Salt and Peace

Mark 9:38-50

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The first bishop to be martyred in the early church was St. Ignatius of Antioch. Bishops were high profile leaders in the early church. They trained ministers and kept the churches connected and in communication with each other so that individual churches didn’t just do their individual things in ignorance of the needs of their sister churches. Martyring a bishop would have been a major political attack on the early church meant to cripple the networking of churches and to instil fear among the faithful. Ignatius was arrested in Antioch in Turkey and sent to Rome oddly by land rather than by sea with an escort of ten Roman soldiers to be tried by the Emperor Trajan. He wrote seven letters along the way and indicated that he was often made a spectacle along the way which meant being publicly tortured in coliseums.

In one of these letters which he wrote to a young, newly starting bishop by the name of Polycarp of Smyrna Ignatius states what he considers to be the most important things a young leader in the church should concern himself with. He writes:

“I beg you, by the grace with which you are clothed, to press forward in your course, and to exhort all that they may be saved. Maintain your position with all care, both in the flesh and spirit. Have a regard to preserve unity, than which nothing is better. Bear with all, even as the Lord does with you. Support all in love, as also you do. Give yourself to prayer without ceasing. Implore additional understanding to what you already have. Be watchful, possessing a sleepless spirit. Speak to every man separately, as God enables you. Bear the weaknesses of all, as being a perfect athlete [in the Christian life]: where the labour is great, the gain is all the more.”

That paragraph really spoke to me when I first read it 20 years ago while I was working through that there Doctor of Ministry deegree in the area of Congregational Redevelopment that has yet to gain me fame and fortune and the respect of my peers. These were in essence Ignatius’ last words. He was probably between 70 to 100 years old and advising a young Bishop who was just starting out. Not only did Ignatius have a wealth of experience, but tradition has it that he was instructed by the Apostles Peter and John and probably met Paul and that Peter hand-picked him to be Bishop in Antioch which was a major hub for missionary work in the early church. Tradition also has it that he was a child whom Jesus himself blessed.

The letters of Ignatius give as a picture of life in the early church, on what being the church was like in the churches the Apostles left behind. So, these words of a soon to be martyred elderly bishop to a young bishop just starting out are quite important. They help us to understand what was important then and this helps us to determine what’s important now for the life of churches. The early church exploded onto the scene in the first century amid much persecution. Today’s dying off, stumbling church could stand to listen to what Ignatius has to say.

Well, it appears that what was most important to Ignatius and therefore to the early church with regard to its life and growth was unity in the church. Ignatius says: “Have a regard to preserve unity, than which nothing is better.” Unity wasn’t just agreeing on things. It was the love that undergirded Christian fellowship. He gives advice on how to do that. Bear with one another which means to be patient with one another in our faults. Support one another in love. Pray without ceasing and grow in understanding of the faith and Scriptures. Get to know your people individually as much as possible.

As I said, when I first read Ignatius, I was doing doctoral work in Congregational Redevelopment. In the early 2000’s congregational decline was severe and church leaders were desperate for guidance on what they could do to turn their churches around. The advice one could garner from the field of Congregational Redevelopment was largely practical. It was things that dying churches could do to turn around the decline. It was to do congregational studies to discern strengths and weaknesses and overall health. Study the demographics of the neighbourhood in which your church was located to understand the needs of the people who live there and how your church could address those needs. Start a program like Alpha or an after-school program for kids. Make your worship service(s) either more contemporary or more contemplative. Most importantly, quit doing same stuff the way you’ve always done it and get rid of those damn dusty, plastic flowers.

Having made the career path mistake of doing congregational redevelopment in small congregations, I was quickly noticing that none of that stuff worked. Then along comes Ignatius saying pay attention to how you relate to one another in love because there is nothing more important than that. He sounds very influenced by Jesus’ teachings to his disciples – the greatest among you will be the least among you and servant of all; deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me; love one another as I have loved you, bear with one another in love; welcome children by humbling yourselves and actually loving them not because they are part of a program that insures the future of your church (and really show understanding love to their over-extended and exhausted parents who are badly in need of some rest); instead of judging others mind your own conduct and don’t give others a reason to judge you especially those outside the church; have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.

Peace and saltiness, let’s look at that. Being at peace with one another – giving regard to unity – is what we are about. This is what makes Christ-shaped, Cross-shaped, Holy Spirit indwelt fellowship different from all other forms of human community. It is what the Kingdom of God, or rather the Reign of God in this present world looks like. But…the Church too often does not look and love like Jesus. We’ve looked more like a religious institution trying to preserve the ways of a particular culture.

The past couple of weeks as we’ve been looking at Mark with Jesus and his disciples now heading to Jerusalem he has been trying to tell them that he will not be Emperor-like Messiah nor will their role in his kingdom be like that of Imperial regents for lack of a better term. Rather he will suffer and be killed by those powers that be and yet he will be raised from the dead. Thus, he will “speak truth to power” and pay the ultimate sacrifice and in so doing put to an end to all those forms of power that use death and the fear of death as the root and means of their power.

The way his disciples will reign with him is to do like-wise if need be but more so his disciples are to teach and maintain the Christ-formed life of the communities that will spring up in Jesus’ name all over the world. Among them, the greatest will not be the one with the most power, wealth, and influence. The “greatest” will be those who humbly serve even the least in society and even at the cost of their own reputation. Their way of life will blossom in showing generosity and hospitality even to strangers and especially even to enemies. It will be in seeking what’s best for others rather than simply looking after your own needs. The followers of Jesus are to embody among themselves sacrificial, unconditional, and mutual love for their fellowships bear the name of Jesus the Messiah, Lord and Saviour…and yes, those titles are meant to get the attention of the Roman Emperor. Power in the fellowship of disciples is different than power in the world. Power in Christian fellowship is the power of bearing Jesus’ name. It is the power of unconditional love. It may seem weaker than the power that comes from wealth and intimidation through fear and death. Yet, it is the power of God that overcomes fear and death and ultimately manifests in resurrection.

The saltiness in the fellowship of Jesus followers is our love for one another expressed in the way we serve one another. When Jesus said have salt among yourselves he was likely referring to a practice from Old Testament days when people would taste a pinch of salt together after they had settled a dispute and agreed to live peacefully with each other. Salt was also sprinkled on sacrifices to purify them and intermingled with incense that was burned during worship to represent the prayers of the people. The use of salt and saltiness is a metaphor for the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst. Without God’s presence at work in us giving us our saltiness we are useless.

As small churches, we the churches of this Cooperative, we are blessed in that peace and saltiness come natural to us. Loving and serving each other is pretty much all we can do. The “practical” advice of most of that Congregation Redevelopment stuff, well, should be taken with a grain of salt because we as small congregations of mostly elderly grandparent types have a wealth of guidance to contribute. The practical wisdom we have to offer sounds a lot like Ignatius saying, “Attend to unity, to the way you relate to one another in love, that’s what’s most important.” We small congregations look and act a lot like the churches the Apostles left behind. We must continue to do what we have come to realize is most important and what we’ve been doing all along.

Continue on by being welcoming, hospitable, and generous. Be encouragers. Be prayerful and live like we have hope. And most importantly, know that you each are beloved children of God – you really are. You really are. Don’t give people reason to turn away from God. If we lose our saltiness and cause other people to stumble over us and away from God, the we are a waste. As small churches, we are blessed in that we can attend to our unity, our saltiness, without having to be distracted by the politics of programming and all that. Our size gives us the gift of being able to love and care for each other unencumbered by “churchy” stuff. Let us embrace the freedom to love one another that being small affords us rather than be ensnared by things we cannot afford. There is nothing greater than attending to the bond of love that we share. Amen.

True Greatness

 Mark 9:30-37

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If there is one crucial mistake that children make, it is assuming that those in the front seat of the car are oblivious to what goes on in the backseat.  They think they are unheard when they start going on like, “I’m better than you.” “No, you’re not.”  “Yes, I am.”  “No, I’m better than you”.  “No, you’re not.”  “Yes, I am.”  “No, you’re not.”  “Yes, I am.”   “Ok. You are better…better at smelling bad.”  That goes on until somebody gets punched.  The parent turns and asks, “What are you doing back there?”  Knowing that they shouldn’t have been doing what they were doing, the kids answer “Nuthin.”  Kids are kids.

The Twelve Disciples here in our reading seem to be having a kids-in-the-backseat moment.  They’re walking along behind Jesus and seem to believe he doesn’t know what they are debating about.  He knows it’s the old “I’m better than you” bit.  When they get home Jesus asks them, “What were you arguing about?”  Knowing they were on about something they shouldn’t have been on about, they answer, “Nuthin”.  

Then Jesus calls their cards and his psychology is very interesting.  It seems he is saying, “If you are going to act like children, remember you are beloved children of God.”  Normally, when kids carry on in the backseat like that our parental response isn’t so kind.  It’s more like, “Cut it out or I’ll pull this car over and go all Mohammed Ali on y’all and really show you who’s the greatest.”  All things considered, I’m truly in awe at Jesus’ “parenting style” here.  He shows remarkable restraint considering it is those great, powerful people who will put him to death and here the Twelve are arguing which of them is the greatest.  Their denseness in this matter had to be unbelievably frustrating to him.  

In the Disciples defense, the pop-culture beliefs about what the Messiah was supposed to do was the polar opposite of what Jesus was saying would happen to him.  They were expecting to march into Jerusalem with an army of angels and Jesus would set up the kingdom of God and like princes they would sit on thrones right beside him and rule with him.  But who would be his right-hand man?  Who was the greatest among them?  That yet needed to be decided.  Maybe.  You see, just a few days before Jesus had singled out Peter, James, and John and took them up a mountain where they saw him transfigured and talking with Moses and Elijah.  Jesus giving quality time to those three is probably what started this argument about who’s the greatest. 

Jesus soon makes clear that being great and powerful by the world’s standards is not an aspiration his followers should embrace.  He teaches them that in his kingdom the truly great ones are those who humbly serve others.  The word Jesus uses for servant is the word from which we get our word “deacon”.  Deacons in general society back in Jesus’ day were table-waiters.  In the church “the Deacon” became an official title for those who served others by doing acts of love or looking after ministries that focused on the real daily needs of people.  Deacons did what food bank workers and Personal Support Workers do today.  Greatness isn’t having the power to rule over people but rather the humility to serve another person in very hands on, daily needs kind of ways.

Jesus then made his point by doing something that was quite feminine.  He hugged a child.  This was something a “real Man” wouldn’t do.  Men back then did not show affection to children in public.  That was a mother’s domain.  Men could teach a child to fight, or the work of a trade, or how to read, write, and do math, or the meaning of the Scriptures.  But for some odd reason, showing public affection to a child was showing weakness and was thus and so the domain of what was considered back then to be the “weaker” gender.

I hope you see the irony here in what Jesus is doing.  The Twelve had been acting childish in arguing over who’s the greatest so Jesus commandeered a nearby child and placed him in the middle of them.  It was probably a child they all knew or even a child of one of the Twelve.  Jesus then took the child in his arms.  He hugged him.  Then Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”  This would have been a shocker to the Twelve.  They were expecting to sit on thrones and rule over Israel and here Jesus turns it all upside-down and tells them to welcome, to show hospitality to children – welcome them, love them, cherish children as valued guests in their lives.  If they do that, then they will know what God is like. 

There is knowledge of God to be gained if we make a spiritual practise out of giving children space in our lives and treating them as most honoured guests.  Showing hospitality to children is a way of understanding how God welcomes us into God’s own life to share in the loving relationship that Jesus the Son and God the Father have in the mother-like embrace of the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

One lament that so many churches had pre-COVID was that we were all nearly childless.  We were longing for the glory days of lots of children because lots of children meant a successful church with a future.  It was difficult to have Sunday School and Vacation Bible School programs both for lack of kids and for teachers.  Who wanted to come to church only to miss because you had to teach your children or grandchildren in Sunday School.  Then there was the “Children’s Sermon”.  What if I did the sermon like we did those things?  What if I asked the adults in the room questions you didn’t know the answer to only to have everybody laugh at the answer you did give.  And then there’s the last hard cold fact about children’s programming – it always involved separating the children from contact with the adult church stuff particularly worship that they were expected to someday transition into…they didn’t and then they decided not to bring their children to church.  Something didn’t work.

Now, in the midst of this Pandemic parents are making the prudent decision to not bring their children to church at all because it is one more circle of risk exposure.  I am of the opinion that the relationship between the Church and children is now permanently changed and we cannot expect to go the way it was.  We have to find a different way to be the Body of Christ for children during and post-Pandemic.

Looking back at Mark, Jesus hugged that child and told the Twelve to welcome such a one, for whoever welcomes a child welcomes him and whoever welcomes him welcomes not him but the One who sent him.  How can we do such a thing when there are no children in our midst? 

These are difficult days.  I recently had a discussion with a mother whose 14-year-old son doesn’t believe in God anymore because of COVID.  She and her husband raised in the church and in a Christian home.  I don’t fault them nor their church.  Their son struggles with the question that if there is a God, particularly a loving God, how could this God let COVID happen?  At least 4.7 million have died thus far.  There is no easy theological answer for that. 

Moreover, people write books on this sort of thing and unless a person is willing take the necessary time and make the necessary effort to understand, then it is nearly pointless to attempt to answer.  My short answer is I struggle with that question too and only God can answer for himself.  Regardless, bad things do happen in God’s good creation even to good people and bad people don’t always get what they deserve; but, God is with us – God does make his presence felt; if you want to see where God is doing something, go to where there are people who for compassion’s sake are making great sacrifices even at the risk of their lives because that’s the way God is and we know this by Jesus’ death on the cross.  In today’s world that’s our health care workers.

Well, let’s turn back to welcoming children into our lives.  When Jesus said this to his disciples I think what he had in mind was our actually welcoming children into our lives; other people’s children not simply those of our own families.  We don’t need a program of Children’s Ministries to love children.  In the very least all we need is to put on a smile and a kind face and have the confidence that stranger danger does not apply to us.  If you live in a neighbourhood and there are children, take a few minutes to talk to them.  After a while the awkwardness goes away.  Talk to young parents being careful to listen to them and be helpful and sooner or later they will discover you’re a follower of Jesus and maybe become interested in Jesus because of you.  

Welcome children into your lives. Take the time to get to know the children that are around you.  Children are quite anxious at present.  The way we welcome children in the love of Christ into our lives as cherished gifts is the way God has welcomed us into his own.  Welcoming children is how we adults…who so often carry on like children...learn the nature of how God loves us as his own beloved children.  Amen.

 

On The Way

 Mark 8:27-38

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Please allow me a moment to do something I rarely do – act like a grumpy, whiney, stuffed-shirt of a minister who does nothing but complain about how things ain’t like they used to be.  I’m going to complain about that favourite childhood hymn “Jesus Loves Me, This I know”.   The words and the verses have changed since I was kid which were changed from a time before that and if you go on the web and look at the original verses, woah.  They’d scare the Hell out of a kid and I guess that was the original intent.  Today’s words are much more kid friendly.  We’ve only got three verses in our hymnal and the last verse is what really gripes me. I mean, what kind of cheesy, lovey-dovey mouthwash are they trying to brainwash our kids with?  Of course, I’m speaking facetiously here, but…that third verse really is problematic biblically, theologically.  When I sing it, I have to make my own changes to that verse because I just can’t sing it and feel I’m being faithful to the Gospel.

The verse goes: “Jesus loves me still today, walking with me on my way.  Wanting as a friend to give light and love to all who live.”  I think that the basic meaning there is that the light of the love of Jesus that I know from his presence with me shines through me wherever I go.  Well, I’ve not a problem with that.  It’s the “my way” that irks me.  Jesus walking with me as I go about on “my” way is hugely problematic.  He is with us always but the call is for us to follow him on the way not the other way around where he’s our buddy, buddy tag-a-long as we go about doing whatever it is we want to do.  It’s the same sort of misunderstanding of faithfulness that shows up on that “Jesus Is My Co-Pilot” bumper sticker.  Jesus is the pilot.  He flies the plane and we assist.  

If I were to change the lyrics to have it “my way”, I’d simply use the image that all the Gospels portray, “Jesus loves me still today.  Walks before me on ‘the’ way. Wanting as a friend to give light and love to all who live.”  Such a simple solution with profound implications.  We follow Jesus on the way, rather than Jesus tagging along with us on the way we want to go.

Looking at our passage from Mark, Peter’s game changing profession that Jesus is the Messiah and the ensuing conversation; Jesus teaches that as the Messiah he must suffer and die and that anyone who would follow him must also lose their self’s for the sake of him and of the Gospel in order to save their self’s.  If we are just living our own lives the way we want to live them believing that Jesus is just along on our ride to bless us, then we are missing the point which is: If we want to be part of God’s solution for his world, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him.  We must be minded on the things of God rather than on the things we humans devote ourselves to as we pursue our own gain all the while hoping God is with me blessing me on my way.

Let’s talk about “the way” here for a bit.  In Mark’s Gospel “the way” is an important place.  It shows up eighteen times.  As “the Sea” in Mark’s Gospel is the place where the Disciples get a glimpse of Jesus being God, “the way” is where Jesus teaches his followers faithfulness.  Oddly, we get don’t get our definition of what “the way” is until the very last time Mark mentions it.  In Jerusalem the Pharisees and Herodians came to Jesus trying to entrap him over the issue of paying taxes to Caesar. These religious and political authorities came to Jesus recognizing that Jesus teaches “the Way of God” (12:14).  “The way” is the way of life that God desires for us.  So, to be “on the way” is to be striving at what God wants us to be about.  It is while we are on “the way” rather than when we are standing still that Jesus teaches us faith.  

Looking at the places where Jesus and the Disciples are on “the way” in Mark’s Gospel we can learn a few things.  “On the way” the disciples learn that first and foremost the faithful life, the Kingdom of Heaven life is found in following Jesus and where he leads.  They are always following him.  That is their modus operandi.  At first, “the way” seems to be just going here and there aimlessly.  But after Peter’s profession here in our passage where the disciples finally get who Jesus is, the Messiah, “the way” takes a definitive direction.  Jesus begins to head to Jerusalem where he will suffer at the hands of the religious and political authorities, be put to death, and then resurrected to new life.  On the way’ we catch a glimpse of who Jesus is and it changes our direction.  The Way of God is integrally connected to Jesus and the direction of his life.

Jesus points out here that the way of God is following Jesus on “the way” in the faithful life of self-denial and bearing the cross rather than self-actualization and personal gain.  The Way of God Jesus had to take as Son of God was to Jerusalem, death, and resurrection.  His way was to empty himself of all earthly power to manifest the full power of God.  Jesus had to sacrifice himself in love to save God’s creation.  Miracles here and miracles there wouldn’t do it.  Becoming the most powerful person on earth and assuming an emperor’s throne wouldn’t do it.  Instead, the Son of God become human must as a human die and be raised in order to put sin and death to death and begin a new creation that will be filled with God’s Spirit.  This self-denying way of faithfulness and sacrificial love is the way we who follow Jesus must also take.

Some more about “the way”.  It is a meager way.  You won’t get wealthy on “the way”.  The Disciples take nothing with them as they go.  They have to scrounge heads of grain to eat in the fields as they go.  A rich, young man steps into “the way” to ask Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus looked at him and in great love for him (this is the only person Mark tells us that Jesus looked at with great love) told him to give everything he had to the poor and come and follow him on “the way”.  The man turned and left grieving because he had a lot of possessions.  Attachment to wealth can hinder one’s walk along the way of God, the way of emptying one’s self for others.  “On the way” we must rely on God to provide for us and we will be surprised at how abundant something called “enough” is.

There is conflict along “the way”, conflict with religious types who will use threats to try to convince you that the Way of God is keeping rules of outward appearances rather than exercising costly compassion.  With great coercive threats of damnation, the religious types will try to convince you that faithfulness is keeping up the appearance of being good, godly people who are all the while just judgers and accusers of others particularly the weak, the hurting, and the outcast.  This hypocrisy arises from the bitter, saccharine hearts that they inherited from their father the devil; to quote Jesus. 

“The way” is humbling.  “On the way” the disciples argue about who among them is the greatest. James and John want to sit on the thrones immediately to his right and left when Jesus takes over.  So, three times Jesus tells them that he must suffer and die and they must follow accordingly.  If Jesus has to tell us something three times, apparently it’s important and we’re being a little thick about it.  Greatness is found in humbly serving one another not in the false power of assumed leadership.

“The way” is also a place of great healing.  Blind Bartimaeus sat “alongside the way” unable to follow due to his blindness.  Jesus healed him and then he joyfully followed on the way.  This healing stood as a sign that spiritual blindness can be healed.  Following behind Jesus on his way to Jerusalem is where we see the nature of God most clearly.  The nature and power of Almighty God is self-emptying, self-denying, sacrificial love.  This love is what powerfully changes everything.  To understand this and act accordingly is seeing the way of God clearly.

Well, an interesting thing happens in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus and his Disciples and the rag tag crowd following “on the way” arrive at the destination “the way” leads them to – Jerusalem; the place where the way of God and the way of false religion and political power collide.  Those “on the way” did not take up arms. They didn’t get violent.  They didn’t try to run the government or take over the courts to impose their agendas.  Instead, they threw their cloaks down upon “the way” for Jesus to ride over as he entered town and they cried out “Hosanna” which means “Save Us”.  For many of those people that cloak was their only possession and their only protection.  Throwing it down onto “the way” symbolized the surrender of their self’s to Jesus who rides humbly on a donkey not powerfully on a warhorse.  Also of interest, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, he did not go to the palace of the king to claim it as his own.  Jesus and the crowd went to the Temple, the house of God.  His home.   But apparently, he didn’t feel at home.  He looked around and left.  Then, the next day he came back and cleared it of the big business and money laundering that the religious authorities had established there and he again started to teach in the temple courtyard.  It’s almost like the way that Jesus wages war is teaching the way of God.  Do we listen?

In this world, power is being abused by those in power.  Twenty years of war in Afghanistan that in the end served no purpose.  My heart breaks for this new wave of refugees and for those who cannot leave.  They are victims of the Cold War that was supposed to have ended in 1987.  In this world, a Pandemic soldiers on, conquering.  Its greatest weapon is fear unleashed in a salvo of misinformation and self-oriented life-style choices.  Proper medical care and vaccines are available to wealthier nations while poorer nations suffer greatly and we hear nothing of it on the news.  Indeed, we have no idea what havoc COVID is wreaking on the weaker, poorer nations.  We are more concerned about ourselves.  We are headed for a climate crisis that’s also fueled by misinformation and life-style choices that are oriented towards self-gain.  

In our reading today, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do y’all say I am.”  Peter, speaking as the representative of them all said, “You are the Messiah.”  Jesus is the one who saves God’s good creation from all its oppressors.  Peter made that profession after having followed Jesus around on “the way” and seeing many healings, the calming of the sea, the feeding of the 15,000+, and hearing Jesus teach.  It was obvious to them who Jesus is.  The church continues to make that same profession today, but honestly it is quite hard to say that we are throwing our cloaks down before him on the way.  We aren’t giving ourselves to him rather we are content to simply believe that he walks beside me on “my” way.  Friends, we need to change those lyrics.  Amen.  

Cross Your Boundaries

Mark 7:24-37

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A long time ago I went to High School and there’s a whole lot about that experience I would care not to repeat.  It’s a weird world.  Everybody was trying to develop their own style but still having to fit in.  If you’re too different, you’ll get eaten alive.  My Junior year we had Punk Rock Day.  My non top 40 taste in music included some Punk Rock so I got a flat top and sprayed it green and wore a suit.  Instead of people telling me it looked cool, I found out there was a rumour going about that I had lost a bet with my Cross-Country coach and had to get my hair cut.  No one asked me.  Just whispered.  I wasn’t the only person to colour their hair that day.  But, I was the only one to get a flat top.  I guess I crossed a boundary.

Also in High School different kinds of people didn’t mix.  Outside of athletics black people and white people didn’t tend to mix other than to fight.  There was a great deal of fear between us.  There were those on the Academic Track and those on the Vocational Track and not a lot of interaction between the them.  Which Track you were on was usually determined by family economic standing and what side of town you lived on.  There were the Jocks and the Rednecks.  Any interaction there was also in the form of fighting.  There were also the cliques of close friends that could be vicious to people of other cliques.  We never heard of anybody actually being gay.  That would have been a death sentence.  

All groups of people have their boundaries with respect to other groups of people and people who are different.  We find people who are different from us to be threatening.  We feel safest when everyone else is just like us.  So, we create boundaries in the form of -ism’s, myths, and phobia’s in order to reinforce our boundaries and keep “those” different people out.

This problem of boundaries is nothing new.  It was a particular concern in the early church.  The first Christians, the first Christian communities were predominantly Jewish, but oddly the Gospel of Jesus Christ appealed to people that were everything but Jewish.  In a few short decades the early church had to transition from being ethnically Jewish to being predominantly people of other races, ethnicities, and cultures.  That change came with a lot tension.

These two stories in Mark reflect and address the tensions that were in the church as more and more non-Jewish people began to come to the small gatherings of Jewish Jesus followers to follow Jesus too.   They tell the story of the moment in Jesus’ ministry when he took the Kingdom of God beyond the boundaries of Israel and opened it to the nations.

Our first story tells of Jesus’ encounter with a non-Jewish woman.  Christianity was very popular with such women because it was, at least initially for a while, empowering to women.  Women could be leaders in a Christian fellowship as opposed to being temple prostitutes, or virgins with no voice, or doped-up oracles who were making the cult-priests a lot money.  That’s what most of the other religions had to offer devout women and homosexuals.  

Jesus’ interaction with this assertive Syro-Phoenician woman has Jesus pushing the boundaries within the early the church particularly between Jewish men and non-Jewish women.  Jewish men frequently did not allow non-Jewish women to speak to them.  When it happened, Jewish men usually ignored the woman or spoke very rudely to her.  As we find Jesus doing here.  It is likely Jesus is pushing those limits in an All in the Family/Archie Bunker kind of way – minus the humour.  He was mimicking his disciples’ prejudices to expose how hurtful they were and then push them beyond their boundaries.  

This story follows Jesus miraculously feeding over 15,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  Afterward, the disciples collected twelve basketsful of bread.  Then it appears Jesus led them off on a Kingdom of God Share-the-Bread tour all over Isreal – twelve baskets for twelve tribes.  But then Jesus has them take the bread into the neighbouring non-Jewish lands to share the bread there too.  This conversation that Jesus demonstrates that non-Jewish people indeed even non-Jewish women can eat the bread of the Kingdom Feast too – in the very least, the crumbs that fall from the table. 

It appears that Jesus led the disciples with the bread into what is modern day Lebanon for the reason sharing the bread of the Kingdom Feast with non-Jews.  Upon arrival in Tyre, this Syro-Phoenician woman desperately sought him out and begged him to cast an unclean spirit from her little daughter.  Jesus’ response to her, which is more aimed at the Disciples than the woman, is “Let the children be fed first, for it is not proper to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”  She very wittily answered, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”  Jesus then healed her daughter on account of this woman’s faith.

Jesus’ racist, bigoted, sexist, xenophobic behaviour towards this Syro-Phoenician woman was out of character for him.  It is likely he was doing what the writers of All in the Family did with the character of Archie Bunker.  Bunker showed us how bad and hurtful our prejudices are in order to push us beyond them.  So also, Jesus showed his disciples that such behaviour and beliefs should be out of character for those who bear his name.  A good way for ministers and church leaders to deal such behaviours in churches is that when someone makes a racist, sexist, or bigoted remark is to ask “Would Jesus make a remark like that?”  The answer is “No, and so neither should we!”

Moving on, Jesus then took the disciples from coastal Lebanon all the way over to the region of the Decapolis, the Ten Cities, which is the nation of Jordan today and historically the land of the Ammonites who were in the days of Moses the last people the Israelites fought before entering the promised land.  There he cured a deaf and mute man.  It is interesting that Jesus doesn’t just outright heal the man, but uses a lot of heavy sighing and hand actions as if he was a marketplace medicine man.  I guess it’s that when we are doing Gospel things among people different from us we should do it in ways customary to them; you know, speak their language rather than make them speak ours.

Of most significance in this healing is that the “magic word” Jesus used was the common language of the people of Palestine.  It wasn’t Greek or Hebrew.  It was Aramaic.  Jesus put his fingers in the man’s ears and then spat and touched the man’s mouth and said “Ephphathah” (Ef-Faath-ah) which means “Be opened.”  This was the moment Jesus opened the non-Jewish peoples up to the Gospel of the Kingdom of God being at hand, opened them to both be able to hear it and to proclaim it.  From that point on, the Gentiles have received and participated in the work of Jesus’ Kingdom of God ministry.

To close, in the church today we have our limits that need to be pushed.  It would be a lie to say that racism, sexism, and fear of foreigners didn’t still exist among us.  In the last 30 or so years we’ve been having our limits pushed with respect to reconciliation with the First Nations, human sexuality, and an influx of refugees, and now the Vaxxer/non-Vaxxer stuff.  In all things concerning our boundaries we have to ask what would be in character for Jesus and do as he would under the litmus that he loved and died for all while all the while exhibiting great patience with everybody excepting the “religious” types who were rigid and hurtful with their boundaries.  If our actions and beliefs are not the result of compassion given us by the Holy Spirit who leads us to address our prejudices and cross our boundaries, then we have to accept that our actions and beliefs may not be of Christ but rather just us trying to feel safe by behind boundaries of prejudice that have proven hurtful for centuries rather healing.  That’s my two cents.  Amen.