Mark 2:1-12
Welcome back to Capurnaum. A couple of Sundays ago, we explored what it meant to be a family during Jesus' first pass through town, when he cured Simon's mother in law. Some time has passed, for us and for our story, and now Jesus is back. People have had some time to share the news and to gather for a new round of teachings and miracles. There are so many people gathered around that it is hard to get near him at all.
In fact, they are starting to take the house apart. Literally. Houses in Galilee were, and are, made of sparse wood frames with mud plaster. Roofs are flat; there is a staircase outside the house leading to the roof and there is a small hole to let smoke rise. It is reasonable to assume that there were people trying to listen to Jesus' teachings from the roof but this group of people are actually busting up mud above Jesus' head in order to get to him.
Why in the world were they doing that? This is a time when illness is the direct and God given punishment for sin. Everyone might not know what you did, but the sicker you were, the more wicked you were. We know from the story of Job that if things got bad enough for you, even your friends would leave. Imagine the amount of love these friends had for this man that they would carry him on a pallet from wherever, haul him up a roof, and dig through the roof to lower him down. That is a lot of effort, that is a lot of faith, for a person that most everyone present would assume was just some bad guy.
This is one of those places where the editing is slim. Just imagine trying to talk, let alone heal someone with dirt clods landing on your head. If I didn't have to clean it up, it would be interesting to throw a dirt clod here. And then there is Simon, one wonders how he feels about having to replace the roof.
So after all that dirt, here comes a man, inert, on a bedroll, into the center of the room. Show stopper. And Jesus says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” It wasn't the faith of the paralytic that got him cured. This is important. He didn't do anything except lie there. It was the faith of his friends that Jesus rewarded. And that reward wasn't actually a healing. The miracle was forgiveness.
We don't have to imagine what the scribes are thinking. We are told. Blasphemer. Jesus is saying things like, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Scribes had a pretty powerful stake in who forgave sins and how you went about getting such forgiveness. Healing people, that is one thing, but forgiving sin, that was for God alone, through their mediation of course. Jesus is threatening their livelihood.
I like to think it was the dirt shower that finally set Jesus off. He finally turned to those scribes and said, What's wrong with you? You act like it is easier to cure paralysis than to forgive a mistake.
They did think that. And they thought curing paralysis was impossible. They thought only God had the authority to pronounce forgiveness. It might well be the case. But Jesus is bringing a new kingdom. He is carrying a new authority. Only God has the power to forgive. True. But Jesus has the authority to pronounce God's forgiveness. Jesus called on his authority as the Son of Man, not the Son of God, to forgive the sins of the paralytic man, and to drive that point home, then he told the man to get up and walk. And he did.
This story tells us two very important things. One, it shows us that we are to work on behalf of others, not ourselves. The miracles of faith are not granted for ourselves, they are granted on our behalf for others. Two, it shows us a different and difficult authorship of forgiveness.
Jesus uses his authority as Son of Man to offer forgiveness. In doing so, he is claiming an authority that can be claimed by all of us. We are being shown a new way by Jesus. We are being shown a way beyond what the scribes knew to be a truth about God to a larger, more magnificent vision of who God is and how he relates to us. Jesus, by his crucifixion and resurrection, shows us that God will do anything for us, if we only ask. And not for ourselves are we to ask, but for others. In asking for help for others, we are offering God's forgiveness to each other.
Genuine, God inspired forgiveness involves changes by both parties. We must step outside our own desires and opinions and see the other. Offender and offended must acknowledge their culpabilities. Both must carry the other to a new paradigm. True forgiveness is a process of community. Jesus came to show us how to care for each other, to step outside our fears and most especially to care for the prisoner and the widow, the sick and all the disenfranchised. They are always a part of community and they are always worthy of forgiveness.
What is difficult for us, is what is difficult for the scribes. We think we have a direct line to God, that we can always, accurately discern the will of God. So if we are offended, someone must have sinned. If we are offended, so is God. But sin is being out of line with God himself, not with any one interpretation or opinion of what God wants. We must admit that we cannot discern the will of God for all people, in all circumstances, for all time.
One of the great things about Anglicanism is that we are generally more concerned with our corporate worship than with interpreting individual sins. We have a rich history of the three legged stool; scripture, tradition and reason. These are as varied as we are, shaped by our language, our culture and geography and our incarnation in time. If there is a place where we can honor difference and build community. If there is a place where genuine God-inspired life changing forgiveness can occur. Where world changing forgiveness can occur, I am sure that this is the place.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Family and Church
A reflection on Mark 1:29-39
What is Church? I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and as it turns out, today's Gospel has something to say about it. But before we get there, I want to make sure we are all up to speed with some vocabulary, and the basic idea of church. When we talk about church, we are often talking about a building. The building, in the common culture, is called a church, and the people associated with it are called the Christians. We, as Christians, often make this same mistake. But church is really “the body of Christ” and that “body” is made up of people. So 'church' equals 'body of Christ' equals 'people'. Another, important assumption that I want to bring to our attention is that we, and the common culture, assume that church supports nuclear, biological families. So 'church' equals 'body of Christ' equals 'people' equals 'families.'
Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum. This is Simon's home town, so they crash at his house. This is normal behavior. Then, as now, you are going to offend your mother if you don't stop by and say hello when you come through town. Simon's mother-in-law is sick, so Jesus heals her. Of course, then he fills the house up until all hours of the night with sick and crazy people and heals them, too. Simon's mother-in-law is probably OK with that. The next day Jesus decides that his work is done in this place and he and his disciples head out to spread the message of the kingdom of God to the rest of Galilee.
In most ways, people have not changed. But life was not the same in Israel then as it is in America today. Our obligation to our mothers-in-law, for instance, is not as well defined as it was for Simon. The fact that his mother-in-law lived in his house meant that there was no one else to take responsibility for her. And she couldn't get a job. Women couldn't support themselves respectfully. Simon had a responsibility to take care of his mother-in-law. And if his in-law was living there, who lived with her? Did he have other family? In order to keep our assumptions intact, we have to infer a lot of extraordinary circumstances. For instance, that this was Simon's fathers house, or that he and Andrew had an older brother who was willing to take care of Simon's mother-in-law for him while he wandered the countryside. We have to assume that Simon had been married to the only child of this woman, but that his wife had died and he had no children. Otherwise, Simon didn't just visit his mother-in-law, he visited his wife and children. For the same reason, we have to assume that Andrew was not married.
We have to assume a lot to make this story palatable. We don't want to think about the fact that Simon dumped his mother-in-law off and did not take responsibility for her. We may not even be as offended as we ought, because we do care provide specialized care for our elderly. But Simon did not have that option. Do we really think he was taking care of her by following Jesus? How was she being supported? Let's not even consider that he had other dependents.
Following Jesus does not make you a good provider. Jesus doesn't say that it will, and he doesn't much care about it. Jesus is a big picture guy. His goal is not to affirm the status quo, which then and now, is to keep people busy providing for their household, their blood families and other dependents. His goal is to change our idea of providing from an inwardly focused fear to an outwardly focused action. What Jesus has to say about families is that following him is going to set people against each other. For example, see Matthew 10:34-39. The thrust of this sword is that following Christ's call is going to set mothers against daughters against fathers against sons. If asked what to do for your family, Jesus would say, “Follow me.” When church becomes important, people who are not church feel left out. It is not that they are unimportant, but they are trapped in a selfish world-view that reinforces their fear.
Stepping out of fear is is the experience of the Gospel, and this is the life changing wonder of the Gospel. We can all partake. There is enough. Every day is the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Not because God is every day altering the rules of physics, but because every day, people are taking the opportunity to stop looking inward and start looking outward. Every day people are in little ways changing their perspective from scarcity to abundance. From mine to ours. From family to community. 'People' equal 'body of Christ' equal 'church'. It is when family become people, and people become family, that 'family' also equals 'church'. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And love your neighbor as yourselves. It is in trusting God, in trusting in His Abundance that we are able to love our neighbors as ourselves. It is in the body of Christ that our neighbors become ourselves.
Simon left his mother-in-law, and maybe even his family, to follow Jesus. If his family is anything like mine, I can imagine what his parents had to say about that. But Simon saw the better way, and he knew that he needed to do everything he could personally do to bring about that change of perspective. When we have truly embraced the Gospel, there is nothing else we can do. We must share. And when we live the Good News, others benefit, others see, others feel. It isn't enough to live in a circle of comfort, caring only for each other, we must be ready to go into the neighboring towns, even when that is just across the street. We must be ready to follow Jesus.
What is Church? I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and as it turns out, today's Gospel has something to say about it. But before we get there, I want to make sure we are all up to speed with some vocabulary, and the basic idea of church. When we talk about church, we are often talking about a building. The building, in the common culture, is called a church, and the people associated with it are called the Christians. We, as Christians, often make this same mistake. But church is really “the body of Christ” and that “body” is made up of people. So 'church' equals 'body of Christ' equals 'people'. Another, important assumption that I want to bring to our attention is that we, and the common culture, assume that church supports nuclear, biological families. So 'church' equals 'body of Christ' equals 'people' equals 'families.'
Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum. This is Simon's home town, so they crash at his house. This is normal behavior. Then, as now, you are going to offend your mother if you don't stop by and say hello when you come through town. Simon's mother-in-law is sick, so Jesus heals her. Of course, then he fills the house up until all hours of the night with sick and crazy people and heals them, too. Simon's mother-in-law is probably OK with that. The next day Jesus decides that his work is done in this place and he and his disciples head out to spread the message of the kingdom of God to the rest of Galilee.
In most ways, people have not changed. But life was not the same in Israel then as it is in America today. Our obligation to our mothers-in-law, for instance, is not as well defined as it was for Simon. The fact that his mother-in-law lived in his house meant that there was no one else to take responsibility for her. And she couldn't get a job. Women couldn't support themselves respectfully. Simon had a responsibility to take care of his mother-in-law. And if his in-law was living there, who lived with her? Did he have other family? In order to keep our assumptions intact, we have to infer a lot of extraordinary circumstances. For instance, that this was Simon's fathers house, or that he and Andrew had an older brother who was willing to take care of Simon's mother-in-law for him while he wandered the countryside. We have to assume that Simon had been married to the only child of this woman, but that his wife had died and he had no children. Otherwise, Simon didn't just visit his mother-in-law, he visited his wife and children. For the same reason, we have to assume that Andrew was not married.
We have to assume a lot to make this story palatable. We don't want to think about the fact that Simon dumped his mother-in-law off and did not take responsibility for her. We may not even be as offended as we ought, because we do care provide specialized care for our elderly. But Simon did not have that option. Do we really think he was taking care of her by following Jesus? How was she being supported? Let's not even consider that he had other dependents.
Following Jesus does not make you a good provider. Jesus doesn't say that it will, and he doesn't much care about it. Jesus is a big picture guy. His goal is not to affirm the status quo, which then and now, is to keep people busy providing for their household, their blood families and other dependents. His goal is to change our idea of providing from an inwardly focused fear to an outwardly focused action. What Jesus has to say about families is that following him is going to set people against each other. For example, see Matthew 10:34-39. The thrust of this sword is that following Christ's call is going to set mothers against daughters against fathers against sons. If asked what to do for your family, Jesus would say, “Follow me.” When church becomes important, people who are not church feel left out. It is not that they are unimportant, but they are trapped in a selfish world-view that reinforces their fear.
Stepping out of fear is is the experience of the Gospel, and this is the life changing wonder of the Gospel. We can all partake. There is enough. Every day is the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Not because God is every day altering the rules of physics, but because every day, people are taking the opportunity to stop looking inward and start looking outward. Every day people are in little ways changing their perspective from scarcity to abundance. From mine to ours. From family to community. 'People' equal 'body of Christ' equal 'church'. It is when family become people, and people become family, that 'family' also equals 'church'. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And love your neighbor as yourselves. It is in trusting God, in trusting in His Abundance that we are able to love our neighbors as ourselves. It is in the body of Christ that our neighbors become ourselves.
Simon left his mother-in-law, and maybe even his family, to follow Jesus. If his family is anything like mine, I can imagine what his parents had to say about that. But Simon saw the better way, and he knew that he needed to do everything he could personally do to bring about that change of perspective. When we have truly embraced the Gospel, there is nothing else we can do. We must share. And when we live the Good News, others benefit, others see, others feel. It isn't enough to live in a circle of comfort, caring only for each other, we must be ready to go into the neighboring towns, even when that is just across the street. We must be ready to follow Jesus.
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