An Extraordinary Life

Gospel: Mark 6: 1-6

How is it than an extraordinary person like Jesus is rejected by his own home town? Very often people become jealous over another's success; we experience this all the time in our ordinary lives.  We might feel happy for them initially, but as their success grows and lasts we become jealous and start to feel resentful of that person.  How can some ordinary guy from an insignificant town with no formal education or status do all this?  

But that is the entire point of Jesus' life! Any ordinary human being can accomplish great works of love and mercy if they submit themselves to God's will.  If we just accept the offer of God's mercy and then extend that mercy out to others in deeds of loving kindness, then we too can accomplish great deeds as Jesus did.  We will see people healed and delivered from their personal demons.  We will see peace and fellowship among all people at table together.  

If we do not see these things happening in our world, if the table of the Lord is a place of division and strife rather than a place of peace, fellowship, and healing, then we have not accepted this mercy and shared it with others.  We have kept it for ourselves and buried it in a hole in the ground.  Only when we accept God's gift of mercy and multiply it by sharing it with others can great deeds be done and seen, and our ordinary lives become extraordinary. 

Care for the Powerless

Gospel: Mark 5: 21-43

The example of Jesus compels us to care for the needs of the powerless and weakest members of society.  Today's Gospel reading presents us with two such examples.  In the first encounter, Jesus heals an unnamed woman who was suffering from a condition unique to women, significant in itself.  Jesus was mocked for this encounter, the crowd being more concerned with the man of status and power.  But Jesus stops to care for this woman.  

We might well think that care of this little girl was for a man of position and power, which is true of the crowd, but not for Jesus.  In this encounter Jesus' entire focus is on the little girl herself, not her family status or the crowd. In fact, Jesus rebukes the crowd for its hysteria and lack of faith, a crowd that includes the family of this little girl.  The crowd's lack of faith stands in contrast to the great faith of the woman Jesus healed earlier.

Today Jesus asks us to discern who in our society is most powerless and most in need.  It may well be refugees and immigrants who are continually vilified in our society.  It may be children as in this story who are always afforded lip service but always neglected and abused.  In every age and place the example of Jesus forces us to discern this question and our response to care for the powerless and most helpless in our world.   

The Place of Mission

Gospel: Mark 5: 1-20

After Jesus heals the man possessed by a demon, the healed man wants to follow Jesus, a natural response to be sure.  But as in so many other cases where Jesus heals someone, the man is instead instructed to go home and share with his family about the mercy God has shown to him.  The primary place of mission is right where we are in our homes.  

Each one of us has been provided the gift of God's mercy.  Imagine if each of us did what Jesus asks of everyone he healed - and we went home to share God's mercy with our families and friends, if we made our homes a place of hospitality where God's mercy is shared with everyone in need who comes our way.  Imagine if our homes were the central place of religious life through the works of mercy instead of institutions.  

The requirements Jesus places upon us are fairly simple: accept the mercy God has extended to us, and show mercy to others.  We are not to establish media empires, cottage industries of self-promotion, or political action committees.  All of these take advantage of God's mercy for personal gain and power which lead to our ruin.  Let us listen to the Lord's prompting and accept God's mercy, return home, and extend God's mercy to others in our daily lives. 

Dispelling Evil

Gospel: Mark 1: 21-28

Evil spirits find their way into unexpected places, as in today's Gospel reading where we find them in the synagogue, a place set aside for learning God's law and worshipping God.  Yet, the synagogue becomes the center of opposition to Jesus, the place where the plot to take his life will be hatched.  A place set aside for good becomes evil through the actions of human beings who change the use and purpose of the place.

Sadly, this same phenomenon occurs in churches, schools, and all sorts of places whose original purpose was designed for good.  Places set aside for growing in holiness, in truth, and in goodness are places where abuse takes place, where financial improprieties are common, and where the worship of the political has replaced worship of the divine.  Jesus is once again betrayed and put to death at our hands in the very places we claim him to be our Lord and Teacher...

As in today's Gospel, these evil spirits can be dispelled through our following and imitation of the way of Jesus.  Jesus rejected the material and political temptations of Satan in the desert, and the devil fled from his presence.  If we follow Jesus' example and reject these same offerings to us, the evil spirits will have no hold upon us, and we are free to serve God and others with great love and care. 

Our Little Faith

Gospel: Mark 4: 35-41

We have all faced storms wherever we live: rain storms, hurricanes, tornados, blizzards.  These cause destruction, inconvenience, and death.  They are frightening, but they are temporary.  They never last forever; they always pass.  This is the first aspect of the disciples - and our own - lack of faith.  We are so caught up in the present moment that we fail to take the long view that storms are not permanent states of existence and that they will pass.  Even if Jesus had not dispelled the storm, it would have passed on its own.

Ultimately we are afraid of storms because we are afraid of death.  The storm threatens our existence, but again the fear of death is a lack of faith in the disciples and us.  If the storm passes and we are alive, then our fear was misplaced, but what if we do die? Why are we afraid?  Do we really believe in a loving Father as our God? If we do, then again our fear of death is misplaced and we lack the faith we ought to have as followers of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus rebuked the disciples - and he rebukes us - for our lack of faith in the midst of storms in our life.  The perpetual crisis machine that occupies religious media and many circles of church life is entirely antithetical to the way of Jesus or any notion of faith.  Today's Gospel reminds us that Jesus slept calmly in the midst of the storm because his entire focus was on a loving God, and we are called to be likewise.   

The Mystery of Growth

Gospel: Mark 4:  26-34

None of us need to have advanced education in the biological sciences in order for plants to grow.  A farmer knows that if she sows the seed and does her part in the process that it is likely the plants will grow.  How does it all work? We may know more about that question now than in times past, but it has no effect on the process itself.  Things will continue to grow on this earth independent of our knowledge of it.

Similarly, our faith grows in mysterious ways as well.  A tiny germ of faith is planted within us.  We do our small part to accept and receive that germ of faith, and it grows.  We know not how.  Countless religious charlatans will tell you they know.  They'll talk of "God's plan" as if they knew what that was and sell a book or workshop to tell us what we need to do in order for our faith to grow.  Most of the time what they say does not connect to most people's experience and bears little resemblance to authentic faith.  

A farmer knows her part in the process of growth is limited.  She has to trust that God will provide the sun and rain that plants need for her crops to grow.  She has to hope storms or other calamities do not destroy her crop.  Growing things is a fragile profession, and so is the life of faith.  It requires great faith and hope in the mystery of God's life within us, that it will grow and produce much fruit.  Trust the process, and all shall be well. 

What's the Good News?

Gospel: Mark 16: 15-18

"Proclaim the Good News to all creation." This is the simple mandate of the Christian.  But what is this Good News? Listening to the din of the churches nowadays one might think it to be a political program, or a particular code of sexual morality, or even some community organizing project affecting social change in the world.  And good news? We are more likely to hear some version of gloom and doom. The ecclesiastical gods cannot agree amongst themselves...

When one kingdom conquered another, the army would march into the occupied region and make an announcement: accept the new regime and mercy would be shown to you; reject it and you will be severely punished and put into slavery.  The Good News is that God's kingdom has arrived and has proclaimed mercy extended to all, and the only condition set upon is that we extend mercy to others.  

If we reject this offer or condition, God does not punish us; we punish ourselves.  We create a world of vengeance, a world where mercy and love are not possible, a place where we can neither receive nor extend mercy and love.  In short, God does not send us to hell; we create a hell on earth for ourselves and for others.  Paul accepted this Good News and shared it with others, and it changed him from a murderous hater to a bearer of love for all.  The Good News can affect this change in us as well.   

The Growing Field

Gospel: Mark 4: 1-20

Throughout the scriptures the field has been an image of a person's soul or interior life.  Within each of us there are these various parts: shallow soil, rocky soil, thorns, and fertile ground.  God, the ever optimistic master gardener, spreads seed to all parts of our soul in the hopes that growth will occur in some part of us.  It is for us to discern in what part of our soul that growth is taking place, and in what parts we have these persistent struggles.  

Once we discover the area of growth within us, that is our talent, our gift to others that must be cultivated and made available in service to others.  As this area of the soul is cultivated, we will find over time that its growth will be like that of a garden.  With each season of growth our cultivated garden takes up more and more space in the garden, more and more space within our soul.  We will find the shallow and rocky soul turn to fertile fields.  The thorns have withered and died, making way for fruitful soil.  

So it is for us to pay attention each season when God scatters grace in our lives.  We take note of the areas where it quickly sprouted and died, areas that were choked off by thorns, and areas of great growth.  If we follow the patterns of growth God has marked out for us, we can cultivate a fruitful garden of loving service, a garden that will grow and nourish many by its fruit. 

The Family of God

Gospel: Mark 3: 31-35

In ancient religions tribes and nations claimed their origin through ancestry from some deity who also established their laws and nation in a particular land.  In these respects Israel's mythology is no different; to be Jewish is to have Abraham as one's ancestor, to heed a law given by God, and to be attached to a land given by God.  In today's Gospel reading Jesus overturns all of this thinking.

If we are to take the creation story and belief in one God seriously, then we must accept the fact that the creation story is not about a particular people but all people.  The entire human race has a common origin on the human dimension as well as our common origin in the one God.  We form one human family, one family of God united in solidarity and love.  

Jesus points out to us that we make our claim to belong to God's family not by some ancestral family tree, but rather by living and following God's will.  It is motivated by an internal response of belonging to God and belonging to one another, prompting us to deeds of loving service and solidarity with the entire human family who has one heavenly Father calling us together each day. 

Hiding Our Insecurities

Gospel: Mark 3: 22-30

The charge leveled by the scribes against Jesus makes no sense at all: how could Jesus be possessed by a demon and perform good deeds?  The scribes know full well what they say is absurd; they don't believe it themselves, but they want others to believe it.  Jesus poses a threat to the status and power of the scribes and other religious leaders.  If he can be torn down and disbelieved, then their power is secure and that is all that matters.

How often do we engage in such behavior? Someone threatens our security or power - real or perceived - and we engage in underhanded tactics against them, even though they be good people.  Rather than finding ways to work with other people to do good, we tear them down because they are not of our group.  So they are heretics, or schismatics, or some other derogatory term we invent to put down other people.  So, instead of encouraging the good in others we tear it down and lead others to evil.  

Jesus was offered such power by Satan in the desert, and he rejected the offer.  Jesus lived a life of total submission to God, living simply and serving others.  We who claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus can do no less, yet we find ourselves and our institutions acting otherwise.  Today we recommit to follow the Lord's way and not our own, to do good and encourage the good we find in others. 

Accepting Good News

Gospel: Mark 1: 14-20

Repent and believe the Good News.  This is the message of Jesus to the world, a world that is obsessed with bad news.  Scroll through news feeds, newspapers, and TV news and what we find is an incessant procession of bad news: wars, disease, environmental disaster, violence and conflict.  And the solution offered is always some form of political and governmental intervention.  We are conditioned to seek our salvation in the cycle of political candidates.  

But Jesus comes and tells us to repent of all this.  For our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we await our savior, the Lord Jesus.  Jesus came to tell us the kingdom of God has come and is already in your midst, for it is exists within you.  It is the person of Jesus himself who shows us the way to God, the way to live on earth that provides others with good news: healing others of their infirmities, delivering others from the demons of bad news, feeding those in hunger and sharing table with outcasts and sinners.

In every human life good news exists, for God is present within each human being.  God has created each one of us as a divine image, has made each one a temple of the Holy Spirit, and sees each one of us as an image of Jesus himself.  To believe the Good News is to believe that of each person we encounter, to help others see this reality as well and to live it in loving service. 

Loving the Crowd

Gospel: Mark 3: 20-21

We have seen Jesus' aversion to crowds and the fickle nature of the crowds.  They are in many ways like ourselves.  So it is fitting that we also see instances where Jesus gives himself entirely to the care of the crowd in a mad attempt to save as many people in the crowd as possible.  Today we see him attempt to cure as many as possible to the point of he and his disciples eating nothing, and Jesus' family having to pull him away because they thought he had lost his mind.

In other places we find Jesus feeding large crowds of people in isolated places, his concern for them being so great.  Jesus' final act, however, was for the crowd that would put him to death, a crowd for whom Jesus would die.  And though their execution of him was a great sin, Jesus intercedes on their behalf: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

If Jesus has this much love and zeal for others, how much more should we! There are times we must rest; there are times we should not trust the crowd.  There is never a time when we not care about the crowd; never a time when we do not do whatever we can for the care of others.  If Jesus did all these things for the crowd noted above, dare we hope then that all might be saved, all find their way into God's mansion? 

The Mission

Gospel: Mark 3: 13-19

In today's reading we find the very simple mission Jesus gives to the twelve: go, preach good news, and drive out demons. We live in a world filled with bad news and with people in the grips of all sorts of demons. News media traffics in bad news and it is this bad news that creates many of the demons that enslave human beings, pushing people to the enslavement of political ideologies on the one hand and to despair and cynicism on the other.  

But a Christian is a person of good news, the good news that God is present in every human life, the good news that God has loved us long before we thought of loving God, that the more we think of how much God loves us the greater love grows in our hearts.  In such a life of good news filled with the presence of God there can be no room for demons.  They have been expelled from our midst and we are free to love.  That is the mission of proclaiming good news and driving out demons.

We cannot be people who traffic in bad news, keeping people hostages to the demons such bad news spawns.  Each day we must commit to being people of good news, people who help others find that good news in their lives and helping others to free themselves from the demons of bad news that traverse the world, seeking to enslave us in political idolatry, cynicism, and despair.  

Rejecting Crowds and Notoriety

Gospel: Mark 3: 7-12

Throughout the Gospels we find Jesus rejecting two things time and again: the adulation of crowds and the notoriety of his identity. He continually flees from crowds and commands people to not tell others about who he is.  Crowds are untrustworthy things: they continually build up people and inevitably tear them down and kill them.  Such will happen to Jesus even with his best efforts to avoid the crowd and notoriety.  

How often do we join crowds and put Jesus to death!  How often our popular movements, our wedding of faith to politics, and our incessant exaltation of the one who humbled himself as king and Son of God! How often do we kill Jesus in our own hearts and in the hearts of others! Whenever we wed faith life to populist movements and politics we kill Jesus in body and soul, repeating the drama of the Gospels over and over again.  

Where do we find Jesus in the Gospels? We find him healing those in need, feeding those who are hungry, at table eating ordinary meals with ordinary people who see themselves as sinners and righteous, in desert places alone with God.  We will not find him in the crowds or in palaces of power, and when we do see him in synagogues and the Temple we find him rejected.  Let us seek Jesus where he is, where our faith will be continually healed and nourished.  

Our Many Possessions

Gospel: Matthew 19: 16-26

How often are we like the rich man before the Lord, justifying our life with appeals to the better half of our ledger: we have kept the commandments since our youth.  But like a good social media profile, we don't reveal everything.  We hide the fact that we are attached to so many things, that we prefer so many other things to the Lord, and we do not want to give them up.  They prevent us from following the Lord and from the kingdom of God.

Our possessions may indeed be like those of the rich man: material possessions like our fine house or car, clothes, and the like.  It may be the status of the world, political and economic power, the preference for our political ideologies over the Gospel, or our preference to please the rich and powerful rather than the poor and outcast.  So many things hold us back from following the Lord fully, and the Lord watches in sadness...

Anthony and the early desert fathers and mothers fled into the desert at the precise time the Church became the preferred religion of the Empire.  The priests and bishops left the humble caves of persecution for the palaces of the powerful and have remained there ever since, justifying the violence of empire they once condemned and that we once faced as our lot before the world.  Anthony and the desert fathers and mothers remind us of what the Lord calls us to do in order to follow the Lord unreservedly.   

Beyond A Right to Life

Gospel: Mark 2: 23-28

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus notes that the value of human life and its preservation is a far greater value than the law on not working on the sabbath day.  Even the sabbath day itself is not a greater value than human life and its preservation.  The right to life is sacred and inviolable; it is an intrinsic value.  But so too are the right to those things that preserve and sustain human life on earth.

Many people will argue for the right to life, but insist on nothing more.  Some will argue food and water are basic rights at the end of life, but not at any other time of human existence.  If the right to life is to mean anything at all, then the corresponding rights to food, water, shelter, employment, clothing, health care, education - all the things that sustain and nourish human life - must be basic rights as well.  That the right to such access is primary is evident in the Gospel story where access to food supersedes another's right to private property.  

If access to these basic necessities for the preservation of human life is dependent on wealth alone, then these things are a privilege for the few and the right to life has no meaning at all.  The earth and its goods were created to sustain and nourish all human life, not just that of a few.  The goods of the earth are the right of all, not the possession of the rich.  Let us seek to be a truly pro-life people.

Doing Something New

Gospel: Mark 2: 18-22

We human beings grow accustomed to routine, so much so that the routine itself no longer holds any meaning and it ceases to teach us what it intends to teach.  Consider the example of fasting in the Gospel: a person grows accustomed to abstaining from meat on Fridays and finds so many other things to enjoy that the discipline is no longer a sacrifice and fails to teach us what it was intended to teach.  A new discipline is needed for us to grow in our faith life, a new wineskin comes to take the place of the old.

Jesus comes to provide that challenge, one we still have not been able to meet.  He announced that the kingdom of God is open to all; he invites all to sit at the same table with all sorts of people: sinners of all types as well as the self-righteous.  This invitation and Jesus actually living it out in his own life makes the Pharisees of Jesus time and our own uncomfortable.  It is a practice they reject, a discipline they cannot accept.  So, vicarious practices such as fasting and such are instituted to avoid what is most important and what Jesus challenges us to do.

The disciplines we invent for ourselves will always be easier than those God imposes upon us.  Fasting and abstaining are easier tasks than actually welcoming all to the table of the Lord.  We will prefer and choose the fast to loving and welcoming the stranger, or the enemy, or anyone different from us.  Let us accept the challenge of Jesus, and seek to live it each day.

What are You Looking For?

 

 Gospel: John 1: 35-42

 

What are you looking for? They wanted to know where Jesus was staying, and Jesus tells them to follow him and they will see.  Each of us approaches the Lord, and to each of us he asks – what are you looking for? Each of us in turn have the same response as these disciples: where are you staying, where are you in my life? 

 

If we follow Jesus through the pages of the Gospels we will find the answer.  We find him in caring for those who are ill or possessed by demons.  We find him dining with sinners and those who think themselves to be righteous.  We find him providing bread and fish to hungry people.  We find him talking to outcasts, the unclean, and the broken. 

 

In our own lives we will find Jesus present in these same places.  We will find him in the hungry and thirsty; among the imprisoned, sick, refugees and immigrants; we will find him in the lives of those who care for all these people as well.  We will not find him in places of power or in liturgy committees or in meetings about new carpeting in the sanctuary.  As we proceed through the Gospels we are invited to discern the places where Jesus is – and where Jesus is not – and to follow him to those places where he is and do as he did in those places and for those people. 

Unconditional Love

Gospel: Mark 2: 13-17

When doctors care for a patient they do not set any preconditions before visiting with them and treating them.  A sick patient is not told to get well first and then come see the doctor.  To the contrary, the doctor sees the patient as they are - in all their illness and the risk that such entails - and in that encounter the person finds healing and good health.

The same is true in the life of faith.  Consider today's Gospel: Jesus approaches a tax collector named Levi and merely says to him: Follow me.  There is no preconditions, just the invitation itself.  What is more, later that day Jesus is dining with all sorts of sinners who come to the meal.  There is no bouncer, no one there to screen attendees for their worthiness.  Instead, you have an encounter at a meal, and it is in that encounter that people come to healing and reform in their lives.

The Pharisees object to all of this.  They think they are the only ones worthy of the meal, the only ones worthy of an encounter with God.  But they do not recognize Jesus at all; they are not transformed by the meal but instead seek to control the meal and encounter itself.  But God sets no preconditions for the encounter.  God comes among us and invites us to the transformative meal.   To accept the invitation, to partake of the meal will lead to change and flourishing in our lives.

Who Can Forgive Sin?

Gospel: Mark 2: 1-12

The Pharisees are continually outraged at Jesus repeatedly forgiving others of their sins.  In their mind only God can forgive sin, and one version of Christianity follows that idea and uses it to argue for Jesus' divinity, which is fine.  But that is not the point of Jesus' ministry.  It is to invite all of us to what St. Paul calls the ministry of reconciliation, that all of us are engaged in the work of forgiving others of sin.  

Jesus gave us an example to follow.  Rather than continue the endless cycle of vengeance that only leads to conflict and murders, we instead teaches us to forgive our enemies and persecutors. He who was unjustly condemned and executed silently suffered the injustice and forgave his persecutors.  Others may incite violence against us, but we will not and ought not respond in kind, but only in the way Jesus himself did.  

Most Christians neither preach nor believe this.  There is never a war they cannot justify, no prisoner they would not execute, no gun law they would not defend.  Jesus who was unjustly executed by civil and religious authorities of his day finds himself the victim of such injustice again and again in the person of other people who suffer at the hands of unjust systems created and sustained by active participation from religious institutions.  Father, forgive us, though we know well what we do. 

Tell No One

Mark 1: 45-50

Modern Christians are all about testifying, evangelizing, spreading the Gospel, and sharing with others.  Entire cottage industries of apologetics and evangelism depend on this activity and our recent desire to share everything.  It makes people a lot of money, gives folks their 15 minutes of fame, but it does not advance the work of Jesus one bit.  In fact, it has the opposite effect.

We overlook the many times Jesus performs a healing miracle and then orders people to tell no one about it.  Today's Gospel is an example, and it shows us why Jesus gives this instruction.  The man, like all others in the Gospel, ignore the command. He tells others, and it creates a mob looking for Jesus, but impeding his work.  Jesus goes off to a desert place and remains alone.  

Our testifying does nothing but create mobs, but Jesus is not present in these mobs.  He knows they are only about ourselves - about making ourselves famous and making some money on our story.  The mob will go away eventually, but not after they have killed the Lord.  Instead of doing a touchdown dance at the work God has done in our lives, let us instead live humble lives of service and care for others as Peter's mother-in-law did.  Then, and only then, will we be doing the Gospel's work in the world.

What Jesus Came to Do

Gospel: Mark 1: 29-39

In today's Gospel reading Jesus tells his disciples that he must go from town to town proclaiming Good News, for that is why he came into the world.  The fundamental mission of Jesus in the world is to proclaim Good News to people in all places and to all people.  It is not for a particular group of people in a specific time and place; it is for everyone at all times and places.

By extension our mission as followers of Jesus is to proclaim Good News to everyone.  We find people mired in bad news, obsessed with media news and the ideologies that seek to rule over the rubble of the incessant bad news that is reported.  But are we obsessed with the bad news as well, are we moved more by the ideologies than the Gospel itself? Are we proclaiming Good News?

Every human life has Good News, for God is present in the life of every person, every person is created and loved by God.  It is our task to love every person as well and to remind all people that God loves them, that God has delivered us from our demons and called us to a life of love.  In every life God has manifest love in some way.  It is for us to find it and to bring loving presence to others in our words and deeds just as Jesus did.  That is proclaiming Good News; that is ridding the world of its demons. 

Getting Rid of Demons

Gospel: Mark 1: 21-28

Today's Gospel reading from Mark has Jesus's first miracle as the expulsion of a demon from the life of a person.  This action represents the fundamental mission of Jesus in the world - to rid us from demons and evils in our life.  It is instructive to note how often Jesus does expel demons in the Gospel, and that this forms part of the mission Jesus gives to his disciples in sending them out into the world.

We often think of demons exclusively as supernatural beings who possess humans, and this is one aspect of the existence of demons.  But more often than not demons are our own creation: the evils we commit as individuals and as groups.  Demons did not invent genocide, slavery, human trafficking, the degradation and exploitation of the poor, or any other evil. We human beings created these things and maintain their existence in the world.  

If we wish to expel demons from the world, our first task is to repent of the evil for which we are responsible, end these unjust systems we have created in our world.  Before tackling the invisible demons not of our making, let us first overcome the ones of our own creation and design.  That is the task Jesus provides to us in sending us out to expel demons from our world. 

Beloved Children

Gospel: Mark 1: 7-11

At his baptism, Jesus hears the words of God addressed to him: this is my beloved son on whom my favor rests.  These are are words spoken to us as well at our baptism.  We too are called by name as children of God, receiving God's favor that comes to rest on us.  It is for this reason - that we might hear these words spoken to us - that Jesus himself was baptized.

But it is not the ritual of baptism that makes it so! Baptism, like all the other sacraments, are not magic acts.  They are the outward expression of what is already real and present within us.  God has already made every human being his child, made everyone favorable just in calling us into existence.  Once we become conscious of that reality we come to express it outwardly in the ritual of baptism.  What is already real invisibly now becomes manifest outwardly.  

So, in accepting baptism we accept the love God has extended to us in calling us his children.  In turn, we now take on the responsibility of extending that love outward to other people, to help others be aware that they too are children of God, favored by God and invited to accept that love and share it with others in their lives. 

Home By a Different Way

Gospel: Matthew 2: 1-12

There were two main ways to get to and from Bethlehem in ancient times.  The first way was through Jerusalem, the main road.  This was the path the Magi took on their way to the manger, but it is a perilous path.  Jerusalem and its functionaries of religious and political power seek to kill God for their own security and power.  Once the Lord Jesus is found, another road must be found to find our way home.

And so we embark on the second main way to and from Bethlehem: through the desert east or south.  At first glance this way appears doomed, but the desert is the place where God is found, the place where God pitched his tent among his people and led them home.  In the desert we learn to rely upon God alone and on one another for our survival and care.  In the desert alone can the two great commandments be lived and nurtured within us.

So today we are invited to follow the Magi not only to the manger, but also to follow them back home by a different way - the way of the desert, the way of dependence on and love of God and one another.  This is the sure path home, the road away from the machinations of political and religious power that is the death of God.  Today we take a different way than we have previously taken, the one less traveled but the one that leads more surely to the reign of God. 

The Theme of Preaching

Gospel: Mark 1: 7-11

Priests and ministers are always looking for sermon material and the next great idea for a sermon series.  Texts will be consulted, pre-packaged programs are purchased, and the religious publishers make a great deal of money in selling pastors on all this media.  But today's Gospel provides the only sermon series that matters.  The theme of John's preaching was the coming of the Lord Jesus.  In this theme alone we have two complete sermon series.

First, what was the first coming of the Lord Jesus like? Here we can unpack the Gospels week by week, looking at the words and deeds of Jesus both in their historical context and what they mean for us today.  How is Jesus calling us to live? What values are central in these passages and how can I appropriate those values in my life as a Christian disciple in the 21st century?  This sermon series can last three years, going through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in a constant meditation on Jesus' first coming in the world.

The second series would then be a reflection on the coming of Jesus in our lives in the here and now.  Jesus came into the world in time.  Jesus continues to be born in the world - born in the hearts of men and women called to bear and bring forth Jesus in their lives in whatever times and places they live.  What does that coming of Jesus look like? How can we bring Jesus into the world by our words and deeds today?   

Listening to Others

Gospel: John 1: 43-51

For most of us, the story of Nathaniel seems unremarkable.  Jesus says that he saw Nathaniel under a fig tree, and Nathaniel is in awe of this fact, leading him to profess that Jesus is Son of God and King of Israel.  While it may have no meaning for many of us, the event was important for Nathaniel, and so it is important for us as well, as we all have our own story of faith that others may not understand either.  

As we make our way through the Gospels we will encounter a variety of stories where people encounter Jesus.  Each encounter is unique, though some similarities may exist.  Each person will have their own meeting with the Lord, each one their own interaction and response.  We may find meaning in some of these encounters; we may find our own story relating to one or more of these others, while other encounters will not have any meaning for us.

Authentic religion is a place where stories are allowed to be told, a place where we can bring our story and put it in conversation with the stories of the scriptures and those within the tradition.  Authentic religion is a place where we give way to hear the stories of others, to recognize God present in the life of each person and each story, to give thanks for all these stories and to be blessed by them.  

Jesus the Messiah

Gospel: John 1: 35-42

The first disciples of Jesus are excited: they go to their families and friends and tell them that they have found the Messiah.  What does this mean?  For these early disciples it was the long promise of one who would liberate Israel from its foreign occupiers, one who would restore the ancient kingdom of Israel so that they could once again live in freedom, peace, and prosperity.  

But this is not what Jesus did.  Jesus did bring the kingdom of God, but it was not a political or worldly entity: it is the one that already exists within each of us - the place of our inner being where God dwells and has placed himself as we are images and likenesses of God.  Jesus came to lead us to that realization so that God's kingdom might take possession of us and free us from all that oppresses us: materialism, self-interest, selfishness, hedonism, ideology.  

If we see Jesus only as a political Messiah, we will never be freed from the things that truly oppress us and keep us in chains.  In fact, we only make them worse because we are focused only on power and control of others and not ourselves.  But if we see Jesus as he really is, we are freed from these oppressions and we are free to love others as they should be loved and to serve and care for others as they need.  Only then can we create a new civilization of love, one created from within, not from without. 

Jesus, the Son of God

 Gospel: John 1: 29-34

 

The very first Gospel to be written was Mark’s, and its very first lines proclaim: The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Mark wrote these words in the late 60s just after the very first persecution of Christians in Rome by Nero.  Today we read from John’s Gospel, the last Gospel to be written in the 90s at a time when the first widespread persecution of Christians across the empire is undertaken by the Roman authorities.  And here again John puts this faith in Jesus as Son of God at the very beginning of his Gospel through the witness of John the Baptist.

 

To state that Jesus was Son of God was treasonous: only the emperor himself had this title.  That it was given to a poor carpenter of Nazareth in an insignificant province, to a man executed for treason in the most humiliating way – all of this was appalling to Romans.  To make this declaration of faith in Jesus as the Son of God was to make a bold statement that risked one’s very life as it represented opposition to Roman values and religion. 

 

Jesus stood for everything that the Roman empire did not.  There could not be any greater contrasts than that between Jesus and the Roman emperors.  Jesus persuaded through love; Romans by physical and economic force.  Jesus came to make all people one in the family of God; the Romans ruled through dividing and conquering.  To profess Jesus as Son of God is to profess his values, teaching, and example and to reject that of the empire.  This is as true in our times as it was in those days.   

What do you Seek?

Gospel: John 1: 19-28

To go out into the desert is to seek for God and to be found by God.  This has been a constant theme in the life of Israel, so it is fitting that John leads a renewal movement urging people to come to the desert in search for God in their lives.  Many do come: they atone for their sins, are baptized, and resolve to lead new lives - even soldiers and tax collectors!  

To go out into the desert is also to be outside the confines of the city and its laws and power.  In the city is where people seek to control God: the message, the rules, the worship.  In the city religion is an institution of power in league with the powers of the state.  They cannot control what happens in the desert, but they seek to do so by coming out to question John the Baptist.  John is about something they cannot control; he is a threat as people are listening to him and not to them.  

It is a curious thing: John's message is leading people to moral change in their lives, a change that the religious leaders are neither preaching nor seeking for themselves.  In our search for God in our lives we ask ourselves: where are the voices calling us to be better people in our lives as opposed to the voices who only seek us out for their own advantage? Where is the path to the desert where God is found, and away from the city where God is killed? 

Mary our Mother

Gospel: Luke 2: 16-21

It was inevitable that we human beings would take the Supreme Being who is beyond any gender or category and make God into a patriarchal figure.  Even worse that in giving us Mary as a motherly figure we have made most of her images as regal or aristocratic figures clad in ornate dress and sitting in a manor garden or palatial villa.  We have taken the human need for a parental image in our spiritual lives and have divorced it from the human experience of most people.  

Some people can connect to God as Father, especially those who had wonderful experiences of their biological or stepfathers.  But for those who had no father figure or whose father was abusive to them, the image does not work.  The same can also be true for a maternal image, but for most people we have some parental figure we can relate to.   

People will seek out images of Father and Mother that connect to their experience and felt need: sharing a meal and listening to us talk about our day; consoling us when we are hurt and wounded; reading with us or telling stories of our family history - sharing what it means for them and for us.  This is the meaning of today's feast, a meaning we hope to cultivate and nourish in this new year.