BEARING ONE'S CROSS - A REFLECTION

This Reflection is taken from the Sunday Devotion written by this blogger for Christ Episcopal Church, Yankton, SD on  Sunday, February 28, 2021.

Mark 8:31-38

Jesus began to teach his disciples 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. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But 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.”

He 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. For 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. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those 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.”

The Bible texts of the Old Testament and the Epistle lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.

REFLECTION

Jesus, help us to set our minds on divine things.  Amen

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In today’s second lesson, we hear the story of Peter rebuking Jesus for having told his disciples that he would suffer, be rejected by the religious authorities,

killed, and rise again.  Peter believe Jesus was the Messiah, but his understanding of a messiah was someone who was going to defeat the Romans and restore the Kingdom of David as in the past.  The last thing Peter wanted to hear was Jesus toying with what sounded like defeat by the very people he was trying to liberate.

Peter simply didn’t get it, and let’s be honest, would we have gotten it any better at the time, living in an environment of constant oppression?  Defeat was all the people in Judea had known and now Jesus, who appeared inPeter’s mind as the best hope at freeing them of such oppression, was talking in riddles about being killed and raised from the dead.  Part of Peter’s concern was that Jesus wasn’t going to attract needed followers to accomplish what Peter thought a messiah needed, an army.  What Jesus was telling his disciples would hardly serve to recruitment people to his cause.

Jesus hit the pause button on Peter’s rebuke with a stern rebuke of his own, calling Peter Satan - the Father of Lies; a poignant way of telling Peter he was surfing on the illusions of this world and not focusing on the bigger picture, on things divine.  What Peter could not see or understand is what Jesus was referencing, the context in which all these things would occur, the fulfillment of what God had promised to Abraham.  At this stage, Peter was lacking an understanding the ways of God. He was unable to comprehend the Mystery of Faith Jesus was referencing. 

Picking up on Peter’s concern about recruiting people, Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For 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.”

This statement has its connection to the paradox mentioned in last Sunday’s reflection; the paradox of being in the world but not of the world.  Jesus’ statement on denying self begs the question what denying oneself and taking up one’s cross means. Is Jesus literally meaning that people should seek the martyrdom Jesus would face?   I think not.  

Denying oneself is contingent on knowing oneself.  I see in Jesus’ appeal to follow him a plea to recognize who we truly are and whose we truly are. Each of us is a unique creation with specific abilities and disabilities - strengths and weaknesses.  The cross we bear is largely ourselves.  In this sense Jesus is inviting us to be grounded in the symbolic paradox of the cross, to be in the world but not of the world - to pick ourselves up, brush aside our selfish ways, and follow Jesus’ example and teachings.  

Exploring who we truly are as children of God is a good Lenten exercise.  What are our strengths?  What are our weaknesses?  What is illusionary in our lives?  What is real?  

On a personal level, one might ask:  What do I have to let go of (deny)?  What is the cross I am bearing?  Does it have a name?  Can I embrace it and hold on to it?  What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus today? What are the difficulties in doing so? What are the benefits? Am I carrying my despair or am I shouldering the burden of fulfillment?  Am I doing both?

Setting our minds on the divine and embracing the Mystery of Faith allows us spiritual freedom to sidestep the fear, the hatred, and the difficult with love and patience, because we know this world is not an end in itself.  This world will pass away and with it all of the illusions, difficulties, fears, and hatreds contained in its numerous moments.  What will remain is that which is not of this world, the incorruptible, the divine essence of all creation, and the true essence of who we.   

Amen.

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Until next time, stay faithful.

Norm

FULFILLMENT - A REFLECTION

 This Reflection is taken from the Sunday Devotion written by this blogger for Christ Episcopal Church, Yankton, SD on  Sunday, February 21, 2021.

1 Peter 3:18-22

Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Mark 1:9-15

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe (have faith) in the good news.”

The Bible texts of the Old Testament and the Epistle lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.

REFLECTION

May Christ who suffered for sins once for all bring all to God.   Amen

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In Ash Wednesday’s exhortation to observe a Holy Lent, we heard how Lent was used in the early church as a period of instruction for the newly converted as they prepared for baptism.  As such, Lent continues to serve as an invitation to explore the Mystery of Faith that was signified in our baptisms.  This Sunday and next Sunday our Gospel lessons will be taken from the Gospel of Mark which will help set the stage for a brief excursion into what can be consider the great initiation manual of Christianity, the Gospel of John in which Jesus, the Word made flesh, guides us into a deeper understanding of our relationship with God.

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On this first Sunday in Lent, I cannot think of a better quote from scripture to start this seasonal excursion into the Mystery of Faith than the opening line in today’s reading from First Peter, “Christ  suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you (to bring all) to God.” 

CHRIST SUFFERED ONCE FOR ALL.  

This is a scandalous notion that doesn’t fit well with the world’s long-standing practice of retributive justice being meted out on all wrong-doers of this world and the blatant sinners in this life. There is a sense that if we don’t punish the wrong-doers, “God will get them in the end.”  It is true that God gets everyone in the end, but that is not what most people are thinking when saying it.  Common understanding is that the good deserve to be rewarded and the bad to get their just rewards; that in order for there to be a heaven, there has to be a hell. Our life experiences largely validate this dualistic good guy/bad guy, heaven and hell, yin and yang perspective. 

For most of human history this perspective held true until Jesus was “put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.”  

* * * * * * * * * * 

Ash Wednesday reminded us that the human soul is a composite of the cosmic dust and ash we are physically made of and the life-giving energy of God, the spirit that was breathed into the primal sludge that eventually became us. The physical is what garners most of our attention in this life because it passes away, but the risen Christ focuses our attention on what gives us life in the first place, the very essence of God, which does not pass away.

Paul explains it this way, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here.” [2 Corinthians 5:17]  In today’s second lesson Jesus put it this way, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and have faith in the good news.”

There is an undeniable sense of paradox running throughout the New Testament informing us followers of Jesus that we exist in two realms of reality simultaneously; that of the temporal world in which everything becomes a work in progress and that of a greater reality, the Kingdom of God, in which everything is fulfilled, everything accomplished, everything completed, everything saved, and where all is One.

The Gospel of John explores this mysterious paradox and is dedicated to helping us embrace it in the here and now.  It is most notably expressed in Jesus’ high priestly prayer where he describes his followers as being in the world but not of the world.  [John17] 

We are limited in what we know and limited in our ability to what we can know on this side of life.  Our guide to this mysterious, paradoxical existence is Jesus in whom, as the incarnation of God the Son, we see the fullness of the whole God-imagined living souls we are.  

Now if all of this seems a bit deep and incomprehensible, IT IS. That is the nature of a mystery and why we talk about the Mystery of Faith.  There is an incomprehensibility to this mystery that the world we live in does not fully grasp, and our only grasp on this mystery is given to us by the God-given grace of faith.

* * * * * * * * * * * 

We followers of Jesus are in possession of a scandal in which nothing is lost because Christ unconditionally died for all, the good and the bad, the sinner and the saint. With God nothing is wasted, and that is indeed good news worth knowing and worth telling others about.  

If everybody in this world could embrace the truth that in God’s eyes all are saved, this world would be a much different world, but unfortunately the way of this world continues to maintain the illusion of heaven and hell by making this life a heaven for a select few and a living hell for a vast majority.

We followers of Jesus are in possession of a great mystery that consists of a much different narrative, a greater reality where all are saved:

Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again:

With Christ we die, With Christ we are risen, With Christ we will come again.  

During this season of Lent, we will briefly explore what it means to be in the world but not of the world, and that the call to repentance is a call to turn our attention to the Good News that in Christ all are brought to God.

Amen.

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Until next time, stay faithful.

Norm

ASH WEDNESDAY - A REFLECTION

This Reflection is taken from the Sunday Devotion written by this blogger for Christ Episcopal Church, Yankton, SD on Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2021.

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10*

We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says,

”At an acceptable time I have listened to you,

      and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”

See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see-- we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Matthew 6:1-6,16-21*

Jesus said, "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

"So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

REFLECTION

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Unlike this cold start to Lent, on a rainy day in first or second week of Lent 2009 I heard what I took to be a true sign of Spring’s arrival, a distant thunder clap that slowly rumbled into silence.  It awakened in me a sense of what Lent (Spring) is all about and led me to write the following poem:

O thunderous Lent, that awakens Earth from its winter-sleep,

    That dissolves the pall of sleet and now in foggy mists and pattering rains:

That makes the ground fragrant before leaf and bud appear,

    That fans chilled air to warmth by the winged beat of returning bird, and 

Marks the end of death and life’s return;

    O thunderous Lent, awaken the human soul from its wintry slumber

Dissolve the pall of its certainty within the mists of Mystery

  and the waters of Truth;

    Arouse it with the fragrance of life yet to be seen;

Warm it with the winged beat of a loving heart, and

    Mark it for resurrection, to Life returned.. 

Ash Wednesday is about wakening the human soul from its slumber, to take an account of itself and rend one’s self open to both the mystery and the truth that we are part of something bigger than the sum of our parts, something bigger than the sum of us all.  We share in our being the substance which makes up every being; the solar ash and the cosmic dust that resulted in the formation of earth and permeates all of life which emerged from its primal sludge.

Ash Wednesday reminds us that our time on this planet is short; that life as we know it will come to an end and our physical bodies will return to the dust and ash it proceeded from.  

Ash Wednesday reminds us that our fasting is not meant to be a show or a demonstration of what we can live without but rather, as Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians reminds us, what we can live with in order to avoid becoming an obstacle to the grace of God offered to others.  In that letter, fasting is cast as endurance of the hardships that life brings; an endurance grounded in “purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God.”  

Ash Wednesday is both a sober and liberating moment at the beginning of Lent:   

Sober - in the sense that we take a serious look at ourselves and consider deeply what we are doing with our transient lives, where we have been and where we are going; what we have done and what we have left undone. Our consideration is liturgically aided by the Litany of Penitence which serves as a checklist of things we should be thinking about on this day and every day going forward.  

Liberating - in the sense that this service is like an annual spiritual exam in which we ask God in Psalm 51 to check us out, to find what is true in us and purge us from what is not; to create in us  clean hearts that pulses with love and renewed spirits that refresh us with life-giving breath.

In this unusual time where we are socially distanced, we miss out on the imposition of ashes in the shape of a cross on our foreheads.  We miss the human touch of someone imposing on us a greater reality contained in the symbolism of that smeared-on, ashen cross.  So let us, on this day, spiritually receive the imposition of that ashen cross on our hearts and minds to not only remind us that we are dust and to dust we will return, but also to remind us that we are marked for resurrection - to Life returned.   Amen.

PSALM 51** 

Miserere mei, Deus

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your 

loving-kindness; *

in your great compassion blot out my offenses.

Wash me through and through from my wickedness *

and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions, * 

and my sin is ever before me.

Against you only have I sinned *

and done what is evil in your sight.

And so you are justified when you speak * 

and upright in your judgment.

Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth, * 

a sinner from my mother’s womb.

For behold, you look for truth deep within me, * 

and will make me understand wisdom secretly.

Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; * 

wash me, and I shall be clean indeed.

Make me hear of joy and gladness, *

that the body you have broken may rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins * 

and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, * 

and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence * 

and take not your holy Spirit from me.

Give me the joy of your saving help again * 

and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.

I shall teach your ways to the wicked, * 

and sinners shall return to you.

Deliver me from death, O God, *

and my tongue shall sing of your righteousness, 

O God of my salvation

Open my lips, O Lord, *

and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Had you desired it, I would have offered sacrifice, * 

but you take no delight in burnt-offerings.

The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; *

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

LITANY OF PENITENCE**

Most holy and merciful Father:

We confess to you and to one another,

And to the whole communion of saints

In heaven and on earth,

That we have sinned by our own fault 

In thought, word, and deed;

By what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

We have not love you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength.  We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.  We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.

Have mercy on us, Lord.

We have been deaf to our call to serve, as Christ served us.

We have not been true to the mind of Christ.  We have grieved your Holy Spirit.

Have mercy on us, Lord.

We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness:  the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives.

We confess to you, Lord

Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people

We confess to you, Lord.

Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us,

We confess to you, Lord.

Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done:  for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty,

Accept our repentance, Lord.

For all false judgments, for uncharitable thought toward our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt for this who differ from us,

Accept our repentance, Lord.

For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us,

Accept our repentance, Lord.

Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us;

Favorably hear us, for you mercy is great.

Accomplish in us the work of your salvation,

That we may show forth your glory in the world.  

By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord,

Bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.

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May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life.  Amen

*The Bible texts of the Old Testament and the Epistle lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.

**The liturgy and Psalms are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979

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Until next time, stay faithful.

Norm

THE TRANSFIGURATION EXPERIENCE - A REFELCTION

 This Reflection is taken from the Sunday Devotion written by this blogger for Christ Episcopal Church, Yankton, SD on February 14, 2021.

Mark 9:2-9

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, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then 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.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.

REFLECTION

                                      In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, 

                                  With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;

                                  As He died to make men holy, let us live to make all free

                                                                While God is marching on.

                                Glory, glory, hallelujah his truth is marching on.

   (Julia W. Howe 1819-1910)

            

          In the Name of the one who transfigures you and me.

              Amen.

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The transfiguration of Jesus is one of the most fascinating stories in the New Testament because it is so much more than a tale of a mere, one-off, historical event.  It is an experience.  In particular, it is a mystical experience.  

A few years ago, I wrote a series of post on the topic of transfiguration called, “Tales of the the Mystic Journey” in my blog, thefaithfulagnostic.blogspot.com.  In that series, I explored a variety of transfiguring moments recorded in our scriptures, beginning with Abraham and tracing this mystical journey through the likes of Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Paul, and of course, Jesus.  What is unique about Jesus’ transfiguration is that it is a shared experience, as indicated by the presence of Peter, James, and John.  In Jesus’ transfiguration story is embedded our transfiguration stories. 

Mystical experiences such as the transfiguration of Jesus have common elements: such as, a sense of disorientation.  Time and place get lost and a sense of liminality, being at a threshold between the mundane and the sublime, can emerge.  For instance, Abraham and Sarah experience three visitors who convey the presence of God and speak with one voice one.  Jacob battles with God throughout the darkness of a night.  Moses is literally transfigured from meeting God on Mt. Sinai. Elijah encounters God in the liminal sound of a still small voice.  Paul has a vision of the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus.

Another feature of transfiguration is that it is usually predicated by what I call “Pause.”  Pause is a period of uncertainty that makes one stop and recalibrate one’s life.   Pauses can be unpleasant moments, involve a long periods of time, or come as unexpected surprises that stop us in our tracks and make us take account of  such experiences.  Jesus had several experiences that gave him pause: his temptation in the wilderness, the thankfulness of a Samaritan leper, and encounter with a Roman centurion who requested healing for a sick slave.  And there was that moment in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was at a crossroad between going his own way or going God’s way.  

The greatest of all pauses for Jesus occurred on the cross itself where he felt totally abandoned by God, totally disorientated in his suffering, and wondering why.  In that moment, Jesus’ vision of those standing around his cross mocking him was transfigured into a people and a world in need of love and forgiveness, which he gave and which resulted in his ultimate transfiguration as the risen Christ..

In the story of Jesus’ transfiguration, Peter, James, and John are placed on pause.  The only reaction we witness is that of Peter’s who has lost all sense of time and place during that experience.  Peter’s reaction is significant in that he intuits Moses and Elijah being present with Jesus.   

Peter also sees their presence with Jesus as a sign of Sukkot (the Feast of the Tabernacles) when he asks if he should build a sukkha, a dwelling for each one of them. Sukkot is the ingathering (harvest) festival in Judaismt. In this case, Peter sees the transfiguration of Jesus as the moment in which God’s final ingathering has arrived. 

Transfiguration is about seeing someone or oneself in a new light.  Names are literally are changed in some cases, Abram becomes Abraham. Sarai becomes Sarah, Jacob becomes Israel, Saul becomes Paul  

In the story of Jesus’ transfiguration the three disciples encounter three presentations of the “beloved son,” Moses, Jesus, and Elijah who appear to be shining and conversing together as they are covered by a cloud.   In that cloud, sight is suspended as the voice of God proclaims, “This is my Son, the beloved, listen to him.  It is uncertain which personage God is referring to as his son. Is it Moses, Elijah, Jesus or all three?  Perhaps the two are subsumed in the one because when the cloud lifts, Jesus is the only one present.  In Jesus, we have the full meaning of the law and the prophets.

Listen to him!  Listen to Jesus !

Listening to Jesus is what God wants us to take away from this transfiguration

experience. That message is particularly important for us followers of Jesus today because we have become more accustomed to listening to things about Jesus rather than listening to what Jesus actually said and taking what he said and taught to heart and applying what he said and taught in our daily lives..  

What is noteworthy about Jesus’s Transfiguration is that it is only recorded in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, not in John.  I point this out to underscore, once again, that John is a theological Gospel about Jesus; a Gospel that uses Jesus’ voice to give authority to what it is saying about Jesus.  John is an important Gospel, primarily because it has shaped our thinking about who Jesus is and about our relationship with God through him.  Nevertheless, if you want to know what Jesus actually said and taught, the Synoptic Gospels is where one needs to go.  It is in these Gospels we hear God say, “Listen to him!”  

Pay attention to the teachings Jesus gave on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew) and the Sermon on the Plain (Luke.). Take to heart the meaning of the parables found in the Synoptic Gospels because they have the power to help us mend what is broken in ourselves and in our world.

As we come to the end of the Epiphany season, I invite us to think about those transfigurative moments that have caused us to pause and see things differently; those experiences that have changed the way see ourselves and others in the light of the One who is the Light.

Amen

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Until next time. stay faithful.

Norm

SEARCHING FOR JESUS - A REFLECTION

 

This Reflection is taken from the Sunday Devotion written by this blogger for Christ Episcopal Church, Yankton, SD on February 07, 2021.

Isaiah 40:21-24, 28-31

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
    Has it not been told you from the beginning?
    Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
    and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
    and spreads them like a tent to live in;
23 who brings princes to naught,
    and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
    and strengthens the powerless.
30 Even youths will faint and be weary,
    and the young will fall exhausted;
31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
    they shall walk and not faint.

Mark 1:29-39

After Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.

REFLECTION

Eternal Savior, come to us.

 AMEN

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In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus begins his ministry by being a healer of mind, body, and spirit.  Within the first two chapters there are no less than four distinct healing stories and a reference to his healing many others.  Somebody who could help heal people of their illnesses, much less cure them, was a rare commodity in Jesus’ day.  So many things we take for granted to heal illnesses related to our mental and physical health today were simply unknown to people of Jesus’ day and for almost two thousand years thereafter.  They didn’t have hospitals, same day surgery, 24/7 urgent care facilities, or medical clinics and psychiatric services.  The physicians that existed were few and largely took care of the rich and powerful. The common person was left to fend for herself and had only access to whatever common sense or home remedies she knew of to treat what ailed her.  

When Jesus began healing people, word spread very quickly. A panicked sense of urgency must have been what it was like for those who heard about his healing abilities, then trying to locate where he was, and then crowding-in to have a once in a lifetime opportunity to be cured from something that was incurable. The people-press on Jesus must have been tremendous.  It is no wonder then that when the sun went down and people went away for the night, Jesus snuck out in the early morning to find a deserted place to pray in solitude.  It is also no wonder that when the sun was up and people were gathering that Peter and the rest of the disciples went out searching for Jesus and when they found him said, “ Everyone is searching for you.”

During this pandemic we have been faced with something that is elusive and, as yet, beyond our control. While there are vaccines available that will hopefully result in a dramatic decrease in the number of cases and put an end to this pandemic, we find ourselves waiting and experiencing a sense of urgency in being able to access something that can save us from this dreaded virus.

Throughout this pandemic our thoughts have been turned to what medicine and governments can do.  We wonder if there will be a return to the normal we had or if we will be faced with a new normal.  Patience is wearing thin.  In all of this wondering and wandering about in the wilderness of “what if’s,” Jesus seems to have gone missing.  

We don’t hear much about the need for Jesus in what we’re dealing with. We pray for the sick, the doctors, and those on the front-line of this pandemic.  We pray the scientists and those developing vaccines, as we should, but we seem to come short of asking Jesus to come and lend a healing hand in all that ails us.  There are times when it would appear that we have called off the search for Jesus.

In these reflections, I have made a point of saying that God goes where we go whether we are aware of it or whether we give credence to God’s presence our lives.  While that is true, there remains a spiritual need of ours, a soulful (whole person) need to consciously and intentionally seek God; to search for the healing that Jesus offers because the healing Jesus offers is not a mere physical, mental, or spiritual healing but rather a healing of the whole soul, the whole person.  

We don’t have a cure for what ails the whole soul.  We don’t have a vaccine against the spiritual malaise that can arise when there is a sense of urgency and our patience wears thin.  At times like these, we tend to get lost in our “go-it-alone”mindsets that can delude us into thinking seeking God is a waste of time or the more dangerous mindset that leads people to believe that taking matters into their own hands, including violence against others, is doing what God wants them to do.  We followers of Jesus know better.  

This morning’s first lesson asks a set of questions that both awakens and invites us to look at the truths we know but frequently choose to ignore and side-step.  Isaiah asks,  “Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning?”  Isaiah tells us that God has the power to strengthen us if we but relinquish our desire to go it alone, that “those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles.”  

I used to teach a course on the human rights of the mentally ill in which I defined reality as a consensus of perceptions; that what generally identifies someone as dealing with a mental illness is when that person consistently presents a perception or acts in a way that does not coincide with the commonly held consensus of what reality is. Our grasp of reality is not as certain as one might think. We can create a multitude of realities as individuals or as groups of individuals. In fact, history gives recent examples of nations that have created a reality of their own making.  Isaiah tells us that there is a reality that pre-existed and prevails over any consensus of reality that we may have.  It is no wonder then that many of the prophets and Jesus himself were accused of being insane as he and they frequently upended the consensus of what seemed to be the reality of the time.

One of my favorite healing stories of Jesus is found in the second chapter of the Gospel of Mark.  It is the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man, whose family and friends are so desperate to have him healed that they literally dismantle the roof of the house where Jesus is to lower the man to Jesus because they couldn’t get in through the door because there were so many people trying to see Jesus.  When Jesus saw the faith they put into his ability to heal this person, Jesus says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  That probably wasn’t what this man’s family and friends were thinking Jesus would do or what they wanted him to do. 

In the room where Jesus was healing and teaching there were teachers of the Judaic law.  The consensus of the time was that an illness such as this man had was the direct result of sin, either his own or a member of his family. When Jesus told this man his sin was forgiven, they thought Jesus was not only mad but also that he was a blasphemer because only God could forgive sins.  Jesus questions them, “Is it easier to say to this man your sins are forgiven or to say get up, take your mat, and walk.”  With that Jesus heals the man of his paralysis.  Jesus healed the whole person, the whole soul.

There is a greater reality than the realities of our making.  It is a reality that is interwoven in the narrative of our scriptures.  It is a reality that frequently takes to task our sense of the way we think things are or should be.  It is the reality grounded in the realm of God, that creating and recreating love of God which is accessible to those who seek it. So let us renew our search for Jesus and for the healing of the whole person and the whole of creation that he offers.  After all, we do know because we have heard the Good News. We know there is a healing of what the well-known Gospel hymn calls the sin-sick soul.   

Amen.

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Until the next, stay faithful.

Norm