WALLS THAT DIVIDE

July 19, 2015

Pentecost 8

Mark 6:53-56

Ephesians 2:11-22

(prayer)

This past week, I enjoyed some time with the 30 or so children who were part of the Peace Lutheran - St. David’s United joint Vacation Bible School.

Primarily, I looked after programming the last 45 minutes of each day: some singing, some games or videos - and winding up the theme for the day.

I have to say that these young VBSers absolutely loved the collection of rhythm instruments we have here at St. David’s.  By day three, I started wearing a mic and plugging in my guitar so that I could be heard above the symphony of sounds.

One of the songs I led for them was “All God’s Critters Got a Place in the Choir”

All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher,
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire,
And some just clap their hands,

or paws, or anything they got now

It’s a fun song - with a simple but profound message:  we are all welcome to see ourselves as people of God - as children of our maker.

And more so, we help make the music of God's mission.

It is a theme that grew out of the experience of the early Christian church.

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The movement that grew out of the original followers of Jesus expanded far further than the original disciples could have imagined.

As we read through the narratives of the Gospels and the book of Acts, we can see the progression of inclusion.

Jesus grew up in Galilee and focused his ministry on the northern tip of Lake Capernaum (aka Sea of Galilee, Lake of Gennesaret, Sea of Chinnereth or the Sea of Tiberias - on modern maps it is Lake Kinneret).

The bible tells us that some of Jesus’ first followers fished for a living.  Jesus and his followers seemed to make their way back to Capernaum from time to time  - sort of like a home base.

We also can guess that Jesus may have made annual trips south - perhaps around passover time - as part of his ministry - to Jerusalem and the Judean hill country east of the capital.  The bible tells us that he had friends in Bethany.

In spite of his travels, for the most part those who Jesus sought out - those he taught - were (like him): followers of the Hebrew faith.  To Jesus’ disciples, he was a great teacher, a mentor and a master (rabbi).  Sometimes, they even dared to imagine that he might just be God’s anointed saviour: The Messiah hoped for by the pharisaic Jews.

Even though Jesus’ ministry was (as he once said) to the lost sheep of Israel, he did evolve his thinking to believe that the Grace of God - which he shared in his teachings and healings - could also be experienced by people outside of his own religious tradition.

Most famously is a story told in the gospels of Mark and Matthew, where a gentile woman seeks Jesus’ healing for her sick daughter (non-jewish - in Hebrew "nations" = i.e. other nations).

In the story that Jesus rejects the request (at first) by comparing the gentiles to dogs: “It isn't right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.”  The desperate mother retorted: “even the dogs under the table eat the children's leftovers!”

“You are a woman of great faith!” And at that very moment her daughter was healed.

This encounter seems to be the first crack in the hard outer shell of the Jesus Movement - the Grace of the Hebrew God began to extend beyond the Hebrews. 

Now, within the lifetime of Jesus, there were only sporadic examples of a hope beyond Galilee and Judea, perhaps most well known was a parable where a Samaritan was the protagonist.

As we move beyond Jesus' lifetime, into the stories in Acts, the expansion continues.  First was actually an expansion within Judaism - to include those who lived beyond the Holy Land - the so-called Hellenistic (or Greek-speaking) Jews.  As the numbers of people in the movement swelled, it became clear that managing the needs of the group was too much for the twelve apostles. So, seven new leaders were named - and they all were from the Hellenists.

Later one of these new leaders, Phillip found himself on the road to Gaza where he met a man from Ethiopia who was a recent convert to Judaism.  After sharing stories about Jesus, Phillip agreed to baptise this man.

So being from the traditional lands of Israel was not the limit, nor was the edge at those who were born Jewish but lived in other lands - the Jesus Movement would also be open to all those who covenanted to follow the God of Israel - even coverts.

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But the expansion was not over. 

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At this point, the early Christians were all Jewish (either by birth or conversion) - we can assume that all of the male Christians had been circumcised as per Hebrew custom.

Then Peter had his dream about being hungry and only finding foods prohibited by the Torah.  In spite of that, God told him to eat and be filled - what God makes clean, Peter must not see as profane.  The dream was broken by an invitation for Peter to visit Cornelius - a centurian in the Roman army stationed in Caesarea, which was on the Mediterranean coast, southwest of Nazareth.  Cornelius was apparently enthralled by the Hebrew religious practices - he is said to have been a God-fearing man, who prayed and gave alms and did other good works - but he never converted - he remained, for all practical purposes, an uncircumcised gentile.

But like in his dream, Peter felt that God was calling him to share the Good News with Cornelius - God had declared this gentile good, who was Peter to ignore him.  So when Cornelius desired baptism as a follower of Jesus, Peter agreed and the deed was done.

As Peter said: “I am learning that God doesn’t show partiality to one group of people over another.  Rather, in every nation, whoever worships him and does what is right is acceptable to him”

Cornelius was not expected to convert to Judaism first before coming part of Jesus’ church.  This opened the door of the faith to a whole world full of people.

//

All God’s critters got a place in the choir.

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Easier said than done.  Old loyalties are hard to release.

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The expectations of those within the diverse early churches were constant issues that people like the Apostle Paul had to try and work out.  In his letter writing, Paul came down on the side that it was a person's inner faith that mattered more than rituals or religious practices.  Paul would phrase it as "faith over the law".

He was clear in his letter to the Galatians that Gentiles did not need to be circumcised to follow Jesus.  In the Roman letter, Paul discouraged people judging each other over what foods they ate.  In 1st Corinthians, he refused to rank various spiritual gifts.

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It is normal - when we have spiritual experiences that are enriching and meaningful to us - we expect them to translate well to others as well.

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In my life as a UCC minister, I have had many opportunities to work with people from other denominations - I like to spend the occasional Sunday off worshipping at churches quite different from my own.  I am quite open to learning how things are done differently - I try to not assume that every church does things they was we do things here.  And so, I am always floored when I run into other pastors who seem to have no idea how diverse the practice of Christianity is.  Some seem so isolated in their own tradition, that they think their way is The (only) Way.

I cringe every time I read an article or blog post by someone claiming to promote the “Christian Perspective” as if anyone can truly speak for all of Christianity - Christianity has many perspectives.  It depends who you talk to.

When I do Confirmation Classes, I usually invite the people to learn a little church history beginning and ending with assumed facts:

1.      Jesus started with a relatively small group of disciples who all learned and grew in faith together.

2.      In 2015, there are tens of thousands of distinct expressions of Christianity (denominations).  It has grown exponentially in the last 100 years.

There are reasons (there is history) behind the diversity of the modern church.

More than a few of these varied denominations are utterly convinced that they are the only ones who have got it right.

[old joke about various denominations in heaven]

//

From the book of Acts and from Paul's letters, we have evidence that this disagreement over what constitutes the beliefs and practices of Authentic Christianity was already a current topic in the mid to late first century.  We see signs of that in the part of the Ephesians letter we heard today.

Authored in the first part of the last half of the second century, it may orginially have been a form letter - a general letter not just for the church at Ephesus: the oldest manuscripts that archeologists have found are missing the reference Ephesus from the verse one - instead of To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful.  Some old versions simply say To the saints who are faithful.

Ephesus and other early church locations were filled with gentile Christians - many of whom were invited to believe through the ministry of the Apostle Paul and his partners, who focused their work on sharing the Good News with the wider world beyond Israel.

//

In the part of the letter we read today it said remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise ... you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus - himself - as the cornerstone.

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The letter that went to Ephesus (and maybe other communities) seems to trying to move beyond the language of Hebrew and Greek, Jew and Gentile, circumcised and uncircumcised.  The focus is on  being "citizens with the saints" and "members of the household (family) of God".

There was a time when the divisions mattered - when people were far off from each other.  But Jesus has brought the different groups together - in a way, Jesus has provided an atmosphere of peace, where those who were once divided can become one.

Ephesians says: [Christ Jesus] created in himself one new humanity... [he reconciled] both groups to God in one body through the cross thus putting to death that hostility... You are no longer strangers... but ... members of the household of God... [Together] you are built spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

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There are some wonderful images in those words that really resonate with me.  When we think of the crucifixion of Jesus, we think of the peaceful nature of Jesus in the face of oppressive rule of empire.  In retrospect, some Christians focus the cross on the atonement for sin.  Others see it was a necessary pre-step to resurrection.  In Ephesians 2, we are given another metaphor for instrument of death that the cross is - while Jesus is executed, so are the divisions between the Jews and the Gentiles.  In the empires fight against Jesus, peace (not conflict) emerges.

Gospel writers called Jesus a guiding light.  For the diverse churches in Ephesus and elsewhere, the truth of this coming together was being lived out.

//

It is ironic that the churches that knew unity through teachings like Ephesians 2, divided themselves along new lines over the centuries and millenia that followed.

I am thrilled to have been brought up in the United Church of Canada, which was born out of the desire to buck the trend of increasing denominanilzation - to find a basis of union rather than division.

It was exciting to learn that the United Church of Christ in the USA has agreed to be in "full communion" with the United Church of Canada - which means that ministers and members will be able to move between the two denominations as easily as they can within their denomination.  The UCCan will (almost certainly) approve the same thing in a few weeks when the 42nd General Council meets in Cornerbrook.

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Even in the shadow of these hopeful acts, there is still a lot of division within the Body of Christ.  And for good reason.  We interpret the themes of the bible differently; we enjoy different rituals; some of us look at those outside and are fearful, others are hopeful.

For me, I try to ground myself in the promise of the message of Ephesians 2 - that the basic essence of the Jesus experience is to break down walls rather than erect them.

Rather that looking at someone different from me and retreating in fear or readying myself to evangelize that person to be just like me, I try to see them as a fellow occupant of the vast household of God - the mansion with many rooms.

Ephesians says that each one of us is a dwelling-place for God.  That means that I can learn more about God by experiencing and embracing the fullness of God's family.

// end //

I hope that each of us will find glimpses of God in those we might see as strangers.

Let us pray:

Merciful God, through Christ walls that divide are broken. Forgive us for times when we have failed to live as a faithful community. May we in unity support our life together, and may we may know the depths of your love and grace. Amen.

***offering***

CAN'T BE IGNORED; WON'T BE IGNORED

July 12, 2015

Pentecost 7

Psalm 130

Mark 5:21-43

(prayer)

In our society, we are seldom of one mind - I know when I scroll down my facebook wall, even among people I identify as ‘friends’, our opinions vary.  In some cases, it is obvious to me that some of my (so-called cyber friends) have worldviews that seem to be markedly different from mine.  That’s the diversity of our human experience in a nutshell.

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Sometimes, when we find ‘our’ particular way of looking at things is not being honoured by those in power, we can become part of a protest.  And sometimes, these small protests events can blossom into a movement - sometimes, they eventually become new societal norms.

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As United Church people, we are part of a large branch of Christianity called Protestantism - it grew out of a realization in the western European church in the 16^th century that not all church leaders viewed authority the same way.  Prior to the 1500s, virtually all Christians in western Europe recognized the authority of the Bishop of Rome - a as leader of the Church.  Papal authority was paramount in terms of theology, scriptural interpretations, the role of clergy, etc.

The Protestant movement was directly influenced by the fact that less than 100 years early, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press.  Along with that, the 15^th century saw a rise in nationalism in western Europe.  Nationalism in areas like Germany and Gaul/France and England had people challenge the notion that leaders in Italy should govern their affairs - even in the church.  When you add to that the increased literacy rates that more books created and the fact that bibles were being translated into languages other than Latin or Greek, A religious “protest” movement (Protestantism) was an obvious outcome.

//

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I’m sure most of you were watching the news over the last several weeks from South Carolina.  After Dylan Roof chose to kill nine people in the Emanuel Church in Charleston based on the colour of their skin - there have been colliding worldviews over the impact of displaying the Confederate Battle Flag at the SC State Capital - a flag which, regardless of its history from 150 years ago, is the chosen flag of identity of modern white supremacists.

I suspect that most of you were like me: amazed at how quickly this protest movement changed the societal norm.  The momentum was simply too great - the time was right and change emerged.

//

I’ve quoted Margaret Mead before, but her words bear repeating again: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

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It doesn’t always work that way.  So many of us thought that when 20 six and seven year olds were killed in Sandy Hook School in 2012 that common sense gun laws would become the norm in the US. That didn’t happen.

In Canada, the Idle No More Movement and the wide publicity of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, have not been enough to convince the powers that be that the large number of missing and murdered aboriginal women deserves a closer examination. 

In fact, if there was a July photo that I saw trending almost as much as the flag coming down in SC, it was of Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Bernard Valcourt sitting as everyone around him gave a standing ovation when Justice Murray Sinclair called for a National Inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

I could go on... Bill Cosby and the impact of his own admissions in court documents; Taylor Swift getting Apple music to change their minds of paying artists when their music is streamed.

Public opinion is often challenged by the voices of protest.

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Our gospel reading today from Mark chapter five is a classic Marken Sandwich.  Those of you who have taken some bible studies or confirmation classes with me might recall that (in the gospel of Mark) several times, the author uses a writing technique of combining stories to emphasize a wider them.

As with Mark 5, the pattern is to start one story - interrupt it in the middle to tell a different story - and then go back and finish story number one.

Today, Mark tells us about Jesus being asked to heal Jairus’ 12 year old dying daughter and about a bleeding women who sneaks up to Jesus in a crowd and tries to secretly touch his robe as he walked by.

Mark’s sandwich in this case is based on a chronogical sequence of events:  Jairus invites Jesus to come to his house to see his daughter - on the way there, the woman touches Jesus creating a stir (even delaying Jesus’ rush to see the sick girl) - finally after talking with and healing the woman, Jesus goes to visit the girl - healing her beyond anyone’s expectations.

//

Jairus is described as a leader of the local synagogue.  It is unclear (from the text) whether this was a town where Jesus spent a lot of time or whether it was one of various villages, he visited around the Sea of Galilee.  Earlier in chapter five, it had said that Jesus had crossed to the other side of the sea to Gerasenes (south east part of sea); Capernaum (where Jesus met Simon Peter) is on the north shore).  In verse 21 (where today’s passage starts), it says they crossed the sea again, but it doesn’t say if they were back in Capernaum or if this was a new mission field.

Either way, Jairus was an important, respected local figure who was probably used to getting what he asked for in a timely manner.

You can see the obviousness of the conflict that arises when Jesus stops his walk to Jairus’ house to talk to the woman in the crowd.  She is a social outcast.  Hebrew laws dictated that while a woman was experiencing her menstrual cycle, she was considered ritually unclean.  Leviticus chapter 15, verse 19 and 20 read: When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.  Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean.

Let’s set aside the sexists issue of why a natural (read: god-given) aspect of womanhood should be viewed as impure in the first place and accept that for one week every month month, those who were concerned with ritual impurity would have to avoid menstruating women.  And women on their cycle would be expected to restrict their public involvements.

But the woman in Mark five had a serious medical condition that resulted in her having pretty much constant menstrual bleeding - a pattern that had persisted for a dozen years.  She has had to spend more than a decade avoiding contact and isolating herself.  We can only guess, but I suspect that she had literally on the edges of her society for 12 years.

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Jairus, as a leader in the synagogue was very aware of his ritual purity - on a normal day, he would have avoided the unnamed women in the middle of today’s Marken sandwich.

But she no longer wants to be ignored.  She tried to do it quietly so no one would notice, but Jesus noticed and he chose NOT to ignore her - even though the fact that the healing of Jairus’ daughter was being threatened by this known outcast must have shocked the crowd.  In everyone's eyes, her touching Jesus made him ‘unclean’ - how could be go into the synagogues leader like that!?

But the societal norm was challenged:  the law said that the touch was to transfer impurity - but, with Jesus, there was a reverse transfer - the woman was healed.  Regardless of whether her touching of Jesus made him unclean, that same touch, cleansed her!  "Go in peace; know you are healed"

This act of Jesus did more than heal her ailment, it ended a dozen years of isolation.  The woman could now be a fuller member of her community - she would no longer be an untouchable.

This was a healing with depth.

//

As we come back to the top slice of bread in this Market sandwich, while Jesus is still talking with the woman, word comes from Jairus' house: his daughter has died.

//

Have you seen the Will Smith movie, "I, Robot"?  Part of the back story is that Will Smith plays a police officer who was involved in a car accident that sent his and another car into the river.  A robot came to the rescue and chose to save Will Smith and not the young girl in the other car.  The robot had calculated that Will Smith had a 45% chance of survival and the child had only an 11% chance and so it ignored her.  "Eleven percent is more than enough.  A human being would have known that."

//

The text doesn't give us details, but I am sure that there were those in the crowd that were upset with Jesus for wasting time on the outcast woman, when his priority should have been the leader's child.

//

By the time Jesus and the crowd arrive at the house, the customary mourning rituals had begun.

The societal norms dictated that the time for vigil had ended and the time of mourning had begun.  But Jesus had more healing to offer and he would not be ignored.  He sent the mourners outside - the text tells us that they broke character and laughed at Jesus when he claimed that the child could still be woken up.

In a contrast to the very public healing display on the street with the bleeding woman, only Jesus, his disciples and the girl's parents were present this time.  The deep loss of Jairus and is wife were not to be ignored either.

"Talia Cum"

"Little girl.  Get up."

And she did.  No doubt to the amazement and joy of her parents.

Jesus' next concern was for the child - she was given something to eat.

//

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What lessons can we glean from Jesus' actions and choices?

Well, he refused to play favorites.

He was not going to let power, or status, or age, or any factor deter him from helping the woman in the street.

Jesus was not so set in his agenda for the day that he would ignore a spontaneous opportunity.

He could have said: I'm too busy right now.  Maybe later. 

He could have said: Jairus is a very important person - he deserves immediate attention.

But part of the nature of Jesus in this story is that he appreciates the grace that exists in each moment.

//

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It is hard to follow Jesus' example here.  I know it is for me.

I don't always like to change my plans - to take on a new project.

But I take from this passage the message to strive to be a bit more open to Grace.  To appreciate the opportunities to share in the compassionate work of God.

//

And so I applaud those who refused to be silent or idle, just because someone in power has decided that their voice has no priority.

I long for true and honest equality in our world - where the divisions of flesh and wallet are not determining factors.

//

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[From Seasons of the Spirit, June 28, 2015]

In Mark this week, healing comes both to a woman on the margins of community and to the daughter of a community leader.  Neither can save themselves.  But both the woman and the father of the girl risk reaching out beyond themselves and find healing in God.

The risk is in reaching out with a desire, so strong for renewal and justice, that it simply refuses to be ignore.

//

May we all be open to the opportunities to let Grace emerge into this world.

Let us pray:

Holy God, stir within us a desire to seek healing and community.  It is in those times and places when you are easily known.  Amen.

#88MV  “Over My Head”