Bartimaeus

Due to computer illness this week, Rome Improvement is not available and this short story is only a first draft. Keep watching; as time is available, I will be posting finish copy.

It seems like such a longtime ago and yet, it also seems like yesterday. Some friends brought me to an itinerant rabbi who was making some noise around Bethsaida. Everybody was saying to me, “Come meet Jesus.” People said that he could restore my sight. I said, “How can he restore something I never had?” They chided me saying, “You know what we mean. He is healing everyone else, why shouldn’t he heal you too?”

 

I told them that I thought that sight was a good thing to have in this world, but I had been doing just fine, “Thank you very much,” and I didn’t want to be the latest “miracle child” to be fawned over and then forgotten. But they were insistent, and, after a few days of persistent begging, I succumbed to their pleas and went with them to meet the rabbi.

 

Once we got to the place where this rabbi, Jesus, was teaching, I stood around and listened to him talk. He had a nice voice. He was easy to listen to, and he said some things that really made me think. He said that we needed to think about the world differently, that we should change the way we were living with one another, that this world of some having everything and others having little, or nothing, was not the way that God intended us to live. He said that although we didn’t fully appreciate it, the kingdom of God was not something that we had to wait for but that the kingdom of God was actively engaged right now. He said that he had come to speak the words of good news. He said, when we were able to live in a world where all were included, that the blind would see, the deaf would hear, the lame and the maimed would move around with the rest of us. He said we needed to think of ourselves as being one, as God is one, because we are all created in the image of God.

 

That upset a few people. They shouted at him, “We are the Chosen People—favored of the One who led us through the wilderness. We are the ones who have been given the Promised Land that has been restored to us by God’s work in Cyrus. We are the ones who are loved by the Lord. The rest of the world doesn’t get it and Is damned as far as I am concerned.”

 

There was a lot of cheering and some booing along the way, but eventually people stopped trying to trip the rabbi up with their hypothetical posturing that let them make themselves sound important. One guy stood up and said, “Suppose now, just suppose, that a man married a woman and then he died without any children, and just suppose, his brother married her, as he should, and he died and there still wasn’t a child. And suppose then the next younger brother married her, and he died, and there still wasn’t a child. And on and on it went until the woman had married the seven brothers of the family. Finally, the seventh son died, and the woman died, and there still weren’t any children. Just suppose for a minute, whose wife will she be in the afterlife since all seven brothers married her?”

 

We had all heard the story of blind Tobit and how Tobit’s son Tobias marries Sarah, who has been married to six men before, and how each of them died on their wedding night because the evil Asmodeus had fallen in love with Sarah and didn’t want to have anyone else be with her, and how Asmodeus was found out and banished, and how Tobit got his sight back, and everyone lived happily ever after. So, everyone laughed when the rabbi asked, “Is your name Asmodeus or Tobias?”

 

It was clever of the rabbi to put that moment of levity in the conversation because it really got the people on his side. When he told everyone that marriage was something that we needed in order to keep order in our world but that in heaven our relationship with Godself was the relationship that mattered. Heaven was the place where we could truly live out the first commandment. In heaven, we neither married nor worried about worldly marriages. We all would experience the oneness of God and that would be enough. People started arguing with one another and started drifting away.

 

It was then that my friends took me up to have Jesus lay his hands on me in order for me to see. There was a moment when I thought that he was just going to tell all of us to go home and quit bothering him. Really, that was what I was hoping for, but then, he took me by the hand and led me away from the others. When we had gone a fair distance, Jesus told me to look at him, and then he spit in my eyes. He spit in my eyes! I was thinking, “Rude, dude.”

 

He asked if I could see anything and then, I had the most amazing vision. I saw people, or I think they were people, but they walked around with their arms outstretched like trees. It was like a dance. It was like a prayer, and, when the people came together, with their branches intermingled, it was like a choir of peace. I said, “I see people. They look like trees walking around.” Then he laid his hands on me and held my head in his hands and shared his vision with me. I saw God’s plan for the world from the distant future all the way back to the dawn of everything. I saw the world possibilities far beyond the cross all the way back to the Garden of Eden when God was speaking with Adam and Eve. God looked sort of like Jesus. It was…amazing. It was way beyond amazing, but I don’t know what that might be. And then Jesus told me to go home and not even to go into the village.

 

After that vision of the world, home no longer seemed enough. So, I started wandering the roads. People would stop and ask if they could help, and I traveled with them. When we got to a village, I had them take me to the village gate, or just outside the marketplace, and I would beg there for a while. I would tell the people of my vision, but since I was still blind, people usually walked away, and I was left talking to emptiness. When they stayed long enough to hear my story, they laughed at me. “No one can see to the end or the dawn of everything, not even a blind seer can see that far. Only God has that kind of vision. People, like trees, lumbering around? Please, tell us another.” After a few days of that, people would tell me to move on since I had no relatives to care for me and I would find my way to another town.

 

Each place I went, I listened to hear if Jesus was going to be in the area, but no one knew where he had gone. Some said that he had gone up north into the Roman cities; others said he was out in the countryside teaching. There were stories of people being raised up from their sick beds; children who were all but dead, knowing good health and inclusion; a man who was deaf who was able to understand the people around him and speak with them; and a time when thousands were fed. As time went on, I decided that the vision was just that—a dream, a hallucination, a trick of the mind. I sought out the comfort of other beggars and started building relationships with them.

 

I met Abner one day, his body was quite twisted. He could hardly walk. We became fast friends almost immediately. He listened to my vision story and though he didn’t really believe it, he thought that the idea of the story was nice, even desirable. I volunteered to carry him on my back, and he told me where to go. He introduced me to many of the other beggars and at night we gathered in the house provided for the “unfortunates”, our little Bethany. There I learned that we weren’t supposed to beg inside the city and those who were caught would be treated badly, but outside the city, it was safe. Many travelers entering or leaving the city often stopped to toss a coin or two our way, even soldiers tossed a broken quadrans, although they oftentimes intentionally threw them beyond us just to see us scramble for the crumbs of society. .

 

Finally, one day, when I was sitting with the other beggars outside of Jericho, with my cloak laying over my lap to catch any coin tossed my direction, a crowd of people came down the road. When I asked what the commotion was about, people said the rabbi, Jesus, was coming with his disciples on his way to Jerusalem. I knew then, if I was ever going to have the vision again, that I would need to do something right then. Despite the danger of bringing Roman attention to what was happening, and the political implications, I called out claiming Jesus for who I was positive he was—the one whom I would always pledge my loyalty, beyond Herod and certainly above Tiberius. As the volume of the crowd increased, I started shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Jesus, teacher, Son of David  have mercy on me!”

 

Some of the people in the crowd kicked at us and told us to get out of the way, but I refused to move. Instead I shouted more loudly. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And when I had all but given up, the crowd stopped. There was this eerie silence and then I heard his voice again. “Bring him to me.” Then the crowd grabbed at me and said, “Quick. The Master is calling for you. Why do you continue to sit there like a marker stone along the  road?”

 

I threw off my cloak, not caring about coins I might receive from the crowd and worked my way toward Jesus’ voice. People moved out of my way and pushed me toward him and then I felt his hand on my shoulder  and I stopped. “What can I do for you?” he asked.

 

“Lord,” I said, “Let me see again. Let me see what I saw before. Let me have the vision of the trees and the dance and the choir of peace. Lord, please, I long to know that the vision was not a dream but a reality of hope. I beg of you, let me see and know the joy of that vision again.”

Jesus reached out and put his hands on me. He took my hands and raised them up into the posture of prayer and he said, “Your faith has made you whole.” And immediately I saw the vision again. I saw people, like trees walking around, like trees dancing with joy and singing songs of praise. I saw people gathering together with their arms spread out in prayer and when the choir of peace gathered I saw the arms of the people making Xs, making crosses, building communities where all could eat and drink with enough to give away. And the vision continued to the end of everything. It was amazing. Ten I joined the crowd and followed him on the way.

ROME IMPROVEMENT October 17, 2021

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

SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 10:32-45

As we hear the words of the third prophetic announcement of Jesus’ trial, shaming, death and resurrection, we need to hold the last lines of last week’s text in our heads—those who give away for Christ’s sake and for the Good News will receive an abundance including fields with persecutions, for many who will be first/great/honored will be last/lowest/dishonored and those who might be last will be first. This subversive language, that is, this language of turning things upside-down, lays the groundwork for Jesus’ prophetic words and his encounter with James and John. Indeed, it sets the stage for Jesus saying, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life, a ransom for many.”

READING THE BLUEPRINT

They were on the way going up into Jerusalem; and leading them was Jesus; and [disciples] were amazed and those following were afraid. And having taken again the twelve, [Jesus] began to say to them the things being that were about to befall concomitantly to him. Behold, in order that we go up into Jerusalem and the son of man will be given over to the high priests and the scribes, and they will judge against him to die (bring a verdict of death); and they will give him over to the nations; and they will mock him and spit on him and scourge him and kill him and after three days he will rise.

 

And coming before him, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, are saying to [Jesus], “Teacher, we want that what we might ask you would do to us.”

 

[Jesus] said to them, ““What you want me do to you?”

They said to him, “Give us in order that one might sit out of your right (be your right arm) and one out of left (be your left arm) in the glory of you.”

But Jesus says to them, “You know not what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism which I am baptized?”

And they said to him, “We are able.”

But Jesus said to them “The cup which I drink, you will drink, and the baptism which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit out of the right of me or out of the left is not mine to give but to whom it has been prepared. And having heard, the ten began to agonize over James and John.

And having called toward them, Jesus says to them, “You know that the ones, thinking to rule the nations, lord it over them, and the great ones of them exercise authority against them. This is not for you. But who might want to be great in you will be your servant, and who in you might want to be first in you will be slave of all for the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give the true life of him as ransom/release/liberated, in place of [the] many.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

Again, as we hear the prophecy of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have to choose whether we are reading this text on the way to the cross and empty tomb or from the cross and empty tomb. If it is spoken on the way to the cross, then it foretells what is to come, but, if it is from the empty tomb, it speaks of the reality we all know—those fields with suffering and persecution. These words explain the presence of the resurrected Christ active in the world.

In the same way, if the conversation between Jesus and James/John is about going to the cross, then their grab for power and glory looks like the authoritarian world in which they live, and the positions of honor appear to be the bandits on either side of Jesus at the crucifixion. But, if the conversation takes place in the resurrection world, the statements of drinking the cup and baptisms look more like the reality of Mark’s time and the glory looks more like the establishment of the church. As such, maybe Peter and Paul take those places of honor.

It is more likely, however, in a communitarian reading, that those places are held for all who follow Jesus on the way. As such, the hierarchical vision of the church is rejected. Dying to rise leads to Servant Leadership and is lifted up in the subversive message of serving instead of being served, of communal following rather than hierarchical leadership.

This subversive language claims the places of right and left as belonging to those who follow afterwards—us. Our rightful place is as the right and left arms of Christ. The question is, are we

• ·            exercising the authority that has been given to us?
• ·            being the servant-leader followers Jesus models for us?
• ·            bringing wholeness to the world around us or division?
• ·            challenging the oppressive powers of the world or supporting them?

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

The very subversiveness of the Gospel of Mark is the reason to read it as a post-resurrection narrative. If we read this Gospel as a journey to the cross with an empty tomb at the end, resurrection has this promise of some perfected, but uncertain future, ouranic (of the sky) theocracy. As such, world powers are not concerned about the Christian message as Christianity looks like so many other religions.

But, when we read the Gospel of Mark as a post-resurrection narrative, we witness the bodily resurrected Jesus, the Son of God, actively involving himself in the events of our world. We encounter God’s presence poking his nose into the injustices of the world and being indignant with our behavior. We have to acknowledge that resurrection-living is involved and engaged right now, and that following Jesus is not a passive thing. It involves repentance and doing something to change the circumstances of our lives and the lives of our neighbor. This is dangerous stuff because it gives license to question authority and challenges the status quo.

This active image of God’s immanence among us presents God actively bringing wholeness to a broken world. It is engaged in our midst and is less about curing through “sozo” and much more about salvific wholeness experienced through “sozo”. In this context, “sozo” takes on the multivalent qualities of shalom which is both abstractly concerned with societal peace and incarnational in hospitality and relationship.

This is the Jesus we meet in the Galilee of Mark’s Gospel, the one who brings “sozo” wholeness when he declares the leper to be clean, when the man with the withered hand is acceptable in the synagogue, when he, Jesus, confronts the power of Rome while listening to the Gerasene man who lived among the tombs, when he raises Jairus’ daughter from her death bed, when he makes clean the woman with the hemorrhage, when he feeds the five and four thousand, when he makes space for the deaf to hear God in the silence of the world, when the blind man can see the kingdom vision of people like trees walking around.

Each of these events is less about cure than it is about restoring the disenfranchised to the communities they should be part of in the first place. The true healing and salvific wholeness of “sozo” is for society rather than the individual. This is the subversive message of Mark. It shows how the kingdom of God is engaged, now!

And, if James and John cannot be the right and left arms of Jesus when he comes into his glory because it is for those for whom it has been reserved, then we need to look around. We are not to look backward to see the bandits at the cross, but forward to see ourselves and those places of loving care and advocacy that emanate from us.

This place of honor, to be present in Christ as Christ is present in us, speaks of the incarnational, resurrected body of Christ that continues to walk in the Galilees of our lives today. Yes, Jesus the Christ continues to be active in our world. We can witness the presence of Christ wherever there is need, wherever the oppressed are named, wherever abusive governance is seen. Christ is present among those fighting abuse and oppression, alongside the disabled and the chronically ill, at the bedsides of the dying, and in the midst of those who recognize everyone has gifts to bring to the table where we all are fed finding ways to advocate for the inclusion of all people.

These words and deeds of Christ are not done for some future idyllic, elysian utopia. They are done with love for us here today. If we are going to speak of Jesus as being the incarnate Word of God and that the resurrected body of Christ is the incarnational Word for the world, and we do not see ourselves as being part of that body, as being in his right or left side, then neither can we embrace the glory of his coming among us where we follow Jesus on the Way.

HANGING THE TRIM

We continue to come asking Jesus for favors. Many appear to be ridiculous after the fact, but Jesus continues to be patient with us, asking, “What would you have me do to you?” Then when our request is made, he tells us that our deepest wishes will be done to us. Through the cups we drink, the symbol of our covenantal relationship that promises forgiveness of sin, and the baptisms we receive which continue to hold us in that relationship of loving hope forever, we come to understand and value the reality of life.

ROME IMPROVEMENT 10/10/2021

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

SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 10:17-31

Ever since the blind man saw “people, like trees walking around” and “everything from the very far away to the dawn of time” (Mark 8:22-30, see ROME IMPROVEMENT  9/5/2021), we have been presented with images of God’s kingdom community engaged in learning “what this rising from the dead might mean” (Mark 9:2-10, see ROME IMPROVEMENT  2/14/2021). We have been given the comparison between healthy living in the body of Christ and the unhealthy social powers that would destroy that relationship of hope (Mark 9:38-50, see ROME IMPROVEMENT  9/26/2021); we have been shown the kingdom of God in the questioning child (Mark 9:30-37, see ROME IMPROVEMENT  9/19/2021 and Mark 10:1-16, see ROME IMPROVEMENT  10/3/2021), in the “disabled” body of Christ (Mark 9:38-50, see ROME IMPROVEMENT  9/26/2021), the broken relationship of communal turning away from God’s mercy/divorce (Mark 10:1-16, see ROME IMPROVEMENT  10/3/2021); and now this week we see Jesus’ agape/love for the communitarian vision of egalitarian equity.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

And as [Jesus] was going out on the way, one having run toward him and having fallen on knees before him, was interrogating [Jesus]. “Good teacher, what might I do in order that life eternal I might inherit?”

But Jesus said to him, “Why me you speak good? No one is good except one—God. The commands you know: not you might murder, not you might commit adultery, not you might thieve, not you might testify/bear witness falsely, not you might defraud, honor your father and your mother.”

The one but said to [Jesus], “These all I have guarded from my newness.”

But Jesus having seen into him, agapeed/loved him and said to him, “You have one disability. Go! As much as you have, sell and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Come! Follow me!”

Having become gloomy on the word, the one went off grieving for he was having many acquisitions.

And having seen around, Jesus says to his disciples, “How difficult the ones having wealth will have going into the kingdom of God.”

 The disciples were amazed at the words of [Jesus]. Jesus, again answering them says to them, “Children, how difficult it is to go into the kingdom of God. It is easier work for a camel through the needle hole to go than wealthy to go into the kingdom of God.”

And they were totally gobsmacked, saying to themselves, “[Given that], who can be saved/rescued/made whole?”

Having seen into them, Jesus says, “With humankind? [Can’t happen.] Impossible. But not with God. For All power/possibilities are with God.

Then Peter began to speak to [Jesus], “Look here, we have sent off everything and have followed you.”

Jesus was saying, “Truly I say to you, no one there is who sent off house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or fields, on account of me and on account of the good news who will not receive 100 times now in the time of God: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields amid persecutions and into the coming ages, the life eternal. But many will be first ones, last ones. And last ones, first ones.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

How wealthy is this man who falls on his knees before Jesus? Is he “Jeff Bezos/Warren Buffet” rich? Or is he “just” a millionaire? Or maybe he is governor-rich, not owning his own riches, but responsible for managing the wealth and health of the people he governs?

As we continue on the Way with Jesus, with the communitarian vision of servant leadership, this story takes on greater meaning when we consider it from the standpoint of living in the “engaged” resurrection world. From the moment when the man calls Jesus “good teacher” to when Jesus states the “first to last and the last to first”, this passage speaks of the aspirational vision the blind man saw back in chapter 8.

Although, in pre-crucifixion thinking, readers/hearers of the story could say, “Of course. Isn’t it ironic that he was so close but didn’t know it?”, the goodness of the teacher, when seen through the lens of the resurrected Christ, is an acknowledgement of Jesus’ true identity. Jesus’ response, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except the One, God,” is less reproof and more a request for clarification. It evokes the unrecorded response, from the man, the onlookers, and us, “Well, yeah, that’s who you are.”

When the rich man asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”, Jesus reviews the commandments, skipping the first three because the man has already acknowledged them in his words and actions. The rich man’s reaction to Jesus’ response indicates his confusion within the catechetical process as he attempts to reconcile what he has long been taught with a post-resurrection understanding.

Jesus places him in the metanoia (repentance) world of rethinking the “how” of living to the “why” of living. It changes what we do from “in order to inherit eternal life” to “because we have already inherited eternal life”.

In this context, we translate the rich man’s guarding of the commandments from his “newness of life” not as from his “youth”, but from his baptism. When baptized in the post-resurrection, we are adopted into the communitarian-resurrection family of God, affirming our justified and egalitarian relationship with God and one another.

The instruction, “as much as you have, sell and give to the poor,” is not necessarily a great liquidation sale leading to impoverishment. In a communitarian post-resurrection reading, this text speaks of surrendering power and status in order for equity to stand as a desired goal. It is the relationship Adam and Eve had with God in the Garden. The proper hierarchy of the world places God at the top, not us.

Some among us are particularly gifted by God to be leaders. Without them, our social structures would crumble, and chaos would ensue. With the acquisition of power, these leaders continue to stumble forward doing the best they can. It is no more possible for humankind to create a fully equitable government than it is for humankind to “do” anything to save themselves. As salvation is “done” for us by God, in the person of Jesus, through the cross and resurrection, so too, a truly equitable society can only be done through Godself.  Only then can the first be last and the last first.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

The story is told of a Cheyenne chief who, on a buffalo hunt, saw his only son thrown from his horse. When the buffalo had passed and the hunt was over, many buffalo had been killed and the winter food supply was plentiful, but there was no evidence of the chief’s son. The people found some things of the son—a bow, a few broken arrows, his medicine bag, a moccasin, his lance sticking out the side of a cow—but nothing of the son himself. His body had been trampled into the ground leaving nothing to offer up to the God.

As the noise surrounding the butchering ended, as the meat was being taken to the village, each person knew that though the hunt had been successful, the feast to follow would be a somber affair. Because of the tragedy, the people left the one cow alone not knowing what to do while the chief grieved the loss of his son.

Finally, the only people left at the hunting site were the chief and three women waiting to learn the chief’s wishes about the dead cow. While the chief was saying that he thought the last cow should remain as a gift to the wolves because the cow was responsible for the son’s death, they heard a noise from the ground. They were filled with fear and trembling when they heard the voice of the chief’s son crying out to them. The chief moved forward to better hear what his son was saying and then began to laugh. The chief had heard, “Is anybody out there? Can someone pull this buffalo off me?” With shouts of joy and laughter, the chief and the women quickly began butchering the cow. They found the chief’s son relatively undamaged underneath.

That night, after giving the meat from the holy buffalo to the widows and the elderly, as a celebration of his son’s life and the gift that God had given him in preserving his son’s life, the chief began to give away everything he owned. He gave away all his horses, all the meat his wife had prepared for the winter and the pots his wife cooked with, his weapons, the buffalo robes in his teepee, even his teepee. Finally, he gave away the clothes he was wearing. All of his wealth and cherished possessions were gone.

The people said to one another, “Our chief is the wealthiest man in the world. Look at all he has given to us. Look how he sits there by the fire. With his wealth and his generosity, he has made all of us rich too.”

Later, one of the people came to the chief with a gift. “Take this shirt, my chief. It is too big for me, and it will protect you from the cold.” Another came and said, “These leggings are too long for me. Please take them so that your legs can be protected.” Still another came offering a pair of moccasins, “I have more moccasins than I can wear. Please accept these inferior moccasins to wear until you can find better.” A blanket was presented. A back rest appeared to give him ease. And so, the evening went until all that the chief had given away had been restored to him.

And then, the whole village began the celebration. The drummers drummed. There were songs of thanks for the Chief’s son, the abundance of the world, and the protection of the buffalo. There was a new dance that brought delight in the people, a dance that was remembered for many years to come celebrating the day when the chief’s son had died and how the great buffalo returned him to his father when all had lost hope. They ate, sang songs, and danced, celebrating the life given back to them and the abundance of the food they had for that winter. They ate and sang and danced celebrating that they were the wealthiest people in the world. Everyone had enough, and enough to give away.

HANGING THE TRIM

As we, with the rich man, consider the immensity of all we have, let us hold what we have loosely enough that all might share the abundance of our riches.

Happy Indigenous People’s Day this coming week.

ROME IMPROVEMENT 10/03/2021

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

SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 10:1-16

Last week we explored amputation as a means of maintaining the healthy corporate body of Christ and ended with being salty and the admonition to be at peace with one another. After saying this, Jesus and the disciples left there and headed out for Judea beyond the Jordan. Here, people gather, and Jesus begins to teach them.

Into this tranquil place of being at peace with one another, the Pharisees come to test Jesus, not about being at peace but being at odds with one another. It is not a time of building up the body of Christ community but breaking it down.

“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” This question cannot, nor should it be, considered without considering the long history of marriage and divorce that precede it. Although marriage and divorce can describe the relationship between two people, they also describe the relationship between God and Israel/Judea. Divorce more often refers to God’s people committing adultery by worshipping other gods than the personal relationship between a husband and a wife.

Nor should this passage be considered without the blessing of the children at the end. The Pharisees’ question, the disciple-teaching in the house, and the women bringing children are all of a piece.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

And from there he got up and went into the territories of Judea beyond the Jordan. And gathered around him again the crowd/multitude and as he had custom, he was teaching them.

And having come, Pharisees, they were asking on him whether it is possible for a man, a woman to loose off? They were trying to discover what good or evil was in him. And [Jesus] answered said to them, “What to you commanded Moses?” But the ones said, “Moses allowed a small book of standoff to write.” But Jesus said to them “For your sclerotic heart he wrote to you this command. But, from the beginning of creation male and female he made them. On account of this, man will leave behind the father and the mother of him, and he will be joined toward the woman of him, and will be the two into the flesh, one. So, no longer they are two but are one flesh. What then God yoked together, let man not separate/sever.

And into the house, again, the disciples about this were asking him. And he says to them “Who might loose off the woman of him and might marry another, he commits adultery on her [his new wife]. And when she, having loosed off the man of her, and might marry another, she commits adultery [against herself and involves the man as well].

And they were bringing to him little children in order that him might touch, but the disciples shamed them. But Jesus, having seen, indignant against what is wrong, said to them, “Allow the little children to come to me. Don’t get up in their faces [now]. For such ones is the kingdom of God. Truly I tell you who might not receive the kingdom of God as a small child NOT will go into it. And having hugged them [to himself] he was blessing them, placing his hands on them.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

The Pharisees’ question is not a “just thought of this to trip you up” type of question. It had long been, and continues to be, debated. The question that Jesus asks in response to the Pharisees, “What did Moses command you?”, introduces us to that discussion and invites us to also consider the issue of divorce in the context of all of Scripture, not just the writings of Moses but also Paul’s writings and the context of Mark’s Gospel.  John the Baptist criticized Herod’s divorce and marriage to Herodias, resulting in his arrest and beheading.

The question also reminds us of God’s chesed—God’s grace, mercy, loving-kindness, especially as demonstrated in God’s steadfastness in relation throughout history with Israel/Judah and the Jewish people, including the liberation story of the Exodus and Jeremiah’s report of God’s words in 31:31-34,

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, a covenant that they broke though I was their husband, says the Lord, but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord.’ For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.”

As last week’s text of amputation and enucleation is more about the corporate body of Christ, so now, the issue of divorce/putting off is less about the individual marital relationship than the relationship of God/Christ and the worshipping community/following Jesus. In the context of holiness (Romans 11), the root and the tree, the branches that have fallen off, the grafting of wild branches, and the hope of the fallen branches of again being grafted into the tree/cross and the Holy Root of faith—Christ—one comes to see that reconciliation of the lost limbs and relationship continues to be a possibility in the relational body of Christ even when it is not possible in our personal relationships (cf. Deut. 24).

The disciples, suspecting that the conversation about divorce is much more than they are understanding, wait until they get into the house to learn more, but find that they are not able to make the jump from putting off a woman personally to corporate separation from God and the adultery of society.

Into this mix come women carrying the ultimate oneness of two becoming one flesh, little ones. Not understanding the relationship language of Jesus’ teaching, living in a world where women and children are of less value, possibly frustrated by their own obtuseness, the disciples shame the women telling them they have no right to bother Jesus.

Jesus, indignant, having seen the actions of the disciples, reacts to what is wrong. As the Pharisees test/pressure/seek to know “good” from “evil”, so now, Jesus sees the wrong/evil of the disciples and reaches out to bless and touch the little ones/children in order to affirm the oneness of God’s making.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

As I translated the passage this week, I was taken by the action of the disciples as they run into the house. How many times have we seen the disciples wait until they were in the house before they ask Jesus, “Just what the heck were you talking about out there?” Running into the house for explanation goes all the way back to the Parable of the Sower in chapter 4.

While I laughed at the almost cartoonish movement of the disciples, I realized we do just that today. We live in a world we do not always understand. We believe, but do not always understand, God’s presence and activity in history. Thus, we run into our worship houses for affirmation and understanding.

Like the first disciples of Jesus, we find that sometimes we do not understand God’s activity in our lives any better at the end of worship than we did before we came. We leave our worship spaces thinking that we have some authority over God’s capacity and willingness to welcome others. We find many ways to put things in the way of others to come to Jesus.

•           You have to be baptized in order to come the Lord’s table.
•             You must be confirmed to be a real member.
•             If you aren’t [denomination], you really don’t understand what God is all about.

We get so involved in building up our fortress defenses that we cannot anticipate God’s delight in claiming the goodness of oneness.

As I had the image of the disciples running into the house near the beginning of this text, at the end, I had this image of Jesus stooping down and rolling on the ground with the children piling in on top of him. As they rolled on the ground, I could hear Jesus laughing and welcoming the children. I felt him tousling their hair. I heard him thanking them for lightening up his day.

Then I wondered, “What does it mean to become one in the body of Christ? What does the oneness of that union look like in the world? What is the peace we can speak of in this divorced, broken family world we live in? What does blessing feel like today? Do we need to run back into the house to learn more?”

HANGING THE TRIM

We run to rooms to understand

And work each day by Your command

Then spread those rules throughout the land

To find our house on sinking sand.

Instead of peace, we rancor build

With worldly thoughts and dreams self-willed.

We plant our seeds in soil we’ve tilled,

Forgetting that by You we’re filled

To spread your hope throughout the land,

Restored and blessed by Your own hand.