ROME IMPROVEMENT 09/12/2021

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SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 8:31-9:1

Following the vision of the blind seer where the fullness of God’s reign is seen as people, living crosses, walking around, and following Peter speaking Jesus to be the Christ, the title given to Jesus in Mark 1:1 (“In the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”), this week, Jesus gives instruction on what discipleship looks like. And it looks a lot like the vision of the blind seer with the sufferings that might accompany radical self-giving living.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

And [Jesus] began to teach [the disciples] that it is necessary that the Son of Man to suffer many [things], and to be rejected by the elders and the high priests and the scribes and to be killed and after three days to rise/stand up and in boldness the word he was speaking.

And having taken [Jesus] to him [Peter], Peter began to denounce him. But having turned and having seen his disciples, [Jesus] denounced Peter, and he says, “Go away [to the back of the class], Satan, because you are not devoted to the things of God but the things of men.”

And having called before [him] the crowd with his disciples, he said to them, “If some want to follow after me, let [them] deny themselves thoroughly and let [them] lift up the cross of him and let [them] follow after me.

For…

Whoever would wish/desire to save [their] true life, [they] will lose it. But [those] who wish/desire to lose [their own] true life [or die] on account of me and the Good News, [they] will save it.

What benefits the [one] to gain the whole world and to lose [one’s] true life?

What might anyone exchange for their true life? 

Whoever might be ashamed of me and my words, in this adulterous and sinning generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of [that one] whenever he comes in the splendor of his father and with the holy messengers.

And [Jesus] was saying to them, “Truly I say to you that there are some here of the ones having stood who would not taste death until they would see the reign of God having come with power (“fully engaged”).

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

Again, how you read a passage determines the outcome. If this is a pre-crucifixion narrative, then the necessity of suffering “many things” falls solely on Jesus. As such, it is the first of three prophetic statements of the crucifixion cross to come in the gospel of Mark.

Like history, most prophetic writing is completed after the event has taken place. It’s similar to setting the calendar back in your computer in order to recover a setting or document that inadvertently was deleted or like digging through the files of the Wayback Machine to hold politicians accountable for what they believe has been erased. By doing this, it is possible to accurately report the past with certain understanding of the future. It is always possible to have predicted with accuracy the events of the future of today when you actually write about them in the present.

Jesus begins to teach his disciples that it is necessary for the Son of Man suffer many things. We know this is true because, since we are with the disciples in Galilee where we have been promised that Jesus would meet us, we already know that the crucifixion has occurred and that the tomb is empty.

Thus, as a post-resurrection account, these words take on new meaning for us. We know that Jesus has just been named by Peter as the Christ/Messiah and that Jesus has shifted the title from Christ (anointed one) to Son of Man. This descriptor is understood from the Old Testament (cf. Daniel) and leads to the title of Messiah.

In addition, Mark has another reason for using “Son of Man” at this point. Although it claims Jesus’ true humanity and points to the Messianic promise, “Son of Man” also claims all of humanity. We might translate this passage as, “[Jesus] began to teach [his disciples] that it is necessary that the Children of Humanity [must] suffer many things.”

From the perspective of Mark, the suffering of Jesus has become the reality of the persecuted church of his time. It is a reality they endure because of their confidence in the empty tomb. It is possible to speak of the rejection of the elders, the chief priest, and the scribes, because the temple is destroyed. As such, the elders, etc. are not so much those notable for crucifying Jesus as they are the Roman authorities persecuting the early church.

Consider the times. Claudius evicted the Christians from Rome in 49; Paul writes his letter to the underground Christian community sometime in the 50’s; the Christians are blamed for the burning of Rome in 64; and the war with Rome has resulted in the temple being destroyed. The Christian community is right in the middle of much of the conflict going on in the world. All before the gospel of Mark is written.

As a result of the siege of Jerusalem, the early church was impoverished and starving. By some accounts, only Paul’s Macedonian collection and other relief efforts made it possible for the Church in Jerusalem to survive at all (Romans 15:26 and 2 Corinthians 8). These people knew suffering was necessary; cross-lifting was part of discipleship as they continued to bear witness to the resurrection-offered hope amid intolerable life conditions.

This post-resurrection image of the cross is not the defeated crucifixion cross of death. This is the life-giving, “like trees walking around”, resurrection cross. The Christian mindset by the time Mark writes his Gospel, although it includes suffering, self-denial, and cross-lifting as part of following Jesus, already recognizes “for the death [Christ] died, he died to sin once for all” (Romans 6). Therefore, for the disciples and us to die in persecution does not save, but the discipleship witness in death testifies to confidence in the power of the risen one—the one who has already suffered many things, died, and is risen from the tomb.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

In the first century worldview, honor and shame balanced one another. There was a finite amount of honor. If one were to gain honor, then someone else had to suffer shame. Therefore, the words, “deny oneself, take up your cross, and follow”, was a radical concept. The idea that those with honor would intentionally give that honor away was beyond thinking unless one could realistically expect future benefit, like favors owed.

Although this worldview is not as common in our culture, we still see political favors given with the expectation that future favors will be returned. Therefore, Jesus’ words of self-denial and a cross-lifting way of living continue to challenge us. Indeed, the Children of Humanity must continue to suffer as long as we put our own needs first.

Self-denial is not for the sake of self-improvement, pious status, or self-righteousness. Self-denial is for the sake or welfare of the neighbor. It is a way of living that lifts the needs of those around us to being as, or more, important than our own.

For example, I hate wearing masks. I am vaccinated and therefore have a high degree of resistance to the Delta COVID virus. Yet, knowing I am relatively safe, I continue to wear masks because I can potentially transmit the virus to others who are unvaccinated and remain more vulnerable. In this simple way, we deny ourselves for the benefit of those around us.

But self-denial is not enough to follow Jesus. An article on ψυχή, psuche, (true life) in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (vol. 9, p. 643) considers Mark’s addition of the words “on account of me and the good news” to earlier known sayings. Doing so indicates “only orientation to Jesus and not to the [self] can lead to this [true life]”.

Consider the act of fasting. For many, fasting is, in fact, persistent hunger. It is not voluntary or spiritual. It is a way of life. For these people, they simply don’t have enough food. When fasting is chosen, it may be a beneficial practice for health, or it may be part of spiritual discipline which is undertaken to make food available to those who did not have food. If the food we do not consume does not benefit those who need food, then the fasting we do is self-serving and not an act of denying oneself “on account of me and the good news”.

I once asked a friend who was giving up chocolate for Lent, “For the benefit of whom?”

She looked at me quizzically and finally answered, “I guess for the benefit of my wallet and the ten pounds I want to lose.”

I suggested she give the money she saved from not buying chocolate to something like the Heifer Project or ELCA Good Gifts. She said, “But then I wouldn’t be saving anything.”

Giving up chocolate for her, even during Lent, was not a true spiritual practice because such practices need direction, and the direction is always out into the world. If our spiritual practices don’t benefit others, they are simply self-improvement. Self-improvement has its place, but it is not the cross-lifting, tree-walking-around discipleship that Jesus speaks of or that the blind man saw.

Many people do model this self-denying, cross-lifting discipleship. We recognize them and even reward their behavior with medals and honors—Gandhi, Martin Luther King jr., Mother Teresa, William Barber, and others. Although we admire them, we rarely let their examples change our lives. In part, this is because we live in a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” world. We are focused on self-improvement, self-advancement, and self-satisfaction.

But when we are able to deny ourselves for the sake of Christ and for the Good News, we recognize the importance of denying self and cross-lifting. Seeing the possibility of what the world might be, we stand on the threshold of the kingdom of God coming in power. We have a moment when we stand with Christ and those who exemplify self-denial in order to bring good news to the oppressed, the poor, and others who are marginalized and, in that moment, we can believe that the reign of God is “engaged”. This indeed is not a distant, someday vision. It is present to us today.

HANGING THE TRIM

The hope and the promise of the resurrection cross, walking-around-tree living, is found in denying oneself for Christ and the Good News brought to others. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I have a dream …”. John Lewis encourages us all to, “Get into good trouble.” How will we speak that Good News into being today?

ROME IMPROVEMENT 9/5/2021

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SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 8:22-30

This week’s Gospel reading addresses:

§              What does life in the newly “engaged” reign of God look like?

§              Who does the world believe Jesus to be?

§              Who do the disciples claim Jesus to be?

§              Who do we say Jesus is?

 Mark describes how the disciples and Jesus, after taking the detoured-, side-trip-, or maybe, in my family’s vernacular, “the scenic route”-cruise begun in chapter six, finally arrive in Bethsaida which means the house of fish, maybe even the house of The Fish (IXTHUS). Here the disciples are challenged to claim Jesus as more than a leader of old after a vision of the reign of God is revealed.

 

READING THE BLUEPRINT

And they come to Bethsaida, and they carry/bring to [Jesus] a blind [person] and call upon [Jesus] in order that him [Jesus] might touch. And having taken on the hand of the blind [person] [Jesus] brought/led him out, out of the village, and having spit into the eyes of him, having set on the hands to him, [Jesus] was asking on him, “Whether anything you see?”

And having looked up, he was saying, “I see the [people]e, but I see them as trees walking around.” And again, [Jesus] set upon the hands upon the eyes of him and looked into them, and he was returned to wholeness, and he discerned from the far away to the dawn of everything.

And [Jesus] delegated/sent him into the house of him saying, “Not into the village you might go in.”

And Jesus and his disciples went on into the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way, he was asking on his disciples, saying “[Who] do the people me speak to be?”

The ones but said to him saying, “John the Baptizer, and others Elijah, others one of the prophets.”

And [Jesus] was asking on them, “But you, who do you speak me to be?”

Answering, Peter says to him, “You are the Christ!”

And he scolded them [so] that to no one they might say about him.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

This is the fourth time that we have seen people carry/bear/bring people to Jesus. Earlier, some carry the paralytic; in Gennesaret, the diseased and the broken; in Sidon, the deaf man; and now they carry a blind man. I have heard sermons which claimed that someone carries, bears, or brings the lame, the diseased, the deaf, and the blind to Jesus because they are unable to come on their own accord.

Someone, we, the able-bodied, are burdened with caring for the unclean of the world. It is “our Christian responsibility” to bring “them” to Jesus. Within the “disabled” communities, this attitude continues to rankle. It is not simply pejorative; it is incorrect.

In these accounts, Mark demonstrates how the disabled reveal God’s activity in all lives and how their inclusion can repair and bring wholeness to the world. Instead of needing to bring the lame, the diseased, the deaf, and the blind to Jesus for them to know wholeness, Mark has them brought to Jesus to indicate that these people may have already known wholeness in their lives and that the wholeness that Jesus gives is beyond the simple benefit of the “disabled”. It is for the wholeness of the world.

More radically, in carrying/bearing/bringing the disabled, the crowds put Jesus to the test or on trial. He continually fails this worldly test as he takes their uncleanness unto himself when he touches the unclean and is touched by them and when he eats with tax collectors and feeds the crowds without discrimination.

The crowd also carried/took Jesus from the Garden of Gethsemane to be tried, where they carried/brought charges against him, and carrying the cross to him, they crucified him (Mark 14-15). As a pre-crucifixion narrative, the trial is yet to come, but, as a post-resurrection narrative, we are cautioned against the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod. (See Rome Improvement, 8/22/2021.) Every success of the risen Christ is a source of condemning conflict for the pre-crucified Jesus.

Wholeness and healing/salvation as described here goes far beyond the healings that many commentaries and preachers dwell on. Instead of Jesus’ gift of salvation wholeness being for the “defective” “dis-eased”, his gift of salvation wholeness comes to all. Jesus’ healing/salvation needs the “disabled” to fully know and proclaim the “engaged” reign of God, then and now, and who Jesus is.

In today’s lesson, the vision of the blind challenges those who would be disciples of Jesus to claim him in new ways—to see people as living crosses walking around, little Christs to one another. Jesus lays his hands on the blind man who then sees into the “telaugos of everything.” Often translated “as seeing all things clearly”, there is more to it.

“Telaugos” is a compound word that comes from “tel” which means “far off, afar, at or to a distance” (cf. telephone, telegraph, television) and “augos” which means “dawn - break of day, brightness, radiance”. After seeing people who look like trees walking around, the blind man sees everything from the very far away to the dawn of everything, the time of creation.

Three weeks ago, when we met the deaf man with a speech impediment, I talked about the amount of water needed for a baptism and noted that when water is not available, spit is sufficient. This week, we again witness Jesus using spit (baptism) to give new vision for the world. The vision of the blind man and the journey into the center of Roman power challenge the disciples and us to proclaim whom we speak Jesus to be and what the “engaged” reign of God looks like.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

If this text is a pre-crucifixion narrative, this image of the people walking around like crosses leads to the crucifixion itself and death. But if this is a post-resurrection account of Jesus, then those walking around crosses become the sign of not only life, but eternal life.

Further, if this is a post-resurrection account, then the activity of the living crosses leads to the vision of God’s eternal plan. “And he saw into the far away to the dawn of everything.” In a dream vision at the end of Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, Adam sees the salvation of the world despite his sin and punishment. Similarly, this blind man sees, not just clearly, but the entire scope of God’s merciful salvation.

This vision is not physical seeing. It is the gift of the blind seer, a well-established trope (character) in classical literature. Some scholars describe this as “the miracle that didn’t work”. In fact, not only did it work, but the miracle worked better than any could have imagined.

This vision of the “fully ‘engaged’ reign of God” precipitates Jesus’ questioning of the disciples, “Who do people speak me to be?” Embedded in this question is the very essence of creation itself. In the beginning, God speaks creation and us into existence. So, “who do the people speak Jesus into being?” Is he a reincarnate leader of the past? Or is he being spoken into a new reality?

Peter’s response is both precious and prescient. “You are the Christ,” the promised one, the risen one whom we have come to see in Galilee. Still, as Peter has answered for himself, the question of “Who do you speak me to be?”, continues on because the “you” is plural. This question hangs in the ethereal realm for all of Jesus’ disciples to answer.

Do we speak Jesus into being as the risen Christ who leads us into the future? Or is Jesus one of those of the past, reincarnated in order to lead us into some glorified “dead” garden time?

Do we see people walking around like crosses of death and persecution? Or are these, resurrection crosses of new life?

When we look into the far away places to the dawn of everything, do we see apocalyptic death and destruction? Or do we see hope, promise, and life?

HANGING THE TRIM

“If you are going to follow Jesus, you better look good on wood.” So said Daniel Berrigan, SJ, Christian pacifist.  Raised up in the body of the risen Christ, marked by the cross, and sealed by the Holy Spirit forever, let us go out looking good on wood. 

ROME IMPROVEMENT 8/29/2021

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SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 8:11-21

Having gotten into the boat with his [Jesus’} disciples, they land at Dalmanutha where the Pharisees are ready to argue with him. Mark is writing after the temple was destroyed and the Pharisees were no longer organized, and he continues to use the terms “Pharisees” and “scribes” as narrative types rather than actual people. They are not, so much, defenders of Judaism as they are representations of piety standards that we too often repeat. The Pharisees and the scribes demonstrate how willing people are to put roadblocks in the way of those who would have a relationship with Jesus and one another in this new resurrection living.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

Then went out the Pharisees and began to dispute with [Jesus] seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And having groaned exasperatedly in His spirit, He says, “Why does this generation seek sign? Truly I say to you, ‘Not will be given a sign to this generation.’” And having sent them off again, having embarked, He departed to the across (place).

And they forgot to take bread except they had not but one bread with them in the boat. And He was cautioning them, saying, “Watch out! Beware, from the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.

And they were discussing with one another concerning the bread they did not have. And having known, [Jesus] says to them, “Why do you try to reason about bread you do not have? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Have your hearts been hardened? And having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? When the five loaves I broke into the five thousand, how many wicker serving baskets full of fragments did you raise up?” They say to him, “Twelve.”

“When also the seven into the four thousand?” How many large, mat container baskets full of fragments did you lift up?” And they say, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Not yet do you understand?” 

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

The issue of the placement of this passage in time is crucial. If the argument/dispute with the Pharisees concerning a sign leads to the cross, then the statement, “no sign will be given to this generation,” contradicts almost everything immediately preceding the dispute and nullifies almost everything that is to come. After all, besides teachings and signs, what has Jesus been doing?

If instead this dispute is a post-resurrection narrative, the request of the Pharisees for a sign, as they continue to hold the line on their own particular piety, is just as ridiculous. The future sign that is requested by the Pharisees is unnecessary—the presence of the resurrected Christ stands before them. Jesus is truly present to the Pharisees of the time just as Christ is truly present to us in the Eucharist. No sign beyond the possibility of new life in the present reign of God will be given.

Unfortunately, although understandable, their need to be in control of how the reign of God is lived out takes precedence over God’s expansive salvation abundance. Indeed, when practices become more important than our relationship with God, those practices must be examined. When the power of government and the prominence of person becomes more important than our relationship with God, then governance and leadership need to be examined.

The argument of the Pharisees echoes down through time to us and reminds us of the many things we, as Church, do and say that restricts the image of God or demands that God be subject to us. We want to believe, but we want to believe on our terms. No wonder Jesus groans in exasperation. Is there a sign for the world greater than the empty tomb?

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

Frequently when I am listening to a radio program, a song, a talking book, or it even may be a time of silence, I might say something like, “You know, that wasn’t really fair.” Or maybe, “I wonder why they thought that would work?”

Some tangential thought has leaped into my head. It seems logical to me to connect it with what I was pondering and to share my conclusions. I have come to realize that I can have long thought processes that take place between a statement in the past and when I have something to say about it. Sometimes, a half hour (or more) can elapse between the inspiring moment and the thought process conclusion.

Thinking those around me are with me, I may just make the statement expecting everyone to follow. Over the years, Susan has gotten better at recounting conversations and asking, “Are you talking about _____ from yesterday?” Or if confused, she may respond with, “I think you left something out.”

Another situation sometimes occurs when we go out to eat. If there is too much to eat, we ask for a box. We put the leftovers in the box. We pay our bill and go home. As we get out of the car, one of us will say, “Don’t forget the leftovers.” Only to discover that each of us thought that the other had them, and the box is still sitting on the table.

If this is a pre-resurrection account, how can the disciples come this far in the Gospel of Mark and remain intransigently clueless? However, if this is a post-resurrection narrative, then the presence of the bodily resurrected Jesus is understandably challenging. So, when Jesus, considering the future of the disciples, blurts out an apparent non sequitur, “Beware, from the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod,” one can almost hear the gears grinding, “What the heck is he talking about? Do you think that he noticed we forgot the leftovers on the table? Should we go back?”

In this little boat in the middle of the sea of Galilee, the abundance of God’s care for creation comes into play. We are reminded of the Israelites in the middle of the wilderness grumbling that they should have stayed in Egypt rather than venturing out to follow God. The manna that comes down to them from heaven is enough to satisfy for the day but storing some for the next day leads to rot. We are challenged to wonder at the power of the world that can seduce us from living in the reign of God.

As we have been working our way through Mark’s Gospel, the question of who this Jesus is and what difference that makes in our lives has become progressively more difficult. Will we be shaped by the newly “engaged” reign of God? Or will we continue to be shaped by the world? Or will we recognize that living in faith is both?

If we are going to meet Jesus, we must go into Galilee, into the uncertain world outside of our comfort zones. Each step along the way of meeting Jesus in Galilee calls us to determine whether the “engagement” of God’s reign is real. Does the bodily resurrected Jesus resonate with us? Or will we think that it is a good idea, but we need proof. Will we be argumentative Pharisees, power-seeking Herodians, or will we be disciples who, having left the leftovers on the table, are able to trust in the great abundance that God lays before us?

Beginning with the healings of the leper, the man with the withered hand, and Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, which are amazing, but not shocking, we are learning what it means to be a disciple. The Pharisees and scribes are unhappy but not overly concerned. But Jesus’ time with the Gerasene man among the tombs begins to pinch a little when the locals tell Jesus to leave.

Jesus’s interactions with Jairus’ daughter and the woman with the hemorrhage begin the conversation of “Who can raise people from the dead?” Then we are there as Jesus feeds the five and the four thousand in the wilderness and cares for the many diseased and broken of the world at Gennesaret and beyond. Through all this, we continue learning what it means to be a disciple. Is discipleship nothing more than standing around watching someone performing parlor tricks and the magic of God? Or is discipleship the process of internalizing Jesus’ leading and making the works of Jesus our GPS (God’s Purpose of Salvation) the way we will travel?

When Jesus fed the five thousand, how many serving baskets full were “raised” up? (12) When He fed the four thousand, how many large baskets were “raised” up? (7) In the Sinai wilderness, how many days did God’s abundance feed the Israelites? (40 years) If so many were able to be satisfied with so little, can we depend on being fed with one loaf? Is this then an incident of courage on the way to the cross? Or is this a crisis of faith in the presence of the resurrected Jesus?

HANGING THE TRIM

While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, 

gave it  to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”  Then he took a cup, and after 

giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it.  He said to them,

“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.  Truly I tell you,

I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new

in the kingdom of God.” (Mark 14:22-25 NRSV)

 As we have been gathered into one, so now as broken pieces from that abundance, may we go out to feed the world. We are the “basket cases”.

 

 

                                                                                                            

ROME IMPROVEMENT 8/22/2021

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SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 8:1-10

This week we leave the Decapolis and enter a desert place. It has been a long journey and the people are hungry. Before Jesus sends the people back into the world from which they have come, he tells his disciples to feed the people. Again, we witness consternation concerning the number of people and the limited supply of food.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

In those days again, a great crowd being, and not having what they [needed to] eat. Having called the disciples before him, [Jesus] says to them, “I am moved with compassion upon the crowd because already three days they continue with me, and they have not [some] that they might eat. And if I might unbind (dismiss) them [i.e., send them from me] fasting into their house, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away. And his disciples answered him, “From where will anyone here be able to satisfy [with] bread in [this] desert?”

And [Jesus] was asking them, “How many breads have you?” And [the disciples] said, “Seven.” And he passes along the message to the crowd to recline upon the ground. And having seized the seven breads, having given thanks, he broke and kept giving to his disciples in order that they should lay [it] before the crowd. And they set [it] before the crowd. And they had a few small fish. And having blessing them, he said [for] these also to be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they lifted up the excess fragments, seven baskets [large enough to hold a person]. There were four thousand. And he unbound (dismissed) them.

And immediately having got into the boat with his disciples, he came to the parts of Dalmanutha.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

Recently I wrote about the use of wilderness-time and the creation story of Genesis. (See Rome Improvement, July 18, 2021.) The last time Jesus encountered a crowd in the wilderness, five thousand men were fed (Mark 6). Last week we talked about spiritual geography vs actual geography.

This week, without discounting that Jesus made food possible for the crowd in the middle of the desert/wilderness, it is important to consider the use of numbers in describing the crowd, the abundance of the meals, and volume of leftovers.  As we consider the desert story where four thousand are fed, we look at numbers as spiritual symbols vs accounting statistics, as biblical images.

Although there was an understanding of zero, the Western world would not have the zero in mathematics for several hundred years yet. Just keeping track of the everyday things of life become daunting calculations without a zero. When you purchase XII gallons and II quarts, can you say, “XXXVI dollars and XXIV cents more or less?” Or in referring to historical events, did the Roman Empire end in CDLXXVI or XXIVD? Both are proper ways to say 476.

The largest number commonly notated in Roman numerals is MMMCMXCIX, 3999. Although there were some ways of expressing larger numbers, they were not standardized. Usually, numbers of great size were verbally expressed, e.g., four thousand or five thousand. These large numbers are more imaginary or symbols of the infinite than a number that was exact.

The number of people fed this week is 4,000. One way it may have been represented was ĪĪĪĪ, four I’s with a bar drawn over the top. This image mimicked the then current understanding of what the world looked like—four pillars supporting the flat earth over the seas of chaos—or, to me, it looks like an altar/table from which the crowd was fed.

Most commentaries note the parallel structures of the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand. In both accounts, Jesus has compassion on the crowd, the time is late, people need to be fed, scarcity becomes abundance, people are satisfied, and the disciples are sent out on the sea. There are, however, distinct differences between the two that are especially important when looking at them as post-resurrection narratives as I have been doing throughout this series on the Gospel of Mark.

In both meals the people are fed in the place of new creation, the wilderness. The promise of new life is intensified by the description, “The people have been with me three days.”, before this week’s meal. Now, with the work of the new creation “engaged” (See Rome Improvement, June 27, 2021.), Jesus sends the people out. He then gets into the boat and goes to Dalmanutha.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

Although it is difficult to fully appreciate the Feeding of the 4000 without the Feeding of the 5000 because of their parallel structure, this week is not simply fewer people. Understanding the imagery of each number in both stories is crucial to understanding their individual places in Mark’s gospel.

Biblically, the number five, according to Dr. Duane Priebe, was a cosmic number because the cosmos consisted of the sun, the moon, the earth, Jupiter, and Saturn. Mars and Venus were not included because people thought they were stars. Using the word “cosmos” rather than the word “universe” implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity, the opposite of chaos.

This pattern of five shows up in Scripture many times. For instance, there are five books in the Torah or Pentateuch—Genesis through Deuteronomy; we see Moses with two tablets of five commandments each; five kinds of animals were sacrificed—bull, sheep, goat, pigeon, dove; and Jesus bled from five wounds on the Cross.

The two of fish are also significant. The ΙΧΘΥΣ (ichthus) is the acronym of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior. The two might be the two natures of Jesus—truly human and truly divine. Or two might refer to the relationship between heaven and earth, God and humanity, life and eternal life.

In the abundance of this cosmic meal, twelve baskets of excess are gathered. References that would have been familiar to the first hearers of Mark’s Gospel include the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve apostles who will lead the new tribes of Christianity, and the number of signs of the zodiac. Yes, the depiction of the Hellenistic/Western zodiac was often included within a synagogue. The number twelve is also a number of “abundance” since the sum of its aliquots, the numbers other than itself that divide another number evenly, gives a result higher than 12: 1+2+3+4+6=16.

To summarize the cosmic meal of the five thousand: it is a sign of the transfer of authority from the authority of the twelve tribes to the twelve disciples as the new leaders of God’s people and the meal of celebration that follows the disciples’ first foray into ministry and overcoming the distraction of the crowd. Moreover, this meal opens the eucharistic resurrection world to all.

Here, in Mark 8, following the spread of faith from Gennesaret, throughout the region of Tyre, Sidon, and the Decapolis, we witness another meal in the desert. This one has new images. As a post-resurrection account, it is possible for the language to remind us of the meal of Mark 14:22-28, where the bread and the cup are given as a sign of the new covenant.

Now we see this meal is not about cosmic expanses but of new creation itself. “He took the seven loaves, gave thanks (the word is “eucharist”), broke them, gave them to the disciples to set before the people.” When feeding the five thousand, Jesus’ compassion is because the people are aimless, “They are like sheep without a shepherd”. Now his compassion is for people who have been with him for “three days” (the time from Jesus’ crucifixion to the resurrection).

Although this three-day reference may point ahead to the resurrection in a pre-crucifixion narrative, in a post-resurrection narrative, the three days claims the bodily resurrection as a reality. The early Church fasted from the cross to the resurrection, from Good Friday to Easter morn. No wonder the people were hungry. The feeding of the four thousand then, leads us into the new creation world and the possibilities opened to us in this “engaged” eucharistic reign of God.

Again, the symbolic numbers inform our understanding. In the image of four thousand (the four I’s, or pillars, supporting the table-top bar across the top), we are presented with the world of the new creation of the reign of God with Jesus, the ΙΧΘΥΣ, the fish, presiding at the altar. No longer is he the sacrifice on the altar but the one who has passed from the place of death into the world of eternal life.

This meal of new creation is given to feed and satisfy them all. The seven loaves easily represent the seven days of creation. The ΙΧΘΥΣ is Christ himself; then the few small fish, the disciples, are those who bear witness to Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior and now live in Christ, those who have traveled from that place of not being in the body of Christ, through the waters of baptism, those waters of death that lead to resurrection in Christ. In Luther’s words we are to be “little Christs” to our neighbors, a few small fish within the ΙΧΘΥΣ.

Lastly, while the description of the excess of the meal of the four thousand at first appears to be less than the excess from the meal of the five thousand, the difference between the type of baskets used in each is significant. The twelve baskets of the five thousand are serving baskets—an important image for the impending work of the disciples and for the Church.

But the baskets of the four thousand are very large baskets. They were used by fishermen to keep the catch. Fish were caught in nets; then they were put into these baskets which were kept in the water. They were hoisted from the water when the fishing was done.

This same basket is large enough to hold a man. In Acts 9:25, the followers of Saul, soon to be Paul, lowered him over the wall of the city to safety in one of these baskets. The basket for fish becomes the basket of man. Jesus’ promise to make the disciples fish for people is decisively heard differently when this is a post-resurrection account.

In summary, the meal of the four thousand again gathers excess, an abundance, but now it is of the new creation in Christ for the sake of the world. It is a fitting conclusion to the journey we have taken with the risen Christ. We have traveled from the restored garden of Gennesaret where wholeness is brought to the diseased and the broken; to Tyre, where the unclean spirits are cast out; to Sidon, where the deaf man, baptized with Jesus’ spit, is able to hear God’s word and speak it plainly; to this place of new creation. Unlike the earlier meal where Jesus dismisses the people with a farewell, here in the desert place, Jesus sends them.

HANGING THE TRIM

In this detoured journey across the sea to Bethsaida, there is liturgical movement. The people, who gather along the way and in the marketplace, there gain new identity. The good news is spoken to a woman of faith; a man hears the word of God for the first time and is baptized; and the community is gathered for the meal. Jesus sends the people out and one is almost prepared to hear, “Go in peace. Serve the Lord.” Then the Word of God gets into the boat/ark with his disciples and journeys to the place of Dalmanutha (a place of uncertain meaning). Thanks be to God.

ROME IMPROVEMENT 8/15/2021

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SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 7:31-37

Although many scholars continue to follow Jesus’ journey in Mark on a map, some believe that Mark’s geography is more spiritual than it is real. I agree that Mark is more concerned with proclaiming the Good News than he is about the exact geographic movements of Jesus. I have already pointed out the uneven number of crossings of the Sea of Galilee Jesus and the disciples undertake. (See Rome Improvement, June 27, 2021.) More recently, we have discovered Jesus taking a detour on his way to Bethsaida. (See Rome Improvement, July 25, 2021.)  

When Mark tells the story of Jesus, he not only speaks of Jesus’ lifetime; Mark also reveals the spread of the Good News along the Mediterranean coast during his own lifetime. It is important to remember that he is not trying to get us “to the cross”. Mark is always leading us to encounter Christ where he has promised to be—in Galilee (and beyond).

If Mark’s Gospel is only speaking of Jesus in a way that leads him to the cross and his resurrection, then his account of those who embraced the resurrection creates a narrative problem: why does Jesus take this detour. But, if this is an account that proclaims the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, then, although the disciples are confused and not able to embrace the resurrected Jesus, Mark gets to show us how this Good News begins its spread throughout the world.

Tyre, one of the first cities to embrace Christianity, was particularly ready to accept the resurrection as a fact. In Greek mythology, the king’s daughter, Europa, was kidnapped. Her brothers went out into the world searching for her. They were well intentioned, but not overly diligent. Each of them eventually gave up the search, settling in another land, which was then named after them. One of her brothers, Phoenix, was consumed by fire and rose from the ashes. The land named for him was—wait for it—Phoenicia.

Melqart, identified with Hercules in Greek mythology, was the Phoenician protectorate god of Tyre. Each year, Carthaginians and Tyrians would come together to celebrate the resurrection of Melqart in a festival referred to as ‘the egersis’. An effigy of him, was placed on a raft, and ritually burnt as it was sent out into the Mediterranean. Revived by the smoke, Melqart was reborn and returned to live in his temple in Tyre for another year.

So, when the Tyrians heard of Jesus, with the cross and his resurrection, they were ready to embrace Christianity. This is said to have happened shortly after Stephen was stoned. Paul, or another Christian who has remained nameless throughout the ages, brought the news of Jesus’ resurrection. I believe that Mark reports this spread of early Christianity through this account of the journey Jesus takes into the world beyond Galilee. As part of the journey, we meet the deaf man this week.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

And again, having gone out from the territories of Tyre, [Jesus] went through Sidon into the sea of Galilee up the middle of the Decapolis. And they carry to him deaf [man] and [who] speaks with difficulty [stutter, stammer]. They call upon him in the name of God in order to set on him the hand. And having taken him back from the crowd apart by himself, [Jesus] cast/threw his fingers into the ears of him, and having spit, he touched the tongue of him.

And having looked up into the heaven, he sighed [prayed inarticulately], and says to him, “Ephphatha”, that is, be opened completely. And were opened to him the hearings, and immediately was loosed from the chain/bond of his tongue, and he was speaking straightly. And he commanded them in order that to no one they should tell. But, as much as he was commanding them, the more excessively they were proclaiming. And beyond measure they were overwhelmed, saying, “All he has done well. The deaf he makes to hear and those with difficulty speaking to speak.”

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

I think that it is worth pausing here to remember that Gospel of Mark begins with the opening words of Genesis, “In the beginning of.” While the genitive of time is left open for creation in Genesis, Mark fills it with “the Good News of Jesus Christ”. The goodness of creation is transferred to the goodness of Jesus.

As creation is recounted in Genesis, so now Mark tells us that a new creation is coming into being. This new creation includes the reconciled restored reign of God. As Adam and Eve are barred from the garden in Genesis, the resurrected Jesus opens Gennesaret (garden of the prince). As Adam and Eve go out into a broken world, Jesus brings new wholeness there to those whom the people lay before him. As Adam and Eve learn of the unclean world, Jesus cleanses the daughter with an unclean spirit. As the world is unable or unwilling to hear God’s word of hope or speak God’s care and concern for all of creation, Jesus comes to Sidon where he speaks and acts in ways that the deaf can hear and then plainly speak of God’s caring for us.

As Jesus fed the five thousand with two fish and then sent the disciples to Bethsaida, house of fish, now we find ourselves with Jesus at the gentile city of Sidon (place of fish). It is also one of the stops Paul makes along the way to his trial with Agrippa (Acts 27). Coincidently, Paul encounters adverse winds following his departure from Sidon. Could this be the mirror image of the adverse wind the disciples encountered?

In this Sidon ichthus place, Jesus meets the man who is deaf and has a speech impediment. Again, Jesus demonstrates the fullness of the active reign of God that is “engaged”, not before the cross, but after the resurrection. If we are to know the Word of God speaking in the active reign of God, then, first thing, we must hear the Word. When the Good News is known, then we must be able to speak the Good News plainly so that others can hear. "They brought to him a deaf man and asked Jesus to lay hands on him,” bless him, speak to him in a way that he could hear. Jesus takes the deaf man to a place apart, and then all of the good stuff begins.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

To travel from Gennesaret to the regions of Tyre, and then to Sidon on the way to the Sea of Galilee back through the middle of the Decapolis, requires the reader/hearer to understand that this is a spiritual journey fraught with trials (impossible tasks). This is not a new theme in Mark. These trials began with the forty days of temptation in the wilderness. In spite of these trials, Jesus continues to reveal the “engaged” reign of God, creating new community in the midst of world division.

We see evidence of newly justified community when Jesus completes the “impossible tasks”—the leper is no longer shunned; the man with the withered hand is welcomed into Sabbath time; a series of events raise the importance of women—Peter’s mother-in-law, Jairus’ daughter, the woman with the hemorrhage, and the Hellenist, Syrophoenician, woman and her daughter. In addition, the disciples encounter two storms on the sea; a man is living among the dead at Gerasa, and the pigs run into the sea; five thousand men are fed, and Jesus heals all those people laid before him.

Through completing these seemingly impossible tasks Jesus creates faith communities. While we are focused on the individual healings, the true healing is brought about in the restorative wholeness to the community. The gifts of the disenfranchised are able to be recognized in the “engaged” reign of God and embraced. There are more trials yet to come, but the reader/hearer of Mark can greet and enter into the journey because we know that the ultimate trial has already been accomplished. The cross is history; the tomb has been opened; life in the presence of the bodily resurrected Christ is here.

The astonishment of the people begins to sound more like incredulous frustration rather than laudatory exclamations. “He does all things well, darn it. Even the deaf are made to hear and those who stammer and stutter, who cannot plainly speak, are able to bear witness to the wholeness known in God’s eternal reign.”

I do not dismiss the healing of the man living with deafness, but the healing of the community is what I believe Mark is trying to emphasize. The man who was thought to be in need of corrective procedure is no longer held as “other” but regarded as being part of the community again. What would our world be like today, if we took the time to communicate in a way that the deaf could hear/understand?

HANGING THE TRIM

Jewish Festivals, Mozeson

Morning blessing

Living God,

Help me always to feel

Like the blind, to see

Like the deaf, to hear

Like the mute, and to love

Like the dying

ROME IMPROVEMENT 8/8/2021

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SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 7:24-30

Following the debate with the Pharisees and the Scribes, Jesus leaves Gennesaret and goes to Tyre. He is still trying to find a place of rest, but he is unable to escape notice. After he has entered a house, immediately, a woman comes and prostrates herself before Jesus begging that the demons leave her daughter.

Is this a faith request, or is this a test? Is this woman a plant, a spy, a provocateur? Or is this woman simply a caring mother who is willing to go to any length to save her daughter?

READING THE BLUEPRINT

Then [Jesus] caused himself to arise and went away to the region of Tyre. Having gone into a house, he was not wanting anyone to know, but he was not able to escape notice. But immediately, a woman, who having heard of him, who had a small daughter having an unclean spirit, came. She prostrated herself before the feet of him. Now the woman was a Hellenist, of Syrophoenician origin. She was asking him that the demon he might throw out of her daughter.

And he said to her, “First allow the children to be satisfied for it is not good to take the bread of the children and to the puppies throw it.”

But she answered, saying to him, “Master, but the puppies under the table eat upon the small crumbs from the small children.”

And he said to her, “Through these words, go off, gone out from your daughter is the demon.”

 And having gone off into her house, she found the little girl [having been caused to take to bed], and the demon gone out.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

Not since the leper in chapter one, has Jesus been alone with the person who seeks healing. Here we hear again that there is a choice to cleanse the unclean. With the leper, we heard, “If you so choose, you can make me clean.” This time, however, the request is less clear.

Jesus and his disciples have been under constant surveillance—in Peter’s mother’s-in-law house, the crowd gathered; also, when Jesus came back home, in the house of Levi the tax collector, near the tombs of Gerasa, at Jairus’ house, in the wilderness, and at Gennesaret. Yet, here, an unnamed woman comes. She is a Hellenist which could mean that she is Greek, a gentile, or one of the diasporic Jews, that is, one of the people who emigrated, or were transported from the Northern Kingdom after it fell to the Syrians.

If, as I suspect, this unnamed woman is a woman of the diaspora, whose family did not return to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile, a woman in the same category as the Samaritan woman in John 4, a woman who might be thought less of because of her life in a country of Israel’s historic enemy, then the attribute of puppy may have something to do with this woman’s status as “unclean”. She and others who were no longer part of the Jerusalem-based, temple-structured Judaism could be thought of as unclean dogs.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

We cannot overlook this woman’s love for her child. The act of bowing before a master is not just an act of obeisance, it is a ritual way of offering one’s life to the person to whom you are bowing. She is, in effect, offering her life for her daughter’s. This is the same posture Jairus uses when he begs for his daughter’s life.

Perhaps because this woman’s bona fides are at least sketchy, so it is that Jesus tests her, saying, “First the children [of Israel] are to be cared for. Their care should not be thrown away to be fought over by puppies.”

When she replies, “But even the puppies get to eat the crumbs that the children spill for them.”, Jesus tells her, “Your daughter has received the crumbs from the table.”

Do we really think that children of old are so different than they are today? I have never liked cauliflower, and the taste and texture of lima beans have never put them at the top of my favorite foods list. So, I was excited when we got a new dog. I quickly learned that if it had gravy on it, Scamper would eat almost anything.

Suddenly cauliflower and lima beans were no problem. Scamper didn’t even mind if the lima beans had gotten into my mouth first. It was amazing how much food could disappear. My sister thought that I was a slob, but I was willing to live with that. Mealtime would come, and. when I sat at the table, the dog’s head would appear between my knees, and a wet muzzle would wait for the largess that fell from the table.

After the feeding of 5,000 men and more, twelve baskets of pieces (crumbs) were gathered up. So now, the woman asks not for everything, but for some of the crumbs—what the children let fall from the table just as the woman with the hemorrhage and the people at Gennesaret wished just to touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment.

As the table of Eucharist is extended for the five thousand and more, so now the crumbs from that table fall for the wholeness of many. This little girl is just the beginning.

HANGING THE TRIM

In the presence of the bodily resurrected Jesus, we recognize that we cannot offer up our lives to save others. Jesus has already done that for us. Therefore, let us be freed from our demons and live.

ROME IMPROVEMENT 8/1/2021

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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

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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

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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.