September 27, 2015
Pentecost 18
Mark 9:38-42
Esther 7:1-4; 9:1-2, 20-23
(prayer)
Last week, my spouse and I
celebrated our anniversary a few weeks early by stealing away for a couple of days.
We spent time at a bed and breakfast that was on a small sheep farm on a mountainside near
Mission BC.
As we headed out on a
morning walk on Monday, our host encouraged us to take some bear spray along
with us… just in case.
We were sticking to the
road, which is darted with other farms and acreages, but coincidentally, as I
was returning from a late-night trip to the gas station down the road, I did
spot two young black bears along a forested part of the road. They ran back into the woods as soon as they
saw my car coming up the hill.
So, we carried the pepper
spray with us, just in case.
As one would expect that
the the odds would show, all we saw (in terms of non-human life) on the road
were some horses, dogs, birds and insects.
//
//
I was in a place I had never
been before – on a path I had never travelled before. I was not the first one to have been there,
but it was new for me.
And so, I needed to be open
to discovery and I was wise to heed the advice of those who had traveled this
way before me.
//
//
One of the best metaphors
for a life of faith is to view it akin to a journey. Faith is the exploration of a new path that
we discover as we move forward from one moment to the next.
And although many of us
find companionship on our journeys, each of our faith paths are unique – we
will veer off from each other from time to time; there are some, whose faith
journeys we will never share; and even when we appear to be on the same path
for a while, we – each – might have unique experiences. Faith can be that varied and complex.
//
//
As with any new paths that
we, each, might explore – we might find the occasional obstacles or forks in
the road that will have to respond to in some way.
//
Now, consider this – as is
the case when we travel a physical path, no matter how careful we are to be
gentle and unassuming, we leave our footprints where we have travelled. Even in small ways, the path behind us is
changed because we have been there.
In the 21st
century, with 7-billion-plus of us, homo sapiens, on this sphere, there is
almost no where one could go and not experience some impact of a previous human
presence.
//
One of the themes of the
bible reading from Mark this morning is that we are to be mindful of the impact
we are leaving on the path of faith. You
may have noticed the phrase “stumbling block” in Mark 9:42.
This is far from the only
place this theme appears in our bibles.
§
The
apostle Paul uses it in the letter to the Romans (14:13): Let us therefore no longer pass judgement on one another, but resolve
instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.
§
In
Isaiah 57 (verse 14): Build up. Prepare the way. Remove every obstruction from my people’s
way.
§
Again
from Paul’s writings (1st Corinthian 8:9): Take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a
stumbling block to the weak.
§
From
Malachi (2:8): You have turned aside from the way; you have
caused many to stumble [by your corruption] of the covenant of Levi.
§
There
are others, but one more from the letter of First John (2:10): Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in
the light; and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling.
//
The theology behind the
notion of a stumbling block is that, there are things that we can do that will
negatively impact the ability of someone else to experience the fullness of
their own faith journey.
//
Some people deal with
obstacles on the path in different ways.
Some will find ways around it, or over it, or through it. Some may even remove the obstacle entirely. Others will see how they can avoid the
obstacle, seek out another way. Still others might just stop, give up the
journey.
You may have noticed that
the second movie in the Maze Runner series is now in theatres (The Scorch
Trials). My son has the whole book
series; but I just started reading the first novel.
That got me thinking that,
maybe a variation on the faith is a journey metaphor, is that faith is like a
maze – with dead ends, obstacles – along the way, as we seek to find something: a fulfillment, an exit a
purpose?
For some people the hope of
that ending is what motivates them; for others, they appreciate the path as
they go.
Most of us, I suspect, do a
bit of both. And like any maze, no two
adventurers will follow the exact same path – even if they wind up at the same
place eventually.
//
//
The context of Jesus’
comments in Mark’s gospel is something that a few disciples noticed that
surprised them.
They noticed a person
(unknown) to them, who was doing the same work as them. This person was successfully offering healing
in Jesus’ name – in the same way that the disciples were able to do.
When this is brought up
with Jesus, it is clear that John and the other disciples saw themselves as the
exclusive holders of Jesus’ mission.
They could not imagine that anyone who did not share the same
experiences as them could be empowered by Jesus’ Way.
Jesus removed that obstacle-like
attitude from their path. Do not stop this person. Whoever is not against us is for us.
The text doesn’t give us
any hint, how this strange new disciple came to heal in Jesus’ name. Logically, he must have crossed paths with
Jesus for his disciples at some point.
Perhaps he was in the crowd one day.
Maybe he had witnessed good works being done.
Jesus makes a salient point
in this passage – we don’t necessarily need to fully understand how and why; but we can see the good actions and react to what we do know
and see. In this case, Jesus said, open
your eyes to a wider maze of faith than you had imagined before.
To stop this stranger-healer,
would be nothing less than trying to trip up the Spirit in her work in the
world.
Don’t be stumbling block to
Holy Work, just because you don’t
fully understand why or how it works.
In other words: Let your ‘path of faith’ embrace some
mystery along the way; allow yourself to be swept up in the current of the
Spirit from time to time; let the path guide you rather than the other way
around.
//
//
//
The book of Esther in
unique among the books of the bible for a couple of reasons:
1.
It
describes a slice of Hebrew history that parallels the time of Ezra and
Nehemiah. In the time of Cyrus of Persia
- after the people of Judah were able to leave their exile by the rivers of
Babylon - many of them returned to the land of Israel and began (what is
sometimes called) the time of restoration.
But some of the people, continued to live abroad – desiring not to
disrupt the lives they had come to know.
After all, the Babylonian Exile lasted about three generations, so the
vast majority of those who were given the choice whether to return or not had
never known life in Judah. Esther’s
story is one from a time parallel to the Restoration in Judah, when some
Hebrews still lived in the lands of Persia.
2.
Curiously,
it never mentions God; it is not a book about faith or theology. For that reason, you might (rightly) wonder,
why did it ‘make’ the bible? I’ll offer
an explanation later.
//
King Ahasuerus [A-has-uer-us] (as he is called in the
Bible or Xerxes I or Xerxes the Great as he is called in other historical
records) was a king of the Persia Empire from 486 to 465 BCE. Although biblical scholars are not 100% sure
which Persian king A-has-uer-us is.
The relevant part of our
story begins when the king (whichever one he was) grew displeased with his wife
Vashti; apparently, she refused to do a strip tease-dance in front of his party
guests one night.
That should tell you a lot
about the king’s character.
Anyway, A-has-uer-us
decides to find a new queen from a selection of beautiful young women from
throughout the empire. Among them was
Esther, who had been raised by her cousin Mordecai following the death of her
parents.
Long story short: Esther
becomes the new queen.
Mordecai and Esther keep
their relationship secret, but her cousin stays close to the palace to watch
over the new queen.
This turns out to be a good
thing for the king because Mordecai helps foil a plot to assassinate
A-has-uer-us.
But the tables turn when
Mordecai, who spends a lot of time sitting by the palace gates (to keep an eye
on Esther), draws the ire of Haman, the king’s prime minister, by refusing to
bow before him as he passes by.
When Haman learns that
Mordecai is Jewish, he resolves to kill, not just Mordecai, but all of the Jews
in the Persian empire. The king even
approves the plan, unaware that his new wife is Jewish herself – although I
doubt Haman’s plan would have included her because she kept her true hertitage
a secret.
Mordecai pleads with Esther
to talk to the king, but she knows she will have to get creative because she
was not allowed to just talk to the king anytime she wanted. She had to wait for her to summon him.
Again, long story short:
Esther arranges for a feast that will include both the king and the prime
minister – which is where we began our reading this morning.
Esther is offered by the
king any request of her choosing – she reveals that she is Jewish and asks that
Haman’s plan be cancelled. The king sent
out the decree – in both the language of Persia and in Hebrew – that, should
anyone try to harm the jewish people according to Haman’s original edict,
people were allowed to use whatever means necessary to stop them.
So, on the day that was
supposed to bring the defeat of the Hebrews of Persia became a day of their
liberation. From that time forward, the
14th of Adar was set aside as a day of celebration, which became
known as Purim, meaning “lots”
(because Haman chose the date by casting lots).
//
Even though, Esther and
Mordecai don’t evoke the name of God in any of the narratives, it is clear that
there remained identifiable groups of Hebrews throughout the Persian Empire,
who (it is fair to assume) worshipped and celebrated their faith in some way.
The fact that an on-going
festival (Purim) is the end result of the story, is enough for us to agree that
Esther’s liberating tale has earned a place within the Hebrew Scriptures.
//
//
Esther could have held to
her comfortable life in the palace – she had no real connection to the Hebrew
people or their faith. But a strong
relationship with her cousin / adopted father helped her see a bigger
picture.
She would do what she could
to clear a path for the liberation of ‘her’ people.
//
//
Whether the obstacles to
living peace-filled and faith-filled are ones of violence or inconvenience,
those of us who care about ‘the path’ have an obligation to remove whatever
stumbling blocks and barriers that are within our power to change.
//
I can think I can sum up stumbling
blocks to faith in one broad category:
·
Making the arrogant assumption that ‘my’ path
(which works for me) is the only path
that can work for others: I sometimes call this approach rigid fundamentalism and it can be found in all faith groups all
along the spectrum from progressive to conservative;
·
One of the ways this happens is that we can confuse
interpretation with having complete understanding and knowledge. We can read the same scriptures, even share
some common experiences, but the meaning and impact on each of us might not be
the same. Why is mine better than yours?
·
That is a way of saying that a stumbling
block we can place in front of others is born out of a refusing to accept
humility as a mark of faith (to accept, as a fact, that I don’t know everything
and that that is all right);
//
I try very hard not to be
bothered by others whose spiritual path is not exactly the same as mine.
I draw confidence from the
way Jesus is said to have phrased his teaching to his disciples in the passage
from Mark today: Whoever is not against us is for us.
Behind this phrase is an
indication that at some level people either support what Jesus is doing or not
(those for and against him).
In another passage in
Matthew (12:30), when Jesus is talking about being watchful in faith, he uses
the image of a person protecting the home from thieves, he says ‘whoever is not with me is against me.’ That makes sense in that context, speaking
about an active and obvious threat to the household of faith.
And yet, I think that it is
significant that in the context today, Jesus chooses to phrase this concept in
the most positive way – he says ‘until it
is clear that the support is not there, assume it is.’
I found a few blogs online
today that suggested an inconsistency in Jesus teaching because in one place he
is quoted as saying ‘whoever is not for me is against me” and in another
“whoever is not against me is for me”.
Either way, the phrase assumes that there is some way of telling which
of the two sides this ‘other’ is on. In
the end, you’re either with Jesus or not.
The negative phraseology is
used in a context where the opposition is obvious. That doesn’t have to negate the more open
attitude of the positive phrase – until I
see that you are against the mission and ministry of Jesus, you are not a
threat or worry that should concern us.
//
The paths we travel as
Christians are journeys where we are seeking some spiritual enlightenment;
where we are desiring a closer relationship with the Holy Mystery that is
called God; we are guided by the example and teachings of Jesus.
The influence of God is
vast.
We are encouraged to enjoy
our journey – to be made better by it.
Feel blessed in those times
when we share the road for a while.
And above all, let us take
care that – as we move along – that we do not leave unnecessary clutter behind
us that will be a stumbling block to others.
May we know God among us as
we move further into this holy mystery.
Let us pray:
God, grateful
for your deep love for us, we will take care to be kind to all of your creation
– this world, ourselves and each other.
Amen
#402VU
“We Are One”
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