December 17, 2006

Zephaniah 3: 14-18 + Philippians 4: 4-7 + Luke 3: 10-18

What should we do?

is the question this crowd asks after the Baptists sermon.

What should we do?

This is the question that forms the heart of Luke’s Gospel

the Gospel we shall proclaim from now until next Advent.

I’ve asked that question many times in my life,

and I’m certain that you have too;

and sometimes I’ve gotten an answer that left me ready to say:

“Yeah, well thanks, forget that. “Sorry I asked.”

I suspect that some of those people

who asked John what to do felt like it was a mistake to have asked.

Holding on to that second coat, that extra bread or old sandals

and wondering: “What is enough?” goes through every mind that hears his response.

Do I risk my own comfort for someone who has not worked as hard as I have?

Can the tax collector who has had his thumb on the scale

really live with a cut-back in revenue?

Those soldiers he’s talking to:

do they really stop pushing people around?  They are not out in that miserable desert to teach dancing. Their pay is meant to be supplemented by this bullying behavior, this extortion.

Any change in behavior always leads to a discovery of inner obstacles.

On Advent’s Third Sunday,

John the Baptist calls for a change: Repentance!

His advice is really a journey of self-discovery.

You really get to know yourself when you start to make a change.

Luke gives us John’s suggestions, and with them we might learn a great deal about ourselves and expose the obstacles that keep us from God.

Put simply what John says is:

Share what you have; Avoid greed; and use your power well.

We all have more than we need,

and the moment we hesitate to share that wealth,

we’ve uncovered an obstacle.

This is a proposal to imitate God.

God shared all of creation with us, and as if that was not enough,

he shared his only Son:

not a spare, not an extra, not the one least loved, but his only son.

“No greed.” says John. When we confront the greed of our lives,

we find out exactly what is in the way between us and God.

When God made a covenant with us, as recorded in the First Testament, he asked us to return one tenth of what we earn: a dime out of a dollar. Not the whole thing, not even half, just a tithe: right off the top.

The first fruits he called it.

When we fail to do that, we act as though everything depends upon us.

It denies that we are dependent on God and on one another.

That exaggerated individualism leads to greed, war, and abuse.

“Use your power well.” says John. Don’t force, invite.

It’s another imitation of God, a divine quality in us there since we were created with free will.  God does not force. God invites.

I have wondered for many years what John the Baptist must have thought about this one who was to come.

I honestly think he may well have been very disappointed,

especially when he was sitting in Herod’s prison.

Where was that all – powerful one he waited for his whole life?

When you listen to what John said and how he said it,

you can’t help but think he was surprised by Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus never came with thundering curses and threats of judgment.

In stead of threats to powers like Herod, he preached to the poor.

He promised liberty to captives, sight for the blind,

freedom for the oppressed.

His first contact with tax collectors was to have dinner with them.

His way of bringing people to God was different than John’s,

and herein lies the cause of our Joy:

that love is what the repentant will receive,

not judgment or condemnation.

The Joyful are always in repentance, free, generous without question or limit. They are always returning to God what God asks only to be surprised by the fact that God will not be outdone. This is the rehearsal part of Advent’s work: the Joy of Christmas cannot be contained. It breaks out in the middle of Advent, and the giving is not seasonal. It is a way of life.

December 10, 2006

Baruch 5: 1-9 + Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11 + Luke 3: 1-6

All those really important people: Caesar, The Governor of Judea, Tetrarchs and High Priests! And where does the Word of God go? By-passing all the seats of power and influence, ignoring the high holy ones with their religious influence and power, the Word of God goes straight to the desert to an insignificant wild man who is living on the fringe of society and holds no claim to any authority, influence, or power. The reversal of things predicted by Baruch goes on. Perhaps it was not so much a prediction of some future event, but a commentary on the way things are.

Some of the powerful in Washington know how quickly things change. Opinion polls plummet for a president, A powerful Roman Catholic Cardinal is driven from his post, Celebrity athletes shamed from the spotlight by revelations of drug enhancing performances, “Enron” the symbol of prominence, power, and influence collapses in a shameful revelation of greed and lies. Who needs Baruch or Jeremiah? But these ancient prophets speak both ways: about the mighty who will fall, and about the lowly who will rise. This is important to remember in Advent. Things change, and when they do, God will be found at work in the middle of it by those who remember.The Greek word for change or repentance is “metanoia.” It literally means, “Going beyond the mind.” When we can go beyond the mind, forgiveness of sins follows. Behind this idea is something we all know to be very real. There is something about the mind that holds onto sin. I can’t count the times I have heard people say to me: “Father I wish I could forget it, or just forgiven them.”

Sinful experience sticks to us like super glue. We remember the beatings, humiliations, hateful glances, mocking words, insults. When we can’t even remember our own phone number, we can remember as if it was yesterday, a hurt from twenty years ago. The experience of sin begins with being sinned against, and we are quick learners. We learn all too soon how to hurt others. We call it “protecting ourselves” sometimes; but it is little more than just advancing and promoting oneself at all costs. If the truth is told, we have been hurt, wronged, and maltreated. If the truth is told, we have done the same to others.

Our problem comes when the mind enthrones this experience and we begin to believe that we are helpless sinners, victims, and justified by an ever deepening connection between who we are and what had been done to us and what we have done. Our identification with sin is a roadblock, a mountain in the way that makes slow going, not for us, but for Christ Jesus who comes.  He can’t get to us with his message that we are the light of the world, the salt of the earth, and blessed if we continue to cling to our sin and our identity as sinners. He becomes then, not the one who is to come, but the one sin keeps away. This is what John comes to address – “Let Go of Sin.” he says. Repentance is subtle but not impossible. Two steps to get there: One, recognize the truth; we have been hurt and that we hurt others. Two, understand the basic core belief of the Christian tradition: the unconditional forgiveness of God.

If God can and does let it go, then what’s the point of our holding on? The question changes from: “Will God forgive me?” to “How can I get beyond a mind that clings to sin when God does not? Before we can hear the words that Jesus heard at his Baptism:“You are my beloved.” We must undergo the baptism of John: a baptism of repentance that leads to forgiveness of sins. When we do, the path is clear, and we will understand that this season is truly about waiting; but not about us waiting for God to come. It is about God waiting for us to put down sins already forgiven.

December 8, 2006

Genesis 3:9-15, 20 + Ephesians 1:3-6, 11, 2 + Luke 1:26-38

No one has ever asked me to reassign the scriptures

we proclaim for Feats and Seasons,

but if they do, I’m going right to this day and strike the Gospel text, saving it for another occasion.

First: because it contributes to confusion about what this feast celebrates.

Second: because it is repeated on plenty of other feasts.

Now, I am not certain what I might choose to replace it,

but I can wait till they ask me to work on that.

The point here is to explore what it means “to be without sin”,

and I am not sure we get that point very universally.

The consequence of not getting that point is that

Mary Immaculate become Mary the Distant,

Mary the so perfect forget about trying to imitate her,

or Mary the pure who has nothing in common with us.

When we get to that point, it’s a tragedy which neither the church

nor Mary herself could accept.

The point is: what does it mean to be without sin?

We can’t imagine, let alone desire to be without sin if we do not

continue to consider what it is and face its consequences.

As both a repentant sinner and a confessor, I can assure you,

identifying sin, naming it, and avoiding it is serious, tough business.

It has little if anything to do for that matter

with little spots or big spots on our soul.

It trivializes the greatness of being without sin

to think it means she didn’t gossip, use bad language in traffic,

cheat on a test, tell a lie, or skip her night prayers because she was tired.

Genesis gives some good thinking about this matter

and a good clue when it describes Adam and Eve in their sin.

They hid from God!

They turned away from God preferring earthly things to the divine.

They talked to a snake: preferring that conversation

to conversation with God.

That and its consequences is what sin is all about,

and we are invited to consider on this Feast

why we have not and do not choose to be more like our mother,

for that is exactly how we are invited to see her

by putting the image of Eve,

mother of mankind before us in the first reading.

There is a new Eve now:

a new mother of a race that is called to sinlessness.

She is not to be put on such a distant pedestal with such perfections

that we are hopeless to think we might imitate her.

Her gift is that she was open to God in all things and at all times.

Her sinlessness is found in her willingness to change her plans,

to embrace the uncertain, to suffer fear, the doubt, the confusion

of seeking the Will of God above her own will.

For her being sinless means she was never closed to God.

She never turned away from God nor led anyone else to do so.

She did not hide from God, blame anyone, nor refuse anything God asked of her. That is sinlessness.

Put simply, Sin is what gets between us and God.

Laziness, Self-indulgence, Greed, Sex, Pride, all that stuff.

If it gets between us a God, it’s sin.

But she did not turn away from God or let anything else get between her and God. That is sinlessness.

This is not impossible: being without sin.

because we too are full of grace,

redeemed, and purified by the Blood of the Lamb.

Without sin, we do not hide.

Without sin, we can be filled with the Spirit.

Without sin, we receive gifts and wonder first how to use them for the glory of God and for others without wondering how to keep them.

Without sin, the Word of God is conceived in us

and all creation so that every human life is sacred.

This feast invites us to imagine what it means to be without sin

and so discover what it is that has come between us and God.

December 3, 2006

Jeremiah 33:14-16 + 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2 + Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

What Jesus says to his disciples in the midst of this assembly is that creation is falling apart,

that Genesis is being reversed.

The lamps God hung in the sky are going out.

The seas he calmed and from which he brought for dry land

upon which we could stand are seething and roaring.

The primordial chaos is returning.

But Jeremiah says to us that God keeps promises.

So, what about the Noah Promise and that Rainbow?

For those who hear the word of God and believe,

the Rainbow is the Son of Man, the Full Human Being

who comes when everything falls apart.

In the midst wild chaos, He is the one who does not bend.

Surviving collapse depends on knowing where to stand.

People in earthquake areas know better than to run outside

when the earth shakes. They stand in an inside doorway.

People who survive floods get to higher ground.

What Jesus speaks of today is the inevitability of breakdown and collapse, chaos and disorder. He uses cosmic images to speak not of the end of time, but of how His disciples shall stand firm when things fall apart.

Some would hear this gospel and think He speaks of the end of the space/time world, and they buy binoculars to catch the first glimpse of the cloud-riding Son of Man.

Some would hear this gospel and think He speaks of political anarchy, the breakdown of social order. Those refuges among us know how this world can fall apart.

Some would hear this gospel and think he speaks of an individual death, and the vulnerability of the physical body.

Others would hear this gospel and think he speaks of the end of a relationship, the breakup of a home, the collapse of a way of life dreamed of for a life time.

However we hear it, the point remains: things fall apart.

How disciples of Jesus experience

the unavoidable collapse of things is what He teaches us.

There is a way of seeing things and ourselves that recognizes

that some things change, collapse, fall apart, and die,

and some things are changelessly absolute.

Knowing the difference, and developing within oneself

that which is changelessly absolute is the very essence of a

Spiritual Life.

This Advent Season can be about that development or enrichment

if we choose to make it so.

There is a threefold work of Advent

Remember, Repent, and Rehearse.

We must remember our past,

where we have come from and who we are because of it.

We must place ourselves realistically in the whole picture of creation.

It makes one humble and restores our focus on the divine reason for which we are here.

We must remember that birth and rebirth of God on earth are the most important moments in all of history.

We must repent not out of fear, but out of love.

Fear-repentance never lasts.

When the danger is gone, we relapse until the next scare.

People flocked to John the Baptist and fire and brimstone threats, but when they got over their fear,

they went right back to their old ways until Jesus came along.

The purpose of repentance is not simply to stop sin,

but to be good. The purpose of repentance is not just to be good, but to be loving. This might even lead us to realize that the coming of Jesus was to free us from fear of God so we could be free to love God.

We must also rehearse. We remember our past, we repent to sustain the present, and we rehears for the sake of what is to come. The wife of Lot was punished for looking back. I prefer to think she was punished for not looking ahead.

This advent way of life is both simple and profound. It does not require unusual behavior on our part, but it calls us to live the usual unusually well. It affects the everyday events of life; it directs the way we interact with people; it informs the attitudes that color our judgments and motivations.

It is as ordinary as the birth of a child; and as extraordinary as the revelation of God.

November 26 2006 At Saint Mark Norman, OK

Daniel 7:13-14 – Revelation 1:5-8 + John 18:33-37

“What have you done?” asks Pilot, the judge. “What have you done?” says the Roman to the Jew? Pilot is power. Jesus is servant. Pilot has heard the word “Kingdom”, and he’s interested, but he is a political man who wants to clarify this word, “Kingdom.” Jesus is a spiritual man. For him, “King” is Pilot’s word. Pilot is the one using it. The Spiritual man has a different view. He is a witness to the truth. He lives within and by his life reveals the ultimate relationship to God and creation. Those fixated on power cannot open this spiritual depth. Those aware of and seeking the spiritual will hear the voice of Jesus.The truth they know will draw them to the truth he is.

What it all boils down to is foregoing force. It is an awesome decision. The contrast between Pilot and Jesus is not the only one in this larger scene. There is also the contrast between Peter and Jesus. The preemptive strike of Peter in the garden seizing a sword and cutting off an ear provokes a response from Jesus: “No more of this.” Jesus who has spent his entire ministry getting people to hear his word restores the man’s ear. What he teaches is that the beginning of violence is the end of dialogue. Combatants can no longer hear one another: not just national, racial, or religious combatants. It works in our homes as well.

The other night while on vacation, I was awakened by a violent, vicious argument

in a condo somewhere in the building. A man and a woman were screaming at one another and throwing things. They could not hear one another, but I could. I wasn’t in the fight, and suddenly as I listened and prayed for them, I got the point: ears have to be restored for violence to end. Foregoing force includes not making threats. If we do not get the revelation of divine love and are not attracted to it, there will be no threats of terror or punishment. If you do not get the revelation of divine love and are not attracted to it, you will not be judged slow or inadequate or dismissed as unloved or unwanted. There are no winners and losers in the spiritual realm or in the eyes of God.

Foregoing force is an awesome decision. It did not work with Pilot who could not hear the voice of Jesus and dismissed it briskly: “What is Truth?” he sneers. At that moment the conversation ends. Every time the conversation ends, there is darkness and sadness. We must learn the very real difference between discussion and conversation. There is too much similarity between discussion and percussion or concussion. In a discussion, ideas and sometimes people are batted around, and some are accepted some are dismissed. However, with conversation there is a free flowing of meaning shared by all involved. People come to a revelation of truth together. Conversation which leads to conversion was preferred by Jesus who set aside force for the sake of truth.

This is the mystery of God revealed. A God who does not force, threaten, exclude, nor punish. The God revealed in Jesus the Word Made Flesh is God who wants to continue the conversation planned at the beginning. Human freedom is essential to that plan and to that conversation. When that human freedom is not capable of responding affirmatively, divine love continues the conversation. Christ is not king because he can bend human will with his might or force us by power to submit to the Father’s will. Christ is king because out of love he foregoes force and continues to talk. Peter may cut off ears. Jesus restores them. Near his death, Jesus has a royal robe of power stripped away, and the more I ponder that crucifix before which we gather again and again, I see him in his finest robe: a towel which he himself chose and wrapped around himself refusing power and force choosing instead service and sacrifice.

Those who hope to rise from the dead and live forever shall certainly do the same, because they know that the day will come when the question will be asked of us all:  “What have you done?”

November 5, 2006 At Saint Mark Norman, OK

Deuteronomy 6:2-6 + Hebrews 7:23-28 + Mark 12:28-34

Behind these verses, a very fundamental issue is raised by the dialogue between Jesus and this sincere scribe. “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” says Jesus to the man. Why didn’t he say: “You’ve got it right. That is a perfect answer. You’re in.”? Instead, the man is simply declared “close” to the Kingdom of God. There is something missing. There is something more needed than the ability to quote chapter and verse. So often these days people take pride in what they know or don’t know; what others know or don’t know. As a result, religion sometimes begins to sound like trivial pursuit, We too easily place a premium on knowledge, doctrine, and correct citations of theological works or chapter and verses of the Bible as though they were a barometer of faith and understanding rather than pay attention to the more serious and meaningful matters of life.

Whether he is not far, very close, or not even close to the Kingdom of God, that man who quotes and knows the scriptures so well has no faith! That is the issue here. It is not doctrinal, theological, or biblical precision that gets us and others into the kingdom of heaven. If it were, we’d all be in trouble! The scribe had it right. He knew what to do, but his pursuit stopped there. Knowing about love is not the same thing as loving. Knowing about faith is not the same as being faithful. Reciting or knowing the ten commandments will only get your close. While living in an exclusive faithful relationship with God and a respectful loving relationship with everyone else will do more than you get you close.

We have to decide whether or not being “close” is good enough, and once we decide that it is not good enough, things change. It is about faith first and then about love. There is something we must come to believe – not hope for or wish for but firmly believe. The root of Christian love is not the will to love, but the faith that one is loved by God whether or not we are worthy. We know what happens to people who are not loved, who do not experience love, or who never know love. Their lives are violent, empty, and tragic. Their relationships are all fractured and sick. The homes in which they live are filled with distrust, deceit, and hopelessness. The cure for this is the experience of being loved, accepted, treasured, and desired.

All our attempts to love God will be frustrated until we experience the simple fact that we are already loved by God. What begins to bring us to life, to joy, to trust is believing that we are loved by God. This is what is missing in the scribe’s experience and in his thinking. The will to love is not the root of holiness or goodness or salvation. It is having faith that even though unworthy, God loves us.

From that basic truth, goodness, morality, holiness, and salvation come forth.

When we finally surrender to and acknowledge this love that embraces us, then we shall no longer be “close”, but we shall truly be in the Kingdom of God.

November 1, 2006 At Saint Mark Church Norman, OK

Revelation 7:2-4,9-14 + 1 John 3:1-3 + Matthew 5:1-12

There is no point in observing and celebrating All Saints Day if that observance is all about the past and some holy people of long ago. In my own spirituality, I have ceased thinking of this day as though it was about “them” – saints of our past, heroes long gone. It is shallow and short sighted to think that this is a sort of “collective feast” that makes sure no one is left out. I prefer to think of this day as an annual checkup, an occasion to look within rather than look around or look back. Those who take their physical health seriously have annual checkups, It is suggested that we see our dentist for a check on teeth, and even our cars, get tune-ups and an occasional check of the fluids. ow should it be different for the spiritual side of our lives? The Gospel today reveals the qualifications for holiness. It sets the standards or the marks against which we check our lives.  There are standards for blood pressure and blood sugar that get checked. Here in this Gospel are the minimum standards for spiritual health.

Poor in spirit, meek, just, pure, and peaceful are the standards against which we measure our holiness. Being poor in spirit has to do with how we relate to material things. Gospel poverty does not mean that we own nothing, but rather that things do not own us. Those who mourn are blessed not because they mourn, but because they can mourn; meaning they loved someone enough to feel the sorrow of separation. That is a blessing! Being meek does not mean being passive. It means being honest. It means knowing who you are and what you are not. It is a virtue that puts an end to ambition and pride. Cultivating righteousness in the gospel sense means having a passion for justice not for one’s self (self-righteous) but for those who never experience justice. When mercy is found in one’s life, it is always about mercy given, not received. Purity is not necessarily about innocence as much as it is about being purified: it’s more like be5ng “refined” that is to say, cleansed by sacrifice and service. And the truly holy make peace everywhere they go because then never forget that we are all children of God, brothers and sisters in the human family that God has made in His own image and likeness. The peacemaking holy ones see the face of God in every one of God’s children.

So, this is the day, this is the season near the end of the year to check up on things in our souls, and Matthew gives us the check – list because tomorrow’s feast is the grim reminder that if we have not checked ourselves on these things, a judgment time is coming for us all when someone else will, and we know very well what God will be looking for in those called to the eternal banquet.

November 1, 2006 At Saint Mark Norman, OK

Revelation 7:2-4,9-14 + 1 John 3:1-3 + Matthew 5:1-12

There is no point in observing and celebrating All Saints Day if that observance is all about the past and some holy people of long ago. In my own spirituality, I have ceased thinking of this day as though it was about “them” – saints of our past, heroes long gone. It is shallow and short sighted to think that this is a sort of “collective feast” that makes sure no one is left out. I prefer to think of this day as an annual checkup, an occasion to look within rather than look around or look back. Those who take their physical health seriously have annual checkups, It is suggested that we see our dentist for a check on teeth, and even our cars, get tune-ups and an occasional check of the fluids. ow should it be different for the spiritual side of our lives? The Gospel today reveals the qualifications for holiness. It sets the standards or the marks against which we check our lives.  There are standards for blood pressure and blood sugar that get checked. Here in this Gospel are the minimum standards for spiritual health.

Poor in spirit, meek, just, pure, and peaceful are the standards against which we measure our holiness. Being poor in spirit has to do with how we relate to material things. Gospel poverty does not mean that we own nothing, but rather that things do not own us. Those who mourn are blessed not because they mourn, but because they can mourn; meaning they loved someone enough to feel the sorrow of separation. That is a blessing! Being meek does not mean being passive. It means being honest. It means knowing who you are and what you are not. It is a virtue that puts an end to ambition and pride. Cultivating righteousness in the gospel sense means having a passion for justice not for one’s self (self-righteous) but for those who never experience justice. When mercy is found in one’s life, it is always about mercy given, not received. Purity is not necessarily about innocence as much as it is about being purified: it’s more like be5ng “refined” that is to say, cleansed by sacrifice and service. And the truly holy make peace everywhere they go because then never forget that we are all children of God, brothers and sisters in the human family that God has made in His own image and likeness. The peacemaking holy ones see the face of God in every one of God’s children.

So, this is the day, this is the season near the end of the year to check up on things in our souls, and Matthew gives us the check – list because tomorrow’s feast is the grim reminder that if we have not checked ourselves on these things, a judgment time is coming for us all when someone else will, and we know very well what God will be looking for in those called to the eternal banquet.

October 29, 2006 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Jeremiah 31:7-9; Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52

This blind man is making a lot of noise. He is shouting loudly, and he says something that brings Jesus to halt. It is the only time in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus is called: “Son of David.” This is startling. It is the title of the Messiah. The blind man has just shouted out what Jesus has been telling people not to do. There has been a momentum building in Mark’s Gospel since chapter 8 when Jesus began his final journey to Jerusalem with the healing of a blind.  That first healing story did not go very well. It took two tries on the part of Jesus to bring him to sight. In that story, some people brought the blind man to Jesus, and when it was over, the man, nameless simply disappears.

In the two chapters held together by these blind-man stories, Jesus has spoken of what will happen to him in Jerusalem. The disciples have not gotten the point. They slow and incomplete faith has not let them see what is unfolding in their lives and in the life of their teacher.

Now this blind man brings everything to halt. Mark tells us that Jesus stopped. Suddenly this momentum, this constant turmoil so characteristic of Mark’s Gospel is still. You can almost feel that sense of wonder: “What’s going to happen now?”

Many tried to shut the man up, but nothing will silence the cry of anyone who knows the presence of the Messiah. Nothing will keep him from crying out and bearing witness to his faith, because by that faith he can see, understand, and believe who it is that has come.

And then Jesus says what might seem like the most preposterous thing. He says to a blind man – to someone who can’t see: “Come here.” Think for a minute about that command. How is a blind man going to do that?  He can’t see to walk, but this blind man who can perceive his salvation responds to what at first seems like an impossible command.  And then the most dramatic gesture occurs. He throws off his cloak, the garment in which people would drop their alms. He abandons his old way of life at the invitation of Jesus because he has faith. Not until he rises up from his old ways, not until he throws aside his cloak, not until he comes to Jesus does anything happen to him. He could have shouted: “Can’t you understand, I’m blind?” Or “I can’t, I’m afraid to move around.” He could have said: “You come here and help me.? But he didn’t. He took the risk of getting up and going to Jesus, and when he did everything changed.

The biggest change of all however, is not the healing of his eyes. It is the change of his life. Unlike the blind man of chapter eight, this blind man, says Saint Mark began to follow the “way.” I don’t think he is speaking of a road. There is another more profound meaning to the following Jesus “on the way.”

Bartimaeus is our teacher today. A blind man leads us. He is driven by a desire to see and understand the revelation of the Son of David. This desire is not intellectual curiosity. It is a sense that salvation lies in greater and greater penetration of the mystery of God and humanity, and the mystery of the Divine and the Human.

For those of us who have assembled in this holy place, for those of us who got up today and came to Jesus in this Eucharist, there is a growing desire to understand and enter into the revelation of the Cross and Resurrection. Every day, we must beg the Father of Jesus to have mercy on our blindness. and every day we must throw aside the cloaks of our past, get up, stumble around if that’s what happens, and start begging for what matters, not money, gifts, and security, but begging for enough wisdom, sight, understanding and faith to take up the ways of Jesus and make them our own.

October 22, 2006 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Isaiah 53: 10-11 + Hebrews 4: 14-16 + Mark 10:35-45

The basic trouble in the human community right now is that people wish to do as little as possible and to get as much as possible. In contrast to that condition, we proclaim verses of Mark’s Gospel today that tell about Mark, about James and John, and about the standard of greatness that Jesus proposes. These verses tell us about Mark because he does not hesitate to show us apostles as they really were, allowing us to include ourselves among those called to greatness and faith.

These verses tell us about James and John because they were children of privilege, ambitious, inconsiderate, and slow to understand. From we are told of their family, they came from comfortable surroundings with a father who had hired hands and probably some power and status. What their boldness reveals today is that they thought this might provide them with some privilege, thinking they had influence and deserved a place of honor without paying the price of admission.  Yet in spite of their flaws and that not too perfect faith, they believed in Jesus.

These verses also tell us about the standard of greatness Jesus has come to propose to those who would claim him as their Lord, Leader, and Example. When he speaks of drinking from a cup, it is metaphor that means sharing in one’s life. It was a custom in that culture to share a drink from a common cup with someone who was sharing an experience of life with you. When he speaks of baptism, he is not speaking of a religious ritual, he is using the Greek word literally which means submersion. So, the proposal refers to being totally submerged into an experience, in the sense that someone might be “submerged” in debt. What he offers those of us who will be his disciples is a share in his experience of being God’s child, God’s chosen one. What he offers those of us who will be his disciples

is a complete submersion into his experience of service and sacrifice which leads to exaltation and a place at the right hand of God.

Greatness for followers of Jesus will come from sacrifice, freely embraced and totally fulfilled. It will not come from status or privilege.  It is only when we are filled with the desire to put into life more than we take out, that is, to serve others,

that life for ourselves and for others can be happy and prosperous.  Only then shall we “approach the throne of grace” as the Letter to the Hebrews calls it today, and only then shall we know mercy and grace, joy and peace.