Thanks For Nothing, Paul

1 Corinthians 1:20-31

Mark 1:14-28

Reading the passage from 1 Corinthians for today is not likely to overwhelm us with self-confidence. "Consider your own call, brothers and sisters," Paul writes: "not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God" (1 Corinthians 1:26-29). Not exactly what I'd want in a reference letter: "I am pleased to inform you that Jim Freeman is generally foolish, weak, low, and despised. (Signed) Paul the Apostle." Thanks for nothing, Paul.

When Jesus called disciples (as we've also read today in Mark), he did not go among the wealthy and powerful, he went where the common folk were hard at work trying to survive. And as the gospel of Mark unfolds one might argue that Jesus' choice in disciples was not particularly inspiring. In human terms he could have done so much better. But that is really the point, isn't it? God doesn't seek our wisdom, our strength, our standing in the community. What God wants from us is faithfulness and obedience. What God wants from us is everything we are, including our feeble efforts, our halfhearted failures, our confusion. God takes all of that, and by grace God brings out of it something wonderful and miraculous.

We have a role to play, you and I, and God constantly challenges us to do our very best. But ultimately it is God, through Jesus Christ, who we must trust to accomplish the divine will. Until then we are called to make our wisdom, strength, and prominence that of God, and to leave behind that which the world claims to be essential.

Prayer: Lord God, help us to give our lives to you, that we may live in faithfulness all the days of our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Ready, Set, Wait!

Mark 1:1-13

A church member stopped me during my pre-worship walk through the sanctuary yesterday. He was reading the scripture passages from which I would be preaching and had gotten to Mark 1:12: “And the Spirit immediately drove (Jesus) out into the wilderness.” The church member wanted to know if that verse would be the text for my sermon. No, I told him, the sermon was not going to deal with that particular issue. But then in today’s readings I find Mark 1:12 popping up again so I guess I can’t get away from it after all.

The word that is used to describe what happened to Jesus is used most often in Mark in reference to demons being “driven out” of those who are possessed (Mark 1:34 and 39 for example). In other cases it is used when a person is sent away (like the leper in 1:43), driven out (like those who were selling and buying in the temple in 11:15), or thrown out (like the heir to the vineyard in 12:8). Immediately after his baptism, then, Jesus was compelled by the Spirit to go to a lonely place and to separate himself from human contact. But why?

For one thing, places of desolation have often offered revelation and preparation for God’s people. What we sometimes call a wilderness journey may lead to a clearer understanding of what God wants or expects from us. But there is also the importance of timing. The promise given to Abraham and Sarah was that their descendants would take possession of the land in which they dwelled, not they themselves. At the time of the ascension Jesus told the disciples to return to Jerusalem and wait there for the Holy Spirit which would come when it was time. Likewise, when Jesus came up from the waters of his baptism the Holy Spirit took him right away to a lonely place. Could Jesus have needed time to prepare for what he was about to do? Of course. Even during his ministry Jesus could be found taking time away for prayer and reflection. The days following his baptism offered breathing room for getting things in order, something that the humanness of Jesus would have needed, especially considering where it would lead. Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness. From there the good news of the gospel would erupt upon the world.

Prayer: Lord help us to live in patience according to your will. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Heart Of the Matter (Sort Of)

Mark 1:29-45

The full range of Jesus’ humanity is on display in the gospels. He is enraged at those who do business in the temple. He weeps at the death of a friend. He is amazed at the faith—or lack of it—of those around him. He wishes fervently to avoid a painful death. In our reading from Mark for today we also find Jesus moved to pity by the plight of a leper. What makes this account all the more humanizing of Jesus is that the word used for Jesus’ emotion has to do with one’s bowels or, if you’d prefer, guts. “A leper came to (Jesus) begging him,” Mark tells us, “and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’” (Mark 1:40-41).

Personally I haven’t often thought about Jesus having intestines. It just never figures into my Christology. According to Mark, though, Jesus experienced a yearning in the pit of his stomach. Incidentally, Luke uses this same expression in describing the feelings of the good Samaritan and the prodigal’s father, so this is not a concept reserved for the Son of God. Nor is it a feeling we generate for ourselves. It is one that springs upon us, from somewhere in the depths of our being as it were. But something must have happened in the centuries since Jesus healed the leper, something to change the notion of pity as associated with the digestive track. Today we are more accustomed to expressions like, “I hate your guts,” or “the thought of it turns my stomach,” or “you make me sick.” All too often pity and compassion are seen as weaknesses, uninvited intruders who distort our efforts at clear thinking and dispassion. How do we tie the gospel understanding of compassion (and Jesus’ response to it) together with the contemporary meaning and make sense of it?

We start with Jesus, who any number of times could have said, “Enough! I can only do so much!” And though he found it necessary to seek solitude for prayer and meditation, Jesus never lost the capacity to care, to be moved by the circumstances of others. Maybe what makes Jesus truly human is that he was truly humane, was truly vulnerable to those around him in ways that we far too often are not. While we might have said to the leper, “Yuck! Get away from me,” Jesus felt the needs of the man so intensely that he was compelled to act, his true humanity drawing on his divine identity to create a miracle. Jesus, then, has worked to correct our understanding or who we are as humans. And though he was healing the leper, maybe it is really to us that he says, “Be made clean!”

Prayer: God of creation, restore in us the true human-ness that you intended so that we might live as your people with vulnerability to those around us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A Word About THE Word

Isaiah 55:1-13

Mark 9:2-13

I like to talk. Ask anyone who knows me and I’m sure they will agree. But that doesn’t mean that everything I say is important. My words—like anyone else’s—vary in meaning and purpose. We all say a lot of things in the course of a day that are less that significant. Not so with God. When God speaks it is for a reason. “[My word] shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). When God speaks, things happen according to God’s will. The power of God’s word is a common motif in scripture, of course. From the very beginning, for example, God speaks and all creation comes into being (Genesis 1:1ff). In the New Testament John’s gospel sees the creative power of God’s word incarnated in Jesus Christ (John 1:1f).

In our gospel reading or today all of this seems to come together as the voice of God is heard on the mountain saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him” (Mark 9:7). Of course this is not the first time we’ve heard God speak in Mark. A voice from heaven is also heard at Jesus’ baptism saying very much the same thing: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (1:11). The point is that when the word of God—God’s voice, God’s speech—intersects with the Word of God—God’s Son, Jesus Christ—we should take note. It’s like a giant flashing billboard that reads, “Hey! Pay attention! This is important!”

If we do pay attention we will learn what the disciples seem so slow to comprehend. That Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, set apart for God’s will. That though he will suffer, that very suffering will ultimately reveal his glory, and in his glory we find our hope and salvation. That’s a lot of meaning packed into just a few words, but when God speaks, things like that happen. Are we listening?

Prayer: Lord, help us to hear your word and to live according to your will as disciples of your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Is the Cart Before the Horse?

Mark 1:1-8

John the Baptist must have been some kind of guy, to live where he did, and to behave like he did, and to say what he did, and yet to attract crowds from all over the region. As Mark tells us, “John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins” (Mark 1:4-5).

In many ways the season of Advent belongs to John, the one who prepares the way of the coming Messiah. John did his best to point beyond himself. “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me…” he said (v. 7). Still, we have to wonder if the people who flocked to the Jordan to be baptized by this charismatic figure really had any clue as to what (or who) was coming next. But we can’t wonder for too long because this is all the prologue that Mark gives us. The very next verses begin the actual story of Jesus and his ministry, and we’ll have to decide whether to remain with John on the banks of the Jordan, or to follow Jesus on his strange journey toward death and resurrection. Mark invites us to make a decision, but gives us so little time to get our bearings.

This is a tough time of year to deal with such questions. Getting our bearings is probably way down the “to do” list, well below all the other pre-Christmas chores and holiday obligations. We barely have time to do the shopping, do we really have time to reflect on what John is telling us, to be ready to respond to the Messiah when the time comes? This may be a tough time of year to deal with such questions, but unless we’ve put the cart before the horse it’s what Advent is supposed to be about. We’ve got to find time to reflect, with John, on who it is that we are waiting for and what he will mean to us when he arrives, or Advent losses its meaning altogether, and we find ourselves caught up in yet another secular festival, our souls aching for good but news with none to be found.

Prayer: God of time and space, help us to use this season to set our sights on what you are doing in Jesus Christ, so that when the time comes we may respond with faithful obedience. In Jesus’ name. Amen.