Readings: Mark 11:1-11
Mark 14:1- 9
We pray: May the
words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight
O God, our rock and our sustainer. Amen
Let me begin by
telling you a little bit about my past week – a time where a variety of
happenings have somehow coalesced into one thread of thinking –what is it that
builds our faith community into the transforming presence of Christ and what
leads us astray?
On Tuesday night I
listened to the lecture by John Barclay – on early Christianity and the
survival of the poor and the realisation came of how interdependent we really
are as church community and yet how the culture of one way giving without reciprocal
relationship has pervaded our way of living.
I have much more thinking to do on the issues raised by John but for now
can I encourage you to keep an eye out for the podcast if you weren’t able to
be there.
On Wednesday it
was the turn of Wednesday Worship to add to the picture. We explored the reading of the nameless woman
anointing Jesus alongside the work of Susan Jones who wrote of what it was like
to be that woman, facing the angry denial by others of her understanding of
Jesus need and her own pain because she accepted that Jesus was about to die in
great suffering. We were invited to put ourselves into the story and hear a
different point of view.
That same day I
heard several stories, in my Presbytery role, of churches where people in the
congregation were being cruel to others – where the diversity had morphed into
angry division and grace and extravagant love were being sidelined. At times
like this, right and wrong takes centre stage and people are hurt and feel
displaced.
Out of this and
more came the question of whether our current understanding of being church
community is perhaps needing some rethinking on our part.
And so we go to
the scriptures we heard today to explore what Jesus says to us about this. To help us begin we will, like Susan, attempt
to put ourselves into the two stories.
First of all from
Mark 11. We can all be one of the people at the gate of Jerusalem, welcoming
Jesus, waving our palm branches, raising our voices in praise and hope. But what precisely is it that we are hoping
for?
Some words from
Malcolm Gordon[1] -
he imagined what it might have been like to be one of those in the crowd at
that gate – recognising and welcoming the Messiah but not so sure of the path
he had chosen – maybe Judas might have had some of these thoughts running
through his mind too.
We pray
O Jesus our king,
riding into the capital city for the great showdown with the powers of evil and
corruption;
You are known as a
man of peace but you might want to think about that
For those you are
up against are merciless and cruel and the only place you’ll end up by turning
the other cheek is high on a criminal’s cross.
We pray
O Jesus our king,
riding into our hopes for redemption, where is your sword and where is your
army?
This ragtag rabble
of rascals and rednecks from the sticks aren’t going to fill any of your
enemies with fear.
Just say the word,
and we’ll throw down our palm branches and take up our spears, hidden away all
these years.
Cast off the
disguise of peacemaker and we will rally to you in a heartbeat.
We pray
O Jesus our king,
you mock us, you refuse to claim the throne we offer. You’ve taken hold of our hearts but you have
rejected our fists and anybody can tell you that’s no way to rule.
So we’ve no use
for you, you peacemaking poet from up north for the villains we face come with
razor sharp swords.
Take your stories
and die, they’re no good to us. It’s
going to take more to save us than your foolish love.
We pray
Jesus our king,
the clamour and noise for you to reign on high, for you to be cursed and die
have all faded and gone, like seed that springs up in shallow soil.
But you were
still, like sleep in the midst of a storm.
You were the point of persistent peace while we all wanted war. Now all our rage is spent. We wonder, are you?
Malcolm suggests
that we struggle to grasp Jesus radical approach to the salvation of the
world. We can get fired up, but we want
it to be our way – the way that is logical and obvious to us. Getting a handle on this up-side-down thinking
of the cross as the pathway that Jesus invites us into is hard, and really hard
for some of us who are used to problem solving or leading from the front
especially. We are also quite
accomplished at giving up hope when the journey of faith doesn’t go the way we
expect – the disciples, many of them anyway deserted in the face of the reality
of the cross and they had to yet learn that the words of Jesus were trustworthy
and true.
And what if we put
ourselves in that room with Jesus and Simon and the unnamed woman - what would
be our take on the situation? Would we be cross at the waste, sure we knew
better what should be done or blown away by the act of love before us, even if
we didn’t quite understand why?
I found myself
following the debate about this woman unnamed in Mark, identified as Mary,
sister of Martha and Lazarus in John’s Gospel. Commonly regarded as a reformed
prostitute based on the Luke rendition (what else could sinner mean for a
woman), there is little evidence that it was so. There is not mention of her
character in the reading we heard today. In all Gospels though, she is seen as
an interloper by those with Jesus, one who is doing a foolish thing. Yet for
her it was imperative that she carry out this act of extravagant love. Some of the words from Susan:
“What happened
inside that gave [you] the courage, the energy to gatecrash the party at
Simon’s house?
What deep inner
need drove you there, your precious jar of ointment carefully cradled next to
your body?[2]
What was going on
inside to over-ride for you the murmurs of disapproval, the angry mutterings,
the hiss of air sucked in between irritated teeth?”
Sinner or saint,
Jesus welcomed her deep love and her act of anointing him for his difficult
journey to the cross. And she understood
what the others did not – that this wasn’t a time for giving to the poor, or
for questioning the best use of a costly gift but rather an act of unreserved
love to one who faced a journey of pain and grief and despair. The poor will always be with you, said Jesus
but I will not be……
So how do these
two stories and the story of my week come together and help us understand what
it mean to live in Christ centred community – effective in the way of love and
grace and mercy in Jesus name.
One very clear
point is that community is made up of many voices – faith is lived with many
understandings of the love of Jesus and we need all those voices to grow and
flourish in faith. Each of us brings a
unique experience of growing in faith and we are to be encouraged to share and
to understand that there are different approaches than ours and that others
might have insight where we don’t. Often
it is the case that voices that shout the loudest have the least to say and the
quietest are full of beautiful wisdom and insight. Jesus spoke through the weak
and the vulnerable, the displaced and the doubting. We must make sure we listen to all. In fact, I would go further and say it is out
of our very diversity as a people of faith that we can most effectively seek the
way of Jesus. Together we can do this!
The alternative is
not pleasant. For when we stop listening
to each other, seeing our way as the only way, conflict and division
ensues. When we loudly voice our own
certainties we can fail to hear the sometimes still small voice of Jesus in
others. We become like that person Malcolm described at the gate of Jerusalem –
not at all sure that Jesus way is the best way to establish the kingdom. That this is happening in the church on a
regular basis is incredibly distressing and sad. The path of Jesus is clear and this is not
it.
We have to
recognise the need we have of each other as well as Jesus to live in grace
filled community – Jesus talked about the poor always being with us – poor not
only in material wealth but also the spiritually impoverished or emotionally
and mentally and physically in need. And
this is all of us is it not? Our community is made up of a whole mix of needs -
it most definitely is not about some of us always being on top of things and
able to give without need of anything back (the charity concept). We will all
be in need at some times in our lives, and the relationship developed as we
give and receive strengthens us and the community of faith in ways we can’t
imagine. As John mentioned in his
lecture, it behoves us to look after each other with extravagant generosity,
knowing that we are going to be both givers and receivers.
When we stop
caring for each other or thinking that we can get by with never needing the
gift of anointing by others in our community then we truly do not understand
the depth of Jesus love and the pain of the journey that is the way of the
cross.
Community in the
21st century is pretty complicated – we tend not to live together
but are spread out over the city – we are no longer in one church community for
life or even at one time and we have incredible choices in who we will be and
where we will go. For most of us it’s
not hand to mouth economically but equally our poverty can show in our
spiritual tentativeness, our hands-off giving, our unwillingness to embrace the
different or put ourselves into places of discomfort or new thinking.
What has changed
from Jesus day – not a lot! What makes
the difference then and now – a willingness to be open to Jesus’ unexpected
directions and radical ways of loving that blow away most all of our fears and
gather us together and make us whole.
We pray:
O God, in this
world where goodness and evil, action and apathy, love and hate continue to clash with each other, instil in
us, and in all your people, discernment to see what is right, faith to believe
what is right and courage to do what is right.
Keep us aware of
the subtlety of wrong, and preserve us, body, mind and soul, through the power
of your Holy Spirit on your path and in your steps. Amen.
Amen
