Spokane Friends Meeting

Sabbath as Peacemaking

Last week Norman Pasche share with us about some different ways of thinking about the Sabbath. The one that stayed in my mind the most vividly was that rather than the Sabbath being at the end of a week of work, we should try organizing the week around the Sabbath, so that three days before we would begin to look forward to it, plan for it and think how we might spend it.

Then the next three days we would look back at it and what a good day it was to step back from the busyness of life, trust God to provide, and rest in thankfulness to God for friends, family, and creation itself, especially as it is so nice to be outside on days like we had this week.

Thus there is a rhythm to our life, a weekly rhythm that revolves around the Sabbath, the day of rest and spending time with people and playing and being aware of all the gifts God has given us. My comments today will focus on the Sabbath as resistance, and draws heavily on Walter Brueggemann’s book, Sabbath As Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now.

Sabbath as resistance – resistance to what? Resistance to the lifestyle experienced in Egypt. The ten commandments start with “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery”* Remember how Pharoah needed more and more storehouses for his grain, how when you asked for time off, Pharoah said “I will make you work even harder, now you have to find your own straw for the bricks, and you still have to make the same quota of bricks as before.”** That was how you lived before.

Now you shall take every seventh day off from all work, and I will provide for you extra manna for the day off. God is not a workaholic, the well-being of creation does not depend on endless work. Because the community of God is based on relationship, not commodities (number of bricks) – that is NOT what life is about.

The commandment to keep Sabbath requires more verses than any other one. The first three commandments take up six verses; that’s two each. The last six take up only 6 verses.But the Sabbath commandment takes four verses*** – why does it get so much airtime on the mountain? There was NO work stoppage in Egypt, any free time was used to gather more straw. System of frantic productivity – God nullifies that system – he breaks the cycle of production and we are invited to an awareness that life does not consist of frantic production and consumption. Stopping work gives us energy to take seriously the next six commandments about committed neighborliness.

Work stoppage is an act of resistance. It declares that we will not be defined by busyness, consumerism, and materialism, the pursuit of getting more and more things., either in our economics or our social relationships. Our life does not consist of commodities. No wonder Jesus invited his disciples out of the system of anxiety about what we will eat, what we will drink and what we will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air and the lilies of the field****. and that wonderful invitation, “All ye that are tired and heavy laden – come unto me and I will give you rest.*****

And there’s more! The Sabbath is for everyone, your family, your slaves, even your animals, and the stranger within your gates – everyone gets to rest just like you. It is a day of great equality. Not all are equal in production; some are more efficient that others. Not all are equal in consumption – some have greater access to consumer goods. If the societal goal is to produce more and to consume more, these inequalities lead to the “haves” and the “have nots”. The rich and the poor, the important and the unimportant.

But the Sabbath is a resistance to coercion by societal norms. On the Sabbath, you do not have to do more, you do not have to sell more, you do not have to control more, you do not have to know more, you do not have to be more young or more beautiful, you don’t have to have your kids in little league or ballet.

This day breaks the pattern of coercion, and we are all equal – equal worth, equal value, equal rest. Sabbath should be a great day of freedom and thankfulness. And it is a dayto remember! Remember when you were a slave in Egypt? [Do you fall asleep worrying or counting bricks? Thinking of things you ought to have done? Things you didn’t do correctly? How you can get ahead?]

Keeping Sabbath can help us feel less coerced, less driven, less frantic to meet deadlines, free to be rather than to do. And this new social order that we experience on the Sabbath can be carried back into the other six days of the week.

Finally, keeping the Sabbath is a resistance to multi-tasking. If we make shopping lists during church, or spend our open worship planning what we will do next week, try to get all our shopping done in the afternoon, this is not really a work stoppage – it represents a attempt to control more, to extend our power and effectiveness – it leads to a divided self. Jesus offers a warning to us: No one can serve two masters. . . you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.******

Observing the Sabbath is a big step toward a peaceful household and a peaceful neighborhood. The next six commandments describe neighborliness, ending with the last commandment “Thou shalt not covet” – an act that is the ultimate destruction of the neighborhood, because it generates mistrust and sets neighbor against neighbor. So that command is all about respecting the neighbor, which Jesus says is the second great commandment. Thus love of neighbor and thankfulness become the desired alternative to acquisitiveness and greed.

Jesus never said we should not practice Sabbath. What he did say was that the Sabbath was made for us, not us for the Sabbath. It was made for us, because it is important for us to take a step away from our six days of busy, busy, busy and remember who we really are, we are the children of God. The anxiety and agressiveness of many of our lives does violence to ourselves and to our neighbors and to God’s creation. We need to reconnect with God, with our families and our friends. We need time to be in community with each other.

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, he did not come as a CEO of a big company or a dealer in commodities, or with the trappings of wealth from all his hard work. He came, not in a limosine or a Hummer, but on a simple donkey as a person who was interested in people, not in material possessions.

We think of Jesus as the great Peacemaker (the Prince of Peace), and he asks us also to be peacemakers. During the whole last week of his life, which was a very difficult one, to say the least, Jesus never resorted to violence either in his actions or his words. We also know that he regularly went far away from the crowds to spend time along with his heavenly father. Practicing Sabbath could be our way of spending private time with God, and we also might return to the world less prone to violence and better equipped to be peacemakers.

Scriptures: *Exodus 5:4-18

** Deuteronomy 5:6

***Deuteronomy 5:12-15

**** Matthew 6:25-31

***** Matthew 11:29

******Matthew 6:24

Brueggemann, Walter. Sabbath As Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014;

Sabbath as Peacemaking: Leader’s Handbook. Cherice Bock, General Editor. www.nwfriends.org/peacemonth; peaceeducation@nwfriends.org

In a letter to the Episcopal Churches in the State of Maine, Bishop Stephen Lane wrote that the bishops of the Episcopal church, meeting for their annual spring meeting were, among other things, united in a deep sense of unease about the current state of politics in the United States. He wrote: “Of particular concern was the scape-goating of marginalized peoples for the decline of the middle class. Middle class income has been falling for 40 years, but it is not the fault of the poor, immigrants or people of color. Nor is our security as Americans suddenly at risk because people across the globe still see America as a land of opportunity.

“There is no reversing the growing diversity of our land. In fact that diversity is what God intended in creation. And, our faith calls us to welcome the stranger and to have compassion on the poor. In the current polarized environment, the church is called to be a voice of love and moderation. I invite each of you to consider the statement of the bishops and to do your part in bringing Christ’s love and compassion to our civic discourse.

“Remember, love overcomes death.”

What follows is the letter from the House of Bishops for Holy Week 2016

March 15, 2016

“We reject the idolatrous notion that we can ensure the safety of some by sacrificing the hopes of others.”

On Good Friday the ruling political forces of the day tortured and executed an innocent man. They sacrificed the weak and the blameless to protect their own status and power. On the third day Jesus was raised from the dead, revealing not only their injustice but also unmasking the lie that might makes right.

In a country still living under the shadow of the lynching tree, we are troubled by the violent forces being released by this season’s political rhetoric. Americans are turning against their neighbors, particularly those on the margins of society. They seek to secure their own safety and security at the expense of others. There is legitimate reason to fear where this rhetoric and the actions arising from it might take us.

In this moment, we resemble God’s children wandering in the wilderness. We, like they, are struggling to find our way. They turned from following God and worshiped a golden calf constructed from their own wealth. The current rhetoric is leading us to construct a modern false idol out of power and privilege. We reject the idolatrous notion that we can ensure the safety of some by sacrificing the hopes of others. No matter where we fall on the political spectrum, we must respect the dignity of every human being and we must seek the common good above all else.

We call for prayer for our country that a spirit of reconciliation will prevail and we will not betray our true selves.

“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?”  Of whom do you ask that question?

This text has forever been a hard one for the church. I’ve heard it used to point out that regardless of our economic status in our own community every American is super wealthy when compared with the rest of the world. That may well be true but that wasn’t to population to whom Jesus was speaking. We’ve all heard that the proverbial ‘eye of the needle’ was an extremely small gate in the Jerusalem wall through which a normal human had difficulty and through which no animal the size of a camel would ever pass. But it was a pretty clear metaphor that makes sense even to us who have rarely laid eyes on a camel and who have never visited Jerusalem. As the verse begins Jesus repeats himself and I have to imagine that he was trying to counter the rather prevalent notion held then and to some extent today that entering the Kingdom of God is easy.

Remember Buddy Holly singing “it’s so easy to fall in love” ? That’s kinda become our idea about entering the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of divine love and acceptance. Jesus calls us up short.

Mark 10:23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

28Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” … Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! That’s when we get the puzzlement from Jesus: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Folks of Jesus day didn’t talk about the economy the way we do today. The poor, the people of the land, includes those of the slave class. It included all those who own no land. It included those of the lower priestly class, the Levites, widows, orphans and immigrants. As we said recently Mary’s offering of birds at her rite of purification testifies to the families poverty, as were 99 per cent of the population. They lived on the edge of existence.

When it came to who were the wealthy what we know is that the Roman’s had confiscated most of the personal income. The family of Herod, a clan that  the people of the land said were the Jews who became gentiles, had enormous wealth and we recently saw an illustration of how that worked in the decapitation of John the Baptist. The High Priestly class, permitted to use the power of religious ritual to keep the people in line, were considered wealthy though they were dependent on the temple taxes from the poor. There were the remnants of old Jewish aristocracy who owned land, not to work but to rent out.  They would be included among the wealthy and there were a few small landowners whose livelihood was precariously dependent on the harvest.

Understanding, as best we can, when Jesus spoke of the wealthy he must have been speaking of those who didn’t feel they could afford to put their trust in God. Persons putting one’s trust in God would be those who took to heart the words of the prophets about caring for the dispossessed and vulnerable. It’s an interesting query that we might ask ourselves.

Jesus doesn’t say choosing the Kingdom is impossible, he simply says it’s hard – really hard. Hard enough for Jesus to be asked “Then who can be saved?” I love his response “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

Mortals can’t do it but left to God “all things are possible.” Salvation is a matter of divine grace. Jesus doesn’t leave the subject without a bit more clarification.

Peter opens his mouth – he reminds Jesus that at least the fishermen had walked away from their families and their family business. They had left everything to follow Jesus. Jesus didn’t deny their sacrifice.  He says: “no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.”

What I find interesting in this is that those who give themselves to the kingdom that Jesus proclaims be more than compensated in the ‘age to come’.  This isn’t about what you earn or about amassing points to be redeemed in the future or that if you do God’s work and God’s will you’ll be rewarded with the things of the world. But there is something more important in this than the economic issues. No place do we hear anything about the requirement of confession, or the need for absolution, no mention of practicing prescribed rituals or saying the right words. This is really good news, good news before those who sought to make a religion out of following Jesus. Now don’t misunderstand. Early in his ministry Jesus called his hearers, and us, to repent and believe. But repentance and belief are about redirecting one’s life and trusting in God’s kingdom.

And then there is the kicker. It absolutely blows our minds.

The gun goes off and we run the race – that’s one of Apostle Paul’s metaphors, and the outcome is being first across the finish line. On your mark, get set, go! It wasn’t long ago that we’d hear the line ‘the one who dies with the most stuff wins’. That isn’t it at all. Jesus’ memorable line is: But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. Jesus does it again. He turns the most basic rule of our understanding of success in life on its head. When it comes to the kingdom, getting ahead requires helping others get ahead. It is the most basic element in the culture of God’s kingdom.

Before we get out of this passage, I want to hold up a couple more verses 35James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?”

Of whom do you ask that question? A parent maybe. So first comes the statement “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you” That’s rather an open ended request. And Jesus replies “What is it you want me to do for you?”

What is it you’d ask Jesus to do for you? He’s asking, what is it?

A little later in this same chapter Mark tells of Jesus and his disciples encounter with Bartimaeus, a blind beggar. Jesus says to him “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.”  Jesus keeps asking “What do you want me to do for you?”

Suddenly the narrative ends. When the disciples look around they saw no one with them–only Jesus!

Transfiguration Meditation

Mark 8:27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” ²⁸And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” ³⁰And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

³¹Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³²He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

³⁴He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ³⁸Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

9:1 And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

²Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, ³and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. ⁴And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. ⁵Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁶He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. ⁷Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” ⁸Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

So here’s the question Jesus asked his closest followers: Who do people say that I am?  I’m reminded of what’s been going on in Iowa and New Hampshire and of the people I “see” on Facebook. Registered Republicans are being asked that question by Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump as are Democrats being queried by their candidates. It’s not so much who is the candidate, it’s who are you as you make your choice, voice your opinion and ultimately cast your ballot. When asked, the Disciples displayed the same kind of indecision that we are seeing in the news.  In Jesus’ case, especially after the event with Herod, some thought, “Well, maybe he is John the Baptist.” And others suggested Elijah or another of the prophets.  The big question finally wasn’t who do others say, it was ‘…who do you say that I am?” Peter voices his opinion. Got to give him credit for that.  And how he said what he said was important. He didn’t say I’ve studied the poll numbers, I’ve read all your policy statements, some by the way kinda stretch credibility, so in my opinion I think you might very well be the messiah.  He said “You are the Messiah.”

The question became important to Friends.  As early as 1648 Quakers were refusing to say ‘you’, a second person plural pronoun for a second person singular that fed puffery. It’s a quirky Quaker thing – to call an individual ‘you’ in the time of early Friends rather than the correct ‘thou’ that was the correct second person singular. It was to say that ‘you, my friend, are more important than any one individual. And some people thought that they were.  It got some early Friends thrown in jail. But much more to the point, in 1652 George Fox after visiting Swarthmore Hall went to the Ulverston steeplehouse for a public meeting and Margaret Fell and her children were there. She recalled him saying “thou will say Christ saith this, and the apostles say this; but what canst thou say?  Art thou a child of Light and hast walked in the Light, and what thou speakest is it inwardly from God?”

That was one of the important reasons Quaker’s claim to be ‘non-creedal’ on an institutional level – what’s important in my testimony of Christ’s work in my life only has integrity as it is what I say, not what someone else has written for me to repeat.  It’s also the reason Friends have difficulty with a great many of the hymns of the church – again, it is someone else’s experience and someone else’s words.  The question lingers – ‘what saith thou?’

After Peter voiced his own understanding of who and what Jesus was, bless his impetuous heart, when Jesus described what it means to be the Messiah where Jesus says : “…the Son of Man” that’s how Jesus referred to himself, “…the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Peter can’t help himself. He rebukes Jesus for saying those things. Jesus tells him that his mind was on human things not things divine.  Jesus scrubs away any hint of that following him is a path to earthly greatness or acclaim. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. “  That’s the cross that is on the wall in this Meeting house.  It’s not a replica of the cross on which Jesus died, it is a reminder of this verse. It’s not about his sacrifice, it’s about ours. It get’s back to that ‘what saith thou’ thing.

In the ninth chapter of Mark, with Peter, James and John as witnesses, Jesus goes up into a mountain, apart from the crowds. And Mark relates the story of what we’ve come to call his transfiguration.  No, we don’t understand it. Artists have tried to paint it and in reading it we can’t imagine it. Beside the radiance, the report is that Moses and Elijah join Jesus in conversation.. Deuteronomy reports Moses having died but admits that no one knows where he was buried. Elijah didn’t die an earthly death but was taken up in a windstorm. Whatever the circumstances, for a few moments their presence is witnessed by the disciples. Again, Peter, unable to contain his enthusiasm interrupts the conversation and says to Jesus “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

Of course the three disciples were thoroughly Jewish in their thinking.  I’d wish we could properly date the story of Jesus’ transfiguration because even a casual reader who knows only a bit about Judaism can’t miss the similarity to the Jewish feast of Sukkot. They build a temporary shelter, a booth, in which they take their meals for eight days. It is a time of renewed fellowship with God. A time to recall how God had sheltered their ancestors in the desert, surrounded by clouds of glory. It comes immediately after a time of “awe” – like the disciples were experiencing. So much so that the next thing that comes from Peter’s lips is : ⁶He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.

From the gathered clouds comes a voice that says: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” And the apparition abruptly ends.

Like Peter, times will come for us when proclamation is no longer appropriate. When we don’t know what to say. And what is appropriate is to be quiet, when God says “This is my Son, the beloved; listen to him! Sometimes it’s hard to know the difference, when we feel called to respond to the inquiry ‘What saith thou’ and then when we don’t know what to say.             Early Friends realized that this was more common than thought so they warned us about ‘out running one’s leading’. An example John Woolman shares in his own journal. He writes that he felt a strong leading to travel to the Barbados to minister to Friends there who held slaves. He purchase the ticket for passage and traveled to the port from which the ship would depart. On arriving at the port he had a strong sense of the leading having been completed and so he did not sail but turned around and went home!  Our leading may be more like Peter’s than Woolman’s. It may be that the most important thing for us to do in that moment is to, one, keep silence, and two, recognize that we are in the presence of Christ and as God instructed Jesus’ disciples, we are to listen to him.

Suddenly the narrative ends when the disciples looked around. They saw no one with them – only Jesus.

Where did he get this wisdom? From where does he get this power? Isn’t he one of us? He’s one of Mary’s boys – and they listed them by name. And their astonishment turns to offense.

Astounded and Offended; Amazed and Perplexed

Mark 6 He (Jesus) left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” 5And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Jesus was back in the synagogue again. The healing of Jairus’ daughter opened the door and the hometown crowd were astounded when they heard Jesus’ words and wisdom. And when they saw the ‘deeds of power’ that stretched their ability to comprehend.  Where did he get this wisdom? From where does he get this power? Isn’t he one of us? He’s one of Mary’s boys – and they listed them by name. And their astonishment turns to offense. It seems hard to understand. How could such insight and wholeness be the basis for rejection? Jesus disrupted their understanding of who they are and who they could be. Evidently that’s not always appreciated. For the Synagogue people it wasn’t ‘good news’.

If there is any truth in that analysis what does it say about how we apprehend for ourselves the truth of Jesus’ message? Jesus is too generous. He offers what we all want but to own it requires too much of us – our not living into that grace has to be blamed on someone – someone else. In her blog Marcelle Martin listed ten elements of the Quaker Spiritual Journey which she discovered in her extensive reading and spiritual quest. She first identifies “Longing”, “Seeking”, “Turning Within” but says these bring a person to the next three: “Openings”, “The Refiner’s Fire”, and “Being Gathered into Community”. Not devaluing the experience of receiving guidance as in ‘Openings’ and the warmth and acceptance of a “Gathered Community” – the greater hurdle is having to being open to the work of what early Friends called the “Refiner’s Fire”.

It was a biblical metaphor adopted by Friends to described the process through which Christ’s Spirit melts away what is within us that resists God and God’s way. It is the refiner’s fire that burns off cravings for comfort, pleasure and social status. Through the work of the Refiner’s Fire temptation, sin and disbelief are gradually melted away. The Refiner’s Fire – that’s what Jesus’ teachings presented to his friends and neighbors, a challenge to become more.

A bit further in Marcelle’s list she holds up what she calls “Living in the Cross”. She describes saying that following Christ’s leading in our lives requires time and energy on behalf of others with a diminishment of creaturely desires and personal preferences. And she points out that giving witness to kingdom values and taking up counter-cultural ways of living elicits resistance from others.

Phrases like ‘The Refiner’s Fire’ and ‘Living in the Cross’ sound like places we don’t want to go and sacrifices we don’t really want to make.  We prefer a kinder, gentler gospel that puts a song in our hearts and gives us assurance that maybe we aren’t just fine the way we are but we live in anticipation that when all’s said and done we will  have pie in the sky.

Mark tells us that as Jesus’ name became more widely known King Herod began to imagine that Jesus was John the Baptist brought back to life. Then the evangelist tells us the whole horrid story. This is what had happened:

17For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. 18For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, 20for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. 21But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. 22When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.” 23And he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” 24She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.” 25Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” 26The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. 27Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, 28brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. 29When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

So much for integrity as being the finest characteristic of ideal humankind. Mark 6 holds up for us to see two instances where the actions of persons ‘righteous and holy’ in the story of John the Baptist and in Jesus’ situation, of ‘wisdom and power’ elicit resistance and rejection, and in both resulted in their execution. This certainly doesn’t sound like the ‘success gospel’ so popular today. It says that following Christ is risky business. Yet sitting between these two stories in Mark’s Gospel we find this:

Then he went about among the villages teaching. 7He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; 9but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

What? How audacious? Despite the promise of resistance, rejection and possible execution Jesus calls twelve and sends them, two by two, like animals from the Ark, to proclaim that all should turn their lives around. And lives were changed. And through the continuing work of Christ’s spirit the calling and sending, the hearing and responding continues and that’s good news.

It’s reminiscent of Hannah Green’s novel “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden.” which told the story of a young woman’s battle with schizophrenia and led her to embrace the challenges of earth. Of course most of use only recall it from the song sung by Lynn Anderson – almost fifty years ago –and it’s still in our popular language.

I could sing you a tune and promise you the moon But if that’s what it takes to hold you I’d just as soon let you go But there’s one thing I want you to know You’d better look before you leap still waters run deep And there won’t always be someone there to pull you out And you know what I’m talking about So smile for a while and let’s be jolly love shouldn’t be so melancholy Come along and share the good times while we can I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden Along with the sunshine there’s gotta be a little rain sometime…..

 Today is the 1st Sunday of 2016.

My favorite Sunday of the year – “Vision Sunday” (as I think of it)

For the past year I’ve been employed as a Realtor, something I’m really enjoying, serving people in that way. A nice change from pastoring, which has an incredibly high burnout rate.

For the 8 years before that I served as a local church pastor, and my first sermon of the year usually revolved around a variation on the following Query…

“What will this new year look like for you?” [individually]

(pause)

When leading a congregation, I’d ask that and a parallel question for the congregation, inviting them to listen together for how God might be desiring to move in their midst in the coming year.

And so we’d listen together (privately, and then sharing those individual leadings together over a period of months). Quakerly, bottom-up approach to vision-casting for a church, something the leadership team normally tackles, at a more hierarchically organized church body. Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses.

But today I’m just here as Jed, not pastor Jed addressing a congregation he’s been called to lead long-term (in servant leader fashion).

So today I’m asking this query entirely personally:

“What will this new year look like for you?”

(pause)

You can almost envision it as something that descends from above:

“Here is your 2016.” … “Thanks!”

What does it contain? Many parts of that are beyond our control. What stresses, what challenges? What gifts, what blessings. Much of this is beyond our control, others are not!

I think that’s a really important question to ask at the start of every new year.

“What will this new year look like for you?”  

“What do you desire this new year to look like?”

You’ve probably heard about the difference between a question and query?

A query is Quakerese for spiritual question – a special kind of question.

It’s a question we invite God into (if that makes sense?).

A query is a question we ask ourselves that creates space for God to work within us. A query invites God to bring change to us, internally.

Answers tend to be very definitive, but in subtle ways they can close us.

Once we know an answer we tend to move on, give it no further thought (“check”).

Answers don’t seem to promote growth as much as a good question does.

The teachers in the room know what I’m talking about. When you lecture, students eyes tend to glaze. Engage them in discussion, and they might actually remember something (without the threat of being tested forcing them to memorize something).

Unlike good answers, which are somewhat lifeless, good questions tend to open us to God, tend to grow us.

So a personal query isn’t a question for us to answer privately. It’s an expansive question that we bring before God, and discern in dialogue and communion with Him.

In this way, Discernment is a kind of listening-prayer that is vitally important to our spiritual life. If you’re not listening to God, what are you doing?

[pause]

This may sound strange, but I’ve come to think of lifeverses as a kind of query.

We can allow a passage of Scripture (or a fragment of a poem, etc.) to act as a question, dialoguing with our life.

So each year I listen hard for a vision for the new year (a God-inspired direction to take).

And an important part of that is listening process is listening for a lifeverse for the year.

That lifeverse helps cement that free-floating vision into reality, helps manifest that vision in practice in my actual day-to-day life.

I’ve been praying on this for several months, and for 2016 it seems to be Jeremiah 2:13. That’s the one that keeps coming to me with this sense of… rightness, it fits, belonging.  

This passage could feel a little heavy, because of the mention of “evil” at the beginning. But I’m finding this one life-giving and spiritually vitalizing.

“…my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water,

and dug out cisterns for themselves,

cracked cisterns that can hold no water.” (NRSV)

When reading this, it’s important to remember that the English word “evil” always means malevolent, diabolical; a serial killer vibe. In English, evil is a very strong word, whereas in Hebrew and Greek, the word connotes a whole spectrum from bad/harmful to malevolent/diabolical evil.

The Greek and Hebrew words usually translated as evil often mean that, but in many contexts the same word merely means bad, harmful, toxic.

For example, we get our English word cacophony from the Gk. kakos (the word for evil in the NT). A cacophony is discordant, chaotic, the notes don’t sound good together. But it’s not an evil noise, per se.

Cacophony story: my mom’s birthday gift for Brett’s 3rd birthday.

So in this case, you might replace the word “evil” with “spiritually toxic,” which is always at least a little synonymous with what Scripture refers to as evil. Evil is spiritual toxicity to a fatal degree.

“…my people have committed two evils: [They’ve spiritually poisoned themselves in 2 ways]

they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water,

and [instead] dug out cisterns for themselves,

cracked cisterns that can hold no water.” (NRSV)

“My people” = godly religious people like you and me, doing our best to live right with God and others.

“Broken cistern” religiosity = barren, habitual, mechanical.

Not life-giving, spiritually nourishing, vibrant.  

Fountain (Lexham English Standard: Spring)

A fountain is a stream of water; it is specifically a source of water. As such it is very similar to two other English words, well and spring. Since the fountain more precisely indicates the source or origin of water, its figurative use often means source of life.

Psalm 36:9 refers to God as the “fountain of life” (NIV).

Cistern

Modern urbanites, particularly in the West, tend to overlook the importance of water conservation for the life and well-being of a community. In an era when water pours from faucets hot and cold, the significance of a cistern is easily lost. The limited rainfall of Israel made cisterns an absolute necessity, and it is likely that in dry settled areas most homes had a cistern fed by rainwater gathered on the roof during the rainy season. Most of the cisterns that have survived were cut into the limestone in a bottle shape, plastered to help retain the water and sealed with a stone to prevent contamination and evaporation. Freestanding containers of various materials were also employed in a manner much like the “water barrel” of the more recent past.

In Jeremiah 2:13 a cistern is contrasted with a well so as to create a negative image. Yahweh is the fountain of living water who has been abandoned for broken cisterns that hold no water at all. In this colorful passage there seems to be an implicit assumption that cistern water is inferior: cisterns are difficult to maintain, and the water was subject to becoming stale and harboring parasites.1

Women’s Issues

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. 22Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.”

24So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. 26She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” 29Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” 31And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32He looked all around to see who had done it. 33But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

35While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” 36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” 42And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

As head of the Capernaum Synagogue it seems highly likely that Jairus knew Jesus and his family and though it was a large congregation it’s most likely that Jesus knew Jairus’ family as well. Jesus would have been a standout in any congregation.  He was strange.  On one hand he seemed intolerant of some of the practices surrounding Jerusalem Temple worship, often quoting the Prophets in discussions where he castigated the leaders there. On the other hand within their faith community in Capernaum I suspect that he was very active, especially with the children’s program. He represented the very best in Judaism, and though a bit lax in following the rules of ceremonial and ritual hygiene no one ever got sick and the kids loved his sense of humor. Most of the adults avoided conversations with him about politics, religion and ethics. He seemed to ignore the Roman occupiers, treating them as ordinary persons in everyday commerce to the extent that some thought him to be a collaborator.  But one thing was without question, Jesus was a Jew, an observant Jew, and one that Jairus was glad to have as part of his community.

Most in the community had been pretty quiet about how Jesus developed a reputation as a faith healer. He often would tell someone who felt that he was responsible for their healing to keep it under their hat. 

Jairus remembered the day, it was a Sabbath, that in the synagogue, Jesus had taken the withered hand of one of the men into his own and quietly offered a prayer and the man’s hand was restored – right in front of everyone. It seemed miraculous and it resulted in a group of Pharisees to begin their effort to destroy him and his ministry.  Of course, Jesus had brought that on himself.  As he and his group of followers had travelled in the area, on occasion after occasion Jesus would bait the Pharisees in their legality, at times rubbing their noses in their restrictive legalism, when contrasted with grace.

But with the healing in the synagogue and on the Sabbath Jesus had crossed a line. They brought authorities into Capernaum from Jerusalem, lawyers and scholars, and made the case that Jesus should be denied access to the synagogue and take his demonic ways elsewhere. Jairus, as a synagogue leader, didn’t think he had was in any position to challenge the authorities.

            So outside of the place that Jesus loved the most, a place where healing should be the norm, the community of the faithful, Jesus continued his ministry among the people. Jairus was more than aware of what Jesus was doing and where he was doing it, there was no way for him to avoid it, Jesus’ work being on everyone’s lips. Jairus knew that faith healing and faith healers were to be avoided because they might be the handiwork of another religion or even demonic elements, that’s of what the authorities accused Jesus.  But he was also aware of those stories in the Mishnah, stories of spiritual leaders of old of whom it was said would take the hand of an ill person and raise them from sick beds if not deathbeds. Faith healing, though irregular had its place, when it wasn’t connected to magic, superstition or some other religion.  Maybe, Jairus thought, Jesus’ wasn’t possessed by evil, but the cost of taking his side was too great. The synagogue is where healing should be taking place, it was the where the people of faith gathered.

            Returning home after spending the day at work Jairus’ wife met him at their door. “Our daughter is no better. Her pain is worse. She hasn’t eaten anything. No one seems to be able to help. I think she’s going to die unless something is done.”

            The girl was twelve years old and was maturing normally until recently and she started losing weight and what has been irregular menstrual periods became non existent. Jairus’ wife had called in everyone she could think of to help her daughter and Jairus himself was beyond worry. He had waited and waited, hoping for a solution. He had prayed for his daughter’s healing and things had only gone from bad to worse. Anorexic, she was wasting away. Despite all that had gone before he knew what he had to do. Jairus left the house and began his search for Jesus. His plan was to beg him to come home with him and heal his daughter the way he healed others. After the way Jesus had been treated, and given that he hadn’t stood up for him against the authorities from Jerusalem and some of the locals who held to a very stringent interpretation of the law, it would only be understandable that Jesus would turn a deaf ear to his request. But he had to try.

            And the text tells us that he found Jesus doing what Jesus was wont to do, surrounded by a crowd along the sea side. He fell at Jesus’ feet and began to beg. And Jesus went with him and as they walked the crowd didn’t just follow, the text says they were pushing and shoving.

            Among the crowd was a woman who, according to the text had suffered hemorrhages for twelve years. It’s one of the great stories of the New Testament. She initiated the contact. She simply reached out in faith and touched Jesus’ garments. No confession sin. No pronouncement of grace extended. And she was healed. Jesus felt ‘a power’ go out of him but in the press of people had to ask who was the recipient. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

            She had to find healing out among the populace rather than in the synagogue, the community of faithful. Her affliction, totally beyond her control, meant that she was continuously ritually unclean. She wasn’t allowed near the synagogue. She was ostracized from the faith community, the source of healing for the Jewish community. Imagine that, ritual rules trump human need. Hard, fast interpretation of scripture, enforced by the faith community serves to deny access to wholeness.

            But the text takes us further. While dealing with this woman who experienced the grace of a faith healer the servants of Jairus showed up to inform him that he had waited too long to seek Jesus. It was too late. The twelve year old was dead. Jesus tells Jairus to not believe them. “Do not fear. Only believe.” That’s what the woman did who touched his garment. With only a couple of Jesus’ closest followers they proceeded to Jairus’ home. When he silenced the mourners and declared that the girl was just sleeping he was ridiculed.

            Jesus did exactly what the masters of ancient Judaism had done before, he took the girls hand and said “little girl, get up” and to everyone’s astonishment that’s what she did. Two more things were said. The first leaves us scratching our heads: “Don’t tell anyone” and the other was so practical as to have been unnecessary: “give her something to eat.” How very practical, even after restoring the girl to life Jesus doesn’t forget her most basic human need.

 “Give her something to eat”. Matzos ball in chicken soup?  He healed but he was also concerned about the rudiments of life. And what does that say about us, the church – not just focusing on being a community of faithful but looking out for the most basic needs of people. 

            The twelve years the woman suffered her discharge that separated her from health and wholeness and from the care of the faith community at the insistence of the religious authorities was the same twelve years of the young girl’s life, lived under the care of the leader of the synagogue.

            What a wonderful story that challenges us in many different ways. Do we too wait too long to seek Jesus when our lives lack wholeness? Do we, in league with the religious police banish from the community of faith those who need the inclusion most? Do we fail to make our voices heard when injustice is perpetrated? Are we unable to see that the needs of those outside of the community of faith are very much of the same category as those we care most about? Dare we, in nothing but faith, reach out to touch the garment of the one who brings wholeness? And is our care for spirituality balance with a care for addressing the most practical of necessities?

The Point of Parables

From Mark 4: Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3“Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. 7Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” 9And he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

10When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; 12in order that

‘they may indeed look, but not perceive,  and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”

13And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?

Near the end of the chapter Mark tells us: 33With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it;

There are several parables in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark. Sowers, seeds, and lamps all make appearances. Some count as many as 46 parables in Jesus’ teachings, others count 33 and yet others stretch the number to sixty. As I just read, when trying to understand the parables we need to recall that Jesus actually comments that part of the reason behind parables is to confuse people, to block people from understanding. Yet when Jesus realizes that even his disciples don’t get the parables he explains them. The disciples get let inside because Jesus calls them. As God calls other people, we too are let inside. The parables require our active engagement. And more importantly, they require God. And that’s the point.

I’ve heard people argue that parables have only one point to make. However, on closer scrutiny we learn that those sources have been greatly influenced by Aristotelian Greek that limit such stories to “pure comparison” leaving only a single point. Parables pre-date Jesus. We find them in places like Proverbs, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and II Samuel. Hebrew literature, Jesus’ home turf, is full of similitude and allegorical tales.  According to C. H. Dodd, at its simplest a parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness,  and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application  to tease it into active thought.” If I assume I know what Jesus is talking about, I’m probably missing the main point; if I’m too familiar with the story (having heard it and read it so often before), I might not think carefully enough about its real meaning. “Wait a minute!”  You might say. “That’s not how farmers do their work! That’s not what kings usually do! That’s not what normally happens in nature!” And the strange element in the parable should cause use to think! Parables do not define things precisely, but rather use comparisons to describe some aspect of how God acts or interacts with us so we’ve got to be careful as we try to interpret or apply a parable. It’s actually comforting if not reassuring that in Mark, even Jesus’ disciples have a hard time understanding, despite receiving private instructions!

Centuries of study have taught us that understanding Jesus’ parables takes active listening. What Jesus has to say isn’t just simple and easy. Parables need an interpreter. They need more than just any interpreter, they need Christ as the interpreter. We need to be listening to God to have the parables make sense. And often the parables have multiple roles or vantage points, so as we grow, change, and move, the parables speak differently to us and interpreted differently for us.

Actually one way to help make all of scripture meaningful is to approach it as parable, stories that on the surface seem simple or mythological or mysterious and beyond our understanding, especially the stories that seem truly simple? Biblical understanding requires active listening. It also requires an interpreter, not just any old interpreter will do, the needed interpreter is Christ’s Spirit.

This notion is particularly important as a part of the foundation of Quakerism. Unlike some, for Quakers the word of God isn’t ink on the page, it is the word Christ speaks in our hearts as the words of the page get illuminated, expounded, interpreted. It’s as early in salvation history as the creative Word with which God spoke creation into existence.  It is the principle issue that separates Quakers from those who are able to sign the doctrinal statement of the National Association of Evangelicals. It’s our understanding of continuing and immediate revelation. It’s our understanding or what’s called realized eschatology, Christ has come to teach his people himself.

Henry Cadbury wrote that the scriptures were for George Fox a confirmation rather than the source of truth. After citing scores of examples from the Old Testament and the New Fox concludes, ” And if there were no Scriptures for our men’s and women’s meetings, Christ is sufficient, who restores man and woman up into the image of God, to be helps meet in righteousness and holiness…” For Fox Christ is the key to the Scripture. Of course this wasn’t new with early Friends. This approach to the Bible is far removed from a literal adoption or theologically analyzing of a passage of scripture. It is viewing it with Christ to hear the meaning. Origen reports on this approach to scripture in the third century. St. Benedict established the practice among monks of his following in the 6th century.

In the 12th century a monk named Guigo formalized the four stages of Lectio Divina.  He said we first read the scripture slowly, allowing it to sink in, but the passage shouldn’t be too long. Second, we reflect on the passage. Not in any hurry, we ruminate on the text, we think about it.  The third thing is to leave thinking aside and simply let our hearts speak to God about it. And finally, letting go of all our ideas, plans, words and thoughts resting in the Word of God, listening at the deepest level, allowing Christ’s still small voice to gradually transform us.  That’s pretty astonishing that this, as a spiritual practice, was described so long ago and yet it seems as fresh as today.

Wess Daniels writes in his recent thesis, “The future of the Friends Church relies on its ability to draw on the distinctives of its tradition while continuing to contextualize those distinctives within today’s participatory culture. Simply put, if Quakers wish to remain Quaker the way forward includes reaching back; tradition is the only grounds for innovation. Only a revitalization that includes the mission and practices of the Quaker tradition will give reason for hope.”  A major piece of that tradition is immersing ourselves in the Scriptures as did Fox and other early Friends. It means making the effort, setting time aside, making it a discipline to spend time letting the Bible read us. Some Quakers will say that “Holy books abound.” And, I for one agree with that. I sincerely believe that God can use other media to address us as well.

But, if Daniels is right studying the scripture is a major piece of our tradition that needs our full embrace. In  1816 Quaker leaders were involved in the formation of the American Bible Society. In 1825 Levi Coffin began Bible Study classes in what was then the Deep River meeting house. I’ve sat on the surviving foundation stones of that meeting house. First day schools spread widely across Quakerism. Of course Levi,  soon there after, immigrated from North Carolina due to Friends there unwilling to abandon slavery to become the ‘Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad’ in Fountain City, Indiana. His commitment to the Bible certainly didn’t denigrate his social conscience.