For today's post I share the sermon that I preached this past Sunday.
First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Georgetown, Ky
February 19, 2012
Transfiguration Sunday (Year B)
2 Kings 1:2-12; Mark 2:2-9
“Living in the In-between Times”
Help us to listen for your voice God,
because our minds so easily wander to things
that we are more concerned about than we are with you.
O Timeless God, for whom we so often do not have time,
catch us off guard with a word from you,
so that we will look hard enough at ourselves
that we will be renewed by your presence.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
It was time for Elisha to assume the role of prophet that Elijah had filled admirably during the ninth-century B.C. It’s almost comical to listen to their exchange.
Elijah said, “I’ve got to go to Bethel; you stay here.” And Elisha said, “No. I’m going with you.” So, Elisha went with Elijah.
Then, Elijah said, “I’ve got to go to Jericho; you stay here.” And Elisha said, “No. I’m going with you.” So, Elisha went with Elijah.
Then, Elijah said, “I’ve go to go to Jordan; you stay here.” Guess what? Elisha said, “No. I’m going with you.” So, Elisha went with Elijah.
Then Elijah said, “Elisha, you’re going to have to let go of me. I’m getting ready to be taken from you in a whirlwind.” Imagine the anxiety that Elisha must have felt over that. Elijah wasn’t just going to Bethel or Jericho or Jordan; he was going to be taken from Elisha permanently.
Elisha was accustomed to leaning on Elijah and letting Elijah take the lead. Now, Elijah was about to leave him. And Elijah said, “Now that I’m leaving you, what do you want?” Elisha said that he wanted a double share of Elijah’s spirit. He wanted to be empowered more than Elijah was so he could serve as a prophet. And Elijah said it would be granted.
Change was hard for Elisha. When Elijah departed, Elisha grasped his own clothes and tore them in two.
Life would be different without Elijah. He was a renowned prophet. How could Elisha fill Elijah’s shoes? Elisha wanted to hang on to the way things were.
There was a similar exchange between Simon Peter and Jesus. The story is known as the transfiguration of Jesus. In the gospel of Mark, the story comes at the mid-point between Jesus’ baptism and crucifixion.
We’re told that Simon Peter, James, and John accompanied Jesus to a high mountain. While they were there, Jesus’ clothes became dazzling white, and like it was at Jesus’ baptism, God said, “Jesus, you’re my beloved child.” It was one of those spiritual highs that come to us every now and then. No wonder that Simon Peter wanted to remain on the mountain. Who wouldn’t want to? They had been following Jesus around, and they had to deal with those crowds who were coming to Jesus asking to be healed and fed. It was getting old, traveling all over the countryside. Simon Peter wanted to stay on the mountain.
Simon Peter wanted to hang on to that moment, just like Elisha wanted to cling to Elijah. Elisha and Simon Peter were at an in-between time. Elisha didn’t know what was going to happen next, now that he was the prophet who was replacing Elijah. For SImon Peter, it was between the time of Jesus’ ministry and the increasing opposition that Jesus was facing that would ultimately lead to his death. Uncertainty and fear were in the air.
Life is full of in-between times. Many of us know the feeling of experiencing the death of our parents when they are in their 80’s or so, and it begins to dawn on us that now we’re next in line. As much as we know that at some time our parents will die, until it happens, it’s impossible to know what that will feel like. And when it does happen, we wonder what the last two or three decades of our lives will look like. How will our lives unfold? What will I accomplish in the last stages of my life? Many of us know that feeling. It’s an in-between time.
There are in-between times for teenagers. There is that year or so before you get your driver’s license, and you think that that day will never arrive. There’s also that year or so before your parents allow you to date.
Seniors in high school live in an in-between time. You may be uncertain about your future plans. You wonder, “Where am I going to school when I graduate? Am I going to take some time off before going on to college? Am I going to college at all?” It’s tough to live in this state of unknown, this in-between time.
There’s also that time just before a person graduates from college. That’s a real in-between time. There are inevitable questions. Where am I going to work? Will I be able to find a job at all? Also, there are the feelings that you’re finally going to be on your own. Parents will continue to play an important role in your life, but now you really are entering adulthood, and it’s a strange feeling.
Some crises in our lives bring us to an in-between time. A crisis can lead us to lose our spiritual center, and we wonder if it will return. Exhaustion can also bring it on. Reaching middle age and asking if this is all that there is, can also be a time of looking for a deeper spiritual walk. It’s an in-between time that is like the people of Israel had when in the wilderness. They had been rescued from bondage in Egypt, but they hadn’t yet entered the Promised Land. It was a time of great uncertainty.
I believe that our country is living at an in-between time. We’re asking, what is going to happen to the economy? What is going to happen in the midst of so many foreclosures? What is going to happen with unemployment?
What are some of the responses during the in-between times, whether it be a person, a family, a group, a nation, or a church? In-between times are a time of not knowing, and many times, we don’t do well with not knowing. When we don’t know, some of us ratchet up our anxiety by imagining the worst case scenario. You know how that is. I’m going to fail that test, and my GPA will drop so low that I won’t get accepted into the college that I want to attend. We might think that our nation is going to suffer an economic depression that rivals the Great Depression of the late 1920’s through the mid-1930’s.
Because of the anxiety and fear that in-between times bring, it’s hard to let go of the old. Even if the old is no longer working, there’s a sense of security that comes from knowing what the old is like. When the people of Israel were in the wilderness between that time of being in slavery in Egypt and not yet arriving in the Promised Land, do you remember what they did when they hit on hard times? They wanted to go back to Egypt! Can you imagine that?!
In the in-between times, it’s hard to prevent ourselves from trying to return to the old. Think of the relationship between children and parents when the child has entered adulthood. Some adult children have great difficulty letting go of their parents. Some parents have great difficulty letting go of their children. Their children are adults, and they still hold on to them as if they’re in middle school. It’s hard to let go.
During the in-between times, many churches want to turn back the clock. Some of you remember when it was the in thing to be at church on Sunday mornings. How many of you remember when all stores and restaurants were closed on Sunday, so most people went to church? You recall that there were no activities for children and young people that competed with church.
As difficult as it is to accept that things will never return to the days when the church was at the center of the culture, it’s simply the reality of our day and time. For several decades now, churches have been living at an in-between time, wondering what is going to unfold. What can the church do to compete with the culture during this in-between time? But I still believe with all my heart that we in the church have something to offer that people need.
People are pulled in a hundred different directions. They’re worn out. And they wonder why they feel empty at the core of their lives. It’s because they don’t have a spiritual center. The truth is that even with many of us who do attend church, we feel this same emptiness, because we have bought into the hectic pace of the culture. We in the church know that there is an alternative way to live.
The culture says that you must join the rat race if you’re going to make it in this world. The church says get out of the race and start living a different way.
The culture says that we must go 24/7. The culture says that we are to live on Orange Alert all the time. This causes the anxiety and tension to rise within us. The church says that we are to honor the sabbath as a day of worship because we are limited creatures, and by setting aside a time of worship, we remember who the limitless Creator is.
Because of the message of Jesus, we in the church know that there is a different way to live than buying in to the consumerism that our culture says will bring happiness. We know that possessions aren’t what satisfy our deepest longing.
The culture says that you’ve always got to have more because you never know when you might run out. The church says live one day at a time and don’t be consumed with what tomorrow might bring.
The culture says that the way to live is to look out for yourself and those you love the most. The culture says that what is most important is individual happiness. The message of the church is that we’re all in this together, and as long as any of God’s children suffer, we all suffer. Therefore, there shouldn’t be haves and have-nots. The church says that everyone is our neighbor.
The culture says that you prove your worth by how much you produce—this is the definition of success. The church says we are somebody because we are a child of God.
The culture is at an in-between time, wondering if there is an alternative way to live. We in the church can say that we can move beyond the in-between time and live with true freedom. Obviously, none of us live this way all the time. We too often mirror the culture rather than living the alternative way. But at our best, we know what it means to be liberated.
The in-between times can be a tough place to live, but they can also offer us an opportunity. They can be a time of incubating as we’re on the verge of something new emerging.
It can be a time when we learn the virtue of patience. As much as we want things to move along, we can’t force it. Besides, when we do try to force things, we end up making a mess of things. There’s no need to panic. We serve one who is far greater than we are. In the words of the old hymn, “God’s got the whole world in his hands.” In the words of the anthem that Joyful Noise just sang, God says to us, “Trust me.
If you’ll wait, you’ll make it through the anxiety of waiting. And you’ll make it to the other side.”
The prophet Isaiah promised that
those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.
Wait on the Lord. Let God do things on God’s timetable.
Jesus and the disciples were in that in-between time of Jesus’ ministry thus far and what was lying ahead, which we of course know was Jesus’ death and resurrection. If we wait in this in-between time, God will eventually give us an experience, maybe not as powerful as what Jesus and the disciples experienced on the mountain, but in God’s time, we will receive reassurance. When that happens, like Simon Peter, we will want to linger there. Simon Peter wanted to stay on the mountain, but Jesus made it clear that this experience was preparing them for what was ahead.
We don’t know what lies on the other side of the in-between time, but we do know that we serve the same God that Elijah and Elisha and Simon Peter and Jesus did. This God is always waiting in the wings to bring new life. It will happen. Linger in the in-between time. Don’t force things to happen. Wait, and in God’s time, God will bring resurrection.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
I Do Choose
Mark 1:40-45
40 A leper came to Jesus begging him, and kneeling he said to Jesus, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” 41Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” 42Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Georgetown, Ky
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (Year B)
February 12, 2012
Mark 1:40-45
“I Do Choose”
Would you pray with me?
Once again God open our minds and hearts
that we might hear your word for us,
and hearing believe,
and believing be moved to deeds of compassion.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
I suppose it’s human nature to categorize. It makes life easier to understand. Female and male; conservative and liberal; U.K. fan and U of L fan. When categorizing becomes a problem is when we use it to create barriers. Some seem to think that you’ve got to have them, so you’ll know who’s in and who’s out, who’s right with God and who’s not. We’ve got to know who is different. We’ve got to be able to identify ourselves over against those who aren’t like us. If we don’t, then we can’t have a club of insiders.
It’s always been this way. In Jesus’ day, lepers were considered unclean, so they were the outsiders. This teaching came directly from Leviticus 13 and 14 in the Bible. Because they were unclean, lepers couldn’t pray in the temple, go to the synagogue, or eat a meal with relatives or anyone. Their illness separated them from everyone else. If you touched a leper, you would be put in the same category as they were.
In verse 41 of our reading, Mark tells us that Jesus was “moved with pity” when the man asked Jesus to heal him. The New International Version translates it as “filled with compassion.” The New Jerusalem Bible translates it as “feeling sorry for him.” None of these captures the essence of the Greek language that the gospel of Mark uses. Mark is referring to Jesus being moved from the gut. Jesus wasn’t simply having sentimental pity. He had an intense emotion because of this man’s condition. It was compassion multiplied times 1,000. It was the kind of intense feeling that propelled Jesus into action on behalf of this man.
What did Jesus do? In the story today, we hear that he touched this man. This was no quick little poke with one of his fingers. The word that Mark uses here means that Jesus caressed the man, indicating Jesus’ loving tenderness. By extending his hand, Jesus was crossing that barrier that religion had established between the man and those who were considered clean. Jesus was gathering followers who were the sick and the outcast. The truth is that we all fit into that category. It’s an old cliche, but no less true—the church is not a sanctuary for saints but a hospital for sinners.
Jesus followed the teachings of the Bible, but he realized that the Bible wasn’t supposed to be a rule book that was always to be followed to the letter. Jesus saw the Bible as pointing to the compassionate God who was concerned with the needs of people. Jesus didn’t take the Bible literally, but he did take it seriously. Anything in the Bible that wasn’t consistent with love of God and love of neighbor was a violation of God’s purpose for the world. People were above the letter of the law—that’s what Jesus taught and lived.
I invite you to look at our words of preparation that are printed in our bulletin. William Placher says that Jesus challenged some of his contemporaries’ most basic assumptions about God and how to live one’s life, and he continues to challenge many of the most pervasive assumptions of our culture. He particularly welcomed the outcasts and oppressed of his society into his company. He calls on those who would follow him to take risks. William Placher continues by saying that many imagine the Bible as a book that comforts those who want to preserve the status quo. But the Jesus it presents shook up his society and would shake up ours.
What do you think? Is William Placher right? Would Jesus speak out against the barriers that we have created to separate insiders from outsiders? If so, what are some of those barriers?
I believe that racism is still alive and well. But for the most part, it’s a pretty safe topic to talk about in church. It wasn’t safe topic until the 1970‘s, and in some instances until the 1980’s. In 1982, I saw a sign in Louisiana advertising a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan. But racism still exists thirty years since I saw that sign. It’s more subtle today, so in some ways it is more insidious. It can be heard in the what some people say.
I recently overheard someone talking about a U.K. men’s basketball player who is African American. This person said, “I hear that he’s a good student, but he sure doesn’t look like it.” What does that mean? You and I know what that means.
The “N” word isn’t used as much as it once was, but if we listen to the jokes that some people tell, there’s an undercurrent of racism. In some instances we may justify it by saying, “Oh he or oh she is just a product of their time.” That’s not a valid excuse. We should all know better.
But again, it’s pretty safe in the church to mention racism. And I’m happy to say that much progress has been made. But what are the pressing issues of our day? I could play it safe and only mention race. There are differences of opinion, but I wouldn’t be true to our calling as followers of Jesus if I didn’t mention the way that Mexican immigrants are talked about and treated. Again, I know that there are differences of opinion about influx of Mexicans in our country. It’s a tough issue. But at the very least we need to think about it and talk about it. What are our attitudes? How would Jesus treat immigrants? Are they the lepers of our day? Is William Placher correct? Would Jesus upset many of the political and religious establishment in our day?
You and I know another category of people who feel barriers. Just as it is with immigrants, there are differences of opinion, but again, I wouldn’t be true to our calling as followers of Jesus if I didn’t mention the way gays are talked about and treated in our nation and in churches. People disagree about gays in the military and about marriage versus civil unions. But as it is with immigrants, at the very least we need to think about it and talk about it. They are sons and daughters and sisters and brothers. They have the same emotions as all people. They have the same wants and needs. They vote and love our nation as much as anyone else. For this reason, they aren’t they; they are we.
Are there others who might be classified as the lepers of our day? Who would you include in this? I add to it the poor. There has been a lot of talk about the top 1% economically in our country, and how they control the vast majority of the wealth in our country. But I have a friend who recently read an article that points out that if we make $34,000 or more a year, we’re in the top 1% economically in the world. If we make that much or more, by the world’s standards, we’re wealthy.
One of the things that’s troubling is the way that politicians of all political stripes use all of these issues that I have mentioned in order to gain votes. They check the direction the wind is blowing, meaning they try to find out what the majority of voters feel, and they craft their words accordingly. They even justify their stances in the name of Christianity, again trying to gain votes.
One presidential candidate has said that he isn’t concerned with the poor. They are being taken care of. They have a safety net. It’s the middle class that he’s concerned with. (What he said would be echoed by many of the candidates, if not all of them. He just happens to be the one who thought of it first.) Why did he say this? The economy has hit the middle class hard. I hope that the candidates are concerned with the middle class. But I think he said it for a couple reasons.
First, the middle class is the largest group of voters, because they are in the middle. Those in the middle are always the largest group. Second he said it, because there are some people in our country who have the idea that the poor are lazy, and if they wanted to, they could get a job and quit living off of the system. The truth is that the vast majority of the poor in our country are working poor. They clean hotels. They care for other people’s children. Some are cashiers. Some do construction work. They struggle to get by. They sometimes have to decide between going to the doctor or buying food for their children.
There’s not much risk for a politician talking about the poor as this one politician did, because the poor don’t have political clout. Money means power. Plus, they don’t have many people going to bat for them. And the thing that should trouble us in the church is that politicians say that their stances are based on their Christian principles.
Stephen Colbert uses some strong language that counters kind of talk. It may be tough for us to hear. It is for me. Stephen Colbert says that if this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it. Ouch.
Does today’s story of Jesus reaching out to the leper tell us anything about how the poor should be treated, and does the story tell us anything about any of these issues that I have mentioned? How would Jesus treat anyone who is excluded? For the Christian, this question gets to the heart of the matter—how would Jesus treat anyone who is excluded? If we take that question seriously, and as followers of Jesus we should, then it ought to push us to examine our hearts.
I’ve already mentioned how Jesus was moved with the kind of compassion that comes from the gut when he saw this leper. But there’s another possibility that may best capture what Mark was trying to convey. The Greek word that Mark uses can also mean that Jesus was angry. It can be rendered this way: “When Jesus saw the leper, he was ‘snorting with indignation.’” Why would Jesus have been angry? Jesus was angry at a social and religious system that excluded people simply because they had been labeled as different.
Jesus was also angry at the religious leaders who should have known that religion was to serve people not the other way around. Our reading says that after Jesus healed the man, he told him to go see the priests who would have declared that the leper was unclean.
The story could be translated as Jesus telling the man to go back to the priests to show them what had happened to him. So the man had already been seen by the religious leaders before he was healed, and they had told him that he was unclean.
And Mark says that Jesus told the man to go see the priests as “testimony to them.” But this doesn’t simply mean that the man was to go show them this remarkable thing that had happened to him. It meant to go as a witness against them. Mark uses this Greek word several times in his gospel, and it means to offer a testimony before hostile audiences. Jesus was angry at the way this man was treated, and he wanted the religious leaders to know this.
What makes you angry? Think about something that has happened recently that has made you angry. What was it? In the big picture, did it deserve the emotional energy that you gave it? I know that when I think about some of the things that have angered me, they are petty when looked at from the perspective of what angered Jesus.
Does it anger us, like it did Jesus, that some people are excluded based on the arbitrary standards that are used? During this Month of Compassion, does it anger us that people are hungry in a world where there is so much, and in a world where we have so much? Does our anger lead us to reach out?
It’s interesting how Mark begins this story. The man came to Jesus, and he said, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Jesus responded with three of the most powerful words in the English language—“I do choose.”
Will we say that? I do choose to do what I can to break down the barriers that exist between people, because I realize that with Jesus there are no outsiders...all are insiders. Most relevant to us this month, will we say, “I do choose to do what I can to make a difference for someone who has been the victim of a disaster”? During this Month of Compassion, will we choose to reach into our pockets and wallets and purses and give so that others may live?
Scott K. Cox
(Some of the biblical interpretation for this sermon comes from Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 1, Advent through Transfiguration, pp. 356-361, comments by Ofelia Ortega; P.C. Enniss; Gary W. Charles; Mike Graves.)
40 A leper came to Jesus begging him, and kneeling he said to Jesus, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” 41Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” 42Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Georgetown, Ky
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (Year B)
February 12, 2012
Mark 1:40-45
“I Do Choose”
Would you pray with me?
Once again God open our minds and hearts
that we might hear your word for us,
and hearing believe,
and believing be moved to deeds of compassion.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
I suppose it’s human nature to categorize. It makes life easier to understand. Female and male; conservative and liberal; U.K. fan and U of L fan. When categorizing becomes a problem is when we use it to create barriers. Some seem to think that you’ve got to have them, so you’ll know who’s in and who’s out, who’s right with God and who’s not. We’ve got to know who is different. We’ve got to be able to identify ourselves over against those who aren’t like us. If we don’t, then we can’t have a club of insiders.
It’s always been this way. In Jesus’ day, lepers were considered unclean, so they were the outsiders. This teaching came directly from Leviticus 13 and 14 in the Bible. Because they were unclean, lepers couldn’t pray in the temple, go to the synagogue, or eat a meal with relatives or anyone. Their illness separated them from everyone else. If you touched a leper, you would be put in the same category as they were.
In verse 41 of our reading, Mark tells us that Jesus was “moved with pity” when the man asked Jesus to heal him. The New International Version translates it as “filled with compassion.” The New Jerusalem Bible translates it as “feeling sorry for him.” None of these captures the essence of the Greek language that the gospel of Mark uses. Mark is referring to Jesus being moved from the gut. Jesus wasn’t simply having sentimental pity. He had an intense emotion because of this man’s condition. It was compassion multiplied times 1,000. It was the kind of intense feeling that propelled Jesus into action on behalf of this man.
What did Jesus do? In the story today, we hear that he touched this man. This was no quick little poke with one of his fingers. The word that Mark uses here means that Jesus caressed the man, indicating Jesus’ loving tenderness. By extending his hand, Jesus was crossing that barrier that religion had established between the man and those who were considered clean. Jesus was gathering followers who were the sick and the outcast. The truth is that we all fit into that category. It’s an old cliche, but no less true—the church is not a sanctuary for saints but a hospital for sinners.
Jesus followed the teachings of the Bible, but he realized that the Bible wasn’t supposed to be a rule book that was always to be followed to the letter. Jesus saw the Bible as pointing to the compassionate God who was concerned with the needs of people. Jesus didn’t take the Bible literally, but he did take it seriously. Anything in the Bible that wasn’t consistent with love of God and love of neighbor was a violation of God’s purpose for the world. People were above the letter of the law—that’s what Jesus taught and lived.
I invite you to look at our words of preparation that are printed in our bulletin. William Placher says that Jesus challenged some of his contemporaries’ most basic assumptions about God and how to live one’s life, and he continues to challenge many of the most pervasive assumptions of our culture. He particularly welcomed the outcasts and oppressed of his society into his company. He calls on those who would follow him to take risks. William Placher continues by saying that many imagine the Bible as a book that comforts those who want to preserve the status quo. But the Jesus it presents shook up his society and would shake up ours.
What do you think? Is William Placher right? Would Jesus speak out against the barriers that we have created to separate insiders from outsiders? If so, what are some of those barriers?
I believe that racism is still alive and well. But for the most part, it’s a pretty safe topic to talk about in church. It wasn’t safe topic until the 1970‘s, and in some instances until the 1980’s. In 1982, I saw a sign in Louisiana advertising a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan. But racism still exists thirty years since I saw that sign. It’s more subtle today, so in some ways it is more insidious. It can be heard in the what some people say.
I recently overheard someone talking about a U.K. men’s basketball player who is African American. This person said, “I hear that he’s a good student, but he sure doesn’t look like it.” What does that mean? You and I know what that means.
The “N” word isn’t used as much as it once was, but if we listen to the jokes that some people tell, there’s an undercurrent of racism. In some instances we may justify it by saying, “Oh he or oh she is just a product of their time.” That’s not a valid excuse. We should all know better.
But again, it’s pretty safe in the church to mention racism. And I’m happy to say that much progress has been made. But what are the pressing issues of our day? I could play it safe and only mention race. There are differences of opinion, but I wouldn’t be true to our calling as followers of Jesus if I didn’t mention the way that Mexican immigrants are talked about and treated. Again, I know that there are differences of opinion about influx of Mexicans in our country. It’s a tough issue. But at the very least we need to think about it and talk about it. What are our attitudes? How would Jesus treat immigrants? Are they the lepers of our day? Is William Placher correct? Would Jesus upset many of the political and religious establishment in our day?
You and I know another category of people who feel barriers. Just as it is with immigrants, there are differences of opinion, but again, I wouldn’t be true to our calling as followers of Jesus if I didn’t mention the way gays are talked about and treated in our nation and in churches. People disagree about gays in the military and about marriage versus civil unions. But as it is with immigrants, at the very least we need to think about it and talk about it. They are sons and daughters and sisters and brothers. They have the same emotions as all people. They have the same wants and needs. They vote and love our nation as much as anyone else. For this reason, they aren’t they; they are we.
Are there others who might be classified as the lepers of our day? Who would you include in this? I add to it the poor. There has been a lot of talk about the top 1% economically in our country, and how they control the vast majority of the wealth in our country. But I have a friend who recently read an article that points out that if we make $34,000 or more a year, we’re in the top 1% economically in the world. If we make that much or more, by the world’s standards, we’re wealthy.
One of the things that’s troubling is the way that politicians of all political stripes use all of these issues that I have mentioned in order to gain votes. They check the direction the wind is blowing, meaning they try to find out what the majority of voters feel, and they craft their words accordingly. They even justify their stances in the name of Christianity, again trying to gain votes.
One presidential candidate has said that he isn’t concerned with the poor. They are being taken care of. They have a safety net. It’s the middle class that he’s concerned with. (What he said would be echoed by many of the candidates, if not all of them. He just happens to be the one who thought of it first.) Why did he say this? The economy has hit the middle class hard. I hope that the candidates are concerned with the middle class. But I think he said it for a couple reasons.
First, the middle class is the largest group of voters, because they are in the middle. Those in the middle are always the largest group. Second he said it, because there are some people in our country who have the idea that the poor are lazy, and if they wanted to, they could get a job and quit living off of the system. The truth is that the vast majority of the poor in our country are working poor. They clean hotels. They care for other people’s children. Some are cashiers. Some do construction work. They struggle to get by. They sometimes have to decide between going to the doctor or buying food for their children.
There’s not much risk for a politician talking about the poor as this one politician did, because the poor don’t have political clout. Money means power. Plus, they don’t have many people going to bat for them. And the thing that should trouble us in the church is that politicians say that their stances are based on their Christian principles.
Stephen Colbert uses some strong language that counters kind of talk. It may be tough for us to hear. It is for me. Stephen Colbert says that if this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it. Ouch.
Does today’s story of Jesus reaching out to the leper tell us anything about how the poor should be treated, and does the story tell us anything about any of these issues that I have mentioned? How would Jesus treat anyone who is excluded? For the Christian, this question gets to the heart of the matter—how would Jesus treat anyone who is excluded? If we take that question seriously, and as followers of Jesus we should, then it ought to push us to examine our hearts.
I’ve already mentioned how Jesus was moved with the kind of compassion that comes from the gut when he saw this leper. But there’s another possibility that may best capture what Mark was trying to convey. The Greek word that Mark uses can also mean that Jesus was angry. It can be rendered this way: “When Jesus saw the leper, he was ‘snorting with indignation.’” Why would Jesus have been angry? Jesus was angry at a social and religious system that excluded people simply because they had been labeled as different.
Jesus was also angry at the religious leaders who should have known that religion was to serve people not the other way around. Our reading says that after Jesus healed the man, he told him to go see the priests who would have declared that the leper was unclean.
The story could be translated as Jesus telling the man to go back to the priests to show them what had happened to him. So the man had already been seen by the religious leaders before he was healed, and they had told him that he was unclean.
And Mark says that Jesus told the man to go see the priests as “testimony to them.” But this doesn’t simply mean that the man was to go show them this remarkable thing that had happened to him. It meant to go as a witness against them. Mark uses this Greek word several times in his gospel, and it means to offer a testimony before hostile audiences. Jesus was angry at the way this man was treated, and he wanted the religious leaders to know this.
What makes you angry? Think about something that has happened recently that has made you angry. What was it? In the big picture, did it deserve the emotional energy that you gave it? I know that when I think about some of the things that have angered me, they are petty when looked at from the perspective of what angered Jesus.
Does it anger us, like it did Jesus, that some people are excluded based on the arbitrary standards that are used? During this Month of Compassion, does it anger us that people are hungry in a world where there is so much, and in a world where we have so much? Does our anger lead us to reach out?
It’s interesting how Mark begins this story. The man came to Jesus, and he said, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Jesus responded with three of the most powerful words in the English language—“I do choose.”
Will we say that? I do choose to do what I can to break down the barriers that exist between people, because I realize that with Jesus there are no outsiders...all are insiders. Most relevant to us this month, will we say, “I do choose to do what I can to make a difference for someone who has been the victim of a disaster”? During this Month of Compassion, will we choose to reach into our pockets and wallets and purses and give so that others may live?
Scott K. Cox
(Some of the biblical interpretation for this sermon comes from Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 1, Advent through Transfiguration, pp. 356-361, comments by Ofelia Ortega; P.C. Enniss; Gary W. Charles; Mike Graves.)
Friday, February 10, 2012
Words to Live By
We want life to have meaning, we want fulfillment, healing and even ecstasy, but
the human paradox is that we find these things by starting where we are, not
where we wish we were.
~Kathleen Norris
the human paradox is that we find these things by starting where we are, not
where we wish we were.
~Kathleen Norris
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Their Proper Place
Writer Anne Lamott realized that she was worrying about things that really don’t matter when she was knocked back on heels by a friend’s words. Anne was fretting over whether a dress she was trying on made her look too big in the hips. Her friend, dying of cancer, said in a kind, gentle way, “Annie, you really don’t have that kind of time” (Found in Theology Today, January 2000, p.610).
What time is it in our lives? I’m not talking about time that can be defined by looking at our watches or at a clock. That’s usually what we mean when we ask, “What time is it?” Sometimes that’s what time is—a measurable, definitive hour, minute, second. The Greek word for this kind of time is “chronos.” That’s found in some places in New Testament. But the New Testament has another word that is also translated as time in English. This word is “kairos.”
Kairos refers to a decisive or crucial point in time. This is the word Jesus uses in the gospel of Mark, where we read: “Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time (the kairos) is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’ ”
Jesus was not saying, “It’s 7 a.m. so it’s time for breakfast;” he wasn’t saying it’s 12 noon so it’s time for lunch;” he wasn’t saying that it’s 9 p.m. Wednesday, so it’s time to turn on Modern Family. Instead, Jesus was saying, “This is a crucial moment. God is present among you now, so now is the time to respond to God’s love.”
Jesus’ words can make us come alive to the powerful truth that each moment of each day of each month of each year is “kairos” time. Why is this so? Is it because the end may come at any moment, so we better get our lives in order now, because if the end comes and we’re not ready, then both figuratively and literally, we’ll have hell to pay? Is this what Jesus is saying?
No, it’s “kairos” time because God is present in each moment of each day of each month of each year. Each moment is pregnant with possibility. This doesn’t mean that each moment will be filled with fireworks. It doesn’t mean the moments have to be in bold technicolor in order for it to be filled with God’s presence. Rather, each moment—bold technicolor moments and mundane moments—is filled with God’s presence. God is among us and within us all the time, no matter what we feel or how ordinary or extraordinary the day may be.
Today is filled with kairos time. That’s why Jesus’ words, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near...” come to us all the time. That’s why these words that I came across are true:
“Enjoy.
Pay attention.
No hurry to get on to something more important.
Whatever we are doing is important.
Time is a gift.”
This is the way to live. It involves openness to life. It involves living with our arms extended, ready to receive experiences and people, rather than living with our arms folded across our chests, closed to life and people. It is to see life as a dance, as a celebration, and the world as a laboratory for living to the fullest.
It is to live with things in our life in their proper place.
What time is it in our lives? I’m not talking about time that can be defined by looking at our watches or at a clock. That’s usually what we mean when we ask, “What time is it?” Sometimes that’s what time is—a measurable, definitive hour, minute, second. The Greek word for this kind of time is “chronos.” That’s found in some places in New Testament. But the New Testament has another word that is also translated as time in English. This word is “kairos.”
Kairos refers to a decisive or crucial point in time. This is the word Jesus uses in the gospel of Mark, where we read: “Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time (the kairos) is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’ ”
Jesus was not saying, “It’s 7 a.m. so it’s time for breakfast;” he wasn’t saying it’s 12 noon so it’s time for lunch;” he wasn’t saying that it’s 9 p.m. Wednesday, so it’s time to turn on Modern Family. Instead, Jesus was saying, “This is a crucial moment. God is present among you now, so now is the time to respond to God’s love.”
Jesus’ words can make us come alive to the powerful truth that each moment of each day of each month of each year is “kairos” time. Why is this so? Is it because the end may come at any moment, so we better get our lives in order now, because if the end comes and we’re not ready, then both figuratively and literally, we’ll have hell to pay? Is this what Jesus is saying?
No, it’s “kairos” time because God is present in each moment of each day of each month of each year. Each moment is pregnant with possibility. This doesn’t mean that each moment will be filled with fireworks. It doesn’t mean the moments have to be in bold technicolor in order for it to be filled with God’s presence. Rather, each moment—bold technicolor moments and mundane moments—is filled with God’s presence. God is among us and within us all the time, no matter what we feel or how ordinary or extraordinary the day may be.
Today is filled with kairos time. That’s why Jesus’ words, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near...” come to us all the time. That’s why these words that I came across are true:
“Enjoy.
Pay attention.
No hurry to get on to something more important.
Whatever we are doing is important.
Time is a gift.”
This is the way to live. It involves openness to life. It involves living with our arms extended, ready to receive experiences and people, rather than living with our arms folded across our chests, closed to life and people. It is to see life as a dance, as a celebration, and the world as a laboratory for living to the fullest.
It is to live with things in our life in their proper place.
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