upside down or right side up?

This is a story about Jesus with what I call the ‘cringe factor’. It makes me a bit queasy too. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, lover of the poor, healer of the sick, comforter of the afflicted, loses it. A temple temper tantrum.

And this makes me cringe a bit because I wonder if we’ve domesticated Jesus. We’ve forgotten that he was a man with a mission he was passionate about. And whatever else we might be in the church, we’re not really big into passion for God’s mission. We’re into being gentle Christians, meek and mild, wave riding not wave making.

If we were, the building would be overflowing and we’d be meeting in malls and coffee shops and halls of justice all over the place…..or something.

Funny thing about passion though. There’s plenty around.

(yoga mat)

My friend Jenny does yoga. She goes several times a week. She tells me there are people there who go every day, and pay big bucks for the privilege of sweating in impossible positions.

All because, she says, it’s become the new church…it centers them, makes them feel good and gives them inspirational messages, and counts as ‘spiritual but not religious’ lifestyle.

This is a culture that seeks personal escape from the toxicity of life, and a soothing of stress. Much as some of us seek from church.

To spend the kind of time and money one does on yoga, from which one gets good benefits, speaks of passion.

To spend the kind of time and money we do on gym memberships, kids’ sports teams, extracurricular activities for children, which may have much more destructive results, speaks of passion.

But faith? Spiritual growth? Church? The Jesus way? Not so much.

I read a letter to the editor recently that said this:

I don’t think most people realize how much their thinking has been influenced by advertising and other media. We have become obsessed (read passionate) with having the latest clothes, toys, tech stuff, etc.

Our values…are upside down. The need to have so much stuff has made us financially insecure at best. Caring for others has been reduced to giving money to charity. Caring for our kids is about giving them stuff and filling their time. (Feb. Sojourners)

So I cringe when I realize how far I – and the institutional church – have come from the passionate enthusiasm of Jesus for the reign of God.

That’s why the Temple temper story makes me cringe.

The temple was the religious institution of its day. And it had lost its central focus. People’s enthusiasm for religion was really for the rituals, the trappings, and the religion – not for the God at its centre.

This is why yoga and the ‘spiritual but not religious’ culture is so alive today—for we—the church-- have become religion, not faith. We’ve become an end in ourselves, the church, and not the means to the end, which is ‘thy kingdom come on earth’

One commentator on this text said that the temple institution had “settled into comfortable behaviours that enabled them to meet institutional goals” (Feasting on the Word) Cringe.

You see the Temple originally was supposed to be about God’s Presence—it was where God lived. It was especially holy as the place you went to be near the Divine Presence, and to get right in your relationship with God. But the trappings –all legitimate and lawful—had become the point instead of the Presence. Instead of becoming an instrument of the good, the institution, then and now, had become the good itself.

as today’s reading from St. Paul comments(I Cor.1:21 we didn’t read), God saw that didn’t work, and had to try something foolish instead—like unleashing the Divine Presence into the world in a human being, Jesus.

And that turns things upside down, like those temple tables, hoping to get the world right side up. Jesus wreaks holy havoc in order to reclaim sacred space.

Where is our sacred space? For sure it can be right here. But if God is unleashed into the world in Jesus, who’s not here, where is the Divine Presence? In “the Body of Christ”. The church. You and me. Us.

WE are the sanctuary of the holy.

As we move into months of discernment and self-examination as a congregation, we need to regain some passion, turn over some tables, get out of our settled comfortable behaviours, and become

God’s sanctuary, not as a building or institution, but as the Divine Presence, unleashed.

It sounds a bit unsettling I know. And I know some of you are cringing because whenever there’s change I hear something like:

My whole life is unsettled and topsy turvy I need the church to be safe and stable…

Right?

But the church is not yoga. It is not just a place to get your needs met.

The church is the body of Christ, a passionate transformative presence….a place to be empowered to meet the needs of an upside down world, and a movement, not an institution….a movement that, like yoga, will make us sweaty and put us in impossible positions and get us passionate and enthusiastic 7 days a week.

if the divine presence is within us, that’s a safe and secure foundation no matter how upside down life gets.

If WE are the sanctuary of the divine presence, that’s the right side up.

Dear Jesus... Dear Peter...

"Dear Jesus... Dear Peter..."

Mark 8:27-38

March 4, 2012

Dear Jesus...

I am writing this letter to inform you that I hereby resign as your disciple. This afternoon’s outburst was too much. And to call me Satan in front of all the others! I’ve had it.

I guess you don’t understand that I care about what happens to you. You're a dreamer. Why you're the type who would go running right to Jerusalem - run right to the gallows. Then where will the Kingdom be? Can't you see you need people like me to look out for you? To protect the interests of our movement?

Just like your telling the rest of us to keep our mouths shut  about the healings and exorcisms you do. People appreciate your humility. I find it one of your more attractive qualities.  Luckily, James and John and I understand it's just your modesty and we spread the word anyway. And keeping us quiet about these astounding things you do is irrelevant anyway. The folks you help are so ecstatic, they blab it all over the place. After all, a blind man goes home and he can see; he's got to give some explanation.

Perhaps what hurt me most this afternoon was that I got no real recognition for having been right about who you are. You are the Christ, the Messiah, aren't you? I'm not at all sure why the idea came to me. Certainly the crazy way you act sometimes  should convince me you're not. But when you confronted us with the question, "Who do you say that I am?" it hit me all of a sudden, with power: "You are the Christ." Why it hadn't struck any of us before is obvious.  You don't act like a Messiah is supposed to act.

You squabble with respectable people and then turn around and make friends with poor folks, and with sinners: con men, prostitutes, unwed mothers, adulterers, scoundrels.

But it did come clear to me today. You are the Messiah.  I know it. It came to me 'out of the blue,' as it were. I still don't understand how it can be. It doesn't make a bit of sense to me, but it's true. I can feel it in my bones.

And then, on the one hand you tell me that I am the rock on which you will build your church, and that you give me the keys to your kingdom, but then you go and say don’t tell anyone you are the Christ. You are too confusing to be a good leader.

And then all this talk about suffering and dying. That's no way for the Christ to talk!  Where's your faith? You tell us to trust God and then you come back at us with all this doom and gloom.

Jesus, you're never going to get anywhere inviting people to carry crosses. You are a visionary, an idealist, and that's great. But you've got to be practical, too. If you're the Messiah, all the more reason to stay away from Jerusalem, at least for the time being. Get some more followers first, then you can deal from a position of strength. 

And you tell me I'm not on the side of God? You're the one who'll go and get the Messiah killed. Well, I don't want any part of it.  I'm through. And you'll lose the rest of the disciples if you keep talking this crucifixion rubbish You'd better remember who your friends are. I'll be gone by the time you read this.

Peter

Peter read through the letter, seeing if he might add anything. He folded it up and left it where he knew Jesus would find it.

Sure enough, as Jesus woke early the next morning for prayer, he found Peter's letter and he began to read. He smiled to himself and then began to write.

Dear Peter,

You write to me saying I don't understand how much you care about what happens to me. But Peter, I do understand that. I see into your heart more clearly than you see into mine. I too, care what happens to me...  too much I care.

Your rebuke of me, to flee my fate of suffering, tempted me, my friend. Just like Satan tempted me in the wilderness as I began my ministry.  I was in danger from your words.

It would be a wonderful thing, would it not, to continue to travel through Galilee together healing the sick and casting out demons. This is a good work we are doing.

But the Son of Man is not called only to this work. A greater work lies ahead. And Peter, I write you honestly, I am able to do this only by the Spirit's strength. Your enticing words make it ever so much more painful.

You write that you want me to give you some assurance that you were correct - that I am the Messiah, the Christ of God. But at the same time, you say you feel it in your bones.  What word of mine could add or take away from this sense within you? You have been with me all this time. What would a mere word from my lips change? You have already received a message from my life and the Spirit has confirmed it.

Your problem is not with what I say or do not say about the Messah, the Christ. This would not put you at ease. Instead your problem lies in what you take the Christ to be. You look for the Messiah, the Christ to be a successful ruler of our nation who will save Israel like King David did.

But the Lord is doing a new thing. In weakness, God will show strength; in suffering, God will prepare love; in shame, God will shine forth in glory. The Son of Man will be crucified, yes. He will not be the first.  He will not be the last. But in that suffering death, God will reach out to suffering humanity, in oneness with them. In the mystery of the cross, God's very self will share the suffering of all victims of crucifixions, of every cruelty and every act of abuse.

I do not think you heard me yesterday when I said, "And after 3 days, the Son of Man will rise again." The crucifixion will not be the end of our story, dear Peter. It will only be the beginning. God cannot be defeated by the evil of the cross. God's victory will be real. The powers of this world will try to convince you that the cross is the power of death, but I tell you , my friend, you will come to see in it,  the power of a love that conquers death. 

The powers of this world try to keep us worrying - fretting about this and that: the strength of our movement, the plans of the religious rulers, whether we have enough bread for supper. The powers of this world try to frighten us with crucifixion and death, thinking they will turn us away from the calling God has for us. And I'll tell you a secret, my friend.  I am frightened. I pray that somehow we will not have to carry this through. It is a frightening thing to face the cross.  But many things in this life are frightening. It is a frightening thing to ask for forgiveness.  It is a frightening thing to come back when you've gone away. Sometimes it is frightening to reach out to help another. It's even frightening to receive help sometimes.

But just as you, Peter, have this sense about who I am, I have this assurance that God will not fail us, now or in Jerusalem. You and I live in a world of fear.  And with good reason. We get hurt.  We have needs that go unmet. You and I have seen the crowds that come to us carrying such a heavy burden of suffering. We know we could so easily be in their place. We know that life is fragile. Living in the midst of such uncertainty, feeling so vulnerable... it can breed in one selfishness, a meanness does it not? Such insecurity keeps us from finding our true selves because we are so busy searching for security. 

Instead, Peter, let us learn to speak of living in the presence of God, rather than in the presence of the world. For when we begin to live in God's presence, we begin to know God's love that transforms the heart, by the Spirit. 

Peter, I trust God because I live in God's presence each moment. I know God's care.  I know God's forgiving love. Only in this way, can I begin to take up my cross. I can give myself for others, because I know that I am God's. I know the Lord will never abandon me.  I know that God will be with me.

I would also like you to be with me, Peter.  But perhaps you cannot come just now. You will have to judge that for yourself. Whether you stay away or return, remember you have a place in my heart. May the peace of God be with you, my friend, however the Spirit leads.

Jesus

Perhaps you find such a letter from Jesus in your own heart. Maybe some part of you has fled from Jesus in anger, or in fear or frustration. Jesus would like you to be with him. Perhaps you feel you cannot be just now. But I tell you today, in Jesus' name, you have a place in Christ’s heart.

May the peace of God be with you, however the Spirit leads.  Amen.

wet, dry, ready

I’ve taken a lot of trips recently. In fact, some have even wondered if I still work here! And each journey has had its own unique qualities (and of course adventures)-- a quick visit to see my dad, a sad one to bury him, another for vacation: from the chills of Scotland to the balmy breezes of the Caribbean, all have involved preparation, good and difficult times, and a primary purpose.

So journeys have been on my mind a lot. And Journey has become a common image for the spiritual life, and particularly for Lent – our midweek suppers are themed around “Journey to Hope”-- so I was intrigued when studying this gospel lesson for the first Sunday in Lent to see the same kind of movement for Jesus that I’ve been experiencing in my recent journeys: preparation, good and difficult times, and a primary purpose. Jesus too was on a journey….

We find ourselves still in the first chapter of Mark, in fact, retracing our steps back several episodes. Will we ever find our way beyond chapter 1, you ask?

Do you remember this baptism text a few weeks ago? Remember your baptism, we said, and many of us wet our hands or heads or lips or hearts as an act of remembering where we’ve come from, remembering that we are claimed as child of God, and remembering we are named as Beloved of God.

Remembering that is important; it’s vital to get wet in the spiritual journey. I have just spent 9 days in an unexpectedly dry place, where there is no natural water on the island and rain is a necessity, not a nuisance, I also read A Long Walk for Water while I was there, so water has been on my mind, and as I read about Jesus’ baptism, and remember my own, I realize just how important getting wet is in the spiritual life, those deep nurturing spiritual moments, not just actual baptisms, for those are the moments that fuel the journey, that prepare us for God’s call on our lives—baptism, and lush, wet moments and seasons of life, are preparation for the journey.

They’re vital because every one of us knows there are also dry times. Jesus was no exception. He has no sooner had this awesome God experience than he finds himself in the desert, hungry, thirsty, and deeply tempted by a life lived apart from his call.

Dry and difficult times happen.

Mark tells us only he was tempted, and wild beasts were there: it’s a jungle out there……corporate life, wild beasts of anxiety, fear, temptation to power, cut corners, lie……

But angels came and ministered to him: I can almost categorically say (almost) that any time I have experienced dry, or tempted, or fearful wild beast times I have also known there are angels….maybe not recognized at the awful time, but there.

From Matthew and Luke we know one other way Jesus dealt with that thirst, that dryness, that temptation, those beasts….

He remembered. He may have remembered his baptism, but he also remembered all he’d learned as a child—he remembered his Bible….not some dusty scroll or book on a shelf, but deeply ingrained, memorized, and lived-out words from the holy writings. He held on to what he’d been taught.

Here’s a challenge for Lent. Memorize a text, one a week, and talk about it with each other, in family or small group or at work…start with one you already know and talk about how it has helped you.

It won’t happen without intentionality, any more than my recent journeys happen accidentally. You need to make it happen.

sometimes there’s an inbuilt temptation with the journey imagery – it can easily be used as an excuse: oh, I’m not very far along, or I’m resting on the journey right now, or I like where I am and don’t need to move on just at the moment. Then, before you know it, you’re in the wilderness and dried up like a prune.

So watch for that temptation, and remember that the key word in Mark’s gospel is “immediately”, and with urgency Jesus is propelled by his baptism into a time of temptation then propelled again out into a hurting world saying, NOW! Time’s up!

As then, so now. People are hurting, fearful, sick, hungry, thirsty, and messed up. It is a jungle out there. Light and LIFE need, to be unleashed on the world immediately. Now. Right now. Said one blogger on this text.

The Jesus journey, then and now is purposeful, like each of my recent travels. Being baptized, having an intentional spiritual life has a point…and it’s not just for our own feel good satisfaction but for doing God’s work! Now. Immediately.

God has a call on your life and mine, a purpose for each of us, and for all of us. At the very least we are ALL called to bring about the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven. That’s what Jesus did…he kept moving, getting the message out that God is here, and God is involved, and the world can be different. LIFE, abundant rich soaking wet lush life is possible. God calls us to live it out! And invite others into it!

Maybe your call is into ordained ministry, maybe to do some pastoral care or visitation, perhaps to share the good news with children in SS and help them memorize stories and texts that will sustain them in their lives, or share your abundance at Covenantor at the Pines Learning Links tutoring programs, perhaps to offer refreshing water of care to someone who’s having a difficult time, or to show by your work ethic how you deal with life’s stress and temptations…perhaps it’s to invite someone out of the dead and dry places of life into what John called the holy reality you find nurtures you here….

What’s your life’s God-purpose?

Be assured, as you seek it and live it, that when we are Wet, we are beloved and called – prepared for the journey

When we are Dry, we are nurtured and fed – on the journey

Then we are Ready to keep growing and moving on, proclaiming and living out the good news that God is here right now, aching to be in relationship with us, actively seeking to help us, like Jesus, to shape the world back into its original God intent.

Wet or dry we must be ready.

Holy Reality

Holy Reality

2/19/2012

Mark 9:2-9

J.W. McNeill

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. (Mark 9: 2-9)

The Christmas Eve Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College Chapel in Cambridge has been broadcast every year since 1928, with the exception of 1930. A hymn setting is commissioned every year. Begins at 3 p.m. local time. If you join the queue before 9 a.m. you will most likely get in. The doors open at 1:30. The gates to the college are opened at 7:30 in the morning.

Although I am not generally home much on Christmas Eve day, I do know that it plays on our radio from about 10 until about 11:30 in the morning over WXXI.  This year I happened to be home and paying attention towards the end of the broadcast.

As the service came to an end the BBC announcer began to describe the scene in the chapel. He described that the choir was recessing, the officiating clergy were recessing, and finally he described the people who had attended the magnificent event. They were slowly making their way toward the exits to – as he put it – return to “the real world.”

Return to the real world? To leave beauty and reverence. To leave magnificence and wonder. That is leaving the “real world?”

I beg to differ. They had been in touch with the real world. They had experienced the real world of transcendence and beauty, holiness and joy. That is the real world.

Now they were going back into a pale and fragile shadow of the reality they had experienced and it would be that reality that they carried with them from that time of worship which would shed reality on their experience afterwards.

This opens for us the question of “what is real?” That is a deep question, but 

I do ask us to note a certain cynicism or suspicion or almost negativity when we use the world “real” in many contexts.  For example: in common speech to be “realistic” is not to hope for too much, to focus on people’s less noble qualities, to assume the worst. To be “realistic” is to assume people acting only in their own self-interest, to be vindictive, or only out of fear or greed. It is contrasted with “idealistic.”

Since the rise of explanatory social science, what has seemed most realistic or plausible is that people generally act out of their own desires for power or sex or money. Whole theories of what it means to be human – the psychology of Freud or Nietzsche; the political economy of Machiavelli or Hobbes or Marx or Ricardo all assumed a set of motivations that were founded on a kind self-interest or class-interest.

I have no doubt that there are many instances of people acting out of evil motives or from what we might call animal instincts or selfishness, but why are we so quick to call them that which is real? Why do we assume them as more basic? More real?

A passage from the Screwtape Letters. This was an important book in my return to the Christian faith. Not to everyone’s taste. One has to keep in mind that “the Enemy” is God in these upside down letters.

The premise of the book is that an elder, master devil is instructing a junior devil by letter. The instructions are all about how to work on the man to whom he has been assigned so that he will be kept from God. This man is the patient. The senior devil’s name is Screwtape. The devil he is instructing is called Wormwood. In the book’s first letter Screwtape warns Wormwood that he should not use logic or argument with his patient, because once he does that his patient is apt to look at the big picture and universal concepts and not be distracted by the “stream of immediate sense experiences.”

Read from Chapter One.

Screwtape’s patient was close to God in a moment of reflection. Screwtape’s goal was to get him out into “reality” and cover over the transcendence and holiness with the bustle and noise of the city.

What happens on the mount of Transfiguration?

This experience connects the disciples with the reality of who Jesus is. Can’t be fully explained.

The holiness of God in Christ shines through.

This reality is to frame their coming to understand at a later point. They are not ready to understand yet. This reality is to shine for them through the dark days ahead.

In light of this reality we are to understand, take in, experience all other reality.

Transfiguration on the mountain is of Jesus, but this experience, this event is to transfigure every other event/experience, because it illuminates that Christ – the beloved son of God – has transformed the world and is transforming the world and is transforming us to see the beauty and goodness and grace that takes shape within us among us and around us.

Sometimes preaching on this text – maybe even some of my own – has focused on how we cannot stay up on the mountain, but must return to the real world, down in the valley. I think this misses the point: the idea is to understand that the reality is the revelation on the mountain and then to take that revelation to shape and frame all our experience and understanding.

Jesus is revealing for us the reality of love and justice, compassion and mercy. On the mountain we are told: this is my beloved son, listen to him. Listen and learn this reality of peace. Listen and learn this reality of reconciliation and beauty and purity.

As we move through lent toward holy week and finally Good Friday this reality will be obscured by the competing claims of retaliation and condemnation and torture and death. They will seem strong, but we will learn if we continue to the end with Jesus that they are not the realities that they pretend to be. They are passing away.

Only that which will finally attach to God can finally be real. Only that which is good and true and beautiful and just can be real, because only those things can be eternal and shine with the light of Christ.

Another instance:

At the end of September I went to NJ to attend my high school class’s 40^th reunion. I have to say I had a great time. I saw some folks who I went to 2^nd and 3^rd grade with. Even someone from 1^st grade. I was surprised how old they all were. At the same time in a lot of folks I could see the 10 year old or the 14 year old. And I got to know some folks I didn’t even really remember from back then, but there was something about connecting with people with whom I’d grown up – knew well or scarcely at all. It was a joyful event.

And behind it all I felt a spirit of reconciliation. We all knew or at least vaguely remembered the rivalries, the competitions, the slights, the insults, the embarrassments in all of our trying to learn to be human beings: to grow up and find out who we were to become.

It’s a tricky business and all of us had stepped on one another’s toes as we tried to sort it all out. But let me tell you about one encounter there in particular.

The reunion event had a website where I could see who was going to show up. I noticed that George Sirgiovanni planned to be there. I made up my mind that I was going to have to make sure that I talked to him. You might be wondering why. George was one of perhaps two or three guys I had an actual fist fight with in those days. We mixed it up in the locker room until a gym teacher came and intervened. By now I really don’t remember what it was about. I just knew I felt bad about it.

I knew I needed to apologize to George. I wondered whether I would recognize him. Finally after dinner I spotted him across the room. While I was still probably 15 yards away he saw me coming and recognized me. Within moments we were apologizing to each other and laughing and shaking hands and then embracing.

Amazing moment. He couldn’t remember what the fight was about either.

That moment was reconciliation and that moment was reality. He teaches history now at a Catholic college in NJ.

That reunion was a taste of those enduring realities of forgiveness and reconciliation. Of honoring relationships and shared history of joy and of sorrow.

In the days and weeks that followed I began to think more and more of that reunion weekend in NJ as a taste of the enduring reality of heaven. The enduring reality of peace and joy and beauty. The enduring reality of reconciliation and laughter. The enduring reality of connecting with love and so connecting with the realty of God’s presence. It is the reality of that connection that allows the reality of all those things to shine forth also in our so-called ordinary moments. Grace shines through when we have heard and seen it on the mountain already.

That taste of holy reality is ours in worship, in prayer, in all beauty, in moments of love and compassion, in encounters with forgiveness and mercy.

Holy reality seeps into all of life once we have seen it, once we have heard it, once we have learned to encounter its beauty shining all around us – as our hearts learn to be open to it. 

Holy Reality. 

On the mountain and in our midst.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Interruptions

Mark 1:29-39

February 5, 2012

J.W. McNeill

Interruptions.  People have different tolerance for interruptions.

Did you notice the interruptions in the Gospel story this morning? Picks up last time. Do you remember then that the man with the unclean spirit interrupted Jesus’ teaching?

1.      After this they go to (Simon) Peter’s mother-in-law’s house for dinner after church. Good plan. But that plan is interrupted because Peter’s mother is sick.

2.      Jesus interrupts that sickness and the Sunday after church dinner resumes.

3.      Then the visit at Simon’s house is interrupted by the crowd that gathers at the door and Jesus interrupts the sickness and the demon possession.

4.      The next morning Jesus leaves all these people behind to go the deserted place.

5.      The disciples go looking for him and then they interrupt Jesus at prayer.

6.      Then Jesus interrupts the stay at Capernaum to take the disciples with him to the neighboring towns to preach and to heal.

You’ve probably had a number of interruptions in your life this week. Things happen. At church we had a big interruption because Margaret’s father died and she had to leave in pretty short order to go to Scotland. A major interruption.

I’ve been thinking about interruptions because of a big interruption in Martha’s and my life that I’ll tell you about in a few minutes.

I’ve been thinking about interruptions as the intersections of stories.  An interruption is where one story enters another story. Sometimes it absolutely takes it over.

I’m going to be away this week to direct and teach at Local Pastors’ Licensing School. I was remembering that when I went to Licensing School as a student 30 years ago, one of the activities we did was everyone was instructed to sing out loud their favorite hymn as we milled about the large room in which we were meeting. I can’t remember what I began singing, but within just a few minutes the song that interrupted all the others and took over all the rest was – any guesses??  Onward Christian Soldiers! Started by one of the faculty members who had come into the Methodist Church out of the Salvation Army.  The stronger song takes over and the stronger story can take over as well!

So here’s the interrupting story that is about to take over Martha’s and my story – and your story as well:

Four weeks ago tomorrow -- on a Monday I received a phone call putting me on alert that I would soon be receiving a phone call from one of our Conference Superintendents, asking me for a phone number where I could be reached in the next couple of hours.

Within a short time I did receive a phone call from Dick Barton, the DS of the Finger Lakes District. He asked me if I would be open to talking about moving to become senior pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Ithaca.

I gave him a pretty long story about why I really did not think I should move. He understood my thinking on it and said that there was really no pressure, but that the bishop and the whole cabinet were convinced that I was the right person for the appointment. I agreed to at least read the material and give him an answer within 24 hours whether Martha and I would agree to move forward.

He emailed me the material and Martha and I spent the afternoon quite distraught. Not wanting to leave Fairport. Wondering whether moving was the right thing. I spent some time just being quiet asking God what would be the right thing. As I kept going over the material there were just a few things that didn’t feel right to me. I concluded that I was really not meant to go there.

So before 5 pm that afternoon, I called the Superintendent back and told him I didn’t think it was going to work and how appreciative I was that I was being allowed to decline.

Interruption over.  I had a meeting that night down here and went ahead getting back into life in the midst of Fairport UMC’s story.

Tuesday went by.  But I had an uneasy feeling. I had a scheduled meeting with my spiritual director (my spiritual counselor, who I’ve been working with for about 15 years) and I described what had happened and how I had really felt called NOT to move to Ithaca. But just beyond my full awareness, the words were ringing faintly hollow.

I decided not to worry about it and move on. But when I went home for lunch on Wednesday, Martha immediately raised some new conversation about the possibility of the move and I told her that I had also had some second thoughts. I have to say that we spent a pretty intense hour, because I knew it could not be long before they moved to offer it to someone else.

I called the Superintendent back and asked him if we could still talk about the appointment in Ithaca. He said that as things had worked out, he had not gotten anyone to move forward with it yet and we could still talk.

We went over some of the considerations we had talked about and we agreed to go ahead and try to schedule a time for Martha and me to visit Ithaca and meet with the Staff Parish Relations Committee at St. Paul’s Church in Ithaca.

That meeting could not be arranged until this past Tuesday, when Martha and I went to Ithaca and met with the Staff Parish Relations Committee and we all agreed that I would be appointed as their Senior Pastor as of July 1, 2012.

The interruption is here.  On Thursday night, our District Superintendent, Ted Anderson, met with me and our Staff Parish Relations Committee to tell them of what had happened and to talk about how we would make this announcement this morning and how Fairport UMC would go forward.

Of course, the plan was that Pastor Margaret would be at that meeting and would be here this morning – to preach actually – but that story was overtaken by the story of her father’s death. A story that is overtaken by God’s eternal life story.

I will tell you that this is not easy. We’ve never lived anywhere for this long. Martha and I are very sad to be leaving this wonderful church home. I can’t really say a lot about all that right now, because I want to keep myself pulled together and going into too much detail is liable to make me cry. Martha and I have not been anything but blessed to journey with you for the last 16 and a half years and have our children grow up among you.

Interruptions are where stories intersect: Last week we read about Jesus’ story intersecting with the story of the man with unclean spirit and interrupted that unclean spirit story episode, freeing that man in the synagogue.

Jesus interrupted Simon’s mother-in-law’s sickness story with a healing story. Jesus interrupted his ministry story with a prayer story that intersected him at the deepest levels of cosmic love and then the disciples overtook that story – or went with Jesus to carry that cosmic love story into the despairing and desperate stories of hundreds of people seeking to be overtaken by healing and wholeness stories.

So let me just tell you a little about how St. Paul’s in Ithaca’s story was interrupted. Last November their pastor, Margie Mayson, died suddenly of an aneurysm while she was with her daughter out west. The church was stunned. They are still hurting very deeply. Margie was about the same age as Margaret and I. You can imagine.

In God’s wondrous and interrupting way, their story is now overflowing to intersect our story. Their story is particularly overtaking Martha’s and my story so that we are being absorbed into their story. And in turn all that we have lived with you here will go with us to become spoken or unspoken parts of the story we will live out with them.

In that cosmic way, you go with us. That should not be too surprising, of course, because overarching all our stories is God’s bigger story that is drawing us all together into the biggest story that will overtake all the stories of all of us who have ever lived: the story of God’s cosmic love that Jesus lived out among us.

We share in that story together as we gather as one people around this table to be refreshed and nourished to live out that love in Fairport or Ithaca or anywhere in God’s love.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Authority

Mark 1: 21-28

January 29, 2012

J.W. McNeill

This Passage centers on authority.

Contrast authority of a teacher with the authority of a police officer. I understand there is some overlap, but consider a couple of different kinds of cases.

·         Teaching to read or play tennis – trust what I am telling you, learning to follow directions.

o   It is for the student’s good

o   Student chooses whether or not to grant authority

·         Police officer in the midst of a traffic stop – a certain kind of trust, but also following directions because of the fear of consequences.

o   Not for the arrestee’s good – for social good

o   No choice about granting the authority – police officer takes it.

·         In our story today, Jesus shows both kinds of authority.

1.      First, we see Jesus teaching with authority.

a.       Rational and relational: head component and a heart component

b.      Information and encouragement: content and blessing

                                                  i.      God came alive out of the book

c.       Inspiring trust and confidence – drawing them into his authority

2.      On the other hand, we see Jesus cast out the unclean spirit with authority.

a.       Jesus is coercive here, not persuasive.

b.      Teaching is not enough for unclean spirits.

c.       They are not teachable.

                                                  i.      And actually, they know the truth about Jesus. The unclean Spirit knows that Jesus is the Holy One of God.

                                                ii.      But the spirit resists or refuses to consent to live within the truth.

                                              iii.      Jesus forces it to obey, ignoring the question of consent.

3.      The people in the synagogue are amazed at his authority.

a.       They have seen that he has the authority of a teacher that inspires trust and loyalty.

b.      He also has the authority to take charge of spirits and make them obey.

4.      Let's also notice for a moment that this spirit -- whatever it is -- is able to recognize Jesus for who Jesus is:  the Holy One of God.  Somehow the unclean spirit knows who Jesus is before anyone else in the Gospel has figured it out.  Yet Jesus tells the spirit to be quiet and to come out of the man.  Jesus has power over this spirit.

You might be wondering why Jesus tells the spirit to be quiet.

Why does Jesus silence the spirit? Jesus is not ready to be revealed as the Holy One just yet. Jesus is not to be fully revealed outside of the context of his crucifixion and resurrection – but that’s a longer story for another time.

5.      Now with all that as background, I would like to bring us back to the immediacy or our own situations. What has authority over us?

a.       Last week Pastor Margaret preached about the passage immediately preceding this one. She told us that we are being called to follow Jesus and live out the kingdom of God. That kingdom of God language means that we are being called to enter into a different culture. A culture with understandings and assumptions that compassion, cooperation, reconciliation, forgiveness and grace are to be the dominant, operative motivations, for these are the dominant themes of Jesus’ proclamation of the coming culture of God.

b.      That means that we are called to rely on the authority of this Jesus to live according to the way of the God culture that is supposed to be coming into being among his followers.

c.       We are called to be ruled by Jesus’ authority as we go about our lives in our homes, in our school and workplaces, in our neighborhoods, at church, everywhere.

d.      So the question is, is Jesus my authority so that I can be living in such a way that reveals Jesus as my authority?

6.      Now the people in the synagogue that day were impressed with Jesus. They said that he taught and acted with authority.  But the Bible doesn’t tell us that they went ahead and followed. Yes, here is an authority, but will I make that one my authority? Or will I be continually handed over to some other authority? Well, I’m not ready to do that quite yet thank you, very much.

7.      The people in the synagogue may well have been impressed. They may well have recognized Jesus as teaching with authority, but they did not take him as their authority. And what about us?

a.       To whom or what have we given authority over us? Who or what is directing our priorities and our attitudes?

b.      How can we tell? Can we be sure that we are being honest with ourselves about that?

c.       Pastor Margaret suggested some ways last week:

                                                  i.      Calendar

                                                ii.      How we use our money beyond necessities

                                              iii.      Where are our priority commitments?

1.      Entertainment

2.      Sports

3.      What are we passionate about?

4.      What won’t we miss? Church? An opportunity for ministry?

5.      Are we more willing to miss church or our favorite television show?

                                              iv.      What about our attitudes?

1.      Are we cultivating generosity?

2.      Are we seeking reconciliation?

3.      Are we seeking to be free of resentments?

4.      Are we spending time seeking to connect with God and people who will help us connect with God?

                                                v.      These are all ways in which we might honestly question ourselves about whether we are taking Jesus as the authority for our lives.

8.      Or is something else going on in our lives? Are we being dominated by other spirits, perhaps without being clearly aware of it. Are we being driven by other spirits that have taken hold of us? What might they be?

a.       Fears and anxieties

b.      Rivalries

c.       Jealousy

d.      Ambition

e.       Desires for pleasure

9.      Or perhaps we are keeping ourselves back not willing to fully commit our lives, to fully follow any one or any path. We tell ourselves we’ll make a commitment later. Perhaps that was the attitude in the synagogue of those who were astonished by what a good preacher and exorcist had come to church that morning. This one deserves another look. Some day. We’ll see how it turns out. Maybe we’ll do all right in the culture of the scribes or the culture of Rome after all.

But come back to the distinction I made at the beginning between Jesus’ authority as a teacher and Jesus’ authority as one who cast out the unclean spirit. As we try to understand under what authority we live we need to understand that Jesus is inviting us into the culture of God that is set up for relationship and invites us with mind and heart, invites us with encouragement and inspiration. It is about entering into the freedom to be our best and truest selves. The people we were created to be in joy and peace.

But is that just so we are happy and content? So that we can be free from guilt or fear?  No.

What happens as we do that? We create and become that authority. We and others begin to trust it.

The teachers with whom Jesus is contrasted were the scribes.  The scribes were the professional readers, copiers, and interpreters of the Scripture.  Their role was to teach and preserve the written word of God.  People of faith then in Jesus' day as well as now need help in understanding the Bible and how to apply it to their lives.

This passage tells us of a time that Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.  He astounded everyone there because he taught with authority.  That is not more fully described.  Was it his tone of voice?  Was it the content of what he said?  Was there something about his gestures?  Was there a special sincerity in his eyes?  We are not told.

Let’s come back at this from a slightly different angle:

If they were astounded at Jesus' teaching, here the onlookers in the synagogue are amazed by the exorcism.  This combination of spiritual power and teaching is something marvelous.  What stands out is AUTHORITY.  It is what distinguishes Jesus from the scribes.

What is this about?

Here we must contrast the Word of God written with the Word of God living.

           

The Word of God written is a book.  It is a book that allows us to tell and to hear a grand tale.  It is a book that is a source of inspiration and insight into the ways of God.  It is a book that invites us to learn of our heritage as spiritual descendants in a great line of persons who have been called into fellowship with the God who has been revealed in Jesus Christ.  The Word of God written is a source and basis for us as a Church to understand our mission and ministry.

But I want to tell you something that will surprise you and may even offend some of you:  The Bible has no authority in itself.  Hear me carefully here.  It cannot be an authority because it cannot act, it cannot make a judgment, it cannot apply itself.

The Bible only has authority as it is interpreted and lived out in the community of faith.  Its authority is only the authority of the community that is molded by it. And the authority of that community is only the power of God that is unleashed within that community and from that community into the world.

The critical question that faces us as the people of God is not whether or not the Bible is true, but whether we will live out its truth as we struggle together to understand its message to us and to the world and live that message out.  Will we become the living word of God?

As we give ourselves over to the power of God,  we will see in ourselves and one another the authority of Jesus Christ because we will see our lives transformed together and we will see the transforming power of God set free into the world.

We are the ones as the Church of Jesus Christ who take on authority in this world to apply in our life situations the power and love of God as is revealed to us in Scripture. To become the word of God living.

The difference between Jesus and the scribes in that synagogue 20 centuries ago was that Jesus embodied the power of God, while the scribes had simply a head-knowledge of a holy book.  The people who looked on there in that place knew the difference and they were astonished!

Will we simply look on?  Or will we follow the one who calls and live out the power and authority of the God of love in the world?

We are called to become the living word of God by the power and authority of Jesus Christ.