O God, whose hand shelters the just and righteous, and whose favor rests on the lowly, banish hypocrisy from our hearts and purify us of all selfish ambition. Let your word sown among us bring forth a harvest of peace. We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.
From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.
Some Thoughts on Mark 9:30-37
Commentary, Mark 9:30-37, Amy Oden, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.
"...once again Jesus is challenging us to reverse long-standing, ingrained, human habits. To set aside our common human understanding of how to win fame and glory, and instead learn from Jesus God's deep hospitality and honouring."
Jesus is teaching and teaching and teaching. The opening verses tell us that this one not a one off kind of teaching but regular occurrence. So the disciples have been listening to him teach over and over again and for days.
What is he teaching? He is telling the disciples, and anyone who will listen, that he has to be turned over to suffer and die. Prophets of God do this regularly of course, but Jesus is saying something different. Jesus is saying this is the way of the kingdom. I am going to be turned over to authority and I am going to suffer and die. But there will also be resurrection. It is a "reversal of the way it ought to be." (Joel Marcus, Mark, vol 2, 669) And, no matter how you look at this first part of the text it is clear that there is "apostolic silence" and a complete disengagement with the message. (Ibid, 670).
It just isn't the way it is supposed to be. The disciples with clarity continue to manifest an understanding of Messiahship that will bring them power and authority. They are seeing through their lenses of the Temple and government structures of the day. Leaning heavily on the terms and images from Daniel, they often cast Jesus as a military leader and king of a worldly empire. It is an empire that Jesus already rejected in the desert. This discontinuity between what the disciples hear and Jesus' own vision is shown with clarity as he confronts them about their discussion on who gets to sit where in the new kingdom.
I found it interesting that Jesus' engagement with Peter, and likewise his engagement with the disciples does not include shame them. Nor does Jesus belittle them for not getting it right. Sometimes there is a tendency to play the disciples off as dunces and in so doing we actually build up a straw man to knock down. In so doing we inadvertently shame our listeners...when it is highly likely they too do not understand what we are talking about.
Instead, Jesus continues teaching. Jesus seems unfazed or at least disinterested in convincing his most intimate followers. He is teaching and teaching and teaching. He offers instead of a rebuke and an image.
Jesus picks up a child (though the word may also mean slave) and puts the child in the middle of the circle and embraces the child. (Marcus, 681) The image is certainly about receiving others (the child/slave) means receiving Jesus, and receiving Jesus is about receiving God.
Now here is what is most fascinating. How many sermons have you heard where the topic is about receiving Jesus like a child? Thousands, millions, billions? That is right...BUT that is not what the text says. Jesus is saying receive the child/slave receive me.
The text says that when one receives another human being, embraces that human being, one welcomes and embraces Jesus and thereby the Father who sends him. Moreover, that those in their midst who have no standing, no wealth, no voice, no value (the child/slave) are the ones we are to embrace.
How quickly we, like the disciples, skip to our place next to Jesus. In the Gospel of Mark it is clear that if we are to come to God in Christ Jesus we must do so by embracing the child/slave and the outsider.
What is he teaching? He is telling the disciples, and anyone who will listen, that he has to be turned over to suffer and die. Prophets of God do this regularly of course, but Jesus is saying something different. Jesus is saying this is the way of the kingdom. I am going to be turned over to authority and I am going to suffer and die. But there will also be resurrection. It is a "reversal of the way it ought to be." (Joel Marcus, Mark, vol 2, 669) And, no matter how you look at this first part of the text it is clear that there is "apostolic silence" and a complete disengagement with the message. (Ibid, 670).
It just isn't the way it is supposed to be. The disciples with clarity continue to manifest an understanding of Messiahship that will bring them power and authority. They are seeing through their lenses of the Temple and government structures of the day. Leaning heavily on the terms and images from Daniel, they often cast Jesus as a military leader and king of a worldly empire. It is an empire that Jesus already rejected in the desert. This discontinuity between what the disciples hear and Jesus' own vision is shown with clarity as he confronts them about their discussion on who gets to sit where in the new kingdom.
I found it interesting that Jesus' engagement with Peter, and likewise his engagement with the disciples does not include shame them. Nor does Jesus belittle them for not getting it right. Sometimes there is a tendency to play the disciples off as dunces and in so doing we actually build up a straw man to knock down. In so doing we inadvertently shame our listeners...when it is highly likely they too do not understand what we are talking about.
Instead, Jesus continues teaching. Jesus seems unfazed or at least disinterested in convincing his most intimate followers. He is teaching and teaching and teaching. He offers instead of a rebuke and an image.
Jesus picks up a child (though the word may also mean slave) and puts the child in the middle of the circle and embraces the child. (Marcus, 681) The image is certainly about receiving others (the child/slave) means receiving Jesus, and receiving Jesus is about receiving God.
Now here is what is most fascinating. How many sermons have you heard where the topic is about receiving Jesus like a child? Thousands, millions, billions? That is right...BUT that is not what the text says. Jesus is saying receive the child/slave receive me.
The text says that when one receives another human being, embraces that human being, one welcomes and embraces Jesus and thereby the Father who sends him. Moreover, that those in their midst who have no standing, no wealth, no voice, no value (the child/slave) are the ones we are to embrace.
How quickly we, like the disciples, skip to our place next to Jesus. In the Gospel of Mark it is clear that if we are to come to God in Christ Jesus we must do so by embracing the child/slave and the outsider.
"Envy is the consuming desire to have everybody else as unsuccessful as you are."
"Envy," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.
"After several chapters of warnings and vivid illustrations of the consequences of living contrary to the plan of God, James moves in this passage to describe the good life and give some positive guidance for pursuing it."
Commentary, James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a, Sandra Hack Polaski, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.
"The kind of wisdom the Scriptures envision is a way of life that is born of walking humbly with God. It is a way of life that is inspired by the presence of God’s Spirit. When you live in such a way that you are consciously aware of God’s presence, it tends to create a sense of inner strength; but it is always a strength that manifests itself in gentleness, in humility, in self-sacrifice, and in kindness."
"Gentle Wisdom," Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer, 2009.
The author of James begins to pull and tug at a sin he believes is found in all Christian community: boasting in one's self.
Christians can be very proud people. We can be proud in our traditionalism, our conservatism, our biblicism, our purity, our liberality, our generosity, our correctness, and even our justice making.
We Christians are good at boasting about ourselves and shaking our fist at the others. Why, I even have known Christians who have proudly proclaimed their suffering.
The author writes:
But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. 15Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.Christians and their communities are instead to be known for something quite different. The author writes:
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.Here is a key to understanding the work of reconciliation. We are to be at work healing history, celebrating and honoring our difference, and we are to create a peaceful commons. Only in peace may we find righteousness.
We as Christians and as Christian communities are to be known not for our violence against others or the world, but for our peacemaking.
It is clear to the author, but I say it is clear to the world and to God, that when we are not peace makers we are not of Christ who is our peace maker. We are showing the world an marred vision of the reign of God. We are in fact not fooling anyone. The author says it is clear:
4Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts.What is so very true is that we cannot be in love with ourselves or our stuff, we cannot be in love with what we have and fear what we might lose. We are not as Christians to worry or hold tightly to the things of this world because we are to be people of a different place, a peaceful place, a place where God's love reigns. This is not courtly or Victorian idea of love either - this is a sacrificial love. This is a love which brings peace (not because another makes the sacrificial offering) because we make the sacrificial offering of ourselves, our security, our truthiness, our rightness.
It is no wonder that most Christians don't want to spend much time on James. The author holds up a mirror to our Christian way of life and reveals a very earthly and sordid affair that is in much need of a house cleaning.
Some Thoughts on Jeremiah 11:18-20
"Jeremiah has good reason to complain. In this passage, he begins by declaring the disturbing news, which the Lord had revealed to him, of the plot to assassinate him because of his apparent lack of patriotism (see also 18:18)."
Commentary, Jeremiah 11:18-20, Amy Merrill Willis, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.
Some Thoughts on Jeremiah 11:18-20
"Jeremiah has good reason to complain. In this passage, he begins by declaring the disturbing news, which the Lord had revealed to him, of the plot to assassinate him because of his apparent lack of patriotism (see also 18:18)."
Commentary, Jeremiah 11:18-20, Amy Merrill Willis, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.
"These laments of Jeremiah reveal that the prophet is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Jeremiah lives in a pressure cooker."
Commentary, Jeremiah 11:18-20, Terence E. Fretheim, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.
Commentary, Jeremiah 11:18-20, Terence E. Fretheim, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.
"How are the faithful to respond in times of pressing difficulty?"Commentary, Jeremiah 11:18-20, Frank M. Yamada, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.
Oremus Online NRSV Text
The prophet Jeremiah gives word to his suffering spirit as he sees how the people are neglected. (Jeremiah 4:19; 9:1; 10:19-20; 23:9) For it to be well, the people must remember the past and how their faith ancestors created a just and righteous society wherein the defense and cause of the poor and needy were taken into account. (Jeremiah 22:15-17) Jeremiah locates our responsibility within God’s creative imaginary. (Jeremiah 10:12-16; 51:15-19) He sees God not only as the God of Israel but of all nations. His is a universal call to serve the poor. Jeremiah understands that this national responsibility for the poor is met by the individual too. The problem is not something that exists at the monarchial level alone - the whole society from individual to the government is responsible for the poor.
It is out of this deep prophetic tradition that Jeremiah reacts to those who find his politics lacking. They are out to kill him. Like the prophets of God in every age the powers and dominions of this world seek their demise and the quiet of their voice.
Jeremiah, in our passage today, begins by reminding the hearer that God invites him to prophecy. Like many who have faced the backlash of inviting a different kind of thinking about God, God's people, and their work in community...Jeremiah finds the backlash troubling. He is so upset he himself wants God to take action.
The passage itself does not have a parallel in the New Testament gospels. However, we know these words. They are the words of Jesus when he longs to gather the people. He had the prophets on his mind as he did his own work. How long have I wanted to gather you in? How long have you killed the prophets? He muses, well knowing that the prophetic message to remember the poor and be responsible for the least, the long and stranger in the midst is a message that is never welcomed by the patriots, the nationalists, nor the powers of this world. Freedom from such Godly accountability is much more a welcomed message. It is always difficult for the reigning powers in every age to hear the prophetic voice reminding them of their responsibility.
Sermons Previously Preached
Travis Elementary School Cakewalk Championship 1975
Sep 26, 2012; Sermon preached at Grace Episcopal Church, Houston Sept 2012; Mark 9:30ff
Jesus Loves a Flash Mob
Oct 8, 2009; Jesus Loves a Flash Mob, sermon given at St. Mark's, Bay City, September 20, 2009, Proper 20, Mark 9.30ff.
The passage itself does not have a parallel in the New Testament gospels. However, we know these words. They are the words of Jesus when he longs to gather the people. He had the prophets on his mind as he did his own work. How long have I wanted to gather you in? How long have you killed the prophets? He muses, well knowing that the prophetic message to remember the poor and be responsible for the least, the long and stranger in the midst is a message that is never welcomed by the patriots, the nationalists, nor the powers of this world. Freedom from such Godly accountability is much more a welcomed message. It is always difficult for the reigning powers in every age to hear the prophetic voice reminding them of their responsibility.
Sermons Previously Preached
Travis Elementary School Cakewalk Championship 1975
Sep 26, 2012; Sermon preached at Grace Episcopal Church, Houston Sept 2012; Mark 9:30ff
Jesus Loves a Flash Mob
Oct 8, 2009; Jesus Loves a Flash Mob, sermon given at St. Mark's, Bay City, September 20, 2009, Proper 20, Mark 9.30ff.
A passage from my upcoming book entitled Citizen: Prophet in a Strange Land
Jesus engages once more reinventing social norms in concert
with God’s narrative in Mark 9:36, Matthew 19:13, and Luke 18:15. People began
to bring children to Jesus - even babies. The inner circle around Jesus said,
“Not so fast.” This scene is memorialized in church windows all over as a sweet
“let the little children come to me” spirituality. Now, I am quite sure that
Jesus did actually want the children to come to him regardless of their
parents’ place in the wider social system. But Jesus was suggesting a community
where all strata are connected and in relationship. So his invitation is one
that runs parallel with the previous conversation. Meanwhile, it is evident in
this story that the social imaginary even of the teacher/disciple remains
hierarchical. Jesus though took the children and put them at the center of the
community. (Mark 9:36) He also explained that he was in relationship with them.
In a culture where most of the family’s value was placed upon what you did for
the family, to consider a child a person, to put one of the least of the
members of community at the center, to recognize an unproductive (indeed
vulnerable) person there, once again reorders the social structures to be garden-like.
This then is part of the orienting of the Christian
citizen’s responsibility: that the structures of state should be oriented at
the well-being of children. Children are oftentimes the most vulnerable in
power systems of honor/shame or sacred/degregation. They are the first to go
hungry and without food and nutrition, brains don’t form well in the first
three years of life, perpetuating poverty into the next generation. They are
seen as the property of the parents or the ward of the state. They are seen as
assets for our future: future church members, future workers, future soldiers,
and future consumers. Jesus changed this orientation. Children are no longer
appendages to the social imaginary of a tribe, city, state, or nation until
they are productive members. In this act, Jesus turns the tables upside down.
Literally making the least the first, Jesus orients every member of the society
as part of God’s narrative.
Jesus in his relationship with the crowd, with the two women
and children, reveals how God’s narrative offers a different social imaginary
that is necessary to keep our natural ways of shaming/honoring under check. It
isn’t enough that a transcendent God far away is in relationship with us. Jesus
is revealing that in fact our relationships are intertwined, as is our story.
Our futures are tied together and so our politics, economics, and health are
tied together.
One of the values of American civil religion is
individualism. It is a value that is strong, and is tied to freedom and
self-determination. It is reinforced by our national birth story, our mythic
characters, speeches by our leaders, and our civil liturgies. Think of those
mythic tall tales of George Washington, Molly Pitcher, Daniel Boone,
"Davy" Crockett, John Henry, the unsinkable Molly Brown, Buffalo Bill
Cody, Annie Oakley, and Calamity Jane. We have Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill as
two mythical stories. It is as if individualism has become our dominant
language as well as our frame.[i]
However, “individualism” is not a strong enough shared value to help this
country deal and manage the conflict and challenges that face us in our next
age. In fact it may undermine our future as a country if it is the sole arbiter
of truth.
In God’s social imaginary, we have described community in
terms of relationship and responsibility. What we see in the stories of Jesus
is something more. What we see is a value close to interconnectedness.
[i] Robert N. Bellah, Habits of the Heart:
Individualism and Commitment in American Life (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1996), 2.
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