Audio Recording
Often when I’m preparing for a sermon there will be
something in the Scripture passage that for whatever reason sticks out to me
and starts to ponder its way into a sermon.
Other times the passage contains a major theological point that I would
be remiss if I neglected to address.
This week you get a combination of both.
When I read the Mark passage the gathering around the table image
grabbed me since we are celebrating communion and the passage from 2
Corinthians saying we are ambassadors of Christ entrusted with his ministry of
reconciliation. Since this past week
marked the culmination of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
here in Canada, I would be remiss to neglect talking about our Christian ministry
of reconciliation.
First, the table…it is no secret that Jesus did much
to most of his teaching while sharing a meal.
Meals were eventful displays of hospitality in Jesus day. For brevity’s sake, a meal shared with Jesus
was a meal shared with God that pointed towards the day when the Kingdom of God
would be finally established. When Jesus
was at table for a meal all people were welcome to eat, listen, and talk;
whores, drunks, betrayers, deniers, even those who sought to kill him – the
religious authorities. The intimacy of
gathering around the table to eat was as much the medium as the message in
Jesus’ Gospel proclamation that “the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and
believe the Good News.” When you were at
table with Jesus, you were at table in the Kingdom of God.
Looking at our passage from Mark, Jesus and his
disciples had just come down from a mountain.
While up there he named the Twelve as his particulars. After that, they came down and went to
probably Peter’s house in Capernaum to share a meal but a crowd gathered that was
so great they couldn’t eat. They
couldn’t share the meal with all its latent meaning. This crowd was interfering with their table
fellowship.
But wait a minute, isn’t people flocking to Jesus a
good thing? Wouldn’t it be great to have
crowds flocking to this church that are so great that fellowship dinners are
problematic? But let us not get sucked
into the myth of numbers. With respect to this crowd, when you read through not
just Mark’s but all the Gospels you find that the crowd is a very fickle mass. They follow him around as if he were a
faith-healer circus attraction. And
worse, at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the crowds declare him king but
then just a few days later they rather fickly turn on him and we find them screaming
to Pilate, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” In
our passage here, it’s the fickle crowd blocking the intimacy of Jesus sharing
a meal with his disciples. The crowds
want Jesus to do his faith-healer circus show thing. Jesus, well, he rather needs to get on with teaching
his newly appointed disciples about his Kingdom and their participation in it.
Also at this thwarted meal are the religious
authorities who in their indirect authoritarian way point out the crowd’s
fickle reason for following Jesus the faith-healer circus attraction. They say that Jesus does these works because
he is in league with Satan. But, wily Jesus
exposes their ridiculousness by saying that if this was the case then Satan’s
work has come to its end in that Satan the great father of schism has even
become divided against himself.
Also, along with this crowd is Jesus’ mother and brothers
who are convinced that he is out of his mind and wish to take him home before
this spectacle of “religious fanaticism” brings any more shame upon the family. Jesus’ answer to them is a bit of a heartbreaker. He looks at those seated at table with him
and quite pointedly says, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the
will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Anyone who thinks that Jesus’ came to
undergird certain valued institutions of society even the one called family
needs to think again. His aim is to create
a new social order based in obeying the will of God, a social order that
fulfills and surpasses the old, even the ties of family, for it embodies the
very love of God.
This moment, this thwarted meal here in Mark is what we could
call a proverbial snapshot of the church in our day. Jesus would like us to gather around the
table with him and hear his teaching to us his brothers and sisters and mothers
on how we are to minister in his kingdom, on our work as his ambassadors participating
in his ministry of reconciliation. But,
there’s the segment of the church that wants to see the circus, that wants a
charismatic leader giving immediate solutions to all life’s problem. There’s also those religious authority types
who are quite threatened by Jesus real, gracious, life restoring presence in
their midst and so they demonize the spiritual.
And, there’s also the segment that says “let’s not fly off the handle
with this Jesus stuff. Let’s just keep to
blessing our valued social conventions.
It’s safer that way, less embarrassing.”
There is quite a crowd blocking the table these days, keeping us from
our participation in Jesus ministry of reconciliation.
So, the ministry of reconciliation…what does our
participation in Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation look like here in
Southampton especially now this week in the wake of hearing the findings of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
What does our participation in Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation look
like here with the Saugeen First Nations Reserve just around the corner?
The truth has been
established. The residential schools
were “cultural genocide”. Now we have to
ask where’s the reconciliation. We the
disciples of Jesus Christ who participate in his ministry of reconciliation
should be reluctant to entrust this task to a ministry of the government
(especially a government that for whatever reason seems quite reluctant to
follow through on any further recommendations of the Commission particularly
adopting and implementing the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. But, I should tread lightly for I am only an
American guest in this land and it is likely that the US has not adopted it
either.). Reconciliation must come at
the grass roots level of everyday people like us. Apologies and financial reparation only
skirts the issue. That’s the easy solution
of the crowds who block the table. If
the “cultural genocide” is to stop then we the individuals of the majority
culture must be willing to respect and appreciate and welcome the indigenous
culture of our neighbours to the table on its own terms and be willing to
change our ways.
This task begins with listening. I love the fiddle tunes that are indigenous
to West Virginia. These tunes are a
complex mix of melody and rhythm. The
fiddle came to the mountains by means of Scots, Irish, and Scots-Irish
immigrants and there they met Native America rhythms and singing and later
African Americans running from slavery.
The first settlers to go deep into West Virginia lived very isolated
lives and the only other human community they would have regularly encountered
would have been Native Americans, Seneca’s actually. Their drumming and singing had a profound
impact on these settlers and the evolution of the music they brought with
them. I’ll play you a tune that I think
reflects this blending of cultures and stands as a representation of what
reconciliation can be like if we listen to our neighbours and are willing to welcome
their ways to even change our own. It’s
called Yew Piney Mountain. Amen.
