ROME IMPROVEMENT 8/1/2021

MORE POWER !  MORE GLORY !!  MORE SPIRIT !!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 7:14-23

The debate over ritual cleanliness has concluded. Jesus has satisfied the challenge from the people who recognized him. We have witnessed that Jesus is willing to take the brokenness of the world on to himself, and the deterrent that tradition can impose on a people has been pointed out. It has been a stunning and revealing time.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

And having called the crowd to him, he was saying to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand! There is nothing from outside the man traveling into him which is able to make him common [that is, ritually unclean]; but the things, from the man, traveling out are the things that make the man common.” And when he went into the house apart from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he says to them, “Then also you? Are you not understanding? Do you not see that all [the stuff] from the outside traveling into the man is not able to make him common because it travels not in him into the  heart but into the stomach, and into the latrine it travels out purifying all the food?” He was saying, “[It is the stuff] out of a man traveling out that makes the man common. It is from within, out of the heart of the man, the unjust reasonings, the bad, travels out—sexual immorality, thefts, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, insolence, envy, blasphemies, pride, lack of true wisdom. All these evils from within travel out and make common the man.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

Like the aftermath of presidential debates or analytical reviews of major speeches, when the pundits appear or the locals at the coffee shop gather for a review of salient points, what the implications are, and the significance for the days ahead, Jesus now makes sure that the disciples understand the shortcomings of tradition when it serves to limit the people God loves and cares for.

In the NRSV, the statement “thus he declared all foods clean” appears to me to be a redacted criticism. My reading is more like, “Through the digestive process, after the body has taken all of the nutrients it can, all food is rendered equal.” I can hear my mother saying to me when I complained that my Jell-O had melted into my mashed potatoes, “Just eat it. It’s all going to the same place.” The previous debate, over ritual cleanliness, and the rules we impose on ourselves and others, reminds us that, in the garden, there was only one food restriction and humanity quickly violated that law.

Less evident, but no less important, is the tension between the Scribes and the Pharisees. The Scribes were part of the temple structure while the Pharisees were a reform movement within Judaism. Each group had its own standards of ritual cleanliness and where worship was to be centered. These codes each acted as a means by which others could determine who was “in” and who was “out”.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

Here at Gennesaret, those who recognize Jesus, as the demons and unclean spirits have recognized Jesus throughout the rest of Mark, do not bring the diseased, the sick, and the broken out of faith, but as a test. How unclean is Jesus willing to be to demonstrate the reality of the kingdom of God?

As a pre-crucifixion/resurrection story, Gennesaret challenges us to wonder why they were healed but so many others weren’t. As a post-resurrection story, the “sozo” saving is much more understandable. Whether it be the leper alongside the road, those in the synagogue, in the home of friends, at home with the roof falling in, at the shore with leaders, in the marketplace, in the wilderness, and all along the way where the people have abandoned them, Jesus continues to engage, i.e., draw near, to those whom the world rejects and makes them know that they are included, valued, honored. Through the cross and resurrection, all are saved.

It is this salvific impulse that makes the difference for me. This interaction between the sick, disabled, and broken of the world may not alter their condition, but the kingdom of God reality claims each of them as being valued, honored, and blessed. No longer are the segregated of the world segregated. The clean and the unclean are gathered into one community of faith. Jesus’ bodily resurrected entry into the garden (See Rome Improvement, July 25, 2021.) restores the relationship of creation, giving value to all that God has made. This new relationship anchors us in the body of Christ and promises us a life of new wholeness—a wholeness that recognizes the value of all people regardless of health and social status.

HANGING THE TRIM

As we all enter into the body of Christ, just as food enters our body, all are made equal before God. Okay, I think that Jesus might have found a better metaphor, but Mom was right when she said, “It’s all going to the same place.” By Christ’s justifying work we all go out into the kingdom of God.

ROME IMPROVEMENT 7/25/2021

MORE POWER !  MORE GLORY !!  MORE SPIRIT !!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 6:53-7:13

This week we begin a detour or, maybe, just a road less traveled. While many congregations will be beginning a topical sermon series, and some may be sticking to the regular readings exploring the theological underpinnings of Jesus being the bread of life come down from heaven for us, I propose a fuller reading of Mark. Following the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus once again demonstrates his creation authority. When there is an adverse wind, Jesus brings calm. When the forces of the world would prevent the disciples from being the witness-bearers of Jesus’ message, Jesus rights the boat and they enter the work of salvific wholeness.

So now, after reaching that place apart, Jesus and the disciples land at Gennesaret where they moor the boat, marking an extended time on land, as we, with those of Jesus’ time, will travel from Gennesaret until he again gets in a boat in chapter eight to go to Dalmanutha. There are many miles to go, and Jesus truly has “people to see and things to do.”

READING THE BLUEPRINT

And having passed over, they came upon the land, into Gennesaret (the garden of the prince), and they anchored near the shore. Coming out of the boat, immediately, having recognized him, [the people] ran throughout the country. They carried about those who were sick, on couches/pallets, hearing of the place where he [was]. Wherever he entered in, the villages or cities or fields in the marketplaces, they laid those who were sick. And begged him in order that they might only touch the border/fringe of his garment and as many as touched him were saved.

And gathered together to him are the Pharisees and some of the Scribes having come from Jerusalem seeing some of his disciples with common hands, this is, not [ritually] washed, they eat the bread. (For the Pharisees and all the righteous Jewish people do not eat unless, with the fist, they wash the hands holding the tradition of the elders and [unless], coming from the marketplace, they ritually wash themselves, they eat not, and the many other things [that] there are which they received to hold fast to—ritually washing of cups and jars and bronze/copper kettles.) And the Pharisees and the Scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not follow according to the tradition of the elders? With common hand, [your disciples] eat the bread.”

[Jesus] said to them, “Well spoke Isaiah prophesying about you hypocrites, as it has been written, ‘This people, with the lips honor me but their heart is far off, holding off from me. In futility they worship me, teaching teachings, [that are the] commands of men.’ For pushing away from the commandment of God, you anchor to the tradition of men.

And he said to them, “You have found a good way to push away from the commandment of God in order to keep/protect your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’, and ‘Whoever speaks badly of father or mother, to death let him [horribly] die!’. But you say, ‘If anyone decrees to father or mother, “corban!”, which is gift [to God], you [father or mother] no longer are allowed anything, [then] you [son]no longer have anything to do for the father or the mother’, voiding the word of God with your [the Pharisees and the Scribes] tradition which you [then] pass on. Many similar things you do [with other commandments of God].”

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

I have not seen these passages linked before, but the act of mooring the boat here when the boat has not been moored before intrigued me. Why here and not elsewhere?

My research has revealed that the country of Gennesaret was a fertile place where almost anything could grow. During the 1^st century it had become overgrown with thorn trees. It is also the site of a crushing defeat during the Jewish rebellion, and Vespasian removed thousands from the area, assassinated many and sent 6,000 into slavery. This battle which took place during the writing of Mark could lead to Gennesaret being known as the “widows’ tears”.

Regardless, the theme of garden that had become thorns and brambles leads to a reminder of Eden, that place where a wall of thorns prevents humanity from returning. And though humanity is not able to return to the garden, the resurrected Christ can. Into the brokenness of the world, into the corrupted garden, Christ enters. The people recognize him and bring to him the broken of the world begging to touch the fringe of his garment. As Jesus walks into the garden, into the Widows’ Tears, he brings “shalom”, restoration wholeness.

We are quick to claim curative healing, and I don’t deny the possibility, but the salvific activity of the bodily-resurrected Jesus brings a deeper indication of God’s activity among us. We are reminded of the days when God walked with humanity at evening.

All of this “shalom” wholeness restoration work makes Jesus ritually unclean. He has touched the unclean of the world and has taken that uncleanness upon himself. Yet when the Pharisees and the Scribes arrive, they do not challenge Jesus directly; they challenge him concerning his disciples, “Why do your disciples eat with unclean hands?” Jesus anchored the boat because the Pharisees and the Scribes are pushing back against the work of God’s kingdom restoration, favoring their own anchorage—tradition.

The interchange between Jesus and the Pharisees/Scribes calls cultic/ritual practices into question. At the same time, we are reminded that God told Adam and Eve that they could eat of everything in the garden except from the Tree of Knowledge (of good and evil). That train, of course, has left the station. That ship has sailed. And so now, everything in the garden is fair game. They were cast out before they could find the Tree of Life, but for the people in Gennesaret, the fruit of the Tree of Life stands before them. It is this fruit of life that draws the broken of the world to him.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

In an article about the Hebrew letter “vav” (it translates as “and”), the almost universal first word of every sentence in the Hebrew writings, I discovered that the “vav” is in the shape of a tent peg. As such it is a most valuable possession. When you live in tents, the tent peg anchors you to the place you are staying. They sink into the ground like roots, holding the superstructure in place. Although bone was sometimes used, tent pegs then and now were usually made of wood. Symbolically they were a garden of trees that gave life.

As those “vavs” anchored the lives of the Mosaic people, so now, Jesus comes and anchors the boat. As the ark of the covenant carried the tablets of the Law, so now, the boat bears God’s Word for us. As the Israelites found new life in the wilderness, so now the people of Gennesaret find a new salvific life in relationship with the bodily-risen Christ.

The reference to the commandment to honor or value your father and your mother that your days will be long upon the land that the Lord your God has given you is not an accident. The understanding of “corban” not only breaks the relationship of our biological families, but it also severs our relationship with God for God is our ultimate progenitor—our first father and mother.

It is in this sense of creator of us all that corban appears so destructive. Corban allows us to consider ourselves as most important without an anchorage outside of ourselves. Corban denies any responsibility for family, neighbor, and, ultimately, for nation. It only gives privilege to the selfish and funds the institutions of oppression. Corban and the tradition it comes from are antithetical to the anchorage at Gennesaret.

Yes, even today, we worship with our lips but find ways to sidestep the intent of the Law. We say things like, “God meets us where we are,” or “God loves us as we are,” and then practice a system of exclusive rules that divide because others do not believe the way we do. We “do not love our neighbor as ourselves,” and we certainly do not love God with our whole, “shalom” heart.

But in Gennesaret, this active relationship-driven inclusive community where the diseased, the disabled, the broken of the world find place and value is experienced. This new community life challenges the boundaries of polite society.

We are reminded that the privileged have rules to live by, but the poor do what they can to survive. In our more privileged world today, we need to remember that fasting is something that those who have an abundance of food do. The poor need not fast because it is part of life. In the same way, ritual purity is a luxury of those who do not consider themselves as “common”. Yet Jesus enters into our commonality in order to liberate us.

HANGING THE TRIM

Jesus cuts through the wall of thorns surrounding the garden and then wears them so that we might fully know the Kingdom of God.

ROME IMPROVEMENT 7/18/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 6:30-52

We, having witnessed John’s body being laid in a tomb after Herod’s birthday celebration, which included John’s head served at the banquet table, return to the disciples who had been sent out by twos into the world of ministry. Jesus’ ministry did not start until John was arrested. Similarly, the ministry of Jesus’ disciples does not start until the report of John’s death.

But wait! John’s death is recorded here because Herod mis-identifies who is resurrected. He believes that the resurrected person known as Jesus is really John, but we know that Herod is wrong. The irony is that Herod has the right idea, someone is resurrected, but he attributes the resurrection to the wrong person.

Just as in the other gospels where the ministry of the disciples does not truly begin until Jesus has been raised and the disciples have seen and touched the bodily resurrected Christ, so in Mark the disciples have not started their ministry until the people of Jesus’ hometown have declared the person in the synagogue as the carpenter (6:1-6) (cf. Matthew 28:16-20, Luke 24:13-53, John 20:19-21:25). This disbelieving hometown crowd is not rejecting the boy grown up; they are disbelieving that Jesus is risen from the tomb. They can see and touch this Jesus; and they know that he has been crucified.

Thus, their unbelief becomes the foundation of our belief. We know that the women fled from the tomb with fear and trembling telling no one (Mark 16:8); yet, we have heard and know the story: “The good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God” (Mark 1:1). So now, Jesus’ amazement at the people’s unbelief becomes the source of sending faithful disciples. Unbelief leads to God’s activity of compassionate care and grace.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

This is a long passage and translation does not greatly alter the story. Here are some things that are worth noting.

        1.  The disciples who were sent out have returned telling of what they have learned.

        2.  Jesus takes the disciples away to a deserted place, apart, by themselves Because they had no leisure to eat.

        3.  They went away in a boat to a deserted place.

        4.   The crowd interferes with time away.

        5.  Jesus has compassion on them because they are like sheep without a shepherd.

        6.  Jesus teaches and the time grows late.

        7.   The deserted place becomes the place of the crowd.

        8.   The disciples want to send them away to find food.

        9.  Jesus commands the disciples to feed the crowd.

      10.   Disciples find 5 loaves and 2 fish.

      11.  The people are gathered in 50’s and 100’s.

      12.  Jesus blesses and breaks the bread.

      13.  Jesus gives bread to disciples to set before the crowd.

      14.  Jesus divides the two fish among them all.

      15.  All eat and are satisfied.

      16.  12 serving baskets of left-over pieces gathered.

      17.  Jesus sends disciples in boat to go to the other side.

      18.  Jesus dismisses crowd and goes into hills to pray.

      19.  Evening comes, boat is on the sea, people are gone, Jesus is on land.

      20.  Disciples strain at oars against adverse wind.

      21.  Jesus walks to them, calms their fear.

      22.  Jesus gets into boat, wind ceases. (Now they are in a place, by themselves, apart.)

      23.  Disciples are astounded, confused, with hearts hardened. 

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

Mark uses the important images of sea and deserted place in a Genesis-sense. That is, as God’s face is upon the waters and the wind/breath of God brings forth life in Genesis, we see Jesus having the authority over new creation in Mark. As the earth is an endless void or deserted place from which creation arises, so now, Jesus takes his disciples to that place of creation possibility.

Whether the disciples are on the sea or in those deserted places, we come anticipating new life and new ways of living. Mark’s first example of this new creation image is found in Jesus’ baptism and his subsequent wilderness experience. From this creation moment, we hear what the kingdom of God looks like when it is fully engaged in repentance and belief (Mark 1:15).

I use the word “engaged” rather than “drawn near” especially in reading Mark as post-resurrection. I interpret the Greek word “ἐγγίζω” (pronounced eng-id'-zo) to say that when a part of a machine or engine, like a clutch assembly, draws near, that is, moves into position, it is able to come into operation.

This life of believing engagement, begins, in safety, along the seashore (chapter 1). It deepens with teaching and tests the depths with Jesus when he and the disciples have their first journey to the other side (chapter 4). The disciples learn to trust with Jesus when they cross again to the other side (chapter 5), learn the value of life with Jesus on the waters when they get into a boat and go to a deserted place and are sent out on the sea alone (chapter 6). Each of these sea experiences ends with earth revealing new creation possibility.

Today we witness Jesus and the disciples going out on the sea and then engaging the people on the land with compassion. This compassion leads to teaching, and the teaching leads to discipleship living. Five loaves of bread are found; Jesus blesses them and breaks them; he gives them to the disciples to set before the people.

It is this act of discipleship, the setting of food before the people, that shows us Jesus’ ministry model. Words lead to action, and action leads to more learning. Or learning leads to mission, and mission leads to learning. (WTS community: There might be a mission statement in there somewhere.)   

At the end of this reading the disciples experience “hardening of the heart”. During the first century and throughout biblical writing, the center of emotion is usually the stomach. The heart is the locus of thought. So, when hearts are hardened in the Bible, we would say that the people were not able to wrap their minds around it.

Thus, the disciples experience cannot be understood as emotional intransigence, but an extension of their amazement. They did not understand about the bread, and now Jesus has just walked on the water and calmed the storm. The disciples are having a hard time trying to appreciate the resurrected Christ in their midst. This bodily resurrection stuff is difficult to grasp.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

At the beginning of this reading, we are told that the disciples and Jesus need to go to a place apart because they do not have the leisure to eat. In the middle of this story, we are so consumed by the eating that we forget that the disciples and Jesus are still trying to get away to a place apart. At the end of the story, Jesus and the disciples finally get to that place apart, but there are issues—adverse winds, questioning whether Jesus is a ghost, and fear and distrust. We see the disciples in that place apart, but they are amazed, not understanding about the bread, and captive to thinking in old world ways.

Yet, in between the feeding of many with bread and getting away, two fish, representing the two natures of Christ, are shared with the people. Christ is truly human and truly divine. These two natures are especially important to us in our post-bodily resurrection reality. Jesus Christ is able to be seen, heard, and touched, but, at the same time, he is beyond the constraints of the world. In this Poseidonesque saunter on the sea, Jesus both exercises his divine nature and reveals himself to be the one the disciples know. He tells them, “Do not be afraid. It’s only me—the one you know and love.”

The symbol of fish carries with it (from the Greek word “ἰχθύς”) its acronym. The first letters of the Greek words, Iesous (Iota), Christos (Chi), Theou (Theta), Uios (Upsilon), and Sotor (Sigma) are, in English, “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior”. If, what was shared, was one great fish, we might accept the image more readily, but these two small fish that Jesus shares with the people slide by as part of the meal without recognizing the gift of Jesus’ entirety.

We work so hard to make this a miracle performed for the delight of appetite without witnessing the power of the risen Christ. We try to explain the wonder of the exemplified possibility of God’s kingdom care for God’s people in inadequate earthly ways because we are not ready to accept the presence of the resurrected Christ in our lives and the demands of living in the resurrection kingdom.

We laugh at the simpleness of the disciples while we are not willing to see their befuddlement in our discipleship today. We tend to see this meal as a prefiguring of the eucharistic meal to come rather than an extension of the table already set. In our concrete thinking, we see the end to world hunger without receiving Christ’s gift of himself—truly human and truly divine.

We ascribe a terminal action to this feeding—the day is at an end and the people are hungry, rather than appreciating that God’s creation begins in darkness. We spend endless amounts of energy trying to explain how this is possible rather than embracing the great mystery of our faith—"Christ has died. Christ is risen! Christ will come again.” We do not appreciate that this story is a story of new life ways of energized resurrection living. In short, we do not see the altar and eucharist at the center of this story.

HANGING THE TRIM

If there is in holiness a sense of being fully engaged with the world, then, when we join in singing the unending hymn of heaven, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of power and might…,” we too might sit with the disciples in amazement. We too cannot understand about the bread, and our minds cannot fully grasp the impact of God’s activity in our lives nor the capacity of God’s grace.

ROME IMPROVEMENT 7/11/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 6:14-29

At an early age, maybe during catechism, I was told, “If you read the whole Bible, you will read about the whole human condition.” Whoever told me this also went into the various kinds of literature presented, history, poetry, wisdom literature, romance, war, biography, prophecy, and fantasy. The one genre left out of the list was pornography. This week’s text brings us one of the most obscene stories in all of scripture. It explores the depravity of Roman power, abuse of power, and indifference to life. It is the description of one of two meals in this chapter, Herod’s Birthday Banquet; the other is the Feeding of the 5,000. It continues Mark’s exploration of the difference Jesus’ presence makes in a world of death and the abundance of life.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

And King Herod heard, for [Jesus’] name became apparent/visible/well known/a household word. And they were saying, “John the Baptist has risen out of death, and because of this, these powers are at work in him.” Others were saying that this is Elijah, and [still] others were saying that this is a prophet like one of the prophets. Having heard, Herod was saying, “John whom I beheaded, he is risen.” For Herod himself had sent [for] and forcibly seized/arrested John and bound him in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of Philip, his brother, because [Herod] married [Herodias]. For John was saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to take your brother’s wife,” because Herodias was begrudging [John] and was desiring to kill him and was not able. Because Herod was afeared of John, knowing that he was a righteous man and holy, and kept him safe. And having heard [John], [Herod] felt greatly conflicted yet gladly heard from him. And there came into being a timely day when Herod for his natal anniversary prepared a feast for his betters, his military commanders, the high politicos of Galilee; and entering in, the daughter of Herself, Herodias, having danced, pleased/accommodated Herod and those reclining with him; and the king was saying to the too young girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it you.” And he promised her [repeatedly], “Whatever you wish I will give to you, even half of my kingdom.” And having gone out, she said to her mother, “What should I ask?” Then she said, “The head of John the Baptizer.” And having entered immediately with haste to the king, she asked, saying, “I desire that at once you give to me, on a platter, the head of John the baptizer. And the king, having been made overwhelmingly sad, because of his promises and those reclining with him, not desiring to disregard her. And immediately, the king, having sent an executioner [who was] commanded to bring his head. And going out, he beheaded him in the prison, and he brought his head on a platter and gave it to the too young girl and the too young girl gave it to her mother.

Hearing of it, [John’s] disciples came. They took his corpse and laid it in a tomb.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

My first experience of this story as something other than a conflicted Bible story came when I had to read “Three Tales” by Gustave Flaubert.  The third tale, “Herodias”, introduced me to an extra-biblical understanding. Much earlier, on Spring vacation in Florida, after suffering an extreme sunburn and being told to limit my exposure to the sun for a while, Mom took my sister and me to the John Ringling North estate near Sarasota.

The day was memorable for me for several reasons. I was given my mom’s “Brownie” camera and allowed to take my first picture. It was my first close up experience of gargoyles. During the tour of the mansion, I developed this intense itching and had to scratch my back almost continuously. As I scratched my back, huge flakes of skin rubbed off and fell out of my shirt tail onto the burgundy thick-piled carpeting. It was embarrassing, and I remember very little of the house because of the trail of dead skin I left behind.

Yet, when we got to North’s art gallery, I saw a picture of John the Baptist’s head on a large silver serving platter. The head sort of looked like John Ringling North to me. I remember asking Mom if that was how he died. People around me laughed, and Mom said, “No. That’s John the Baptist.” Later I found out that this was a very famous painting, but I was only impressed by how gruesome it was. Sixty-one years later, I can still tell you about the details of that picture, and the images of the gargoyles still visit me in my dreams from time-to-time.

Since then, I have learned several other things beyond the gruesomeness of the beheading itself:

—If an older brother died and he had no son, then the younger brother, if unmarried, was to marry the older brother’s wife in order that a boy should be born.

—In some parts of the Middle East, serving a sheep or goat head, fully roasted on a platter, is a great delicacy reserved for dignitaries.

—Dancing entertainment for private parties was provided by young women as a way of titillating the honoree and guests at state banquets.

—Offering half of the king’s kingdom is a common trope in folk tales concerned with marrying of the king’s daughter. (This reward usually comes with a number of tests for the suiter.)

These themes and more come together in this story in a way that twists them into something horribly wrong. Herod’s birthday party is supposed to be a day of celebrating life and his authority as the Tetrarch of Judea. Instead, it becomes a macabre disaster. Herod’s marriage is declared unlawful—he is the older brother, not the younger, and his brother hasn’t died. The dancer is not a young woman, but a little girl. The delicacy served on the platter is the bloody head of the prophet, and Herod’s reputation as a Roman sycophant becomes that of a ruthless killer. In the midst of obscene opulence and greed, we find this story of gluttony and of prurient and salacious over-reaching.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

There is no indication that there is anything historic about this story, so what is Mark’s purpose in telling it? In this gruesome tale, I believe Mark sets out to warn of the traps of corrupt power and self-aggrandizement, those worldly temptations. As Jesus began his ministry with forty days in the wilderness where he was tempted, so now, when the disciples are sent out, the temptation of worldly power is set before them.

The question of who Jesus is and Herod’s conclusion speak of John’s popularity in his day, but Herod does not understand the true Messiah and the resurrected Christ. His misplaced belief leads to the goblins of superstition and imprudent behaviors exposing the rot and decadence of Roman imperial ways vs the compassionate care of God’s kingdom that has drawn near.

This meal will be juxtaposed with the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand in the weeks to come. This bankrupt banquet will be followed by the abundance of God’s kingdom and reflects the meal of bread and wine that Jesus shares with his disciples.

HANGING THE TRIM

Herod is so enamored of Salome’s dance that he offers her half of his kingdom. Even in a world of wealth, the offer is for only a portion of what the king controls, but God offers us everything. Not only are we given the whole of creation, but we are also given everlasting life. God’s presence is here with us now, in this place, through the waters of baptism, and God promises to be present to us throughout eternity. 

ROME IMPROVEMENT 7/4/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 6:1-13

Last week, when Jesus returned from the land of the Gerasenes, the crowd gathered around him beside the sea. Jairus came and begged Jesus to come to save his daughter. The crowd impeded Jesus on the way to Jairus’ house and a woman with a hemorrhage was made whole. Jesus finally arrived at Jairus’ house after Jairus’ daughter was dead, but, at the end of the account, the young girl was walking about, and Jesus told her family to give her something to eat.

This week, Jesus returns to his fatherland where he encounters pushback concerning his place among the hometown people.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

He left there and came to the fatherland of him, and his disciples follow him. Sabbath, having been created again, Jesus started to teach in the synagogue. Many, hearing him, were shocked, saying, “From where [do] these [teachings] come, and what [is] the wisdom having been given to him? And the powerful deeds that come into being by his hands? Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the womb-sharer of James and Justus and Juda and Simon? And are not his female womb-sharers here with us?” They were scandalized in him.

And Jesus was saying to them, “No prophet is without honor (celebrity?) except in the fatherland of him, and in his relatives and in the household of him.” And he was not able to do any powerful deeds there. But on a few feeble he laid his hands in caring, and [Jesus] was amazed at their disbelief. [And so,] he was going around the villages teaching.

And he calls before him the twelve and began to send them two-by-two and gave to them the authority over the unclean spirits. [Jesus] charged them in order that they should take nothing for the journey except a walking stick only—no bread, no bag/bindle, nor a money belt, but, strapping on sandals and not to put on two tunics.

And [Jesus] was saying to them, “Wherever you would enter a house, there remain until you would leave from there. And whatever place would not receive you, nor hear you, be walking away from there. Shake off the dust from under your feet as a witness to them. So having gone out, they proclaimed in order that all should repent/change the way they think about the world.  And many demons they were casting out and were anointing many who were sick/feeble/infirm and laid hands upon them in caring.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

There are clearly two parts to this week’s reading. (1) The crowd discounts Jesus’ authority, and (2) Jesus sends the twelve into a disbelieving world of ministry. Less obviously, this passage prepares us for kingdom banquets to come—one of obscene worldly power for a privileged few and another more common meal of abundance for many. The first is in a palace where death is the program, and the other is in a deserted place of new creation living.

The two parts of this week’s passage set the stage for the banquets to come. There is the questioning, disbelieving community, and there is the faithful, following community. What at first glance appears disjointed gives continuity to what will follow.

In the background, the identity of who Jesus is continues to present a challenge. If this is the hometown boy made good, then why are they offended by his teaching, wisdom, and mighty deeds? If this is the bodily resurrected Christ, then there might be some reason for them to wonder at his presence— “We knew you when you were one of us. We mourned when you were crucified. Who do you think you are? Trying to tell us that you are the one we have known? We know you to be a carpenter, a worker with wood, but you come speaking parables and poetry, singing songs of hope. You assume the authorship of life, but we suspect that you are a plotter, conniver, and insurrectionist.

What might our response be to the bodily resurrected Jesus in our lives? Will we have faith and believe? Or will we scoff and suspect? It can’t be both ways. In these thirteen verses, Mark forces the choice.

Will we, with the crowd, continue to bind the strong man as we hang onto only what we know? Or will we trust and go into the world around us, there bearing witness to the liberating world of the resurrection and the hope-filled possibilities of God’s reign in our midst?

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

A friend of mine, who went on retreat to a Lakota reservation, went with a sense that he was going to bring something to the people on the reservation. Things did not go the way he had thought they would, and so he was surprised one day when he and his group were talking with some of the Lakota people.

Part of their conversation that day included this from a Lakota person, “You come to us with your cup full thinking that you have something to give. We wish that you would come with your cup less full so that you had some room in your cup to receive.”

When we enter into relationships believing that our status in that relationship will always be the same, we prevent our relationships from growing. When our expectations of those around us remain constant, we reject the possibility of change. When we believe that we have the abundance that others need, we deprive ourselves of receiving from the abundance of others.

We have been taught as children that it is better to give than to receive, but we need to learn to be present with one another and be willing to receive what others can give. When we learn to receive the hospitality of others, we also learn how to be hospitable to those around us. We can’t be the only ones talking in the room. Sometimes we need to listen.

If it is only about what we bring to the altar, then we can’t appreciate the gifts Christ brings for us. We are called to come with our cups half-full, so that there is some room to receive. Then we can share what we have together.

HANGING THE TRIM

Jesu, Jesu, help us to receive the gifts from our neighbors we have in you.