Traveling Holy Week As A Community

Mk 14:1-2, 10-11, 27-42  Traveling Holy Week As A Community

We are back in Mark’s gospel this week to travel with Jesus toward all that he has seen before him. We’ve left the wordy- world of John's gospel behind -- for today. 

In Mark’s gospel Jesus’ life moves quickly. Even today’s earlier story of his entry into Jerusalem uses the word “Immediately” a couple times.

Now the story gains details while it continues to move fast. 

(altho I’ve cut certain stories from it today, I hope you will read the enter chapter this week and catch the beauty of the literary allusions and the images conveyed by even the least of the characters.)

Mark’s author writes a dramatic story! in past years we have enacted part of it. Today I want us to hear it. Today we listen and sit with the stark drama of the words alone.

Tell me:

You just heard Jesus command the disciples, “Stay here and keep alert.” and his rebuke, “Will you sleep and rest all night? That’s enough! The time has come..”

What is the feeling you get from this last dialogue between Jesus and the sleepy disciples?...

How does it compare to the scene with those same disciples as he rode into Jerusalem?

How has the emotion changed?

 “Jesus feels!”

This gospel account leaves no doubt that he feels deeply. He also knows what is coming. Whether divine foresight or knowledge of how the Romans have always squashed anyone viewed as a threat, Jesus knows!

He has been a 'mostly'-revered teacher, RABBI! 

He has been acclaimed for his ability to heal. 

His disciples are in awe of him and excited that they have come to Jerusalem to triumph over all those who continue to oppress the working class Jewish people.

But,

Jesus knows his disciples haven’t understood his warnings.

Jesus knows that now the time for words has passed. . . it is time for him to LIVE the words.

and now Jesus sees the one about to betray him, walking ever closer. 

Listen to what happens next,

43) Suddenly, while Jesus was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, came with a mob carrying swords and clubs. They had been sent by the chief priests, legal experts, and elders. 44) His betrayer had given them a sign: “Arrest the man I kiss, and take him away under guard.”

45) As soon as he got there, Judas said to Jesus, “Rabbi!” Then he kissed him. 

46) they came and grabbed Jesus and arrested him. 47) One of the bystanders drew a sword and struck the high priest’s slave and cut off his ear. 48) Jesus responded, 

 “Have you come with swords and clubs to arrest me, like an outlaw? 49) [During the] day, I was with you, teaching in the temple, but you didn’t arrest me. . . But let the scriptures be fulfilled.” 

50) And all his disciples left him and ran away. 

51) One young man, a disciple, was wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They grabbed him, 52) but he left the linen cloth behind and ran away naked.

The last disciple escapes, naked and exposed.

Giotto

As we read these verses in community we are challenged to HEAR how our ways of justice are exposed in the rattle of swords and clubs.

Like the community of disciples, we long for explanation. surely someone here understands what has happened…and why?

we ask:

What was it that Jesus has been trying to tell us?

What scriptures are being fulfilled?

…

Jesus becomes silent before those who accuse him, (&) WE are left with the task of seeking justice in his story. 

Not because we can fix what happened, but because the scenes we will read this week expose US.

(This is not a story to make us feel guilty, as if we were the crowd that killed Jesus. —but it is THE story to show us that Christ is STILL found among us, still pointing to a different way than our, it’s the message of incarnation - God IS WITH us.)

What this story of Jesus does, is expose our misaligned belief that our system is our ultimate protection.

The disciples desertion reflects our own doubts and the uncertainty of our convictions.

When we FEEL and SEE and HEAR the horrid Injustice of the story, we know that these are the ways of OUR world…even today.

The way of seeking out the truth-teller, hushing the whistle-blower, silencing the cries for justice. - (all) the ways of darkness still exist.

When we KNOW this story deeply, we know it could happen today. Perhaps it ..IS happening again and again. 

. . .

Jesus will break his silence once in the trial to come.

For the ONLY time in Mark, Jesus will he say who he is using those key words once spoken by God to Moses, “I Am…”

No matter who you thought Jesus was - up to this point - he is making clear his connection to the Divine.

Jesus has held back the claim.

He has silenced those who thought they understood. “it seems, he cannot believe that there are words that will tell the truth about him in the mouths of others.” . . . (1)

“Whatever [could have been] said would take on the color of the world’s insanity; it will be another bid for the WORLD’S power,. . .” another identification with the unaccountable tyrannies that decide how things shall be.”

..not the Jesus’ Way.

This story gives us a glimpse of the TRUTH that Jesus knows. “Humanity does not live in this world of insane authorities, but with God. When God’s judgment arrives, it will be in the unveiling of a true human face as opposed to the masks of [civil or religious authority]. (2)

Christ is unveiled in this pivotal story of our faith - IF - we have EYES to SEE it and EARS to hear.

He is Still speaking today and challenging us to ..STAY AWAKE.

. . .

We travel the path to Gethsemane this week asking to see THIS TRUTH, of the REALITY around us - thru Jesus’ eyes. 

So then we may truly KNOW what GOD means by greatness.

Read, listen, see -

donkeys and peasants  not swords and soldiers

serving others on earth   not   animals sacrificed to heaven

letting the world do it’s worse.. And trusting God for life.

God’s ‘I am’ can only be heard for what it really is when it has no trace of human power left to it; …when it is spoken by a captive under sentence of death.” (3)

El Grecco

I invite you into more of the story...

Listen to the words we are about to Sing about Gethsemane. 

Then sit down and listen to the scripture that takes us to the end of Jesus’ trial. 

Listen for the place where the “language of this world falls away”. [where excuses die] 

Where there is “nothing comforting, edifying or reassuring, about Jesus’ final day or [about our own].”

Then, maybe we will hear the great, “I Am” … when there is nothing else left ( in the way).

Footnotes

1)  Rowan Williams Christ On Trial (Grand Rapids, MI:Eerdmans, 2000)6

2)  ibid 7

3)  ibid 7

working

I've been working on tomorrow's worship and message. Thanks to the 11th Hour Preacher Party, I haven't been alone.  It seems like the exhaustion, sickness, and lack of inspiration is a virus running through the preaching profession. So many have much more than I do to deal with. I guess we each have all we can handle and then some.
As a dear friend pointed out today, the need for resurrection is very real!

Now off my seat to get some kind of movement in today.

Live Long and Prosper

As a tribute to Leonard Nimoy's life, I post this video where he explains the origins of LLAP from a ritual Benediction where the feminine aspects of God enter and bless the congregation.


Leonard Nimoy will always be an inspiration to me. He did live long and prospered and for his life we give thanks!
nancy

Frozen is Beautiful

While I do not like slipping on frozen sidewalks, I saw a beautiful frozen sight yesterday. I drove across the Chesapeake Bay to have lunch with a friend and the Bay is partially frozen. Take a look at this lovely sight. I snapped it in hope, not knowing if it would come out until I got home. You have to look through the the rails, but the Bay is beautiful.

emotional intelligence

Wow, just took a great test by six seconds and had the evaluation with Stan Dueck. Great stuff. Very useful and encouraging for the days ahead.
Do you like those kinds of tests and do you find them helpful?
N

The Masked Man

Transfiguration Sunday

..as I told the children..

It was so cold 2 weeks ago when we went skiing, that we had to wear our face masks. I pondered about the strange sport of skiing where all these masked people, with boards strapped to their feet, hurl themselves down the mountain…sometimes right at you! …

What if I preached every week wearing a mask? 

How would that effect your experience of the message?

Or

What if I stood up there in the baptistry and had a set of sheer curtains between us. How would you feel about our separation?

In many ways, Jesus was operating behind a mask.. at least until this story of the Transfiguration. 

We are told many things about Jesus here - about his true identity. Yet the story is even deeper. 

• It sits mid-point in Mark’s narrative, as a key message of turning and revelation preparing us for the rest of the story.
• Several specifics of the story serve to relate Jesus to Moses, the greatest servant of God, the one who spoke personally to God. 
• And to Elijah 2nd only to Moses in prophetic stature. He suffered for his faith and commitment and was vindicated by God at the end of his life by not dying, but by being ‘taken up’. 
• The ‘cloud of presence’ is the place that held God’s presence in OT times and when it is lifted in this story and sight is clear again, only Jesus remains to be seen leading us to make the transition from the OT Messengers & prophets to Jesus as the revealer of God’s love for the world. (as one of our baptismal vows says)

But these and other references to the rest of the story are those you already know, or have likely heard before since this scripture (or the Matt or Luke text) come around in the lectionary every year, just before Lent.

As always our question for the text, is what meaning do we find for our living today?

Action - small pew groups

Turn to your neighbor and answer, for you personally,  “What is the most remarkable part of Jesus’ nature.”

What about him, touches you the most?

answers are shared.

In Corinthians 2nd letter (a compilation of several letters to that church) Paul writes about a ‘veiled gospel’ and Christ, as the image of God. Two of our favorite commentators, Eugene Boring and Fred Craddock wrote, “When Paul says “God” he does not have in mind an abstract force or principle, or even a supreme being, but the ONE who has personified himself and is met personally in Christ. It is God who was and is at work in Christ; Christ is the human face of God.”

For Paul, the most remarkable part of Jesus is this “human face of God”. Paul is a good Jew so he wouldn’t dream of applying an image to God that would break the 2nd commandment. 

But Paul has seen Jesus, not in person - remember Paul is called after the death of Stephen, an early disciple or follower. Paul himself had a vision - an EXPERIENCE OF GOD, that left him blind for several days and changed his life forever.

Such an experience is too strong to deny, even under extreme punishment that Paul also experienced.

Paul’s revelation from God came in the form of Jesus’ presence, years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The revelation of God, when it comes, is a cherished experience that puts us in touch with the source of all life, the power behind human breath, the creator, redeemer, caretaker of all the universe.

. . .

You may have had an experience of God, perhaps not as dramatic as Paul’s but most likely it was that dramatic for you. 

I’M NOT GOING TO ASK YOU TO SHARE IT. You may tell me about it some other time.

My question for you today, is what keeps that experience, or any future experience of God, VEILED for YOU?

. . .

What do you allow to come between you and the experience of the Holy Other, the Divine, 

…what we call God, and Christians call Christ, the human face of God?

. . .

It is always God’s choice as to when and how God reveals the Divine Presence to us. . . Once in a great while, we get a moment of clarity.. a mountaintop experience.

… the unbelievable happens, but it is clear and real to you.

Perhaps it is a moment in silent prayer where you are blessed with feeling the presence of God.

We might spend the rest of our lives trying to recapture that moment. We might even build monuments to it, like Peter wanted to do.. 

Certainly thru out history, Christians have done so, maybe we now call those shrines, churches. . .

A moment of clarity can carry you thru years of doubt. Doubt is certainly an important part of our journey of faith.

A faith journey isn’t about never doubting. Faith isn’t even about following a certain path to remove doubt. 

It is about opening ourselves to the Holy and waiting for God to reveal Godself to us.

One writer said, “Faith is the touching of a mystery, it is to perceive another dimension to absolutely everything in the world. In faith, the mysterious meaning of life comes alive. . . . in the simplest terms, faith sees, knows, senses, ..the presence of God in the world.”

. . .

are you ready for the day that occurs for you?

will you “Believe it”

will you have TIME for it?

We can’t make such revelation happen. 

All we can do is be ready for the moment it does.

LENT is a time to prepare ourselves for those moments of revelation.
LENTEN disciplines, giving up food, taking on a devotional practice (books available in narthex) are ways to prepare US for the mountain top.

The Season of Lent begins on Wednesday. We will be right here, singing simple choruses, listening to traditional scriptures, sitting in silence, and candlelight. 

That will be our entry into this season.

What you do after that is up to you. 

. . .

You might Set aside time each day,  

you might give up or take on,

or even join the centering prayer group we are going to begin the week after next.

There are many paths to God. 

Will you be ready to receive the Holy Presence when it comes?

Will your eyes be open when God makes the Holy visible to you?

Will you commit to travel this JOURNEY OF LENT walking by faith, in an attitude of welcome? 

..staying open to the God who comes and unmasks the mystery for us.. ?

Isn't vacation sweet?

It was a lovely 4 days. 7Springs resort in Champion, PA was awesome. Very cold, but we were dressed for it. I was so tired going into this vacation that I stopped skiing before Fitz.

Wednesday was bright and sunny enough for a shot from the lift. "selfie"

It was cloudy one day and just snowing on top of it. But what a great day of fun. Finally enough snow built up to cover the ice that came after the rain on Sunday night. Someone said, "Flash Freeze".

But it was almost too cold to take off gloves for pictures before Wednesday. Full face mask and all. I was thinking about the strange set up of people with "bug eyes" and face masks, with boards strapped to their feet, racing down the mountain at you. I do so love it!