movie about the end of the cowboy era in the west. The cattle ranch has been bought out by an eastern corporation, and the company man is trying to get the range boss to make the cowboys pay for some damages they caused in fight with the railroad men. The range boss is trying to explain to the company man why the cowboys do what they do, that they live by their own rules. “Where are these rules written down?” the company man asks. The range boss replies: “They’re not written down, you damn fool. They’re lived.” I think we got in trouble when we began writing down all our rules. Following Christ is lived.

                This week is the culminatin of our stewardship campaign, it is Grow One Sunday. We will be asking our people to make their financial commitments for the coming year. I am hoping to do so in a way that is much more than asking, “How much will you give?” It will be an invitation to commit to Jesus’ Way in our world. Our overall them is Reconstructing Hope. Our invitation will be to ask how each of us can commit to using our gifts to help build the Kin-dom of God in our world. Will we live in such a way that helps build the Kin-dom?

Good News: Christ calls us to join the journey of transformation.

Subject: We are not called to follow a set of rules, but onto a path, a movement, a way of life.

Igniting Desire: the people should have a desire ignited in them to get up, to get on the path, to move!