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Sermon for Proper 24B Mark 10:35-45 Today we get the story of an interaction between Jesus and his disciples. On the surface it looks like yet another scene where the disciples get it all so wrong. Here we have James and John approaching Jesus and essentially asking for top billing once the Kingdom of God is established. Jesus questions them about whether they know what they're getting into, and they answer that yes indeed they do. They know that to follow Jesus means to be willing to suffer like he did. Jesus takes the opportunity of the grumbling of the disciples to talk to them about the economy of power in the kingdom, namely that it is the servant who is considered first in the Kingdom of God. This whole chapter in Mark, chapter 10, is punctuated by this one teaching: that to be considered first in the Kingdom of God is to be a servant, just as Jesus was, and is. The problem comes when we notice that the lectionary has done some editing between last week and this week. Last week we had a reading from the same chapter. It ends with the words, "the many who are first will be last, and the last will be first." And then today our gospel begins with James and John, but three verses are cut. Here is what we missed: "they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, ‘see, we're going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand them over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.’" It is after this retelling of the plan that Jesus must follow: of his arrest, torture, death, and then his rising; that we get James and John. But here we have Jesus giving out all the information about how things will go for him. Earlier in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus had done the same thing after the Transfiguration and of course you remember that Peter rebuked him because Jesus was not playing by the Messiah rules. But here in today's reading we have James and John. James and John who respond to Jesus speaking of his death and resurrection, they respond to his inauguration of the kingdom of God and they ask to be closest to him. It is my reading of this passage along with the verses that precede it that leads me to the understanding that James and John get. They understand what Jesus’ life and teaching is all about: that Jesus is inaugurating the Kingdom of God, and they want to be part of it. Usually when we read this passage we tend to think of James and John as doing some kind of power grab but I think that when they say, "we are able." they do so solemnly, with clear eyes: “We are able.” In response to Jesus' question, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the same baptism that I am baptized with?" They get it; they understand that to participate in the Kingdom of God will mean to serve, and to suffer. A very important Christian thinker, Soren Kierkegaard, said, “There is no lack of information in a Christian land; something else is lacking, and this is a something which no one can directly communicate to the other." “There is no lack of information in a Christian land.” As usual Kierkegaard was talking about several things at once but for today this speaks to us, and speaks of James and John. There is no lack of information for James and John Jesus is just, once again, described that he would suffer and die and then be raised. This is all the information that is needed. Jesus died and was raised. Period. Now, the church and the world has of course tried to come to terms with what all that might mean; and what we have are the various traditions of Scripture, theology, sacramental practice, and prayer. But all of these are ancillary to the core of the Christian information: that Jesus died and was raised. Kierkegaard went on to say that something else was lacking, besides information, and this is a something which no one can directly communicate to the other. But it is what James and John do which is that something that Kierkegaard wondered about. It is their ascent to what Jesus was and was about, and their desire to enter deeper into relationship with him that makes the difference. It is a saying yes to Jesus. What Kierkegaard puzzled over in communication is resolved in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We must enter into a relationship, it cannot be merely a study, cannot be any theoretical supposition. We must enter into relationship with Jesus. And that means to question, to be angry with, and yes even to fall in love. James and John have the information and they are able to enter into deeper and deeper relationship with Jesus. Now, in the fevered nonlinear wasteland that is sometimes referred to as my mind: we naturally go from Holy Scripture to Kierkegaard; the next stop is of course Yoko Ono. Apart from her well known project of breaking up the Beatles, Yoko Ono is a modern artist of some renown. In one of her most famous works she set up a white ladder in the middle of the gallery floor and those who attend the exhibit are encouraged to climb the ladder up to the ceiling, and hanging there is a magnifying glass which one can take and read a very very small work written on the ceiling. The word is "Yes.” Back in 1966 when John Lennon participated in this piece of art, he said that he would have been disappointed if the word had been “No.” There is a participation, a relationship, in saying yes. When we say yes to someone or something we are allowing it to become part of our life. Through Jesus we have all the information we need. Jesus Christ, became God incarnate, to live and die as one of us to reconcile all creation to God. Jesus Christ: who brought the day of the Lord that the prophets have always spoken of. And this same Jesus, through his Holy Spirit continues to call us into relationship with him. He gives us all the information, but there is one thing lacking which no one can communicate directly to another. It is relationship, and the quality of that relationship and how we might be in relationship with Jesus. Jesus has always been climbing the ladder of your life. When he gets to where you are now, right now in your seat, in your life, in your mess, in your success. When he gets to you and reads your word, what word will he read? “No? Maybe? Not yet?” It is my prayer for all of us that our word to him will always and ever be “Yes.” Yes lord we know what you have done and are doing and we bring all of our lives to you: our whole lives: the days, the thoughts, the feelings, our bodies, our work, our money, all of it. Yes Lord. Yes.

Here is a sermon that I recently submitted to a nationally known sermon source that I write for, it was rejected, can you find out why?

Mark 9:38-50 "For no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me." At football games it is still fairly common to see people holding signs that read John 3:16. Of course this is a famous reference to Scripture, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, to the end that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have life everlasting." It is no wonder people like that passage; it's good news indeed. The problem comes up when we think that John 3:16 tells the whole story of what God is up to in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It turns out that life is actually complex and nuanced; and so is how Jesus thinks about how we ought to relate to him. Today's gospel reading shows a little bit of Jesus’ nuanced view of how people act in his name. In this passage the disciples have just returned from doing some deeds of power: healing and casting out demons. It seems that while they were out in the mission field they came across another person doing similar deeds of power in the name of Jesus. The disciples try to stop him because he is not a part of the same club as they are. This outsider apparently had at one point encountered Jesus in his ministry. This encounter with Jesus clearly had an effect on the man because he at least knew enough to use the name of Jesus for his deeds of power, which was a marker of a follower of Jesus. The disciples don't like this at all, they tell Jesus thinking, I imagine, that Jesus would support their condemnation of this non-disciple. But here Jesus, as usual, does the unexpected. Jesus not only tells the disciples not to stop the outsider, but informed them that, "no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me." This is a curious thing to say, because it reveals an interesting bit of information about this non-disciple who can do deeds of power in Jesus' name. It seems that the outsider may have actually been badmouthing Jesus; he says that even those who do deeds of power and speak evil of him won't be able to do so for a long. There seems to be a relationship in this kind of behavior of doing good acts and claiming Jesus. There is something irresistible about Jesus. One may be able to do good works and badmouth Jesus, but not for long. The irresistible power of Jesus, his power to transform lives, will win over any hard heartedness. This all speaks to the age old argument in the church between faith and works. On one hand there are the voices in the church that say all you must do to be accepted by God is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died for your sins. Faith alone will save you. The opposite viewpoint is what has traditionally been called works righteousness. This view says that it is not so much what you believe but how you behave that matters. This viewpoint says that a Christian acts a certain way and that their actions represent what they believe and without proper actions than faith is dead. This is been the argument in the church since the days of James and Paul and was the main argument that fueled the Reformation of which our church is an heir. The problem with this kind of polarized thinking between faith and works, belief and actions is that it sets up a dualistic thinking of which Jesus is speaking out against today. Many of the arguments in the church today are over what it means to be a Christian. This has led to some very ugly and very public disagreements within the church where people take sides and take up the Bible and the creed and hit each other over the head with it. Today's gospel reading undoes all those arguments. The work of a great many churches is to take people who believe in Jesus but do no acts of mercy, no great deeds of power such as feeding the homeless, caring for the poor or the sick, or visiting prisoners. The work of those churches is to support their belief in Jesus and then to slowly try to kindle in their hearts a concern for the other. What the church makes very little room for is for those people who do deeds of power: they feed the poor, they feed the sick, and they have true concern for the stranger. The church has very little room for them because of these people do not proclaim Jesus as Lord. In a very real sense these people are like the man in today's reading who do great deeds of power but do not follow Jesus as a disciple. And what is Jesus' answer to this kind of person today? Basically Jesus says, "They will come around.” Jesus is saying, "If they do deeds of power, if they do good works, they will grow into me." The church needs to begin to welcome these beautiful souls who do deeds of power; we need to make a place for them, to support their ministries even if they do not know in whose name they minister. The church would do well to remember Jesus’ injunction about the least of these and how when we served them we serve him, and to also remember that his teaching was not to us only the to the whole world. So that, even when we go to seek Jesus in the faces of the poor we must also have faith that Jesus is being revealed to those who are not even seeking him, yet serve the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, and the prisoner. This is a difficult teaching: that there are those out there who serve Jesus, and their hearts grow closer and closer to him, maybe even without their knowledge. This muddies the waters of discipleship. Today's gospel reading is not quite the same as John 3:16. Now this is a Scripture that would look very good on a sign at a football game: Mark 9:39; “For no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me." Can you imagine? Holding up that sign that says Mark 9:39 and people seeing that on the screen they may actually run to their Bibles and look it up and instead of dividing the world up into those who are in and those who are out, they might look out at the world and see Jesus at work transforming each soul and knowing that God is drawing all of us closer and closer to each other. And for this muddied, beautifully nuanced life with Christ we say thanks be to God. Amen.

Acts study for Friday, August 31

1.) Read through Acts 13. 2.) What is the difference between magic and the actions that Saul does? 3.) Compare Acts 13:9-12 with 8:20-24. 4.) Keeping in mind Peter's speeches in chapters 2,3,and 10, how is Paul's speech different? 5.) Acts 13:39, in the NRSV reads by this Jesus everyone who believes is set free from all those sins..." How does your version read that passage? Furthermore, what is interesting theologically about this verse and who it comes from? Finally, check out this verse in this inter-linear version found here: http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/NTpdf/act13.pdf 6.) Acts 13:48b = barf.

Acts study for 8/24/12

Read chapters 11 and 12. How should Acts 12:6-11 be read? Is 12:24-25 related to 12:18-23?

Acts study guide for 8/17/12

Lets read through Acts 10. I
Recommend this brief article on the God-fearers http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/God-fearer , pay special attention to the section on their theological significance. The further sections on Noahidism are fascinating.

Let spend some time looking at what it would have meant to include people into The Way who were not circumcised or observed kosher dietary practices. What would you give up in the Church in order to welcome people, what can't be lost?

Text of Sunday's sermon

11th Sunday after Pentecost B John 6 August 12, 2012 Rev. Joshua D. Bowron We are in week two of a four week stretch in our schedule of Church readings in the Gospel According to John. This section, which is most of chapter six is called the Bread of Life Discourse. The Bread of Life Discourse is excellent fodder, if you will, for preachers to extol the benefits of the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. I’m not going to do that today. Instead I will stop at the first sentence from today’s reading; “I am the Bread of Life.” Of course Jesus goes on to tease out what that might mean. Jesus of course, does not mean for his words to be taken literally. No one supposes Jesus to be made up of bread, nor do we think that he expects us to cannibalize him. Jesus is speaking in metaphor, symbol, and figure. He wants us to parabolically begin to apprehend what he means. This isn’t the only place that he does this either. Jesus calls himself all kinds of things: I am the gate, I am the Vine, I am the Good Shepherd, I am the Light, I am the Way, (which in the Greek is better translated, I am the Road). So here we have Jesus giving us lots of ways of understanding what he is and what he does. He gives us so many options to better understand him, he’s saying, “I’m like light in a dark room.” or “I’m something like a road.” or “I am like a shepherd.” or “I am like bread.” All these images are given to us so that we can begin to form a picture of what Jesus is. Jesus gives us all these options because he knows that some will stick with us and others won’t. What resonates in you does not mean that it will necessarily resonate in me, and vice versa. Jesus wants us to know that his words about himself only point to what he actually is. This is the genius of Jesus and how we are to begin to approach him. We can sing lots of praises and write beautiful words about him, but those words are not to be clung to, those words merely point vaguely to Jesus, they are not Jesus in his essence. For the essence of Jesus to be gotten we must go beyond words and into a relationship. Through all these options: Way, Vine, Light, Shepherd, Bread, and many more; Jesus sits before each of us and asks a provocative question. That question is “What do you need me to be for you today?” “What do you need me to be for you today?” I think it’s kind of a shocking question because we are used to asking Jesus what kind of a person we need to be for him. We are used to thinking about our relationship with God as one where we are the ones that transform, we are the ones that need to rise to a level acceptable to Jesus. There is some right and some wrong in that way of thinking, but today Jesus is ready to meet our needs. “What do you need me to be for you today?” I didn’t just make up Jesus’ offer to us today. This question is drawn out of his way of teaching. This is what he was doing with his disciples. Right after the feeding of the five thousand in the Gospel of John, Jesus uses that event to tell the disciples that he is the Bread of Life. Jesus is a situational teacher, he takes whatever situation he is in and draws images from it to talk about the Kingdom of God and himself; who is the first in-breaking of that Kingdom. So it’s not too provocative after all for Jesus to ask, “What do you need me to be for you today?” because that’s what he was doing in his ministry in public and to his disciples. So, what does he need to be for you today? Is it a Doctor? A Surgeon? Maybe he needs to be a Mother, or brother? Lover? Drill Sergeant? How about CEO? Actually since the pledge campaign is gearing up how about CFO? What do you need Jesus to be for you today? Now this all comes with two cautions and a reminder to kind of hedge in the frontiers of what I am talking about this morning. The first caution is to keep in mind that Jesus is so much bigger and nuanced than we can imagine and we ought to hold loosely to what Jesus can be for us, this will allow us to let him be what he is and needs to be for us. The second caution about answering Jesus’ question is that we have to remember that one person’s medicine can be another person’s poison; … one person’s medicine can be another person’s poison. What Jesus is to be for you today, is not the same for the person in the next pew, the next house, or maybe even for you the very next day. Some people have never seen a shepherd, some people are blind, actually physically blind, so a light metaphor just doesn’t work for them, and some people are allergic to bread. Jesus didn’t say, “I am the Bread of Life.” and stop there. No, he went on with other images because he knew that other situations would arise that his witness to the Kingdom of God would speak. How boring it would have been if Jesus had only given us one image of himself and the Kingdom of God, we’d have no Prodigal Son, no Vineyards, no 11th hour, no light, no shepherd, no mustard seed, not much of anything. It is the existence of all these images, together, that give us such a full picture of God in Christ and no one of them captures the full essence of Christ, so we should be cautious that we don’t force what Jesus is to us onto others. Those are cautions to heed: hold loosely to what Jesus needs to be for you and that what he is for you may be different for another and that is good. The first reminder is that Jesus can meet any need as long as it is a real need. Jesus can’t always, or even usually be what you want however. And there is the rub, Jesus can’t be what you want, but he will be what you need. Jesus can’t be hateful for instance. You may want revenge, but what you need is reconciliation. You may want lust, but what you’ll get in Jesus is love. You may want Jesus to fit your political model, but what you need is a better vision of the world. What do you need him to be for you? So we have Jesus standing before us today, fully himself in all his integrity, dynamically engaged with the world, but not beholden to any one image that he set for himself, what the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, has established, or what Jesus needs to be for us, here today. He is untamed yet reaching out to you. What image might I conjure, what figure should I use to better understand and communicate what Jesus is doing today? Sometimes pop culture comes to our aid. Harry Potter. In the later Harry Potter books a strange setting is introduced, a setting that really acts as a character; it’s called the Room of Requirement. The Room of Requirement is described this way by the House-Elf, Dobby: “It is a room that a person can only enter when they have real need of it. Sometimes it is there, sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker’s needs.” The room becomes what the seeker needs most, by the seeker pacing in front of it three times, concentrating on what is required. Albus Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of all time first found the Room of Requirement on a late-night bathroom hunt and there it appeared, filled with chamber pots. The thing about the Room of Requirement is that one cannot stand in front of the room and vaguely wish it to grant, you don’t even know what. There has to be real need and when there is real need, the room will appear. Jesus stands before you and is asking, “What do you need me to be for you today?” He is calling to us ready to meet our needs and go beyond them into real relationship. Amen.

Acts study for Friday August 10, 2012

Let's pick up with Act 9:32 and finish chapter 9. A+ students may want to get into chapter 10 a little bit.

The truly adventurous, and I mean it, this stuff ain't easy, might find this article interesting. I can't vouch for all of what he says though it is an interesting way to read miracle stories. The article is very short but may need several readings. The comments and discussion after the article also offer some clarity.

Skirting Satan, Walking on Water and Feeding Five Thousand: preaching the text#comments

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Quick stop

Only a church nerd like me would say, "Hey! Let's stop at that National Shrine to Our Lady of Consolation!"The Good Wife had to stay and nurse #3, so I took #1 and #2 to check out the shrine. As it happened, a celebration of the Holy Eucharist was going on and we found a seat. Now, this is Ohio, north of Columbus, it was very hot and no AC, the kids were champs though. Once the Good Wife and #3 joined us, it was time for prayers and then the Communion. Out of respect for the Roman Traditions, I did not receive, and neither did the children (they were not happy about that at all). It was very touching for me to see the Good Wife receive communion, as a confirmed Roman Catholic. But I also felt the division in Christ's Body over this fundamental Christian practice. The big thing in the Episcopal Church right now is over what is called Open Communion, it means to give the Holy Eucharist to anyone regardless of their baptismal status. I could go on about this, but suffice it to say that the issue is wrapped up in scripture, theology, history, sociology, welcome, distinctiveness and other sundry big ideas; in other words it is a perfect Episcopal kind of issue. But sweating and worshiping with all those other Christians and knowing that I would not be sharing in the Holy Sacrament with them, brought to bear how far the Episcopal Church has come toward a true ecumenical respect in the Eucharist. We may never have true, visible Christian unity, but it wouldn't be all that hard to unify, a great majority of the world's Christians simply by allowing Christians baptized into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to be able to share the meal that Jesus left us.

Gone for so long...

Ok, I'm back, where did y'all leave off with Brother Randy?