Winthrop Congregational Church, United Church of Christ
No matter who you are. No matter where you are on life's journey. You are welcome here.
Image credits: Cross with serpent: Fantoni, Giovanni. Brazen Serpent, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55664 [retrieved March 7, 2024]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brazen_Serpent_Sculpture.jpg. Moses and serpent: West, Benjamin, 1738-1820; Hall, John, 1739-1797. The Macklin Bible -- Moses, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54084 [retrieved March 7, 2024]. John 3.14-21 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.’ Every three years, today’s reading from John shows up in the lectionary cycle. And, every three years I notice that this scripture contains one of the strangest metaphorical explanations of who Jesus is in any Gospel as well as one of the most well-known verses in American Christianity. When we see a verse that is as immediately recognizable as John 3:16, it is tempting to gloss over it because we think we know what it means. I’m going to invite us to not read over the familiar too quickly today. So, let’s start with the less familiar part of this reading and work our way to what we know and see if we can learn something new. Let’s start with the thing about the snake.
The story of Moses and the bronze serpent is in Numbers 21. I don’t blame you if the Exodus stories of Numbers is not as familiar to you as the Exodus stories of, well, Exodus. Numbers is mostly set in the wilderness travels of the Exodus. Within the wilderness stories, a reader will also find lots of descriptions of Jewish religious laws beyond the 10 Commandments and lots of descriptions of Moses acting as a mediator between God and the people. The story about the serpent starts out similar to the more familiar story about manna in the desert, which means it starts with people worrying that they won’t have enough to eat and even wondering if maybe they weren't better off in Egypt. The thing is, the snake story is not at the beginning of the Exodus. It comes after 40 years of God tending to them in the wilderness. You would think that would have been enough to show them that God would provide for them. And, yet, Numbers tells us that the people became impatient and afraid. So, they did what impatient people often do... they complained. While Cameron B.R. Howard points out in her commentary that the scriptures don’t specifically say God sent the snakes to punish the complainers, it sure looks like God did. Especially since the book of Exodus talks about plagues of critters God sent after Pharaoh. I am inclined to think that this whole “God sent the snakes” thing says more about how people try to explain away difficult events than it says about the actual character of God. Nevertheless, we should pay attention to how the people in the story explained a weird and scary thing that happened in their community. The people in the desert thought God sent down a bunch of poisonous snakes. Having tons of venomous snakes around seems like an accident waiting to happen, which is an unusual kind of plague, largely because snakes don’t typically hurt people unless we are messing with them. Typically, when you live with something so dangerous as this plague of snakes, I’d think you’d develop a habit of vigilance. Even with vigilance, though, people are still bitten. Enough people were being bitten that the whole community grew afraid. This time, though, they blamed themselves for the problem, not God. They said that they had messed up by speaking against God and against Moses. They begged Moses to intervene with God and get rid of the snakes. Moses, true to his role in Numbers, intervened on their behalf. God does help, but not in the way the people expected. God doesn't take away the snakes, but God does give the people a way to be healed when they do run afoul of a snake. God had them build a bronze serpent and mount it up on a pole. When they looked at the serpent, they were healed. This is a wild desert story, right? And, as best as I can tell, one that isn’t cited often in other parts of the Bible. Stories from the Exodus that carry a lot of weight in a community, like the manna and quail or the golden calf and the Ten Commandments, are regularly referenced beyond their original telling. Aside from the Psalms and other prophetic books referencing the fact that the people got angry or scared and complained to God, which, frankly happened a lot of times in Exodus and Numbers, there are only two references to Moses and the bronze serpent outside of Numbers: one in 2 Kings 8:14 and the other in John 3:14. If the snake on a stick story is one that is not referenced broadly across Jewish scripture, isn’t it interesting that the author of John has Jesus describing the Son of Man, a phrase he uses to reference himself, this way. What a strange choice. Cheryl Lindsay reminds us of something useful in her commentary on this scripture. Today’s reading isn’t from a big speech Jesus is giving a whole crowd of people. It’s from a conversation he is having with one person, a pharisee named Nicodemus. In his notes on this chapter, Obery Hendricks says that the Pharisees observed Jewish purity laws more carefully that all other groups of Jewish believers. I think Jesus and the Pharisees founds themselves arguing so frequently because both he and they took living out their religious obligations seriously. If either of them cared less, they might not have so frequently found themselves in opposition. Perhaps Jesus references an obscure story about Moses precisely because it was from the book of Numbers. Numbers is a book about, at least in part, the instructions for shaping your life according to love of God and love of neighbor. When speaking to someone who cares deeply about the Law, you demonstrate that you, too, know the Law, even the weird parts of it, as a way to build trust and affinity. Maybe that’s why Jesus’ uses this story while talking to Nicodemus. Nicodemus visits Jesus in the dead of night because he is afraid someone will see him. The story of the serpent plague is certainly a story about fear, particularly about the ways that fear can push you back into modes of behavior based on scarcity. It can keep you from embracing the walk to freedom through the desert and settling the certainty of slavery with the Pharoah. It can even make you hide away at night, rather than approach new understanding in the light of day. Nicodemus is afraid of being condemned for even entertaining the idea that Jesus will bring insight as to how to live according to God’s covenant. And, yet, even in his fear, he seeks Jesus out. In the verses just before today’s reading, Nicodemus asks Jesus questions about where his power comes from and for clarification on some of his more metaphorical teachings about the nature of faith. Today’s reading is part of Jesus’ response. And, part of his response is that he believes that his mission is to be an instrument of healing, not condemnation. One of the most well-known parts of this passage is verse 16. I’ll share Wil Gafney’s translation of it: “For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” I am quite familiar with readings of this verse that hold Jesus up as a grand arbiter who is quick to send people to eternal damnation. If those who believe will have eternal life, some argue, the subtext is that those who don’t believe will be condemned to eternal suffering. In a commentary on this passage, Karoline Lewis encourages us not to stop at 16, but to keep reading. The rest of the passage has a more complex view of condemnation. And, it is clear that Jesus is to be held up as a passageway for divine healing, not condemnation. It may not be the kind of healing people expected. Certainly, the bronze serpent was not what the Israelites expected in the desert. Dr. Lindsay argues that verse 17, which says, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him,” makes it clear that condemnation is antithetical to ministry of Christ. If we are using Jesus’ words primarily to condemn other people to poverty, isolation, and suffering, we are operating outside of his mission. If we allow our fear to limit us to hidden, creeping encounters with Jesus, we will find ourselves like Nicodemus, with a glancing awareness of God’s radiant love, but an inability to fully step into it. What the world sees in Jesus is healing, not condemnation. What the world should see reflected in Jesus’ followers is healing not condemnation. We never see Nicodemus again in John, or in any other Gospel, with the subtext being that he was too afraid to live in faith in full view of those who judge him. How sad that is for him. May we make a different choice and hold up Jesus’ love for the world to see. And, may the world be changed by it. Resources consulted while writing this sermon: Cameron B. R. Howard’s commentary on Numbers 21:4-9: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3606 Karoline Lewis: http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=5075 Cheryl Lindsay: https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/sermon-seeds-condemnation/ Obery Hendricks’s notes on John in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
0 Comments
John 2:13-22 Jesus Cleanses the Temple The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. Sometimes, a story we read at church is only found in one Gospel. Sometimes it's in two or three of them. And, sometimes, it’s in all four. Dr. Nyasha Junior, in her commentary on this text, reminds us that the story in today’s reading is a story that is in all four Gospels. That means that all four of the people who compiled the stories of Jesus’ life and ministry thought this was an important story to share. In three of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), the story takes place the week before the crucifixion. In John, it takes place at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. First, he gets baptized. Then he invites a group of people to work with him. Then he performs the miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding. Then, after a brief respite in Capernaum, Jesus goes to Jerusalem and gets in a fight with some people in the Temple.
This story is pretty wild. Jesus chases people and animals with a whip. He knocks over people’s stuff, and he screams at people who are doing an important job for pilgrims to come to Jerusalem during religious festivals. Sometimes, regardless of which Gospel is being read, this story gets called “Jesus Cleansing the Temple.” But, as Dr. Junior writes in her commentary, none of the versions of this story in any Gospel use the word “cleanse” to describe what’s going on. That is a name that got added by later Christian readers. In fact, Dr. Junior reminds us that the version we heard today doesn’t even tell us exactly what made Jesus so mad or what the purpose of his outburst is. She jokes that it might be better to call this story “Jesus flips out!,” or “Jesus loses it!” I’m inclined to agree. It makes me wonder why the person who wrote John thought this story was so important that they made it the fifth big thing that Jesus did in his public ministry. Like I said, all the people selling and buying stuff in the temple were supposed to be there. It’s not like our church fair, a fundraiser (though could you imagine Jesus knocking over our Second Time Around table). That’s when we have people buying and selling things in our church. In his notes on this story, Obery Hendricks outlines some of reasons why people were selling and trading things in the temple in Jerusalem. One reason was that ancient Jewish religious practice required bringing an animal to sacrifice. What animal you brought was usually based on how much money you had. Remember from back when we talked about Jesus’ parents bringing him to the temple for the first time. They brought two doves as a sacrifice. They probably bought the doves from people working around the temple just like the people Jesus got mad at in this story. The people called money changers had a job, too. There was a certain amount of money worshipers gave when they came to Temple. But, they couldn’t give that offering, usually called the Temple tax, in any old kind of money. Remember, people in this era of the Roman Empire might have money created by many different governments, not just Roman money. They couldn’t use the regular Roman money either. They had to get their donation converted to something called the “half-shekel of Tyre” in order to give it during worship. Hendricks says it this way: “Roman money was changed into Jewish money to pay the Temple tax.” If all these people are supposed to be there to help devout people worship in the way God told them to, why would Jesus get so mad at them? Karoline Lewis, in her commentary on this story, makes an interesting point. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the ones that put this story much later in Jesus’ life, show Jesus calling the venders in the temple a “den of robbers,” indicating that he thinks they are cheating people who have to use their services. That’s not what he says in John. In John, he says, “stop making my Abba’s house a marketplace!” Lewis thinks that means that Jesus isn’t calling people out for cheating other people, especially since buying and selling things was necessary for the whole system of sacrifice in worship. You had to get the right stuff somewhere. Best to get it at the temple. Lewis thinks that Jesus is being critical of that whole system, and maybe even saying that the whole system of sacrifice is unnecessary. And, that is a radical statement. I haven’t decided if I think Dr. Lewis is right yet. Part of the reason why is because interpretations of this story where people argue that Jesus wanted to replace worship practices centering God’s presence in the temple with worship practices centering God’s presence in him have often been used to justify harming Jewish people. Dr. Dong Hyeon Jeong describes this kind of interpretation as “replac[ing] the Second Temple of Jerusalem (Judaism) with the body of Jesus (Christianity).” Historically, when Christians have talked about replacing Judaism, it has led us to persecute people who opt to be Jewish instead of being Christian. Because I know what kind of harm those interpretations continue to do in this world, I am leery of leaning too hard into the idea of trading one Temple, the one in Jerusalem, for another, the one that was Jesus. Dr. Jeong offers a bit of context on John in his commentary on this text that might help us avoid interpretations that justify harming our Jewish neighbors. Jeong notes that at the time when this scripture was written, there wasn’t actually a distinct religion called Christianity. There were only followers of the teacher Jesus, some of whom were Gentiles but many of whom were Jewish. Those who were Jewish had to contend with Rome’s destruction of the temple in 70 CE... that is the same temple that is central to this story. According to Jeong, the community that the author of John was trying to address with this Gospel was a community that was looking for an explanation for how God could allow a second Temple to be destroyed by a brutal empire. For a people who have seen their temple, the very resting place of God, destroyed, it might bring comfort to them to understand that God was still at home among them, but this time in the body of Jesus whom they called Christ. Dr. Cheryl Lindsay interprets Jesus-as-Temple this way: The God who had once given them their religious law, including directions for temple sacrifices, as a means of maintaining right relationship with God and with one another, in the wake of the destruction of the temple, would offer another means for connecting with the Divine. This time, it would be the Incarnation. Dr. Lindsay is the primary crafter of the seasonal theme I have been attempting to follow this Lent. She is the one who suggested “saying no to transactionalism” as an interpretation of this story. While she acknowledges that humans are relational beings, and a certain amount of exchange of goods, ideas, and services is simply part of being a person, what she is concerned about is when the give and take that is a part of human life gets shifted into a competition to see who can construct their relationships around the idea that people owe them something. You can become very powerful when people owe you things... owe you money, owe you allegiance, owe you control. When we only exchange goods, ideas, and services so that other people, or even God, will do something for us, we run counter to the kind of relationships Jesus invites us to create. Jesus doesn’t want your faith to be a transaction that gains you more power in this world. Jesus does want you to build relationships like he did, through sharing, healing, and fighting for those who have been abandoned. Too often, Christians have traded Christ-like relationships for power that destroys. Time and time again, through our history, when Christians have felt like the world owes them power, money, and loyalty, we have strayed the farthest from Christ’s teaching. God has not given us the world to make us powerful. God has given us Christ to teach us to love. We do not need to sacrifice our neighbors’ lives and well-being in order to maintain our cultural power. If Jesus did think he, himself, was the new temple for God, Dr. Lindsay points out that he did not rebuild the temple through “force, power, or might.” He rebuilt the temple, his body, in the mystery of the tomb. May we never feel like we must build the Body of Christ using the tools that killed Jesus. May we be assured that in saying no to transactions of injustice, we can more forward, sharing Christ’s gift of love. Resources consulted while writing this sermon: Cheryl Lindsay: https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/sermon-seeds-transactionalism/ Nyasha Junior, "Third Sunday in Lent," Preaching God's Transforming Justice, A Lectionary Commentary, Year B Featuring 22 New Holy Days for Justice, eds. Ronald J. Allen, Dale P. Andrews, and Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm Obery Hendricks's notes on John in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) Karoline Lewis: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-in-lent-2/commentary-on-john-213-22-3 Dong Hyeon Jeong: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-in-lent-2/commentary-on-john-213-22-6 Mark 8:31–38 Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection Then he began to teach them 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.’ Shame is powerful. In 1990, when the Americans with Disabilities Act was not yet law, hundreds of disability rights activists went to Washington DC to work for the bill’s passing. They used all the levers of democracy at their disposal, including direct action protest. On March 12th of that year, dozens of protesters gathered at the bottom of the steps that lead up to the West Entrance of the Capitol building. They then began a slow ascent up the steps, leaving behind all their mobility aids. Some ascended on their own, some with the help of family and friends. The protest would come to be known as the Capitol Crawl. I found this quote from Michael Winter, former Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living in an article about the Capitol Crawl. He said, “Some people may have thought it was undignified for people in wheelchairs to crawl in that manner, but I felt that it was necessary to show the country what kinds of things people with disabilities have to face on a day-to-day basis. We had to be willing to fight for what we believed in.” What these wise organizers were counting on was the power of shame. They were counting on the lawmakers feeling ashamed of having driven their constituents, some of whom were children, to such a vulnerable and painful act just to get their attention. The organizers also knew that plenty of other citizens would see the protest and be appalled that the protestors had been driven to such direct action by the inaction of legislators. Those citizens would call on the lawmakers to draft legislation to make actions like the Capitol Crawl unnecessary. Ultimately, the legislators did act. The Americans With Disabilities act was signed into law on June 26th, 1990. Shame is powerful in Christian circles. It is both a tactic we use to compel people to behave in a certain way and an emotion that arises within us as a result of theologies and ethics we are taught in Christian circles. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard of teenage girls being pulled aside and scolded for wearing shorts or tank tops. They are shamed for wearing certain types of clothes and tempting the boys and grown men around them to sin. In these cases, men and boys are rarely held accountable for managing their desires. Many women continue to carry that shame in their hearts, even if they leave the Christian communities that harm them this way, making it difficult to feel comfortable in their own bodies and making it challenging to form healthy relationships with other people, especially men. It can take a lot of years to disentangle religious shame from our hearts. Shame is powerful and that’s why Jesus addresses it in today’s reading. He has been teaching for a while at this point. This chapter also includes one of the most wide-reaching miracles, a feeding of four-thousand people, as well as an individual healing story where Jesus has to take two tries to heal a blind man’s vision. After all of this he asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They offer a couple responses that they’ve heard people say: John the Baptist, Elijah, or maybe one of the other prophets. Richard Horsley, in his notes on this text, says that all of those responses make sense given what and how Jesus had been teaching. Then, in the verses just before today’s reading, Jesus asks, “who do you say that I am?” and Peter replies, “You are the Messiah.” Then, Jesus does that thing he does in Mark where he tells his disciples not to tell anyone about him. Jesus also tells them than in the coming days, it will be necessary that he suffer. He says he is going to be rejected. And, that he will be killed, though, after three days, he will rise. Peter is appalled when he hears this. Remember: Shame is powerful. In her commentary on the text, Marilyn Salmon reminds us that the rejection and suffering that Jesus will experience would have been viewed as deeply shameful in the era in which he lived. There is a certain amount of shame that comes with following a leader that respected members of the community rejected. That is an embarrassment akin to routing for the losing team. The suffering that Jesus was speaking about was more than that. For those of us raised with an understanding of the empty cross as a symbol of Jesus’ loving power, it is easy to forget that crucifixion was intended to be a humiliating death. Salmon reminds us that the public, messy, and agonizingly slow nature of death by crucifixion was intended to shame the victim and shame all the people who cared about them. Jesus doesn’t mention crucifixion in this scripture, but it was written after his death and would have been on the author’s mind. Also, I think there is a subtext in this scripture that the “would be killed” means “would be killed by powerful people, like John was.” The Messiah was supposed to save the nation, not be murdered. But Jesus knew that following his mission put him in conflict with powerful people. And, powerful people will use their power to harm their enemies. He knew what the risks were and wanted to make sure his disciples did, too. I kind of wonder if Paul was trying to avoid feeling the shame associated with following a leader who has been rejected, and that’s why he rebuked Jesus. “Jesus, come on. You’re bumming the disciples out. Don’t talk like that. You are the Messiah! People will believe you! Surely, everyone will see that, right?” Jesus rebuked Peter right back. He didn’t need disciples who are surprised into inaction by the poor reception his message invoked in powerful people. He needed disciples who would be willing to be seen as undignified, embarrassing, and disreputable in service to the Gospel. He needed disciples who understood that being shamed by powerful people will be hard. They must be able to build up enough spiritual fortitude to resist the shame that unjust leaders and community members heap on them. He wanted to warn them that the shame was coming so they could develop a commitment to love that is stronger than shame. Have you ever heard the saying, “Tell the truth and shame the devil?” This week, I saw a video of someone telling the truth and shaming the devil. Sean Cummings, a city council member of The Village, which is a suburb of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, took the state’s Board of Education to task. The board, dominated by hateful transphobes and homophobes who are also Christian Nationalists, has been tormenting LGBTQ kids and families for years now. This week, a 16-year-old student named Nex Benedict, whose family is Choctaw and who was non-binary and used they/them pronouns, was severely beaten by three other students at school. Nex died the next day. While many details around Nex’s death are not yet clear, it is quite clear that the culture of hatred fomented by adults in political leadership contributed to their death. Sean Cummings showed up at the school board meeting and made sure the board knew that truth. Cummings said, “Three older girls don’t just jump a 16-year-old in a bathroom for no apparent reason, especially when they’re from the alphabet community, who you personally have attacked ever since you ran for office.” He even went so far as to say that the public school superintendent and a nationally known transphobic social media influencer whom he has allowed to be an advisor to the school board, despite her not living in Oklahoma, “have blood on their hands.” Councilor Cummings, who has worked hard to protect his LGBTQ constituents, has been targeted by that influencer in the past, garnering scores of death threats when she has directed her followers to attack him. He even told the board that he anticipated more death threats to follow the meeting where he told them off. Even knowing that these powerful transphobes will incite their followers to threaten him again, he still went to the meeting in hopes of holding the powerful accountable. He told a local reporter that “he often felt like a lone voice standing up for LGBTQ rights in such a ‘red state.’” And, yet, he has the spiritual fortitude to speak up. He said, “I’m a dad, I have a dog at home. I don’t have anyone at home. If anybody wants to come after me, they can come after me.” I don’t know anything about Council Cummings’ religious beliefs. I will say that he seems to be a clear example of someone who has a commitment to love that is strong enough to risk the ire of the powerful. He has a commitment to love that has overcome the shame that some Christians will heap on him for standing alongside his trans neighbors. It is clear to me who is acting like Jesus wants his disciples to act. May we be this unashamed to follow Christ into love, especially when following him is a risk. Resources consulted while writing this sermon: Marilyn Salmon: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-in-lent-2/commentary-on-mark-831-38 Capitol Crawl: https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/capitol-crawl-for-ADA/ Richard A. Horsley’s notes on Mark in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) An article about Sean Cummings: https://news.yahoo.com/lawmaker-accuses-education-board-libs-214726178.html Mark 1:9–15 The Baptism of Jesus 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.’ The Temptation of Jesus And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry 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 in the good news.’ I grew up in a place where most people didn’t celebrate Lent. My school, which is quite a bit bigger than most of the local high schools here, had no other Lutheran students and probably less than five Catholic and Episcopal students combined. The Methodists, of which there were many, seemed to know about it, but also didn’t seem to talk about it as much as my church did. And, I remember driving by a Methodist church not far from my school with my grandfather and they had the wrong liturgical color sash on the cross out front. He said derisively, “They should know better.” Though he had not grown up with Lent, when he married a Lutheran, he adopted some very clear ideas about what was appropriate in the season.
In the church of my youth, it also seemed clear that Lent was about one thing: suffering. If you wanted to do Lent right, you had to give up something that would make you suffer. Ideally, you had to give up something that was super hard to give up, like smoking or eating chocolate, so that you suffered extra hard. I was told that it was only by making ourselves suffer that we could begin to understand Jesus’ suffering. As a serious, well-behaved teenager, it seemed very righteous and also a little dramatic to think about what I could give up to make myself suffer the right amount. As an adult, I’ve come to see Lent as something more useful than a “who can suffer more” contest, thank goodness. It’s not that I don’t find fasting to be useful, because I do think it can be. Over the years, though, I’ve come to value Lent not as a time to force suffering but as a time to be intentional and reflective. Rev. Dr. Cheryl Lindsay, in her introduction to the “Saying No” theme we’ll be exploring this Lent, speaks of Christians making use of Lenten practices, “such as fasting and other spiritual disciplines to draw disciples not only closer to Christ but also to the way of sacrificial living modeled by Jesus.” I think there’s a helpful distinction between suffering and sacrifice in her description. A life that is oriented to Christ will require sacrifice. But that sacrifice is an offering given as an investment in the well-being of our neighbors and creation. The goal is not to suffer for suffering’s sake, but to be willing to be less comfortable, to have less wealth, maybe even to have less of a good reputation in order to feed the hungry, visit the imprisoned, and tend to those who mourn. Catherine Doherty describes the sacrifices of Lent this way: “Lent is a time of going very deeply into ourselves…What is it that stands between us and God? Between us and our brothers and sisters? Between us and life, the life of the Spirit? Whatever it is, let us relentlessly tear it out, without a moment’s hesitation.” I agree. That sounds kind of intense. You may not know what that is if you had to name it right now. This is a place where Lent can be useful. You can experiment with fasting from something and/or adding a practice to your life. You can take these forty days to pay attention in a way that is different from your norm. Perhaps you say, I will make coffee at home and donate the money I usually spend on the coffee I buy every day. If you were to treat this like a worthy sacrifice, you might need to slow down and pay attention to the changes you will have to make in even such a simple act. How does the process of getting up earlier to make coffee, of learning to make a latte like the barista does, and then figuring out where to donate the money you saved teach you something about yourself and about God. You might be tempted to just make the coffee and walk out the door. And, maybe some days, you’ll need to do that. But, I will invite you to resist the temptation to rush through the season. Carve out some time to prayerfully consider what you have given up or added in this time. What is this fast or practice showing you about God and yourself? In this season, you will undoubtedly have to deal with temptation. You may be tempted to wonder if, in a world in the kind of upheaval that our world is in right now, how can I even make space for the season of Lent. To be fair, if you feel like adding a lot to your plate this Lent is more suffering than sacrifice, I think it’s ok to just get through. If you do decide to have a Lenten practice, you may be tempted to forego whatever fast or practice you’ve adopted. Or, you may find that giving up something means you want it all the more. Rev. Dr. Lindsay shares in her commentary on today’s scripture, “I know of people who have given up something they only marginally cared about because they think it will be easy only to discover that the process of self-denial can make something nominally interesting become almost irresistibly appealing. That’s the power of temptation.” Sometimes I wish Mark told us a little more about the temptation that Jesus dealt with out in the wilderness. Verse 13 of today’s reading tells us that “he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” But, as Dr. Lindsay points out, Mark does not take the time to spell out those temptations. Other Gospel writers do. They are temptations to use power to help curb his own suffering and also to take short-cuts in doing what he is called to do. In those versions of this stories, we can come to understand Jesus’ divinity in seeing him say no to temptation. Dr. Lindsay invites to consider that in being tempted, Jesus is also showing his radical commitment to humanity. She says that while other Gospels show Jesus “enter[ing] into the human condition through birth,” Mark, which has no birth narrative, shows him doing so through the communal act of baptism and through the fact that he is tempted, as we are tempted. She refers to Jesus’ temptation as “proof of his human nature.” Jesus is God right here with us, especially in the messy parts, fully participating in humanity. In her invitation to consider “saying no” as a Lenten spiritual practice, Dr. Lindsay shared this quote by Robin S. Baker: “To end certain cycles in your life, you will need to say no to things you’ve once said yes to in the past. You have grown much wiser and you know better now. So dissimilar decisions will have to be made this time around. It’s time to extract expired people, energies, and situations.” Perhaps your work this season can be learning to say no to the temptation to continue actions that are a part of the cycle that draws you away from God and neighbor. Fortunately, in saying no to some things, you will say yes to others. I pray that you can say new yeses this season, as well. Yes to worthwhile sacrifice. Yes to compassionate advocacy. Yes to loving your wonderfully imperfect neighbors. There will always be something there to tempt us into separation and destruction. May the Holy Spirit help you say no to the temptations that will destroy you. And, lead you to the yes that follows Jesus into that Kindom of God that has drawn near. Resources consulted while writing this sermon: Cheryl Lindsay:
Mark 9-2-9 Six days later, 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. Dazzling: Mark 9:2-9
“Confusion is but the first stop on the journey to knowledge.” That sure sounds like a thing a famous philosopher would say. I heard it from a fuzzy, blue mutant called Beast in a superhero movie called The Marvels. If you don’t want to hear a few spoilers from the movie, I suggest you plug your ears for a moment (or skip the next two paragraphs). He said that line about confusion and knowledge to a superhero named Monica Rambeau who has end up trapped in a parallel timeline to her own, one where her beloved mother Maria, who had died of cancer in her own time, was still alive. And, it appears, one in which Monica had not been born. Also, her mom is now a superhero herself, hanging out with the professor/mutant hero Beast. When Monica wakes up in the wrong dimension and sees her mother alive, she is clearly confused. And, Maria is confused about why this woman who is about her same age is calling her mom. In walks Beast, brilliant and hairy, who notes that confusion can be useful if you are willing to pay attention to what is confusing you and put in the work to figure it out. This scene, which follows the official end of the movie, serves as a teaser for movies that have not yet been filmed. It’s leading us to believe that we will eventually understand where Monica is and learn how she will get home. This post credit scene is made to assure us: things might be confusing now, but an answer will come. (If you wanted to skip the spoiler, you can start reading here.) It was interesting to watch a superhero movie about making big sacrifices and making amends, living into your calling and finding your co-workers while I was working on a sermon about the Transfiguration. Both feature three glowing figures (did I say that there’s lots of glowing in the movie... the three main superheroes all glow when they use their powers). Both feature meditations on vocation and what it means to work alongside someone. And, both feature lots of confusion, confusion that we hope might be cultivated into knowledge. Our scripture for the day begins not in a futuristic hospital room but on a mountain. The scholar Rolf Jacobsen, on an episode of the Sermon Brainwave podcast that is about this scripture, reminds us that we’ll have mountains at the beginning and end of Lent. And, today, on the cusp the season of Lent, at the end of Epiphany, we find ourselves on the first mountain. Peter, James, and John have found themselves in great confusion. You see, they see Jesus, fully glowing like an ancient Messiah-shaped light bulb, standing alongside two heroes of the faith, Moses and Elijah. To be clear, neither of these things are everyday occurrences in Peter, James, and John’s lives. So, confusion and astonishment are appropriate responses, as far as I’m concerned. Important things happen on Mountains. Dr. Bonnie Bowman Thurston talks about that in her commentary on Mark. God tells Moses about the covenant on a mountain in Exodus. God gives Elijah a divine mission on a mountain in 1st Kings. These aren’t the only examples. I’ll leave you to look the rest up on your own. And yet, even if we just read these two, we can see that people often receive clarity on a mountain... clarity of mission, clarity regarding relationships... clarity around God’s power. Isn’t it interest that, though Peter, James, and John have likely heard that divine knowledge is often found on a mountain top, they are still surprised and astonished by what they are seeing on their own mountaintop with Jesus. There's a point earlier in the movie The Marvels where a superhero named Carol asks Monica how she got her superpowers. Monica responds with what sounds more like an odd collection of words than a coherent answer. She says she “walked through a witch’s hex” and now can see waves of energy and particles of light and somehow this allows her to also walk through walls. I think it’s interesting that the movie just gives you this short explanation and goes right on with the story, inviting the audience not to worry too much about a wild backstory they might not know. I think the writers of this film understand that there are hours of tv shows and years’ worth of comic stories that give the details of Monica Rambeau’s power, and that they know not every audience member will have all that knowledge. Rather than leave out those who don’t know the backstory or dedicate hours in this film to retelling other stories, the writers explain her powers in a weird, short burst. They have Monica say just enough so you know some weird stuff happened to her and now she can save people more effectively. They want you to remember great power exists right alongside some weird stuff. I’m going to follow the recommendation of the scholar Melinda Quivik and invite you to read this story from Mark in a similar spirit. Please do not to think the only way you can appreciate the Transfiguration is if you have a detailed schematic of how Jesus could glow and an affidavit offering a rational explanation for the presence of dead prophets. We shouldn’t approach the Bible the way we approach math. This is a story. In storytelling, the fantastical is utterly unquantifiable and still yet shows us something true. Bonnie Bowman Thurston offers up similar advice. Read the Transfiguration as a wild, unquantifiable, story with one purpose- to help the audience to know this as true: like Moses and Elijah, God gave Jesus a calling. And the disciples should listen to him like the Hebrews were supposed to listen to the prophets. It's no wonder that Peter wanted to build a structure to commemorate the wild event he observed up on that mountain. It’s like Peter thinks there should be a signpost that says, “On this day, Jesus blew all our minds.” But, this isn’t supposed to be a story about a monument. This is a story about a mission. Thank God that God gave the disciples some clarity while they were lost in that cloud: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” They will still get confused in the listening, but at least they know their next step. Listen. And after that, follow. Here’s a thing that continues to confuse me: Jesus tells his disciples not to tell anyone what they saw. I mentioned last week that we’re going to see a pattern in Mark of Jesus asking for a certain level of secrecy from those who see him in miraculous moments. One explanation I have found that I think is more convincing comes from one of Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock’s sermons called “Tell No One Before Easter.” In that sermon, Dr. Craddock asks the question: what if Jesus asked them to wait because there was no way they understood the miraculous thing they just saw mere moments after they saw it. Dr. Craddock thinks Jesus was saying “Take some time to tell this story right. It's ok to not understand everything immediately. Stick around and keep learning.” You know, confusion is the but the first step on the journey to knowledge, and all that. The pastor and poet Maren Tirabassi talks about it this way: The Transfiguration is but one of the small epiphanies, hills on the way to the mountain, from which the disciples will gather yet one more insight into of the mystery of Jesus. We should also remember: the valleys will bring their own clarity. In the same way that the confusion of Beast, Maria, and Monica foreshadows the next movie in their series, today’s confusion on the mountain foreshadows a different mountain, one will come later, this time with the women disciples watching from a distance. The second set of disciples will also learn something about Jesus on a mountain, the mountain of Calvary. Rolf Jacobsen reminds us that bystanders will think they hear Jesus call for Elijah when he is crying out in anguish to God. At the second mountain, no voice from God will cut through the cloud of the disciples’ grief. They won’t get clarity on the mountain this time. Clarity will come in the valley, at the tomb. And, at least in Mark’s version of the story, they appear unclear what to do with it. I’ll offer another spoiler for the movie: The moment before Monica Rambeau saves Earth by pulling together a hole that has been ripped between her dimension and the dimension next door, thereby trapping herself in the wrong dimension, she speaks to a weeping Carol, who we have come to know is her aunt. She says, “I always knew I would have to stay.” This fantastical superhero knew what was true: sacrifice and salvation are often tightly bound. In today’s story, Peter, James, and John do not yet know of the sacrifice to come. They simply know that they are called to listen. Perhaps that is how we also begin. We listen. May what we hear be dazzling. Resources consulted while writing this sermon: Melinda Quivick: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/transfiguration-of-our-lord-2/commentary-on-mark-92-9-5 Sermon Brainwave Podcast: https://www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/768-transfiguration-of-our-lord-b-feb-14-2021 Bonnie Bowman Thurston, Preaching Mark, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002). Maren Tirabassi: https://giftsinopenhands.wordpress.com/2021/01/29/strongholy-communion-liturgy-for-february-7-2021/ Fred Craddock, "Tell No One Before Easter: Mark 9:2-9," The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011) Mark 1:29-39 Jesus Heals Many at Simon’s House As soon as they 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 sunset, 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. A Preaching Tour in Galilee 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. . Does anyone here know who Elmo the monster is? Yes, he is a small, fuzzy monster on Sesame Street. He is 3 and half years old. Did you know that Elmo has social media accounts? He does! One of the grown-ups who takes care of him must help him manage it. If you’ve ever watched Sesame Street, you know that Elmo tries to be a good friend. This week, on January 29th, Elmo and whomever help run his account on the site that used to be called Twitter, decided to ask a question that a friend might ask. He made a post that said, “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” Well, lots of people responded. Probably more than Elmo and his grown-ups imagined. And lots of people are having a hard time.
Someone who goes by the name Marsroseo replied: “Elmo we are tired.” The account for the video game called Among Us replied with one word: “suffering.” The actor Rainn Wilson said: “I’m kind of a crossroads and frankly could use a little support.” People replied talking about arguments in their family, problems at work, and about football games where their favorite teams lost. While not everyone said they were having a bad time, and some of the people were obviously making jokes, it was clear that many people needed someone to talk to, even if the someone was a muppet on a TV show they watched when they were little kids. Whoever helps with Elmo’s social media didn’t try to answer everyone, which is good. There were tens of thousands of replies. But, the next day, Elmo posted: “Wow! Elmo is glad he asked! Elmo learned that it is important to ask a friend how they are doing. Elmo will check in again soon, friends! Elmo loves you. Heart emoji #emotionalwellbeing.” Also, because monsters who are only three and half years old shouldn’t have to try to take care of other people on their own, the adults who run the main Sesame Street account shared Elmo’s post about being glad he asked, and added, “Thank you, Elmo, for checking in with a reminder for us to pause and take a mindful moment to focus on how we’re feeling.” They also shared resources to help adults and kids take care of their mental health. It was a good example of people knowing that they have resources to share to help someone and then making the choice to help. The Bible stories we’re reading together right now come from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. We’ve seen him prepare for his ministry by asking to be baptized. We’ve seen him make it through the harrowing time of temptation in the wilderness and call his first co-workers. And, then, last week, we heard about the first time he did two of the things that will be the hallmarks of his ministry: teaching and healing. He would continue those two activities in today’s reading. The first thing he does is help someone when he finds out that she is not doing ok. The first part of the scripture is a story that is in Matthew and Luke, as well as Mark, but is told slightly differently in each Gospel. The people who compiled stories about Jesus into the books of the Gospel each tell a story shaped by what they think is important for the listener to learn about Jesus. Dr. Wil Gafney notes that while Matthew has Jesus seeing the Peter’s mother-in-law sick and choosing to help her and Luke has the disciples ask about what might be wrong with her and Jesus healing her with only his words, in Mark, the disciples tell Jesus about her fever as soon as he got in the house. I guess when they saw how he healed in the person with the demon in the previous story, they thought he could help Simon Peter’s mom. Jesus seemed to know that he could help her. So, he uses his holy resources and makes the choice to help her. He takes her by the hand and lifts her up. In the time it takes to move from lying down to standing up, her fever disappears. The last part of her story is interesting. In Greek, it says, “καὶ διηκόνει αὐτοῖς.” You might know an English word that came from one of those Greek words. Has anyone ever heard the word “deacon” before? Excellent. Has anyone who is here today ever been a deacon before? What are some things that deacons do? (help set up worship, check in on people when they need help, serve communion) The word deacon comes from the Greek word διακονέω, which can mean both “to serve” and “to minister.” The scripture you heard read today says that she got up and began to serve them. This could mean serves them dinner or offers them hospitality in her home. Dr. Gafney has a translation of this passage that reads: “she ministered to them.” This could lots of things: She helped prepare them for the next part of her journey, she preached to them about her experience of healing, or even offered them a blessing as they had blessed her. Whether she fed them dinner or fed their spirits, I like to think that, like Jesus, she knew that now that she was well, she would have the resources to help these men, two of whom were family, prepare for the ministry that was ahead of them. If she had resources to share, she realized that this was the time to share them. It is good that she offered them some manner of care, because the very evening, Jesus and the disciples would begin their healing ministry in earnest. People of all manner of illness were brought to Jesus, so many that it seemed like the whole city was at the door. He healed many people. He also kept any demons floating around from telling people who he was. That’s an odd tidbit in this story, right? Dr. Osvaldo Vena thinks it was because Jesus was trying to avoid become popular through gossip or wild stories, with the assumption that the demon-possessed people would tell wild stories about him. He wanted people to believe in him because they saw him and experience healing through him. The last thing Jesus does in this story is to go to a deserted place to pray. Chandra Taylor Smith notes in her commentary that Jesus’ approach to healing and just love is to love himself enough to take time to replenish his own spirit. There will be multiple times that he does this in Mark. Dr. Smith said that it’s a model for us to have a devotional practice that sustains us in challenging work, too. He came to the realization that it was time to go to the next place to teach and heal there, too, “for that is what I came out to do.” He would leave the deserted place, and begin his ministry in earnest. Now, I don’t know if you’re feeling like you need to tell Elmo the monster that you’re stressed out or if you could use Jesus to lift you up so that you can serve the ones who have come to your home. What I do know that is that Jesus has clearly equipped us to take care of one another as an extension of the love he has for us. Be it through prayers in the wilderness, a meal served to strangers and family alike, or through a note of compassion over social media, may you feel renewed by Jesus’ spirit of love and justice in this time and this place. And, may you share that renewal with those who need it. This ministry is just starting. We’ll need all the sustenance we can find to continue it. Resources consulted while writing this sermon: Chandra Taylor Smith: "Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany," Preaching God's Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year B Featuring 22 New Holy Days for Justice, Ronald J. Allen, Dale P. Andrews, and Dawn Ottoni- Wilhelm, eds. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011) Elmo asks a kind question: https://twitter.com/elmo/status/1751995117366296904?t=_VQmvVR1JUHJZeDWzHhMBg&s=19
Sesame Street's follow-up: https://x.com/sesamestreet/status/1752069858160758885?s=20 Osvaldo Vena: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-after-epiphany-2/commentary-on-mark-129-39-5 Wil Gafney, "Advent III," A Women's Lectionary, Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year B (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2023) This page has the Greek version of the text: https://biblehub.com/text/mark/1-31.htm Mark 1: 21-28 The Man with an Unclean Spirit They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. I was reminded of something interesting during our confirmation mini-retreat a few weeks ago. There were people who sued to keep the United Church of Christ from forming. For those who haven’t been in confirmation class or a new member class lately, I’ll offer a quick recap of the history of our denominational history. The United Church of Christ was formed in 1957 as a union between two denominations that were, themselves, products of unions among five other traditions that happened in the early 1930’s. One of those denominations was a combination of the two traditions brought to this continent by German immigrants: The German Reformed Tradition and the German Evangelical Tradition. This became known as the Evangelical and Reformed Church. The other denomination, the Congregational Christian Church, developed from the union among Congregational Churches and two strands of a group of churches known as the Christian Church, one that was predominantly white and one called the Afro-Christian Convention that developed in the tidewater area of Virginia and North Carolina.
Our church was a part of the Congregational Christian Church. And, I know some folks who were active here at the time when our particular Congregational Christian Church began to discuss becoming part of the United Church of Christ. It was actually a contentious issue in our congregation. While I’m sure it wasn’t the only issue of concern, a central issue of concern was one of authority- in joining the UCC, would our church lose the authority to organize ourselves into a body of Christ as we felt called? While eventually, the majority of this church became convinced that the covenantal structures of the United Church of Christ were strong enough to connect us to other churches in ways that were useful and flexible enough to allow us to follow the Holy Spirit where we were called, some folks were not. They ended up leaving. This is a strength of a covenantal relationship. You can choose not to be a part of it. Some folks chose not to and joined other congregations. We who are here today are the ones who stayed and the ones who came later. Ok, so what does this have to do with the lawsuits I mentioned? Those lawsuits were also about a question of authority. The Congregational Christian Churches and Evangelical and Reformed Churches were in conversation about a potential union for a long time. Their shared theological backgrounds in European Reformed traditions and their similar styles of being church that de-emphasized strict adherence to creeds while strongly emphasizing service to the world were the foundations of their early conversations. However, within Congregational Christian circles, people began to ask questions about authority- would a union take away authority from local churches? Did elected leaders of the denomination even have the authority to enter into conversations about a union? Some people said no, and they sued leaders who they thought were acting outside of their authority. An article on the UCC website shares that from 1950 to 1957, “thousands of hours and dollars were spent on court litigation of suits brought against the General Council by autonomous bodies and individuals of the Congregational Christian Churches.” The General Council was a leadership board in the Congregational Christian Churches. Justice Archie O. Dawson, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, who was a part of the lawsuit that the Cadman Memorial Congregational Church in Brooklyn and other Congregational Christian churches filed against Helen Kenyon, who was the moderator of the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches, had this to say about that particular suit: “It is unfortunate that ministers and church members, who purport to abide by Christian principles should engage in this long, expensive litigation...” Eventually, all litigants would run out of appeals, with those granting authority to the General Council to engage in the conversation about the union prevailing. The same article, citing a scholar named Fred Hoskins, shared this: “the Court of Appeals issued the assurance that the union ‘would in no way change the historical and traditional patterns of individual Congregational Christian churches’ and that none would be coerced into union. Each member was assured of continuing freedom of faith and manner of worship and no abridgement of congregational usage and practice.” This is the interpretation of our faith tradition that carried the leaders of the Congregational Christian churches into the conversation about union that would eventually create the United Church of Christ, and I think, what ultimately allowed our church to take the time to consider whether we wanted to join the UCC. This ruling assured that we could not be coerced into covenant, and once in covenant, we would be allowed to be the church we are called to be in each generation. It would take us 10 years, but eventually we would join the UCC. So, what does all of this have to with Jesus exorcising an unclean spirit in the synagogue? While I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the midst of all of the arguments and all the lawsuits that some people might have grumbled something about the demonic character of their opponents, however, that’s not where I’m heading with this. Instead, I want us to note that from the time of Jesus’ own ministry, the people who would come to follow Jesus have been concerned about authority: who has it? who gave it to them? what are they going to do with it? After Jesus had rounded up some coworkers, the next Sabbath, he and they went to the synagogue in Capernaum, and Jesus began to teach. This is where the question of authority pops up. Scripture says, “They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Richard Horsley’s notes on this chapter explain that the scribes were learned scholars who represented the priests in Jerusalem. Dr. Wil Gafney reminds us in her commentary that these were people who knew their faith well, not people who simply copied scripture and interpretations down to share with others. Dr. Osvaldo Vena says that they were skilled and respected teachers. When Jesus shows up at synagogue that day, we are to understand that he is demonstrating more knowledge of their faith than the most skilled teachers. And, Jesus had not been trained to be a teacher. He’s just some guy who shows up acting like he knows what he’s doing. He has this internal sense of authority that the people around him clearly observe. And, they are amazed. And, the demon, at least, is afraid. “Have you come to destroy us?” Isn’t this a question many of us are tempted to ask when meeting a new authority? You obviously have power. Will you use it to harm me? Will you use it to overpower me? I would never say that questioning authority is demonic. Jesus himself does it all the time. But I do think the unclean spirit’s question is useful in that it shows us what the fearful believe is at stake around questions of authority. It must be clear how authority will be used. It must be clear what the limits to, and gifts of, any expression of authority are. Authority itself is not a bad thing. But, it must be used in allegiance to God’s priorities of love and justice. Ultimately, we should read the presence of the unclean spirit as a doing a great harm to at least one person in this synagogue, and possibly to the whole community that knows this person. How we see Jesus using the authority afforded to him at his baptism is to heal the one who has been taken over by a power without his consent. Authority here is clear and assertive, as well as loving. Authority is a tool for healing. And, ultimately, this authority will be shared. It was first shared with Jesus, and Kenyatta Gilbert points out in her commentary on the text, in chapter 3:14, Jesus will share it with his disciples. Today is our annual meeting, a day when we will practice how we share the authority passed down to us. I hope you took time to read the reports that I, along with the officers, and boards of the church wrote to describe how we used the authority you all have entrusted in us over the last year. We will consider together other questions of authority, like how we decide who is a covenant member and who will be granted the authority that comes with service on our boards. These are no small questions. On our best days, we are living into the authority passed down to us by the Holy Spirit and our ancestors in the faith. May we wield this authority well, for the purpose of love and healing. And, may we step into the next year of ministry together feeling authorized by the Spirit and our covenant with one another to serve our town and our world. Resources consulted while writing this sermon: The history article that talks about the lawsuits: https://www.ucc.org/about-us_short-course_the-congregational-christian/ A nice 20 minute introduction to UCC history: https://vimeo.com/showcase/4814431/video/238494317 Richard A. Horsley's notes on Mark in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) Wil Gafney, "Advent II," Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year B (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2023) Osvaldo Vena: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-after-epiphany-2/commentary-on-mark-121-28-5 Kenyetta Gilbert, "Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany," Preaching God's Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year B Featuring 22 New Holy Days for Justice, Ronald J. Allen, Dale P. Andrews, and Dawn Ottoni- Wilhelm, eds. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011). Mark 1: 14-20 The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry 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 in the good news.’ Jesus Calls the First Disciples As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. This is the closest I have ever lived to the ocean. I was kinda of close the summers I lived in DC in college, but that doesn’t exactly feel like it counts. I only went to the ocean once or twice, with work, and I had to keep my eye on a whole bunch of little kids to make sure nobody went so far out into the waves that they couldn’t get back. If I just think about places that I’ve lived long enough to have bills come to my house and get called up for jury duty, this is the closest I’ve lived to the ocean by far. And, this is the first time I’ve lived around people who fish for a living.
Now, I am the granddaughter of an angler. My maternal grandfather loved to go fishing and take his grandkids with him. “Grandkid holding a fish” is one of the most common genres in our family pictures. He especially liked to fish for trout near the Qualla Boundary, the home of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, in North Carolina. If we couldn’t make it to the mountains, we’d fish in the pond on my great-grandfather's land. He kept it stocked with fish. Once, over two days, I caught 14 bluegill. I was very proud of myself. We let each one of those little fish go. Who knows if I caught any of them more than once. It was from this same pond that I caught my largest ever fish, an eight-pound catfish. Nobody wanted to fry it up so great-granddaddy fed it to his cats. They were thrilled. I tell you this because, while people I grew up with may have supplemented their diet with fish they caught and may have found fishing to be relaxing and fun, no one I knew relied on it to make a living. Tourism was the only industry that really relied on fishing, and, again, it was sport fishing. Not the kind of fishing that gets large amounts of seafood to stores for the broader community to purchase. There are not entire industries keeping working boats afloat, nets and traps functioning, and processing catches for consumption. It’s a whole new world for me when I spend time on a working waterfront. I certainly don’t know what it is like to make your living in a job that is so dependent on a mix of good weather, the right tools, and deep knowledge of where fish usually are along with the discipline to get out to the fish at the right time to catch them and just plain luck. Even though the technology has changed a bit in 2000 years, the risks of this work and the forces that shape it would have been familiar to Jesus’ disciples. Because when he realized that he needed co-workers, he left the wilderness where he had been and headed to the water. Maybe the people who fished for a living, in uncertain conditions often out of their control, had a skillset that matched up neatly with the unpredictable, demanding work of the Gospel. Now, to be fair, the Sea of Galilee wasn’t an ocean. Richard Horsley reminds us in his notes on Mark that it was, and is, a large and deep inland lake, large enough that many people fished in it for people beyond their own direct families. It is from their ranks that Jesus called his first disciples. We’ve kind of jumped all over the Gospels to hear call stories the past few weeks, so it is probably worth it to be reminded what is going on in Mark just before today’s reading. Like all things in Mark, chapter one is intense and fast-paced. Karoline Lewis reminds us in her commentary, we’ll hear the word “immediately” a lot in this book. Mark has no stories of Jesus birth and begins with John the Baptist calling people to repent. Jesus follows John into ministry, asking to be baptized himself. Jesus feels great affirmation from God at this baptism. And, yet, the Spirit will drive him into the wilderness for forty days. In this temptation filled wild place, he will discern what it means to be the Messiah. In that time, he also seems to realize that he needs coworkers. That is where we begin today. Dr. Vargas points out that John has been arrested. That’s a bit of foreshadowing. Things will not go well for John. And, Vargas invites us to consider if we might wonder, if Jesus is building on the work of John, might he too face similarly powerful opposition? If it does, it won’t be fore a while. Because the first people he meets respond to him remarkably positively. He says to Simon and Andrew, “follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And, immediately (there’s that word), they leave their nets behind and follow him. He walks a little farther and sees two more people, James and John, who are also fishermen. He called them to follow, and immediately they left their dad and everybody and followed. Horsley’s notes on Mark point out that Nazareth was in Galilee, about 16 miles from the Sea of Galilee. This may explain some of the reason why these two sets of brothers were so eager to follow him. Maybe they didn’t know him in particular, but he was from the area and, therefore, they were more likely to trust him. I read somewhere that I can’t remember and couldn’t find to cite in this sermon that some scholars even argue that that it is possible that Jesus and these brothers even grew up together, or at least knew Jesus by reputation. I’m not sure I buy that. The author of Mark seems to want us to believe this calling is out of the blue. Jesus being unfamiliar to them makes the fact that they followed all the more miraculous. I have read some folks who wondered if these brothers had ever listened to John preach. When they heard Jesus building on John’s message, saying “repent!” but also adding “believe in the good news!” Perhaps when Jesus showed up, they had been primed by John to receive him. It was like Jesus said, “All that stuff John was talking about... that's happening now. Come and be a part of it," they could have already been ready to go. I find this theory interesting. It certainly helps me understand more easily how they can shift so quickly from what Cynthia Briggs Kittredge calls from one kind of “drawing, catching, and harvesting” to another. But, maybe we don’t actually need a full explanation about why they chose to follow. Karoline Lewis argues that the nature of epiphanies is that “they just happen.” She offers this line that I think is worth pondering: “There you are — and what will you do?” Kittredge notes that the fishermen will “offer a different kind of provision” in this new calling. Sometimes they will actually feed people, even with fish. But, most of the time, they will offer a different kind of nourishment. I can’t help but think that the patience, flexibility, and discipline from their work as fishermen will help carry them into their next catch. I hope that each of us will find ways to use the skills we’ve cultivated in service of Christ in the world. The disciples have gone fishin’. When Jesus invites us to come with, I hope that we, too, will have the courage to follow. Resources consulted while writing this sermon: Richard A. Horsley’s notes on Mark in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) Alicia Vargas: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany-2/commentary-on-mark-114-20-6 Cynthia Briggs Kittredge: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany-2/commentary-on-mark-114-20-4 Karoline Lewis: https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=3500 John 1:43-51: Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’ “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” These are the first words we hear Nathanael say in this scripture and they are a little judgey. Can you imagine if anyone ran into you and said to your face, “Can anything good come out of Winthrop?”... “Can anything good come out of Monmouth?”... “Can anything good come out of Readfield?” I imagine that if someone said that to you about your hometown, you might take offence. Thankfully, Phillip is from Bethsaida and does not appear too phased by the exclamation. Maybe he himself had said something similar. After all, Nazareth was a small town, a village really, according to Obery Hendrick’s notes on the scripture. There’s no way that the one that Moses and the prophets were writing about came from there.
To be fair, not everyone is as quick a study as Phillip... or Andrew... or Simon for that matter. Jesus didn’t work alone, and early in his mission began to invite people, strangers it seems, to join him. In the verses just before today’s reading, Jesus’ baptism had been observed by Andrew and a friend, who, when he saw them following him and asked what they were looking for, they recognized he was the teacher they had been seeking. Andrew found his brother Simon and introduced him to Jesus, saying “We have found the Messiah.” When Jesus decided to go to Galilee, these men were ready to go with him. It hardly took any convincing. Just a simply “Follow me.” And, they did. Nathanael, though, needed a little more convincing. You see, even though we don't know much about Nathanael, we know one important thing. It seems like Nathanael was pretty sure he knew where and how God would show up. It is useful to remember a few things about the people and places in this story. For one, Audrey West points out in her commentary that Nathanael isn’t usually listed among the 12 disciples, despite being called early in Jesus’ ministry. He is only in one other story in John, a story which occurs after the resurrection. Jesus appears to him and several other disciples in their hometown of Cana. We also have a sense that Nathanael carried hope that God would provide the promised Messiah who could restore their nation's fortunes (Remember, Israel had been conquered by Rome at this point and Rome was often cruel to the territories they conquered). It’s also clear that Nathanael expected a royal Messiah, which, to be fair, is kind of how the messiah is portrayed in prophecy. He was not wrong to assume that’s how he’d encounter the anointed one: as a king to stand up to Caesar. West puts it this way: “Surely, they thought, he would appear in or near the great city of Jerusalem, site of political and economic power, religious authority, and God’s own dwelling place in the Temple.” It is hard to blame Nathanael for initially doubting that the Messiah could come from a dinky village like Nazareth. Why on earth would God work through someone from a community that everyone else thought was insignificant? It is interesting to see how much Nathanael trusts Philip despite his initial misgivings. Phillip hears his initial hesitation, and sticks with him. “Come and see,” he says. To his credit, Nathanael goes and looks. Despite some misgivings, he is willing to go and see Jesus himself. Jesus says something unexpected when he sees Nathanael. He says of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Audrey West notes that this is a reference to Jacob from the book of Genesis. Jacob was actually known for being a trickster before he wrestled with God and took the name Israel. Perhaps Jesus knew that Nathanael could gain what he needed without trickery. This sparks another question from Nathanael, “Where did you get to know me?” Because how could Jesus know his character without ever having spoken a word to him before? Jesus answers him with something that must be a story best understood by insiders, because I have no idea why this response would move Nathanael so. He says to him “I saw you under the fig tree before Phillip called you.” In her commentary on this text Jan Schnell Rippentrop points out that scripture does not tell us why this statement from Jesus so moved Nathanael. We have no idea what was going on under the fig tree. Is this a metaphor for something that was going on in Nathanael’s life that only Nathanael would recognize? Did Jesus literally see him under a tree when Nathanael had assumed no one had? I have yet to see a good explanation of why seeing him under the fig tree might matter to Nathanael, but it definitely does. This one pronouncement changes his whole outlook on who Jesus is and how God might be working through him. Nathanael will cry out in amazement and call Jesus three very important and good things: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Rippentrop helpfully unravels the meaning of each of these terms in her commentary on this text.
With these words, Nathanael changes from the one who was, at first, cautious, to one who is all in, and ready to go. Even though we won’t see him again until after the resurrection, he must have been there, if not in the closest 12, then in the bigger group of disciples who followed Jesus. His commitment to Jesus continued to be strong enough to merit, here in John at least, a post-resurrection visit where Nathanael certainly saw the “greater things than these” that Jesus promised him. We are in the season of Epiphany, a season where we attend to the ways that Christ may appear in our lives with surprising clarity. May we be grateful for the fact that, as West says in her commentary, “God is not obliged to be confined by Nathanael’s (or our) limiting expectations.” May we be reminded that Jesus was not disappointed by Nathanael’s questions, and he wouldn’t be disappointed in ours. Questions aren’t the opposite of faith. They are a vital part of it. May you ask good questions this week. And, may you see Christ more clearly through them. Resources consulted while writing this sermon: John Obery M. Hendricks Junior's notes on John in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) Aubrey West: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-after-epiphany-2/commentary-on-john-143-51-6 Jan Schnell Rippentrop: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3529 Matthew 2:1-12 The Visit of the Wise Men In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.” ’ Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. Matthew 3:13-17 The Baptism of Jesus Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ It is good to be reminded, from the start, that the Magi were not of the same religious tradition as Jesus. In her commentary on this texts, Dr. Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder notes that these wise people were from Persia and were scholars, astrologers, and practitioners of Zoroastrianism. They were learned in the ways of the stars, watching for signs and portents. They saw something inspiring enough to draw them to Judea. Divine inspiration has made it clear to them that a new leader had been born. And, as J. Andrew Overman shares in his notes on this portion of Matthew 2, it was appropriate for neighboring royal courts to send emissaries to greet new rulers. They would often bring them gifts. Of course, they knew something holy was happening from the very start. They’d been watching for it and waiting. Of course, they’d set out towards Judea to greet the child who would one day lead.
It is also good to be reminded, from the start, that this child is no longer an infant. Dr. Crowder clarifies for us in her commentary that it has probably been about two years since the child was born. Dr. Crowder says we know this because we know when Herod reigned. And, because the tyrant would order the death of all children under two who lived in and around Bethlehem, it seems that the time frame of the child’s birth was somewhat in question. Sometimes it takes a while to make it to the destination when God is guiding you. It is good that, from the start, we know this might not be a fast trip. But, regardless of how long it takes to make the case that you need to go, to gather what you need to get there, and to actually make the trek, it is clear that going is the right call. It is good, from the start, to be reminded that not all people in power are trustworthy. Some, like Herod, have a great deal of power and maintain it through cruelty and brutality. Aubrey West describes his reign as “a terrifying era fueled by chaos and trauma for the Jewish people.” He would do just about anything, harm just about anyone, including his own wife and sons, to shore up his power. His rule would always be precarious because his power was always based on what Rome was willing to give him. Rome would always protect their interests over Judea’s. Herod would only be around as long as he was useful. It is wise not to put your faith in a leader who only comes to power because someone more powerful wants them there. Thank God for the Magis dream that led them home by another route so they wouldn’t betray the toddler and family. If only the other families in and around Bethlehem had had similar warnings and had been able to protect their children. I know that it has come somewhat in fashion to question the practicality of the Magis gifts. I am certain that I have a decorative Christmas towel that records what the “Wise Women” would have brought, which is largely practical things like diapers and bottles and maybe they’d watch the baby for a bit while his mother slept. The poet Jan Richardson has a beautiful poem about the Wise Women who could have accompanied Mary through labor. A portion of it reads: Wise women also came, at least three of them, holding Mary in the labor, crying out with her in the birth pangs, breathing ancient blessings into her ear. Now, both of these are largely examples of theological imagination, reading what we know to be likely true based on what we know about traditions around births and also a reclamation of women’s leadership and wisdom, in both serious and tongue-in-cheek ways. It must be said though that there’s nothing in the reading that indicates that women weren’t among the Magi. Magoi, in Greek, doesn’t indicate only men, as Dr. Wil Gafney and Dr. Crowder note in their commentaries, just the presence of at least one man. Dr. Crowder notes that similar caravans traveling from Persia for similar reasons often had women in the party. And, in regard to the gifts, we must remember that the baby is a toddler. He and his parents have likely already received anything like a baby shower that the family, poor as they were, would have thrown. These gifts are for something other than the practical. Like the star, they tell us something special about this child. God, frankincense, and myrrh were, as Dr. Overman reminds us, gifts for a king. At this point in the story, this child is barely walking. But, from the start, those who are wise know that he will lead. Our second reading for today is a different start... the start of Jesus’ ministry. We have another jump in time, with the toddler now a grown man, seeking out his prophet cousin in the wilderness. Jesus will begin his ministry not in some grand display of power, but in placing himself in the vulnerable position of one who is to be baptized. Dr. Crowder argues that Jesus is doing what good leaders do, allowing the people whom they serve to also “equip and nurture” the leader. At the start of this encounter, John does not believe has the right to baptize Jesus, the one with the more powerful calling of the two of them. But, Jesus is clear that baptism is a surrender that is necessary to his calling. John is called to baptize. Jesus is called to be baptized in order as a preparation for all that is to come. As Dr. Crowder points out, though Jesus played host to emissaries and dignitaries as a toddler, his ministry will primarily be among those who are poor like him, as well as though who are of even lower status. Those who reside in the wilderness are often people cast aside from the main community or, as those who found John in the wilderness were, people seeking some deeper connection with the divine. What better place to start than among those who need him the most.... right there in the water, in recognition of the calling of his cousin, humble before God. What will come next will not be easy. But it is what will bring him to us, oh these centuries later. May the first weeks of the year in the Gregorian calendar bring you closer to God who is with us. I pray for the stars to guide you and the water of your baptisms to remind you of Emanuel. May you, too, have a good start, and may it carry you into the future Christ is building with our help right now. Resources consulted while writing this sermon: Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder: -https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/epiphany-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-21-12-9 -https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/baptism-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-313-17-5 J. Andrew Overman's notes on Matthew in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) Wil Gafney, "Feast of the Epiphany," Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year B (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2023) Audrey West: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/epiphany-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-21-12-13 Wise women also came. The fire burned in their wombs long before they saw the flaming star in the sky. They walked in shadows, trusting the path would open under the light of the moon. Wise women also came, seeking no directions, no permission from any king. They came by their own authority, their own desire, their own longing. They came in quiet, spreading no rumors, sparking no fears to lead to innocents’ slaughter, to their sister Rachel’s inconsolable lamentations. Wise women also came, and they brought useful gifts: water for labor’s washing, fire for warm illumination, a blanket for swaddling. Wise women also came, at least three of them, holding Mary in the labor, crying out with her in the birth pangs, breathing ancient blessings into her ear. Wise women also came, and they went, as wise women always do, home a different way. -- by Jan Richardson |
AuthorPastor Chrissy is a native of East Tennessee. She and her wife moved to Maine from Illinois. She is a graduate of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University and Chicago Theological Seminary. Archives
January 2024
Categories |