Mark 1:9-15

Jesus is baptised by John in the Jordan River – the religion of both Jesus and John is practised publicly and outdoors. How might Christianity be different if it’s religious symbolism and rites were practiced publicly and outdoors? Christians often baptise in public places such as in rivers and by the sea shore. Some Christians have celebrated the breaking of bread in public places as a symbol of Christ’s death and resurrection and as a protest for peace and hope in places of war and violence. Christians have ventured outside the doors of the church and stood on street corners and on soap boxes proclaiming the gospel. These are all ventures out before returning to the safety of the walls of the church and where we can return again to the privatisation of our beliefs and religious practices.

I get the impression from the gospel stories that these were more than ventures out into the community for both Jesus and John. Jesus’ ministry took place outdoors by a river, by the sea, on a mountain, between villages, along the road, in peoples homes, over dinner, at a wedding, as well of course in synagogues and at the Temple. There was no real division between indoors and outdoors, between place of religious designation and daily life. The only difference being that the most opposition seemed to come when Jesus went near a synagogue or the Temple. Perhaps this is why John was out in the wilderness away from the places that maintained the religious status quo, or the places where religious leaders could control the minds and actions of people. Perhaps this is why Mark uses the strong word ‘drove’ (Mark 1:12) when describing the way the Holy Spirit guided Jesus out into the wilderness. Rather than a gentle leading the force of the Spirit’s intention is conveyed as pushing hard, making Jesus go. We often ask, ‘Where is God leading us?’ But will there come a day when the Spirit drives us out, out of our buildings, out of our familiar surroundings, out from our beliefs that keep us bound?

When Jesus is baptised by John could he be ‘outing’ himself from the closed patriarchal religious system that was maintained by synagogue and Temple? Is Jesus identifying with ‘otherness’? When people are baptised they are usually thought of as being baptised into the church or being baptised into the life of Christ (baptism as initiation) but could they not also be being baptised ‘out’ of something? The water is symbolic of many things: a washing away of the old, a washing away of sin, a sign of repentance, a sign of turning away from one way and a turning towards another way.

 

In Matthew’s Gospel (3:1-12) The people from Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to John to be baptised and when John also sees the Scribes and Pharisees coming out to him John lambasts them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” The repenting was not a turning away from sin but rather a call to prepare the way of the Lord. The ritual washing of Judaism was all about being ‘clean’, being in a state of ritual cleanliness so that one could participate in both religious and communal life. John and Jesus took this to a new level of preparedness to now welcome the way of God as proclaimed by Jesus in both his words and very life. The ritual pointed to something greater, to something real, to something to be entered into fully with one’s whole being, heart, mind and body.

As Christians we have rejected the ritual religion of Judaism and have looked on it with scorn while at the same not realising that we may have replaced it with another religion that is no more than ritual – a ritual without a reality. Ritual is but a metaphor or symbol of a greater reality. It is ‘acting’ rather than ‘actual’. In the church we tend to spend lots of time and effort making our rituals more meaningful, infusing them with meaning to make them more attractive, and we protect them and elevate them to a holy place. We have argued over the meaning and practice of these rituals, even killed one another in the name of these rituals.

I don’t think that rituals are the problem. The problem lies in how we view and practice rituals, and how we have separated rituals from the reality of daily life. Rituals are more about living, about daily life and helping us to sustain a sense of goodness, love and justice in the world. These rituals I believe are not to be restricted to ‘believers’ in God or to followers of Jesus but be ones than all people can partake in and find meaning and sustained hope for ourselves as individuals, as communities and the world as a whole. After all the good news is for everyone.

PS. Have you noticed the sign in the photo? It is from a private chapel in a Country House in Ireland.

Mark 9:2-9

The enthusiasm for preaching drains quickly out of me every time I discover that this reading is the set lectionary reading for this particular Sunday. I love the readings in the weeks prior to this. I see Jesus engaging in the lives of people at a level of real need then suddenly this reading propels Jesus away from the every day lives of people and real needs to a high ecstatic spiritual plane far removed, so much so that Peter is totally lost for words to make sense of what is happening in front of him.

I find it hard to relate to, just as I find it hard to relate to people who today claim that God speaks to them directly. I have never heard God speak to me directly or I could not say with confidence that God has spoken to me indirectly.

I don’t enjoy wrestling with this text especially when I think there are more important things that I could spend my time on such as eliminating hunger, poverty, violence, racism, sexism etc from the world. I am suspicious of a spirituality that takes people out of their reality and presents ecstatic experiences as the norm or as real.

I am more comfortable with Jesus as a human being than I am with him as divine, that is, if to be divine means godly or god like or different. If Jesus is to be seen as divine, I see that he is more in tune with a way of life than transcends every day life but one that also fully engages in and with everyday life.

If this reading says anything to me it says that experiences like this are not the norm, neither are they what is really important. Jesus did not come that people might worship him in mystical god like awe and wonder. Jesus came alongside human beings and let them know that they were of worth, that they were loved, that life was theirs to live despite the domination and controlling influence of religious and political leaders. Jesus invites us to come alongside people too rather than taking up a place of domination in their lives. I guess in a way the reading speaks into our daily lives that there could be more to them than we know or we experience.

I fear though that churches model themselves on this picture. They claim to have been up the mountain with God, with Jesus, with Moses and Elijah, to be in authority, to speak on behalf of God and expect the people to fall in line, to trust and obey. Where does our preaching arise from? From a position of ecstatic other worldly experience proclaiming a message of ‘truth’ and ‘I know better’ or from a position of struggle, powerlessness, poverty and faith?

Mark 1:40-45

Mark 1: 40-45

Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.”

One of the things I often think about is how Jesus came to deliver us not from sin but from religion or rather from religious practices that discriminated against people and kept them from a living a fuller and more inclusive life in society.

In the book ‘Speaking Christian’ by Marcus Borg, Borg says that sin needs to be demoted from its status as the dominant Christian metaphor for what is wrong among us (page 144). Sin he says is not the primary metaphor, not the most important one, not even a first among equals. For example in the story of the exodus sin is not the problem, slavery is the problem. The people don’t need forgiveness they need liberation.

Every week in church we have a prayer of confession followed by a declaration of forgiveness from sins we have committed. I don’t see this as a central part of Jesus’ ministry. I don’t see Jesus reminding people of their sins and then declaring that they are forgiven from their sins.

The man at the centre of the Gospel reading today is not seeking forgiveness for sin.

Here a man is desperate for healing from a skin disease which whether or not was contagious kept him from associating with his community. I can understand how in olden days where there were diseases with no known cure that people had to be excluded for the sake of others. Late one night I remember being glued to SBS television watching a Scandinavian film set in medieval times when the black death comes to a village. A mother realises that she has the plague and prevents her little daughter from coming to her by throwing stones at her until the little girl does as her mother wishes and she goes over the hills to a village that does not have the plague. It is very haunting and sad, “Madre, Madre!” the little girl cries out as her mother continues to throw stones in her direction to make her go away from her and away from joining her in a certain death.

In the book ‘Preaching and the other’ Ronald Allen writes about ‘othering’ – how we tend as individuals and cultures to promote sameness (totality, uniformity) and diminish, devalue and suppress ‘otherness’ (difference, strangeness). We tend to want to live in a world where everyone is the same as me. If I am from a white skinned, northern European privileged protestant male background, then I may want everyone to behave as I do. We thus produce a ‘McDonalds’ type world, eating the same food in every country. Allen speaks of respecting and valuing and learning from the otherness, from the other.

How did Jesus approach this man as ‘other’? As other this man was removed from his community and from his right to worship. He was excluded on a number of levels.

Jesus reached out his hand and touched him and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.” Jesus sent him on his way back to the Priest and back to his community.

Through our prayers for healing we may not always be able to help free people from illness or possession or sin but we can always and immediately resist the temptation to bind people with religious terminology to produce sameness and instead choose words that may instead liberate and bring life and send someone on their way more hopeful about life and more at peace with their own uniqueness and value in the world. 

Mark 1:29-39

In the Gospel of Mark words and themes are repeated over and over again. There seems to be an urgency or immediacy about what Jesus does - almost without thinking of the cost or repercussions. Mark uses words meaning ‘immediately’ or ‘as soon as’ at least 39 times - As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew - Now Simon’s mother in law was laid aside fever stricken and at once they told Jesus about her. As soon as something is sorted Mark presents Jesus as moving on immediately to the next person or place.

The word aphiemi ‘to leave’ occurs a number of times in the first two chapters of Marks Gospel- ‘Immediately Jesus called the disciples they left their nets and their boats and families (1:18, 20).’ And approaching her Jesus took her by the hand and raised her up and the fever left her and she began to serve them (1:31).’

There is a letting go of something in order to move on, whether that is a letting go by someone of something, or a demon letting go of a person, or a person letting go of sin or sin letting go of a person, or sickness letting go of a person or a person letting go of sickness, or  people letting go of a way of life. The sin is left behind, the fever leaves the woman behind, the fever moves on, the woman moves on, the demon moves on. Just as Jesus immediately moves on so there seems to be the expectation that people will move on too –‘And sternly warning him Jesus sent him away at once (1:43).’

Mark presents Jesus as one who seems to immediately know the way things should be with people – people should be free. Jesus freed people from the control of demons, illness and sin but beyond these was another level of control that Jesus sought to reveal as controlling people, a double bind, and this was the religious interpretation of the day. In the way it was interpreted people were actually excluded from their communities rather than included when they needed them most.

Through our prayers for healing we may not always be able to help free people from illness or possession or sin but we can always and immediately free them from religious bondage. It can often be religious bondage that is keeping people from experiencing life to the full and preventing them from moving on.

Brian Stoffregen (http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/mark1x29.htm) sees forgiveness as ‘Not letting what happened in the past control my life in the present.’ Religion should reflect the liberating ministry of Jesus and not use what has happened in peoples’ lives in the past to control them and prevent them from living life to the full in the present.

So what have I/we to leave behind? What have I/we to move on to? What is preventing me/us from living life in the present?