My sermon

Following Jesus

One of my Old Testament professors in seminary would often say, as we tried to figure out the meaning of a text: “All our understandings are provisional.” He meant a lot in that short sentence. Sometimes our understandings of a text are provisional because we will learn more about the text. A new copy of the text will be dug up somewhere in Palestine or Egypt or Syria or will be discovered in a synagogue in Israel or even buried in the archives or a museum or university in Europe. A fragment of Isaiah that is older than any we have will be uncovered. Sometimes our understandings are provisional because we personally will learn more about the text. We will read the Greek or Hebrew again and see a different nuance than we had seen before. We will understand a word differently. We will see that the word can have a slightly different meaning than we had considered before. Sometimes we will read a new commentary or a scholarly article and gain insight into the text that we hadn’t had before. Sometimes our understandings change and shift because we have changed or shifted. Perhaps the Holy Spirit has moved in our lives in a particular way. Perhaps changes have happened in our lives so that we see things differently. Perhaps we have just had a new insight. The more we study a text, the more we learn about it, the deeper our understanding becomes.
I bring this up because as I studied this text, thought about it and prayed over the text, my understanding of the disciples shifted. In Mark’s Gospel and in the other gospels to a greater or lesser extent, the disciples never really understand who Jesus is. Mark, in particular, emphasizes how utterly clueless the disciples are. They see the miracles, they participate in healings, they sit with Jesus as he explains the parables to them. Three of the disciples named in the text this morning: Simon whom we know as Peter, James and John, go with Jesus to the mountain top and see the transfiguration. And they still don’t understand. Even after the resurrection experiences, there seem to be things these disciples just don’t understand about Jesus.
For a long time, I have understood this in a particular way. In the early church, the disciples in Jerusalem understood Jesus in a particular way: they saw themselves as a Jewish sect. They were primarily Jewish and those who followed Jesus were Jewish. Paul then comes along with a revelation of Jesus and an understanding of following Jesus that included those who were not Jews in a different way. The two parties disagreed about many things. If you read Acts and Paul’s letters you can see those disagreements. Mark is written after Paul’s letters, towards the end of Paul’s ministry. I have always thought that the reason Mark paints the disciples as such doofuses (is that word still used?) is that he was reflecting Paul’s view of Christianity. I believe that Mark adopted Paul’s view of Christianity and so he believed the disciples in Jerusalem did not understand meaning of Christianity. And so, if they didn’t understand when Mark was writing his gospel, then they must not have understood what Jesus was saying when Jesus taught them. Thus, Mark’s gospel reflects his understanding of the disciples’ misunderstanding of Jesus from the beginning.
As I began to study and think about this passage, I began to see something different. Jesus has begun to preach his battlefield report that God was working in the world. From the text, it seems like he was just walking along the lake one day and sees Simon and Andrew and asks them to follow him. And then he does the same thing with James and John. From the text, it seems Jesus knows nothing about these men, except they are working; they are fishermen. We have no idea what drew Jesus to them, why he chose these four. There must have been other men out fishing that day, but Jesus chose these and they followed.
Jesus spent the next three years with them. They were together almost all the time. They wandered across Galilee with Jesus. They were there are Jesus healed the sick. They were there as Jesus cast out demons. They were there as Jesus fed the five thousand (not counting women and children) and as Jesus fed the four thousand. They were there as Jesus walked across the lake and calmed the storm. Simon, Peter as we know him, James and John were there as Jesus was transfigured on the mountaintop. They were there during those last days in Jerusalem: the triumphant entrance, the teaching at the Temple, the last supper, that Passover that Jesus spent with them. They were in Jerusalem when Jesus was tried. Peter was there, denying that he knew Jesus, even as he remember Jesus’ telling him that Peter would do exactly that and Peter’s fervent denial. They were in jerusalme, though not at the cross, when Jesus was crucified.
Through this, Jesus loved them. From the way Jesus looks at Peter when Jesus tells Peter what will happen on that fateful night, that Peter will deny all knowledge of Jesus, you know that Jesus loves these men. And they are clueless about what this all means. They are clueless about what Jesus is actually teaching. They are clueless that Jesus will be crucified. They are clueless that Jesus is the Messiah. And it doesn’t seem to matter to Jesus. Jesus loves them. Jesus continues to be with them for those three years.
And so I wonder, what is really important? Does it really matter that we understand all the theology around Jesus? Does it matter if we get it right? Almost from the beginning, Christians have argued over the meaning of who Jesus is, what the meaning of the resurrection is, how it happened. The church has split again and again over matters of theology. Was Jesus fully human and fully divine? What is the relationship between God the Creator and Jesus? And what about the Holy Spirit? Who can forgive sins? How do we best worship God? Should we sing hymns during our worship? Can we have images of Jesus and the saints in our churches? And what about the saints? Should we ordain women? Should we ordain gays and lesbians? Do we really understand completely the meaning of Jesus’ life and teachings? What is really important?
What is really important? The text begins with jesus’ message: The realm of God is near. Repent. Believe the good news from the battlefield. God is at work in this world. God is in control. Turn your life around. The disciples never got it right. And yet, Jesus loved them. They turned from their previous lives and came behind Jesus. They cared for the sick and the outcasts. They loved one another and those whom Jesus loved. They were a community that cared for each other and that reached out to care for others. They shared the good news from the battlefield. God is in control. They may have never understood, but they followed where Jesus led them.
Thomas Merton wrote this prayer:
MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you a re ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen and Amen.

Friday Five RevGalBlogPals

Here in snow country we are settled in to what is a very long stretch of potentially boring days. The holidays are over. It is a very long time till we will get outside on a regular basis. The snow that seemed so beautiful at first is now dirty and the snow banks are piling up. Our vehicles are all the same shade of brownish grey, but if we go to the car wash our doors will freeze shut. People get grumpy. Of course, not everyone lives in a cold climate, but even in warmer places the days till springtime can get long. Help! Please give us five suggestions for combating cabin fever and staying cheerful in our monochromatic world?

You have my sympathies. It's going to be 60 today here and sunny. I'm going for a bike ride. I once lived in Cleveland Ohio and then in southern Michigan. So, I know about cabin fever. My cure: cross country skiing. I was so much happier when I discovered cross country skiing. I'm not good at it: I fall all the time. Just strap on the skis and go. Just do something to get outside. Take a walk. If the sun is shining, spend a little time outside, no matter what. If the sun isn't shining, it's not as much fun, but get outside. I was also much happier when I discovered long underwear.

Spring will come, I promise you!

I ran today. I'm training for a sprint triathlon: 400 meter swim, xxkm bike ride (I just don't remember) and a 5K run. I'm swimming 900 yards right now (but in a pool with a wall to turn on and grab a breath every 25 yards). I'm swimming really slow; about 28 minutes for the 900 yards. I'm struggling to work up to a 30 minute jog (which will be about 3.5 km). My goal is to work up to jogging 5 K three times a week. The biking will be fine. If I can get strong enough to do the run part easily, the rest will be OK. My goal is to finish.

Our music director is seeing an oncologist today. Possible diagnosis: ovarian cancer. S**t. I'm going to try to run by the clinic where she is seeing the doc today before her appointment. One third of American women will have cancer at some point in their lives (for men it's one half). Much of that is either curable or the person is old. But ovarian cancer is rare. Only 22000 women in this country will have it this year. So, how can the two of us have it? What are the odds (evidently 100 percent). I just hope if it is cancer (and I hope it isn't) they will have caught it at an early stage. She is going to the best cancer facility in the city. (Not where I went unfortunately, but that's another story--I just wanted the tumor out the fastest way possible.)

And I still have a sermon to write.

Friday Five

From Songbird at RevGalBlogPals
Although written by a young man, this song from "Rent" became an anthem for women of a certain age ready to be taken on their own terms. Maureen and Joanne love each other, but they are *very* different.

Whether it's new friends or new loves or new employers, what are five things people should know about you?

1. I am a bitch. Don't expect me to be a simpering-sweet Southern belle pastor type. I'm not.

2. I am an unabashed liberal. Don't give me that namby-pamby progressive label. Full-out total liberal.

3. I love the scriptures. I love reading them, seeing the nuances there, being awed by the literary power of them.

4. I love to be outside. I love hiking and biking and swimming. I love being in the sunshine. I love scuba diving. I love being a part of God's world and enjoying God's creation and God's creatures.

5. I love to travel and to experience different people, places and cultures. Don't expect me to go to the usual places. I can do that when I'm older. And, no, it's not a mission trip to China or Mongolia that I'm on.

Help! Advice Wanted!

The congregation I pastor has a significant (really significant) anniversary next year. I really don't care about anniversaries. For churches. They look to the past, not to the present or the future. So, a session member came in and wanted to talk to me about the celebration. Her idea is for special things to occur all during the year. There is already someone ready to chair the celebration committee. I told her that I don't really like anniversary celebrations, but if that's what the session and the congregation want to do, then it's fine with me. She wants the session to talk about this at our retreat. We are having quarterly business meetings and won't have a business meeting until March, which she thinks is too late.

So, either tell me I'm off the wall about anniversaries and I should get on the bandwagon and celebrate with them (I will celebrate with them) or help me figure out how to get them to focus on mission and not themselves. Or some middle way.

Friday Five Pancakes

From Sophia at RevGalBlogPals

1. Scratch or mix? Buttermilk or plain?
Mix. Neither buttermilk or plain: blueberry! I either throw in fresh blueberries or frozen.

2. Pure and simple, or with additions cooked in?
See number one

3. For breakfast or for dinner?
Breakfast, of course, or brunch. Dinner????

4. Preferred syrup or other topping? How about the best side dish?
If blueberry, then homemade blueberry syrup. (Cook down blueberries, water and sugar until you like it) and whipped cream. If plain, then jelly of some sort.

5. Favorite pancake restaurant?

You can get pancakes in a restaurant? Actually, the inn run by Calvin College in Grand Rapids had Belgian waffles with frozen strawberries and whipped cream at their breakfast bar. Wonderful!

A new height of dumbness

A new height of dumbness.
Scientists in Britian have developed a test for a gene which is linked to ovarian and breast cancer. A little girl has been born who is being called "cancer free".
What BS. Just because you have the gene does not mean you will develop cancer. And just because you don't have the gene, doesn't mean you won't. I wish I knew the statistics, but I would guess far more cancers are linked to environmental hazards than to genetic risks.

One more example of human beings thinking we know more than we do.