Vision First

Habakkuk 2:2-3; Mark 1:9-15

This first Sunday of Lent we generally start with the account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.  This year we are concentrating on the Gospel of Mark, who only writes of the occurrence and not interactions with Satan.  Mark mentions Satan three other times.  The next time is in chapter three, and refers to “Satan casting out Satan.” Jesus is making the point that even Satan doesn’t succeed split, then in chapter 4 is in the explanation of the Parable of the Sower.  The last is in chapter 8 and is actually the lectionary scripture for next Sunday.  This one is the most pertinent to today’s reading.  It is when Jesus tells Peter to get behind him, Satan.  Right after Peter answered correctly who Jesus was. 

Of course in the first chapter of Mark Satan is the tempter but what is he tempting?  In chapter 4 with Satan coming and taking the word from the one’s on the human created path.  That is not where the seeds will grow, so Satan seems to tempt the word away with the what we humans create.  This is goes right into Jesus’ use of the word “Satan” for the man who just identified Him correctly.  Jesus knows that Messiah has a connotation of an earthly king.  He realized when Peter rebuked Him about the way being the death and resurrection, Jesus knew Peter mind, “was not on divine things but on human things.”  Peter was thinking of the packed down earthly path was the way, but Jesus knows that is Satan’s temptation.  That we take the ways of the world to be the ways of the church.

So when Jesus went from His baptism, into the wilderness, driven by the Spirit.  What was the temptation according to Mark?  For Jesus to start His ministry it was important He did not sin, but the ultimate sin would have been for him to rule the earth like an earthly king.  It is clear this temptation by Satan was squashed, for as John reported in his Gospel, when Jesus feed the 5,000 they wanted to force him to be king, he slipped away.  And found the twelve in the middle of the Sea of Galilee in rough water, thus demonstrating with His power over the elements, was not a king as they know earthly kings.

Now before I was a minister I was a pastry chef in a Manhattan Restaurant.  I was thinner then and so often people would state they would not be so thin if they did what I did.  Well little did they understand it was hard physical work as well as you do get tired of the desserts.  I would encourage my workers to always try the desserts for it was important to keep things tasting their best, and they would consume the least attractive versions.  It was never an issue.

I do remember my first week as the head pastry chef, three weeks into the job (it was a surprise to me as well).  I was working on a hazelnut linzer torte with a fig filling as I had developed at a previous restaurant.  I made a small version for the chef.  This was inspired by the fact the kitchen had a plate with black mission figs, but they were not using enough.  She suggested using Madeira Wine to enhance the fig filling.  So the next morning before anyone was at the restaurant, I went to the bar to sign out my two cups of wine.  I started by searching the well and then the lower shelves.  I found no Madeira Wine until I looked about eye level (important to note I’m tall).  So I signed out the wine and made my tasty torte and served it with cardamom ice cream (it was very tasty).

So the next day when the bartender arrived he came to talk to me.  Well yell in my face, and as I took it I did realize that the numbers he mentioned would mean the 12 slices of that dessert at 12 dollars would not pay back those two cups of madeira.  I knew the chef had said Madeira and I know I did not miss any cheaper version in the bar.  When I apologized to her, she apologized to me, that I was not yet informed of the cooking madeira and red wine in the kitchen.  I never really got upset at the bartender for even today I can feel my blood boil when someone cuts off the entire top of a strawberry to remove the stem.  It is simple with a small pairing knife to remove just the green, and waste no strawberry meat.  In the kitchen I had talked to many assistants about that, even making some go back to cut the green out of the scraps for a strawberry sauce.

For in a restaurant it is really a business.  The vision may include tasty gourmet food, a wonderful dining ambiance, but it comes down to money.  It is all about making a profit. The church does need to be in the black, which is difficult for many congregations.  However the vision cannot be the worldly path.  That path seems the easiest and is the path for businesses, but the church is different.  It is not of this world.

Our path is among the good soil.  We are rooted in God’s Word and Love and yet we are running off the path that Satan tempts us with.  We need a vision that resembles the one Habakkuk writes of:

Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
   make it plain on tablets,
   so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
   it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
   it will surely come, it will not delay. (2:2-3)

Jesus knew the worldly path, the worldly kingship, would be our temptation as well.  Church we need to look for Jesus’ vision and get behind him and follow.

March 2012 Newsletter Article

I have found myself listening to more classical music this year.  It started with listening to classic Christmas Carols on the radio, and now Mindi and I find ourselves tuning back to the classical station.  My expertise is within theology, church, and Bible, among other passions; however music education is limited to my grade school years.  While I have a rudimentary understanding of the written notes, some of the history (for I know the term classical itself is misleading), and I have been exposed to great performances, I am no expert.  This is truly one of the reasons I enjoy music, the mystery.

As a minister and theologian, during Lent we are preparing for the celebration of the greatest, life changing, world changing event: the Resurrection!  We have many terms, theologies and explanations for how the Cross and Empty Tomb, save us all from death and sin.  It is great to explore, wonderful to delve deeper into these ideas—some that were present with the early followers of Jesus, and many that were developed at various times during our history.  I believe each has validity, for looking at the cross itself from one angle, the other side may not be visible, but it certainly still exists.  And it is difficult to imagine that the human mind can completely see the full meaning of the cross, for it is God’s ways of saving us, a God whose love surpasses all understanding.

When a piece of beautiful music is heard by my ears, I know my heart is moved even if I do not have a complete understanding of how it was created and preformed.  It still moves me.  I encourage exploring different and known theologies of the cross; I am a great proponent of greater education on all levels.  However, during Lent I also turn inside to open myself up for the glorious and mysterious power of the Cross and Resurrection, that has changed my life and will continue to change.  

As a church we are also discerning God’s vision for our specific congregation, and there will be events to participate in the coming months, leading to a strategic plan next fall.  It is a journey of heart and head, but it is the proven process to discern the mystery of God’s wonderful composition, sending His Son, for our specific locale.

Inevitable Resurrection

Transfiguration Sunday.  I am not blogging on this sermon for this article I wrote was the majority of the message.  Enjoy and be challenged.  Blessings, JC

http://dmergent.org/2012/02/15/pacifying-the-inevitable-resurrection/

Deep Within

2 Kings 5:1-14; Mark 1:40-45

Naaman was not happy when Elisha told him what would clean him of his ailment. The scripture actually says he is angry and says, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would have his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!”  Naaman even continues his statements of anger by comparing his nation’s rivers to the Jordan.  I cannot help but point out that this man’s anger does not seem congruent with his quest.  He wants to be healed and actually travels for this cure to his enemy’s king, and then onto their prophet, yet he believes he knows how the healing should occur.  Naaman goes as far to say “…that for me..” now that is arrogant. Now the servants were quite wise and understood he was willing to seek an audience with the king of Israel and thus would have done anything the prophet suggested, why was he not willing do something he perceived was too easy.  Of course we know that he was made clean, because of there were people without any power leading Naaman to the healing power.

Naaman was his own biggest enemy.  He knew how the healing had to take place, or so he thought.  And even when he heard what the prophet said, he could not get over his ego.  His healing was desired because of his own ego and self care.  That should have a place, just as most of us check a mirror before the house, we care about ourselves.  The unnamed slave girl was moved by compassion to tell of the prophet in Samaria, that could heal.  At least I believe that to be true as she is not freed, receive any credit, or even named in the story.  Being moved to help because of compassion is what the Gospel lectionary is about.

In the Gospel of Mark, it is reported that Jesus is moved to compassion, and the word used is splagchnizomai.  To be moved to compassion from one’s gut.  A term for compassion used twelve times in the synoptic Gospels in reference to Jesus, or by Jesus in a parable.  It is a Greek term the root of which means gut, but specifically the inner organs of a sacrificed animal. 

Jesus is moved to heal not from His ego, but from His sacrifice.  If we want to share the Gospel, we most not think like Naamon and believe we know how, but to look deep within and act out of sacrificial compassion, in response to the grace we can never repay. 

Holy Everywhere

Isaiah 40:21-31; Mark 1:29-39

Jesus touches Simon Peter’s mother-in-law to heal her.  He crosses a very strong line, and He implies that is to be done not only for individuals but in the synagogues, the religion as well. The healing was a miracle, but the touching was against the rules of ancient Judaism.  So even if it was good, full of love, it broke the law to touch the unclean. 

We as Christians are not immune to these lines as well.  How we worship, what we think,  we set up lines as well. 

We need to learn from young children who can see the image on a coloring sheet and yet color away with their hearts intent.  If the page is a picture of a bunny they will color across all the lines and say it is a bunny.  It is not that the lines are not important but they are not meant to contain, that which is “unsearchable” as Isaiah says in verse 28.

Let us be like the children, like Jesus, and cross over boundaries and lines to touch others with our crayons of love. 

Is not the cross and empty tomb the ultimate crossing of the boundary?

Love Builds for God

1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28

Paul writes about being vegetarian, because the churches in the Gentile cities most meats were prepared in a temple in honor of an idol.  Of course Paul and others are quite aware there really are not other gods or idols, and thus the meat is fine to eat.  However, Paul realizes that knowledge does not transfer smoothly to new believers, or believers whose family still worships at the pagan temples.  As they discover the reality of the one true God through Jesus at the table, they may slip as Paul explains again in Galatians:

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again? (4:8-9)

Paul sees this as an issue, but it is not knowledge that ultimately works to keep people focused on Jesus, it is love.  Knowledge puffs, but love builds.  Paul writes latter about maturing in the faith and you will notice knowledge is not mentioned:

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (13:11-13)

Not only is it love that is more important we do not see clearly until face to face.  Which brings me to the Gospel scripture.  If we think we have the correct knowledge, we may be just puffed up.  In this scene with Jesus according to Mark it is not those following Jesus, those listening to Jesus, it is the unclean spirit that recognizes Jesus as the “Holy One of God.”  This is a humbling reminder that Love is what builds up God.